Articles About the My Experiments Program
Applying a Spiritual Principle
Just reading superficially about spiritual principles doesn’t change us spiritually. We may be temporarily inspired, but real and lasting change requires putting the principles we read about into action—not superhuman effort, but small, daily steps. Remember that small, incremental steps lead to major changes over time. As times goes on, your spiritual strength grows, and what seems to be a small step would perhaps have seemed like a giant leap when you first started making spiritual effort.
In deciding how you want to apply a spiritual principle related to your chosen topic, think about why you picked that topic. What are you trying to gain by focusing on that aspect of spirituality? Keep that in mind as you decide how you want to apply the spiritual principle.
If you’ve selected a quote, take a look at that. Perhaps the author suggests an action that’s in alignment with your purpose. You can practice that, or any similar action, or any action that may suggest itself to you as you read and study the quote. Your intuition may give you the perfect action for you to take. If more than one action is suggested, you can practice one action on the first day or week, the next action during the next day or week, and so on.
As an additional aid in helping you to practice the spiritual action during the day, visualize yourself performing the action at the end of your meditation, and at other times during the day if you desire. If you make your visualization vivid, and include the setting where you want to practice the action, it will help you to remember to perform it. Include the desired outcome in your visualization, if applicable.
If no action is suggested in the quote, pick an action or behavior related to the topic or quote. For example, if your topic is “Loving Others,” and the quote doesn’t offer any specific action or practice, you could decide to pray for someone you’re having difficulty getting along with. You can also practice an affirmation or visualization to help you create new patterns of thinking and acting as a way to make the spiritual principle real.
If the topic or quote is abstract, you can make it practical by performing one of these actions:
- Repeat an affirmation related to the topic regularly throughout the day. Concentrate on the words. Repeat with understanding, joy, and enthusiasm. This kind of concentrated repetition is one way to realize truth.
- Repeat a prayer regularly during the day. Put feeling into it by praying from the heart. That kind of prayer is life-changing, and changing for the better is one reason why we practice spiritual principles.
- Read and study your chosen quote for a few minutes, three or four times a day, so that it gets more and more deeply ingrained in your consciousness. Memorize all or part of the quote so you can use the meditative method of study whenever you can (see How to Practice the Meditative Method of Spiritual Study).
Whatever action you choose, decide how many times you want to repeat that action during the day or week, if applicable.
Applying spiritual principles in your life is to take practical steps toward manifesting the spiritual qualities that you already have as a soul. It’s a matter of refining the ego so that it becomes more and more soul-like. Again, one step at a time is all that’s required.
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