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Looking for a few rules you can use to guide your life?
If so, then you should focus on crafting specific spiritual principles that will help you whenever you need to make a tough decision.
So this post, we’re going to look at the 9 spiritual principles that can help you find meaning in your daily life. But first, let’s start with a quick definition.
What You Will Learn
What Are Spiritual Principles?
Spiritual principles are fundamental truths that are universally acceptable. For instance, if you throw a stone, it will drop to the ground. That is an expected outcome controlled by gravity. Human behavior and actions also follow the same rule. If I consistently tell the truth, people will trust me; that’s a natural law.
Human existence is characterized by many stressors, which sometimes make life lose its meaning. To have a meaningful life, one needs to know how to cope up with these stressors. The easiest way to do so is by applying the spiritual principles of life. According to psychology experts, these principles serve as a foundation for your actions and help you attain what you want.
Materialism and constant want to drive modern life. The spiritual principles of life enable us to find real purpose in life and strike the perfect balance between pursuing wealth and forging meaningful relationships in life. These principles are our “rules of engagement” since they guide how we think, behave, believe, and relate with others. They help you to live mindfully, rather than on “autopilot.”
So now, let’s talk about the nine spiritual principles you can focus on in your life.
1. Patience and Tolerance
Patience and tolerance are two sides of the same coin. Being tolerant implies allowing the occurrence or existence of things you don’t necessarily agree with. In your daily life, it’s easy to pinpoint individuals who aren’t tolerant. Whether it’s about sexual orientation, religion, politics, or any other critical issues in society, many people have an unbending opinion towards things they disagree with.
Intolerant individuals not only voice their opinion but also take action. Often, this causes harm or interference in a manner that isn’t acceptable by society’s norms. To find meaning in life, one needs to cultivate tolerance as a core personal principle. Start looking at things from the other person’s perspective. Ultimately, you’ll be able to control the urge to pass harsh criticism and judgment. As you practice tolerance, you become more patient.
How to Practice Patience and Tolerance
2. Acceptance
The acceptance principle is all about acknowledging and coming to terms with the realities of given situations in life. Acceptance is closely related to tolerance because it doesn’t imply that you’re happy or agree with something. Instead, acceptance is about embracing situations and things you can’t control. One of the significant impediments to living a meaningful life is the quest to control everything around us.
Acceptance is about embracing situations and things you can’t control.
When you start practicing acceptance, you’ll learn what you can control and what you need to let go. You’ll stop complaining about things you have little control over. Acceptance gives you peace of mind and frees you from fighting against unforgettable, painful, and uncomfortable realities. It gives you a positive outlook on life, and this can be contagious. It’s not surprising that many mottos, including the Prayer for Serenity, are guided by the principle of acceptance.
3. Open-Mindedness
In life, you’ll encounter many people who are neither respectful of nor amenable to new possibilities. It may include being receptive to ideas and suggestions that they haven’t considered previously or perspectives that are different from theirs. Being open-minded allows you to listen to opposing viewpoints before you conclude.
Open-mindedness is probably the only spiritual principle that we tend to claim to ourselves. We may agree that we’re not always tolerant or accepting, for instance. Nonetheless, nobody wants to think of him/herself as having a closed or narrow mind, leave alone having others see them that way. Being open-minded enables you to live honestly and make discoveries.
How to Develop an Open Mind
Here’s how you can become more receptive to different ideas and perspectives:
4. Gratitude
It’s human nature to want more. Even so, do you ever feel thankful for what you already have? The moment you start appreciating and feeling grateful for everything you have, you’re practicing gratitude. There’s a lot in life to be thankful for, starting with the fact that you’re alive. Not many people get that privilege. If you have a family, a job, and a roof over your head, that’s more than enough to feel thankful.
Gratitude is the perfect antidote for attachment to things we want but can’t have. It also makes us appreciate things we have but don’t want. Exercising gratitude saves us from discontent by magnifying the importance of things we have, however insignificant they may seem. By concentrating on finding good in the things you have, you’ll discover just how important they are to you. As a result, you’ll become more content and avert to the idea of pursuing what you can’t have.
How to Cultivate Gratitude
5. Hope and Faith
You can’t accomplish anything in life without hope and faith. If your life seems meaningless and you want to give it new meaning, that can only get accomplished if you’re hopeful and optimistic. The spiritual principles of hope and faith cultivate the desire to change your situation for the better. If your life is in a mess, the only way out is having hope and faith since you’ll get to see a brighter and better future for yourself and humanity.
Without hope and faith, you can’t accomplish anything in life.
As you seek to turn your life around, faith will replace the fear of achieving what you want. The greatest of faith comes from facing the circumstances that you fear the most. On the other hand, hope will fuel your ambition. If you replace your fears and anxieties with faith and hope, you won’t be scared about the outcome of what you’re pursuing.
How to Practice Hope and Faith
In difficult times, the spiritual principle of faith and hope can be difficult to discover. Nevertheless, all you need to do is develop the mindset that there’s a brighter future, even if things don’t look great today. Some things can make your hope and faith to fade. Therefore, limit your intake of things that arouse fear and hopelessness in you. Besides, focus on things you can look forward to, and surround yourself with hopeful and fearless people.
6. Forgiveness
Undoubtedly, forgiveness is the most unappreciated and misunderstood spiritual principle. Whenever we feel wronged, the first thing that comes to mind is the reluctance to forgive. Often, our minds get clogged by the wrongs done to us. Forgiving is about letting go, rather than condoning or approving what others have done to you.
When you get entangled in the web of vengeance, you attach yourself to the source of your misery. It not only weighs you down but allows the tormentor to victimize you further. When you divert your energy into vengeance, anger, and retaliation, you shift your attention from things that are of greater significance.
Indeed, you can still cut ties with the wrongdoer, but it’s best to do so without vengeance or resentment. When the urge to revenge swamps you, your emotional state is affected. In such a state, it’s easy to take regrettable action. Forgiveness is all about acting sensibly and without malice. It helps you to maintain your emotional balance and channel your energy to healthier purposes.
How to Practice Forgiveness
There’s more to forgiveness than merely letting go. Here are the steps to practicing the spiritual principle of forgiveness:
7. Honesty
A lot has been said about honesty being the best policy in life. Well, it’s easier to be honest to others, but you can only master the spiritual principle of honesty when you start being honest with yourself. Honestly is all about being truthful to yourself and others. The more you practice honesty, the less manipulative you get.
It’s challenging to practice honesty, especially when other people’s emotions come into play. However, people tend to respect those who have an honest opinion of things. Sometimes, practicing honesty may make you seem rude and unforgiving. Nevertheless, you can still be frank without appearing rude. It takes lots of courage to speak your truth, but lots of good comes out of it.
8. Humility
We are always encouraged to walk with our heads held high. Even so, this doesn’t imply that you’re better than everyone else. Humility means accepting yourself for who you are and where you are in life. Those who practice humility have the wisdom and strength to overcome the urge to feel superior.
It’s human nature to magnify our importance. However, this can consume us and drive our focus towards things that matter least. Often, we spend far too much energy striving for significance. It’s common to encounter people who live beyond their means, just to look more prosperous, wiser, and more capable than others.
When you place yourself at others' level, you get to appreciate the role they play in your life. It’s needless to get drawn into status games or ego competitions to prove that you’re more worthy. Humility is liberating since it allows you to pursue your goals at your own pace. You’ll leave a more meaningful life if you free yourself of the need to feel more important than others.
Developing Humility
For many people, humility is the most difficult trait to develop. For starters, you must first recognize that you’re not always right. Here are some of the things you can do to build humility:
9. Intention
We all make plans and set objectives to achieve in life. The spiritual principle of intent should guide the pursuit of these goals. When you live by the code of intention, everything you do will align with your objectives. If you intend to be rich, everything you do in life will align with becoming a wealthy person. For instance, you can start investing wisely and working harder than everyone else.
The spiritual principle of intention stems from the belief that you’ll focus your thoughts and actions towards achieving your objectives. It’s hard for someone who purely thinks with a scientific and logical mind to believe in intention. However, if you live by a spiritual creed, it’s easier to believe that intention is related to causality. That is, things happen because everything is aligned to enable that.
Final Words
In the pursuit of a meaningful life, we often end up being pulled into two directions; the path of materialism and constant want and the path of true happiness and contentment. The spiritual principles of life represent the values that one should live by to pursue a meaningful life.
They embody the habitual patterns and behaviors we must nurture to connect deeply with our authentic selves and the world around us. So, if you want to find purpose in your daily existence, start practicing the nine spiritual principles of life.
