One way to understand spirituality is to view it as the evolving and emerging awareness over time about who a person truly is- their TRUE SELF-and how they relate to themselves (including the changes they experience in themselves) and the evolving and emerging awareness over time about how they are connected to, experience, and relate and to others and all else that has "being", and ultimately, their universal connection to that "spirit" or "being" that we all share that is life.
One's faith tradition, the practice of a specific religion and the way people are raised by their families, often influence their spiritual development.
One way to frame one's life journey is to imagine there are three selves that accompany each person's life journey. As one's REGULAR SELF attempts to successfully navigate a life journey, it is important to listen to the guidance from TRUE SELF. One's TRUE SELF is wise and all knowing, and serves as the authentic spiritual connection for each of us and, I believe, connects all of us to each other through love. It is through an awareness of true self that meaning and purpose is best discovered, mediated, and fully implemented. Thomas Keating’s (1997) writings on this topic are very inspiring and informative.
Unfortunately, there is a third self looming in the background, the FALSE SELF that seeks to promote an agenda exactly opposite to one's TRUE SELF. Conflict is the result of this clash of personalities, and of course REGULAR SELF can often feel very confused through all this.
An important truth to use throughout one's life journey is the following:
TRUE SELF is always more powerful than FALSE SELF; REGULAR SELF often forgets this truth and can be easily distracted.
Hence one experiences turmoil and angst in various personal and professional relationships, with career /life decision-making, and much of what most of us encounter during our life journeys. That's where career/life counseling enters the picture as an effective means of encouraging more open and direct communication between REGUALR SELF and TRUE SELF, dismantling the FALSE SELF, and increasing harmony and balance across career/life roles.
One important role for people is their work roles because earning an income is very important for a successful journey through life. There are two ways to activate the work role; obtain a regular job, one that is out there somewhere, or CREATE A CAREER.
One hopefully obtains a job that sustains them. A number of people in many societies, including our American society, are unemployed and, for a number of reasons, unable to obtain employment that sustains them sufficiently. This is an important topic for another section of my website in the near future. A dear friend and colleague, Dr. David Blustein, a Professor at Boston College, recently wrote an excellent book "The Psychology of Working" and addresses some of these very important issues with compelling eloquence. For more information about David's book:
Contact Dr. David Blustein
Boston College
(617) 552-0795 or david.blustein@bc.edu.
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Keywords: eac, spirituality