Spiritual Growth and Development: A Means of Personal Development in Becoming a True Human Being

The spiritual growth and development of an individual is a means of personal development in becoming a true human being; in many ways, this is why we come to be here on this planet.

One of our greatest challenges is to expand or enlarge the beliefs that we do carry within our psychological make-ups, which represent the boundaries or limits of possible life experiences. After all, how can one grow beyond their beliefs that surround them like fences if they do not even know they are there?

Meeting the challenge of expanding or enlarging one's beliefs will cause them to improve the quality of their lives, and that of others, simply by becoming the best version of themselves they can be. One's identity is indeed much greater than what they see in a mirror.

As any human being goes through their lives measuring their experiences by the "voice of their own conscience," remember that this voice may speak to them with the "voices" of their own mothers, fathers, grandparents, adult caregivers, teachers, religious leaders, spiritual teachers, and so forth. The voice is their own or course, but the ideas behind it may not be.

All of those earlier individuals helped shape them into the person he or she eventually became. This was out of a loving conce
with their ideas of what was best for the world around them. These accepted earlier experiences were indeed perceived and interpreted at the time as being "what was right." Nonetheless, one-day it becomes the responsibility of the individual living their lives to grow one’s own "voice of conscience" to guide them in the remainder of their life.

This process is similar to that of a very young child who accepts the ideas given to them by his or her parents because the child believes the parents always to be right and somehow perfect. Later as a much older child, they become almost shocked to learn of his or her parents not only being sometimes wrong, but also imperfect as well.

Furthermore, they gradually begin to perceive and interpret the older generations in general as being somehow outdated, inferior, callous, and doing everything "wrong." Nevertheless, those “interpretations” are what are used to help free the older child from the earlier concepts used to grow up with. In addition, this all provides the challenge to tackle personal problems and move out into the real world on their own.

Realize that the new adult who starts out on his or her own brings that "voice of conscience" from the earlier experiences. In addition, for a while to come the new adult possesses the belief of being invincible somehow, quite literally beyond the boundaries of life itself. Without a doubt, it is this very quality, which provides the necessary drive to endow them with the strength and energy for beginning a new life and forming a new world experience.

Later in the life as they become a "seasoned life veteran," there does indeed come a time when they may begin to reassess or reconsider what they have carried within their own psychological and emotional being throughout the life thus far,

and this is the focus of this article.

As they approach this point in the life, they often will come to sense "something significant happening" as they begin to question, and then to grow their own "voice of conscience."

In the same way that an older child "sheds" the childish concepts of earlier, this older and wiser adult "sheds" the outgrown concepts of the younger adulthood. Denying this stage of personal development will effectively hold them back from self-actualization.

In life, one of our greatest challenges is grow beyond that which we were "raised to be," by creating our most self-realized life possible. It is only by doing this that we reach a point in our lives where we will continue to grow and develop as an individual.

This is how we use our spiritual and developmental growth as a means of personal development in becoming a true human being.