Lynda Gonzales wrote a paper on spiritual inventory and theories of spirituality. She interviewed her boyfriend Chris Randall about his responses to 10 questions assessing different aspects of spirituality and well-being. Chris feels fulfilled in his career as a welder and has worked through childhood traumas through counseling. He keeps most people at a distance due to trust issues but deeply cares for close friends and family. He struggles with the past, present and future but tries to live in the moment. Chris prioritizes health, self-improvement and learning despite not enjoying reading much. While their beliefs differ, the interview process was insightful for both of them.
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Spiritual Inventory
What does it mean to be spiritual? Many people believe that if you are spiritual, you cannot also
be religious and vice versa. However, to be a spiritual person, one must have a deep
understanding of who they are and their purpose in life. Making this discovery can be a life long
journey and for some, it can go beyond into other life times, if you believe in past lives. When it
comes to spirituality, there are many ideas that come to mind. Theories of Spirituality include;
Achieving Divine Consciousness. As described by Carl Gustav Jung, divine consciousness is a
unifying force within all individuals. He believed that the essence of God is within us all.
(Seaward, 2013, p. 43) Rachel Naomi Remen: To Be of Service. Remen believed that from the
perspective of service, we are all connected. It is said that through service we create wholeness in
ourselves, the world and for others. (Seaward, 2013). In the process of a spiritual journey, one
will most likely begin a pursuit of self-improvement and self-development. This theory is
believed by Abraham Maslow and is considered to be the process of self-actualization. It is
through life experiences, good and bad, and the journey of our lives that we learn this self-
actualization. It is not something we are inherently born with. During the spiritual journey, there
will be stages of growth. These stages are known by M. Scott Peck as The Four Stages of
Spiritual Growth. At stage one, like any other new thing we begin with, we are underdeveloped
with our knowledge and skills. At this stage, one can be spiritually bankrupt. In stage two, you
will begin looking for the purpose of your life. What is the meaning of life and why are you
here? These are questions you may begin to ask yourself and others in stage two of spiritual
growth. Stage four of this growth comes with skepticism. You will begin to question and become
skeptical of any previous beliefs or ideas you may have had any time prior to this new way of
thinking. Finally, in stage four The Mystic-Communal Individual comes about. In this final
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stage, one will feel a strong desire to have deep and meaningful relationships and have an
understanding that spirituality is way of life and not an assignment that eventually ends.
Additional theories of spirituality include: discovering a mystical path and experiencing things
that cannot be seen by the physical world. This can be in the form of miracles, unexplained
events, synchronicity, dreams and visions. You can also receive divine messages from angels,
guides and entities. Achieving genuine compassion and happiness as suggested by the Dalai
Lama. Becoming a kind soul, one that offers empathy and compassion towards others and who in
return receives deep and genuine happiness for themselves. Another facet in spiritual growth and
spiritual journey is conscious evolution. Conscious Evolution is the realization of our divine
nature, and the responsibility this holds with each of our thoughts and actions to make the world
a better place for everyone. Barbara Marx Hubbard (Seaward, 2013). And then there are the
Seven Spiritual Steps on the Divine Path as defined by a well-known spiritual leader, Deepak
Chopra. The Law of Pure Potentiality, The Law of Giving, The Law of Karma, The Law of Least
Effort, The Law of Intention and Desire, The Law of Detachment and The Law of Dharma or
Life Purpose. During the journey of spiritual growth and development, creating balance in your
life will become a top priority. “Only when peace is created within yourself can you move in
tandem with the energies that circulate within and around you to establish world peace.” Lao
Tzu: Tao. (Seaward, 2013) When we are balanced with life, our thoughts, words and actions are
all peacefully connected. One of last theories is The Search for Life’s Meaning as believed by
Viktor Frankl. Spiritual health is imperative to the search for one’s own meaning in life and
ultimately to dealing with the suffering of various life experiences, regardless of their cause.
When we move past suffering, guilt, limiting beliefs and negative thinking, we discover our pure
potentiality and our own purpose for life. Each of these theories gives a small insight on the ideas
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and thoughts to what it means to be spiritual. To determine your current state of wellness, think
about each of these theories and if any of them resonate within you. The discovery process,
although uncomfortable and unknowing is all part of the spiritual journey. In order to create an
inventory on where you are with your spirituality and psychological wellbeing, we need to sit
down and ask ourselves some serious questions.
1) Do you go to bed each night fulfilled? Are you doing work that you love, giving to
others, helping others, learning and expanding your mind, challenging yourself,
feeding your soul? Do you get out of bed each morning ready for what the new day
brings you? Or are you frustrated, lost, unhappy and empty? If you could make a
career change, relocate or even go back to school, what else would you do? What can
you do that will make you feel whole, happy and fulfilled each night when you go to
bed. Our bodies, minds and souls need to be fed. This is part of our journey here on
earth and a main part of spiritual growth. What changes can you make in your life so
that you can be fulfilled?
2) What is the Problem? What do you see as the problems in your life that are keeping
you from living the life of your dreams? What are the problems that are keeping you
from a meaningful and purposeful life? Is it your body, relationships, thoughts, your
job, your life, your finances? When taking an inventory, one must see where things
are low. Like when you go to the grocery store, the refrigerator and pantry items are
low or out completely. You purchase new items and replenish the supply. What is the
inventory on problems in your life that are creating imbalance, chaos and
unhappiness?
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3) When doing mental housekeeping, where are your thoughts and beliefs about
yourself and the world? Do you feel like you are not good enough to receive life’s
blessings, do you have self-love and respect, do you have positive or negative
messages running through your mind all day, do you blame your family, friends or
past experiences for the bad things that are present in your life? This is a great
question to really get down and deep and find out how healthy your mind and spirit
really are. If you having more negative than positive thoughts, ideas and experiences,
taking an inventory on how your inner voice can help create a stronger spiritual
relationship with yourself and eventually with others. (Hay, 1999)
4) Do you live in the past, present or future? When you are living in the past, we
blame all of our events and circumstances on things that happened to us in the past.
Many childhood traumas still affect us as adults and we live in those experiences and
beliefs each day. When we are worrying, we are living in the future. We stress and
worry over the What If’s. We are unable to enjoy blessings in life because we are too
focused on or too concerned about tomorrow, next month or 5 years from now.
Living in the present moment means to live in the moment and to appreciate and take
notice to all the amazing things going on around us right now. The beautiful sunny
day outside, the sounds of laughter coming from our children’s bedrooms, the chime
of the crickets in the evening.
5) Are your resistant to change? Life is a series of ebbs and flows. Do you work well
with the changes that come with life? Are you impatient? Do you learn from the
lessons that have been created for higher consciousness and spiritual growth or do
you keep making the same mistakes repeatedly? Are you able to take responsibility
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for your words and actions? Do you try to maintain control over every situation?
These are all examples of being resistant to change. In order to grow, learn and
develop our psychological and spiritual selves, we need to allow and embrace the
changes that come our way. Change can lead us on the path or purpose we truly
meant to be on. When we are resistant to it, we remain underdeveloped, unhappy and
unfulfilled. (Shinn, 1925)
6) Do you do THE WORK? Are you able to encourage yourself and others at
challenging times? Are you grateful for the blessings and opportunities you receive or
do you mindlessly expect them and continue to move through life without being
gracious for what you do have? Do you stop and pay attention to the needs of
yourself, your family and others or is your sole focus each day YOU? Do you bend
the rules to create better circumstances for yourself? Do you know how to actively
listen without responding? Are you able to allow another person to speak their wants
and needs to you without interrupting or tuning them out? This is the daily work we
must each do in order to achieve that life balance as referred to by Lao Tzu: Tao.
7) How do you treat your body? Do you treat your body like a temple and give it
healthy foods, lots of water, good sleep each night, exercise, stillness? Or do you
abuse your body with drugs, alcohol, fast food and trash TV? Are your sick or are you
healthy? Is your body diseased and ill all the time, with aches and pains, restless
nights and headaches? Or do you wake up each morning feeling refreshed, energized
throughout the day and have mental clarity to focus on projects? How you treat your
body and cherish your health are huge proponents of spirituality and psychological
wellbeing. Creating mind-body-spirit connectedness comes with learning how to love
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and take care of our bodies. Our health is our wealth and without a healthy body and
mind, you can never have a healthy spirit.
8) What are your relationships like? Do you have healthy relationships with your
friends and family or are you distant and/or estranged from them? Are you able to
connect with people or do you keep everyone at a distance in order to protect yourself
from harm? Do speak kindly of others or do you moan, groan and complain about
everyone you come in contact with? Do you play with your children and listen to
them when they tell you about their day? Do you listen to your spouse when they talk
about what they need or want from you? Having healthy and meaningful relationships
is one of the seeds of the soul. Without these loving, caring and compassionate
relationships, we are lonely, empty, sad and disengaged from others. It is important as
part of spiritual health is to have long standing, genuine and deep relationships with
others. It is unnecessary to have hundreds of friends that you know little about, but
more important to have a few really close and truly connected with relationships that
make you feel whole and equally cared for. Are you able to give and receive in a
healthy way?
9) Is self-improvement important to you? Do you like to read books and article about
new things? Do you watch documentaries? Do you go to workshops and seminars?
Do you go to school to achieve higher education or new training in your field of
work? Do you want to expand your mind and elevate your consciousness? Do you
engage in deep conversations with others about religion, spirituality, politics, global
perspectives or the environment? Is it important to you to be knowledgeable in
different areas? Do you listen to self-help or self-development audio books? Do you
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desire to know more? Did you finish high school and decided to never again gain
another lick of education? Do you watch mindless reality TV that provides no
valuable information to better yourself? Do you hate reading? There are so many
different avenues in which one can learn and grow their spiritual perspective. There
are thousands of spiritual books on the market and hundreds of websites you can visit
to learn more about spiritual health. Spiritual development comes with the desire to
learn and know more. A deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
An insight on why another person does or acts a certain way. The ability to pass
useful knowledge on to another who may be struggling spiritually. The process of
spiritual growth comes with learning.
10) Do you know your purpose? What are your unique gifts or talents? Something that
you are really good at? Something that maybe others cannot do? What do you better
than anyone else in the world can do? Is your gift something that is of service to
others? Do you provide a need that no one else can? A god question to ask yourself
and one that refers back to question number one in the spiritual inventory is ‘If money
was no concern and you had all the time in the world, would you still do what you
do?” If your answer is YES, then you are expressing your true and unique talent, you
know your purpose in life and you are fulfilling it each day. If your answer is NO,
then you are still undiscovered of your purpose and through the exercise of taking
spiritual inventory and asking yourself all of the above questions then you are closer
to uncovering your True Potentiality and Purpose in Life. (Chopra, 1994)
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The Interview: Chris Randall, Relationship: Boyfriend of 9 months
I sat down last night and asked Chris each of these questions. Like me, he had an
extremely difficult and abusive childhood absent of religion or spirituality. Although our beliefs
are fairly different, he is a very open-minded and willing to listen type of person. He said my
questions created quite a stir within him and had not expected it would go this deep. However, he
was open to expressing his thoughts with me, which I greatly appreciate and respected. Overall,
Chris feels very fulfilled in his career and feels that if money made no difference he would
continue to do what he does, which is work in the welding industry. He is passionate about
building and creating things out of nothing. He has a super creative mind and usually takes his
clients ideas to another level, which they are always pleased about. He enjoys his work and finds
great success in it as well. For 15 years, in his 20s and early 30s, he did some very intense
counseling and psychotherapy to help deal with his childhood traumas. He feels that he continues
to work on these issues each day and finds they affect him much less as they day when he was
younger. Because of these traumas, his relationships are few and far between, trust is big issue
for him. The people that are close to him know him well and he has a deep love, trust and mutual
respect for them. Everyone else he keeps at a distance. As part of this work, he takes mental
inventory on his thoughts pretty regularly. When he is feeling sad or anxious he pays close
attention to what is roaming around in his head and that can usually help him to snap out of his
bad mood. He struggles with living in the past, present and future. He worries about taking care
of his kids, retirement and the economy, his past creeps back in at dark times in his life and he
reminds himself as often as he can to let it all go and just live in the moment. Stress from work
and strained relationships gave him an Ulcer when he was only 27, now 40. As a result of this, he
takes very good care of his body now. He eats a very clean diet, he drinks a few only on Friday
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or Saturday night, he goes to the gym 6 days a week, drinks 100oz of water each day and sleeps
when his body tells him its tired. He values his body and health and does what he can to treat his
body well. Self-Improvement is important to him, but he is not a big fan of reading. Audio books
are great for him because he spends a lot of time in the car visiting clients each day. He loves to
watch The History Channel, The Discovery Channel and National Geographic Channel.
Chris teaches me a lot about myself and being with him makes me want to be a better person.
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References
Health of the Human Spirit: Spiritual Dimensions for Personal Health, 2nd Edition
2013, By Brian Luke Seaward
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
1994, By Deepak Chopra
You can Heal your Life
1999, By Louise Hay
The Game of Life and How to Play It
1925, Florence Scovel Shinn
