Go to any bookstore, and you will undoubtedly see shelves lined with self-help books offering useful tips to make changes in your life. This could be through eating well, exercising, creating a morning routine, learning something new, or taking time to get pampered. It can also be introspective: loving and accepting yourself, reconnecting with your inner child, getting out of your comfort zone, or confronting fears. There are so many different ways to take care of ourselves and make positive improvements in our lives, but what’s often overlooked in our self-help journey is a connection to the Creator.
A spiritual connection is one of the most powerful ways to change our experience of life and find lasting joy and fulfillment. Here are 3 ways that a spiritual path can make a positive impact in your life:
1. Spirituality lays the internal foundation necessary for external changes to take hold.
Have you ever tried to implement a change in your routine and found that after a few weeks, you reverted back to your old ways? Maybe you tried a new diet, workout routine, or even new approach to your day, but it didn’t last. There are so many external changes we can make to improve our quality of life, but these changes tend to be temporary unless we focus first on our internal work.
Spirituality beckons us to look at the internal parts we need to work on – our thoughts, beliefs, and intentions that inform everything else in our lives. It connects us to the deepest parts of ourselves and helps us explore the potential of who we can become. Consistent deep spiritual work allows all the external changes to stick and to truly change our experience of life.
2. Spirituality helps you grow from challenges.
When something is bothering us in our lives, our first reaction is usually to find a way to solve it, ignore it, or run from it so that we can feel better. We naturally want to remove the source of pain in our lives so we can move on. However, this approach misses the necessary and powerful opportunities for us to learn and grow from our challenges. Spirituality helps us reframe these experiences as springboards for our transformation.
Spirituality gives us a connection and sense of certainty that helps us make sense of the most challenging things in our lives, allowing us to receive them, grow from them, learn from them, and eventually appreciate them. We can’t ever remove all challenges from our lives, but spirituality can help us find joy in the most difficult times and learn how to grow into better versions of ourselves because of them. Without the challenges, we could not realize our ultimate potential.
3. Spiritual work helps bring inner peace.
The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches that any unease we experience is rooted in our soul’s unhappiness. Our souls are only happy when we strive to be closer and closer to the Creator, the source of all blessings and goodness in our lives. Through our spiritual work, we build a stronger connection to the Creator. As we push ourselves to become more sharing, giving, selfless beings, we align ourselves with the Creator. That path of building a greater and greater attachment is what brings us pleasure, peace, and joy.
There are so many amazing self-help tools that can assist us in transforming our lives, but they are only part of the story. Lasting change, improvement, and peace only come from a strong connection to the Creator and a dedication to our spiritual path. Spirituality is the clearest way to achieve your soul’s purpose and to experience the beautiful life you are meant to experience.