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Workshop
Introduction to Spiritual Intelligence
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Thank you for participating in the Skype Spiritual Intelligence Workshop. I hope you found the experience useful. Below is the first in a series of reviews. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.
Spiritual intelligence is a set of mental processes used to encounter, discover, create, and synthesize meaning, purpose, values, and motives in our life.
Click image to enlarge
Spiritual Intelligence is the intelligence with which we:
- Address and solve problems of life’s meaning, purpose, and value
- Be part of something larger than our self; place our actions and our lives in a wider, richer, meaning giving context;
- Identify our authentic self; understand the depth of our own being;
Webster’s defines “spirit” as the animating or vital principle;
that which gives life to the physical organism in
contrast to its material elements; the breath of life.
This email will review part 3 of the description above. Future emails will review how to improve the different aspects of spiritual intelligence.
3. Identify our authentic self; understand the depth of our own being
At our core is our sense of wholeness (our spiritual intelligence potential). Through the course of our life we development a fragmented sense of self—an identity (ego, persona, personality) with body, possessions, behaviors, back-ground, perceived accomplishments, etc. Any time we do not feel whole we are fragmented to some degree. Spiritual intelligence is our inner ability to heal, to recollect, to tap into the depth of our own being, the potential of our best self.
We become fragmented by various outside influences such as a fragmented parent, family, school society, culture, or our own innocence. Healing occurs when we “recollect” by reframing and remembering from a fresh view. It allows us to recapture our mature self and even reinvent a mature self. Fragmentation leads to a loneliness in our depth of being that creates a longing to be heard and eventually demands to be heard. Sometimes that demand is answered in extreme ways such as drugs, alcohol, dysfunctional behavior, or madness. If we exercise our spiritual intelligence we reduce the fragmentation so that it never gets that bad. In loneliness we can draw upon the collective conscious of humanity to be heard. That collective conscious may be available to us in the form of loved ones, a spiritual guide, a therapist, being close to nature, or interpretation of spiritual symbols such as poems, dreams, other’s lives, suffering, or a courageous willingness to confront the source of the fragments.
For it is only when the soul learns--with pain and difficulty--
that his personal salvation depends wholly and solely
upon the divine potential latent within his own being,
that he will gain the incentive to struggle through to
his own redemption. –Alvin Boyd Kuhn
Our spiritual intelligence communicates regularly, through the fragmentation, with our rational conscious. It is our innate wisdom, 40 Hz unification, depth of our own being that wants to be heard and awaits the readiness of the receiver (us). Spontaneity is the key transformational principle that empowers our readiness to receive. Spontaneity is our ability and openness to live in and be responsive to the moment; dropping the “baggage” of assumptions and conditioned thinking. To be deeply spontaneous, means to be deeply aware—of yourself, of others, of situations, and of their respective potentials.
Additionally we need to expose ourselves to unfamiliar situations and people and note our responses; explore the context in which you live. The more SQ communicates, the richer the communication becomes, the wider our world is recontextualized, and the better we relate to a larger reality. Eventually, we recognize that our true reality is our identity and unity with all life.
“A true hero is the one who has given his physical
life to some order of realization of that truth.”
--Joseph Campbell
Our lives constantly require mini-healings (redemptions). I may find one missing part of myself today; other parts of my fragmented self are still waiting to make their appearance. Moreover, that insight can bring a form of healing, giving us a sense of accepting peace rather than of impatience with the deep and ongoing processes of life and the psyche.
Conversing with (utilizing) SQ puts us in touch with the depth of our own being and the whole of reality.
As SQ grows we relate to our experiences with more peace and a balancing trust that allows us to respond to any given situation with spontaneity and responsibility. Whatever our specific sense of the spiritual, without it our vision is clouded, our lives feel flat and our purposes dreadfully finite.
Here are some other ways in which we can defragment, heal, return to wholeness, and exercise spontaneity:
- Step outside our assumptions
- Move outside our habitual way of seeing things
- Breakthrough into a new insight
- See things in a larger meaning-giving context
- When we transcend ego
- Experience the thrill of beauty
- Experience truth larger than ourselves
- Hear sublimity in a piece of music
- See the majesty in a mountain sunrise
- Feel the profound simplicity of a new idea
- Feel the depths of meditation
- Feel the wonder of prayer
- Recognize our true reality is our identity and unity with all life
The next review email will will review how to improve the different aspects of spiritual intelligence.
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Spiritual Intelligence Abilities
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- unify data/information
- see life’s big picture
- perceive a wider point of view
- reconfigure boundaries
- perceive beyond boundaries
- examine mental framework
- search for wholeness
- integrate
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- identify patterns/connections
- recontextualize
- identify context
- reframe context
- conceptualize holism
- transform
- adopt new paradigms
- answer WHY questions
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SQ also gives an individual the ability to become more conscious of the lower motivations driving him or her (i.e. fear, greed, ego) and how to transform these to higher motivations that are more sustainable (i.e. creativity, serving the community, etc). SQ provides us an intrinsic worth that motivates us. It is our intrinsic motivations that give life vitality. Motivation research explains that intrinsic motivation components are similar to the components of our spiritual nature: meaning and purpose, belonging, autonomy (self-sufficiency; ability to choose), competence (wisdom), and progress (growth).
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Exercise
Become more conscious of your motivations by listing them in order starting with the strongest motivation first:
Belonging
Progress (growth)
Competence (wisdom)
Meaning / Purpose
Choice / Autonomy (self-sufficiency)
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Exercise
List your top 5 motivations starting with the strongest motivation first:
Fear
Greed
Anger
Aggression
Self-exploration
Creativity
Power Within
Self Mastery
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“Each of us makes the epoch in which we live.” Carl Jung
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