Find your spiritual ideal and create your personal development plan

With spiritual growth, we are not working on material goals and achievements, but on personal betterment. And through improving ourselves emotionally, mentally and spiritually, achieving material goals may arise as a result. By releasing the resistance we hold in our being at the energetic and spiritual levels we are able to harness the flow of divine potentiality to co-create the life we intended to experience in this incarnation.

For me spiritual growth is both a purging of what is not serving my highest potential, as well as a compelling personal vision towards which I am moving to.

I find Edgar Cayce’s exercise on ‘Ideals’ to align very much with my personal vision. This exercise is meant to grow as you grow and is not intended to be fixed for life. It is a living vision of where you are in each moment, moving you along your greater potential ladder, and helping you increase your degree of self-awareness.

A spiritual ideal could be a quintessential quality or trait that is missing in your life or relationships. It should be inspirational and challenging at the same time.

In order to find the best ideal for you at this time, it is important to still your mind and to make a connection with your Spirit. From that place of inner stillness, you want to let the ideal emerge and be revealed to you. Your Soul knows what is best for you to focus on. Communing with your Soul will yield the most appropriate information. It is not an exercise you do from the level of the mind.

Spiritual Ideal Exercise

First, take a blank sheet of paper and make 3 columns, with the headings ‘Spiritual Ideal’ | ‘Ideal Mental Attitude’ | ‘Ideal Behavior’.

Through a simple meditation and contemplation, you will identify the spiritual ideal that would be most beneficial. You will also explore the state of mind and ways of thinking that will need to be fostered overall and with the key people in our life (including yourself) to embody the quality you want to grow. And then you will determine what are the physical / tangible actions (the behavior) that will encourage you and move you towards your spiritual ideal.

Second, find a comfortable and quiet place to enter into communion with your Soul. Give yourself plenty of time. You may want to light a candle and burn some incense to open up your higher senses and open the ritual.

A ritual is a little routine that you do before a specific endeavor. Rituals help us to enter specific states more readily.

How to commune with your Soul and inquire on your best ideal :

• Start breathing slowly, steadily and rhythmically.
• Bring your attention to your heart center. Visualize your breath coming in and out of your heart space.
• Sense the energy field around your body expanding.
• In your heart, ask to commune and speak with your Soul.
• Then, ask what would be the best ideal to focus on right now in your life to move towards your greater potential and the experience you intended for this life.
• Let the word, an image, a sensation emerge. If you are unclear, ask for clarity. Do not force it. Just allow the information to come forward.
• Then, ask if there are any mental attitude(s) you need to let go of or that you need to strengthen in order to embody this ideal.
• Then, ask if there are any behavior(s) you need to let go of or what are the action steps that you need to take in order to embody this ideal.
• Ask to be shown a version of you embodying this ideal in your life. What would it looks like or feel like if this ideal was a natural part of your being.
• Say Thank you to your Soul and your heart and ask for the strength, the courage, and the will to follow through this vision.
• Enter the information received on your paper.

Create a personal statement of the vision and information you received.

Each morning, read your personal statement and visualize your day embodying that ideal.

Each evening, take some time to reflect on your day and assess how you modified your behavior(s) and mental attitude(s) to be aligned toward this ideal. And where you could have improved your actions and reactions.

Personal development plan