Your spiritual evolution and and spiritual hygiene are directly connected.
Let’s clarify some terms and figure how it all connects… We know that personal hygiene refers to being physically clean and presentable. In general, such hygiene maintains ourselves, keeping us fresh and socially acceptable to others.
On another level, we can develop spiritual hygiene. By that we mean how you keep yourself relatively clean (without being a fanatic about it) on ALL levels: physically, emotionally and mentally, which synthesizes spiritual hygiene.
Note: Spiritual hygiene is not about moral purity or following some strict external code. Such rigid behavior and inflexible approach leads to problems such as being judgmental, as we will discuss.
Here are four important ways to keep your spiritual hygiene up, for greater integrity, living fully and spiritual evolution:
1. Keep healthy routines.
Your spiritual house includes your physical one. This means taking care of your body so it can function well enough to be spiritually alive, purposeful and soulful each day. Physical routines ground you. You can then apply spiritual drives into your daily actions.
Regularly getting the day off to a good start then becomes crucial. Besides making your bed and cleaning your body, exercise, journaling and/or meditating can be part of a regular routine.
Reading and listening to positive messages and playing uplifting music keeps you whole and healthy, enabling you to stay on the right track. Your body and mind is then primed to live each day fully.
In order to move forward on your path, it’s good to prepare and get things in order where you can.
2. Be non-judgmental.
It’s good to evaluate and take stock of your opinions. Being judgmental, however, is a horse of a different color. As we have discussed elsewhere, judgments are based on fear and separation. For example, “I’m better/worse than others,” or “She is better/or worse than others because of what she did.”
Judgments condemn the person, not the behavior (which might objectively be a problem). Screaming at your child might be poor behavior, but that doesn’t make your child (or you for screaming at him) a “bad” person.
Judging others is actually fooling yourself into thinking you are expressing yourself intelligently. Rather than being high minded, when we are judgmental we put others and ourselves down by the way we think and behave.
Yet we all slip into being judgmental at times. The key is to monitor your thoughts, feelings and actions. Then minimize the negative tendencies and forgive yourself where you fall.
Yes it’s good to educate yourself on spiritual matters, be mindful, have heart-centered practices and healing. At the same time, don’t get obsessive and compare yourself to others, for better or for worse. Make evaluations but avoid judging.
[pullquote align=”normal”]Stay more neutral yet still passionately engaged with your life.” [/pullquote]
3. Slow down and rise up.
Here’s a common situation that we sometimes help people get through. Say you are in a group setting where you end up being excluded from activities (reminiscent of the youngster not being picked for the sports team). Then you react in the situation. You fret and sulk.
Yet with some help from holistic coaching, you can realize that your hurt feelings caused you to be judgmental. If you slow down, you can open a space to be compassionate about yourself and those you judged.
As your world changes on the inside, the outside world changes too. The world grows more harmonious and friendly, in spite of any challenges you face.
Here’s a tip: notice when you react strongly to something that bothers you. There may be an actual need to be protective or fight injustice. Often, however, we are thrown off balance by reacting too forcefully.
It’s time then to breathe and slow down. We can then “think” about the situation later with a clearer mind and more open heart.
4. Keep your spirits up.
How do you answer a phone call? What does your voice mail message sound like? Is your voice upbeat, courteous and interested in receiving the call? Or do you sound deflated and/or rushed? How we show up for others expresses how we feel about ourselves.
To keep your spirits up, we wrote a little book called Tap into the Power of Love & Happiness with EFT: 12 Simple Ways to Have a Great Day Every Day.
Some of the tips include holding your head up high, connecting with like-minded souls and ending the day on a positive note.
Raising Spiritual Hygiene Checklist
Rate your spiritual hygiene in each of the four categories (1 being lowest, 10 the highest)
- I keep healthy routines:
One suggestion for improvement: - I am non-judgmental most of the time:
One suggestion for improvement: - I regularly slow down and rise up:
One suggestion for improvement: - I keep my spirits up daily:
One suggestion for improvement:
Final Thoughts
By strengthening the above areas, you take care of your spiritual hygiene. In the process, you are bringing spirit to earth. You become more alive, ready to handle whatever comes your way. You become more alive, ready to handle whatever comes your way. You begin to live more in the moment, able to give, receive and grow more elegantly into your best self.
As you set the stage and get your spiritual house in order, you can more freely move forward with your spiritual evolution.
