Guidelines for Leading a Spiritual Life: Some Resolutions for the New Year

SPIRITUALITY, 30 Dec 2013

Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service

December 29, 2013

A New Year Dawns . . .

It is the dawning of a new year, a propitious reflex occasion to make resolutions to improve our lives and the lives of others.  As is well known, the resolutions we make typically address health, financial, and social topics: “I resolve to ………..”  – insert here (1) dietary topics (e.g., stop smoking, exercise more, eat less junk food, lose weight, drink less beer, get a colonoscopy); (2) financial (e.g., save more money, ask for a raise, spend less money on clothes and shoes, buy a new car; seek a new job;(3) social relations (e.g., spend more time with family, enjoy life, be more positive, be more of an activist, read more books, attend church or temple, pray daily).

There are so many problems in our lives our daily lives to which we succumb. Our intentions are good, but we fall into habits. St. Thomas Aquinas said: “Habits are man’s second nature.” The New Year is a fresh start symbolically and chronologically. It is an opportunity for renewal. We can post our resolutions on refrigerator doors with the magnets we got as holiday presents.  The posting on the refrigerator door is a conspicuous location since we pass or enter it daily.  We might even give ourselves a reward for adhering to our resolutions.

A decade ago, I wrote some New Year resolutions to improve the quality of my life. The resolutions were a set of guidelines to make my life more spiritual, and less materialistic.  I found them useful, and published them in a Honolulu newspaper as an op-ed article. The resolutions received both praise and criticism. The criticism came from folks who considered my meanderings to contradict specific religious beliefs and teachings.  Later, I shared the resolutions with a wider audience via various listservs and journal publications. Some readers wrote they posted the guidelines on their refrigerator door.

Today, I am sharing the guidelines once again.  I do so, because “spirituality” is an important arbiter of life satisfaction.  While some dislike any “mystical” behavior, most of us find that connecting to larger forces beyond our material existence is valuable for several reasons: First, it speaks to the non-material aspects of our being as we are inundated with pressures to locate ourselves in our material world.  Second, assigning “spirituality” a more prominent role and source of influence in our lives may promote a “social contagion,” which can increase the importance of “connections” in all our lives. Third, leaving behind the material world in favor of connection to the larger cosmos and mysteries in which we live may enable us to lose “ego,” and to experience awe and reverence.  How can these things be wrong or un-needed in a world in which so much is being done to destroy connections, and to empower the shadow side of human nature (e.g., war, violence, prejudice, hatred, selfishness)?

Growing Popularity of Spirituality 

Any reading of the public, social, or private media today reveals an increased interest, concern and use – perhaps even pre-occupation – with the term “spirituality” and various related terms (e.g., spirit, spiritual, soul) embodying  non-material states of existence.  Initially, of course, the term spirituality was associated with various religious doctrines regarding ecclesiastical, clerical, and/or sacred experiences transcending secular life with the latter’s material focus and priorities.  Spirituality has a special denotation and connotation which prizes a non-material essence or way-of-being in which it is assumed there is a perceived connection to events, forces, and beings that exist beyond the secular or temporal and physical world.  The term “spirituality” often has been used to describe individuals whose existence and/or behavior transcended normal or conventional human concerns for meeting daily needs and demands, in favor of focus regarding broader human issues of meaning, purpose, social responsibility, and other higher-order priorities. In my opinion, the peace-makers of our world (e.g., Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Mairead McGuire, Evelin Lindner, and so many more) are spiritual leaders.  They were driven by beliefs and actions that transcended the times and mores of their lives in favor of broader social concerns and spiritual connections.

The term “spirituality” should not be limited to “ecclesiastical” contexts.  Media popularity has liberated the term making it possible to be “spiritual” without being associated with or being a member of particular religion.  The term “secular spirituality,” has emerged to describe non-materialistic individuals or ways-of-being that are not necessarily associated with membership or belief in a formal religion.

In my opinion, this is good!  In a world dominated by Western commercial cultural traditions and values that emphasize materialism, consumerism, production, and commodification, a concern for the “spiritual” serves as a powerful counter-point for defining the meaning and value of life beyond the “collected junk” that adorns our lives yet leaves us feeling unfulfilled. We sense our discontent, but too often, we fail to recognize its source in “meaninglessness,” and we simply continue to accumulate more and more goods.  Materialism can become an addiction. We are driven to consume (i.e., buy, eat, collect) as a source of comfort and anxiety reduction.

Okay, what can we do?  It is difficult to escape the daily pressures to consume.  We have just completed a holiday in which extravagances in purchases and consumption dominated our lives.  However, when people say: “I begin to be excited just anticipating “Black Friday” (i.e., the day after Thanksgiving reputed to be largest shopping day) and/or “Self Day” (i.e., the day after Christmas day when goods are exchanged and gift cards used).”  Something needs to be corrected.

I do not choose a medieval monastic life for myself, nor do I advocate the same for others.  I see the virtues and appeal in complete social detachment and silence, but I think meaning is best found in pursuing inner and outer paths. I am not free from materialistic impulses, nor am I free of the comforts materialism provides. Clearly, I am privileged to have access to the material comforts in our society.  But this does not mean that I cannot strive to understand and experience “spirituality” in my life.

It is a special privilege to reflect, contemplate, ponder, meditate, and explore the nature of spirituality, and the possibilities of leading a spiritual life. To that end, I am attaching some of my personal guidelines for leading a spiritual life.  I do not claim they are absolutes. They are merely thoughts I have found useful in pursuing a state of spirituality. I consider these guidelines to be consistent with all religions, and they are offered with respect for organized all religions.  I offer five specific actions.

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 30 Dec 2013.

Anticopyright: Editorials and articles originated on TMS may be freely reprinted, disseminated, translated and used as background material, provided an acknowledgement and link to the source, TMS: Guidelines for Leading a Spiritual Life: Some Resolutions for the New Year, is included. Thank you.

If you enjoyed this article, please donate to TMS to join the growing list of TMS Supporters.

Share this article: email mastodon facebook 🔗 copy link

This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.

Comments are closed.