The key to spiritual growth and happiness

Everyone, if they are honest, is looking for happiness. We have a tendency to race through life at breakneck speed without stopping to consider what it is we really want and what would make us happy, and by that I don't mean a holiday home in the Maldives, or a brand new Audi. This is about a connection with our souls, which if we lack, we may try to fill with a holiday home in the Maldives, or a brand new Audi! Have you ever said to yourself, "I thought this would make me happy, but I still feel like there is something missing," and you try to fill that 'something' with your career, relationships, social life, money, possessions. But, no matter how hard you try, that void is still there and nothing seems to be able to fill it. Just what is it that is missing?

I feel blessed because I found out what that missing piece of the puzzle was and finding it is not only a revelation but for some people an absolute miracle, because it seems so unlikely that they would ever come to fill that lonely gap. It is, I posit, a connection with our souls. If you'll allow me to clarify.

I believe that when we are born we each have three 'bodies' so to speak: a physical body, an emotional body and a spiritual body. When we are born these bodies are as one, as depicted in the diagram on the left. We are connected with our intuition in a state of bliss or oneness with ourselves and with the universe. As life takes its toll on us and we experience a myriad of emotional traumas, pressure from society, our family and peers to fit a certain mould, and often numerous changes in environment, our physical and emotional bodies start to deviate from our spiritual bodies and that once united trinity of wholeness starts to break apart.

Our physical bodies without guidance from our spiritual bodies or emotional bodies long for the fulfilment of desire, whether that manifests as craving possessions, money, sex, power, fame, food, or whatever. They are not interested in spiritual growth, they just want short-term satisfaction and the more they get it, the more they want it, because the last cheap thrill never quite hit the spot.

Our emotional bodies want to be loved unconditionally, but because they have drifted from our spiritual bodies they cannot feel that love and so they search for unconditional love, but generally in all the wrong places and what they find instead of that pure love they long for is conditional love i.e. love with strings attached. Conditional love says, "I'll love you if you do this for me." Sometimes our physical and emotional bodies conspire and we become emotionally attached to physical objects and desires, becoming angry or frightened if we don't get what we want.

Our spiritual bodies i.e. our souls or the voices of our intuition, desperately try to point us in the right direction, towards spiritual growth, increased spiritual awareness, which naturally results in peace and a real sense of happiness, but without the connection to our other bodies the guidance of our intuition falls on deaf ears, or ears that listen for a few seconds, but just as quickly forget the intuitive advice.

The further apart our three bodies are, the more miserable we become and this can manifest as negative emotions expressed outwardly or inwardly, or a mixture of both. We may hurt ourselves and/or hurt other people, physically or emotionally, because our physical bodies are so far away from our emotional and spiritual bodies that we begin to lose touch with what's important in life and in extreme cases, we almost forget the difference between right and wrong, constantly chasing our physical desires and looking for the next high.

This vicious cycle can only be broken when we reconnect to our spiritual nature and as we start to push those three disparate circles back together, the universe makes sense again, our lives make sense and the conflicting voices in our heads merge into one single voice, the voice of our intuition. When we listen to that intuition, when we follow its guidance, life flows as it should, we have all the answers we need, we understand why the universe is here and why we are here, we find our true purpose in life and we fill that void, a void that can only ever truly be filled by a connection with our souls. The void is like an unquenchable thirst that just will not abate because you can't just shove any old piece of the jigsaw puzzle in there and expect yourself to be happy and fulfilled. There is only one piece that fits that gap and when you finally put it into place your life will never be the same again. You will understand what it means to have a powerful, immovable faith in yourself and the universe and you will understand what it means to happy.

People often perceive spiritual knowledge as somewhat of a secret, something that is reserved for those who are in on the secret, but everyone can choose to follow their spiritual path in life, not by asking for what they want, or expecting the universe to satisfy all their worldly desires, but by succumbing to the will of the universe, establishing a connection with their souls and listening intently to the guidance of their intuition, following it at every turn. By trusting in your intuition you will become the real unencumbered you and you will learn to want what you need. This is truly empowering.

Don't feel frustrated if you have asked the universe for things and you have not received what you desired. Instead let go of those desires and ask yourself not what you want, but what you need on a spiritual level, because with my hand on my heart I can honestly say that nothing in life will enrich you more than discovering the beautiful soul within you. Spiritual growth is not about what you ask for, what you talk about or what you wear. It is about what you do, how you live your life. Think about your actions and their consequences, think about how you make other people feel, think about how you live your life. Then, when you are ready, when you are really prepared to take that step, ask the universe to show you your spiritual path and help you to walk it. This is one question we should all be asking.