How Does Your Spirit Grow?

The nursery rhyme goes "how does your garden grow" Some people have a "green thumb" a natural ability to grow beautiful plants with such ease. Other people can't get anything to grow and resort to decorating with artificial plants to avoid killing anymore of their investments.

This thought can also be applied to some degree when you pose the question "how does your spirit grow." There are people who easily recognize what is needed to grow their spirit so that it becomes a productive and useful part of their soul. The first step in growing your spirit is acknowledging it and learning to respect it. Then the person must nurture it, and watch it grow and rely on it to get through what ever life throws at them. Through such reliance they better cope emotionally with daily struggles and any serious or tragic events in their life. They may for a short term lose this vision but they are easily able to get back on course.

Then there are people who become accustomed to ignoring their spirit for a variety of reasons and thrust themselves into the darkness of a life with no direction. Some of these people have been hit so hard by the realities of their life that they've lost their vision into their spirit. It can be a real struggle for some to regain their vision and get their life back on a positive path. Sadly some of these people due to their inability to acknowledge their spirit never are able to really know their inner self, their inner strengths and what they can do and deal with if they only look within their soul and feed their inner spirit. They then often resort to using artificial emotions to cope with their life, their struggles and adversities. They form these emotions as a coping mechanism because they are out of touch with their spirit which in turn puts them out of touch with their true emotions.

When we reference the term "spirit" different perceptions come to mind. Some of a religious nature but for the sake of this writing I'm speaking about the spirit we all have inside us. This spirit is what ushers us through the years on earth that we call Life. To only name a few… a person can have a mild and meek spirit, an adventuress, risk taking spirit, a courageous 'go gettin' spirit, a fighting spirit and once and a while you'll come across someone that has a spirit that will change the world or at least the world of those around them.

Does a person's spirit come naturally? Sometimes this is true, but there are also people whose spirit is shaped in large part by experiences they are forced by life to endure. How they react to situations in their life can and will shape them into the person they become. I've known people who were meek and mild mannered but once their life hit a hurdle or a bump in the road they became bitter and abandoned their spirit and looked only at the pain. I've known people who were angry and hateful but when faced with adversity their spirit softened and the person became nurturing, compassionate and a caring individual. In both of these cases they were sadly hit by unforeseen and unfortunate circumstances but one example looked at the pain while the other looked into their spirit and saw the true meaning of life.

So how do we grow our spirit? By looking at the wonders of our life and of the world we are so fortunate to be in. Looking at the good more than the bad, addressing the happy more than the sad. Realizing the blessings that life has given us and when all is said and done we see that there is more to this life on earth. Once we realize this then the spirit inside of us takes over and will comfort us, inspire us and most of all give us the strength and wisdom to face whatever life presents us.