11 Simple Steps to Expand Your Spirituality and Happiness

It's a common misconception that to achieve a big goal, big actions have to be taken. To achieve greater spirituality, for example, many think they have to practice meditation for years or be devoutly religious or reside in an ashram, or live like a monk. In fact, it's much more simple than that. 

Spirituality is a personal experience or journey that helps you go deep inside yourself and discover who you truly are. It just requires you to slow down, listen to yourself, and allow love and compassion to bubble to the surface. 

During those moments when you are quiet, reflective, and intentional, you begin to open yourself up to greater possibilities. You strengthen your individual and personal relationship with a higher power and gain clarity.

So if spirituality isn't just becoming more religious, what actions do you need to take to become more spiritual? Below, I've compiled a list of 11 simple steps that can help you increase both your spirituality and your sense of happiness.

1) Focus on serving and helping others 

We're all on this earth together and we're all connected. Therefore, what we do to others, we do to ourselves. 

Everything is energetically interrelated, according to the Entanglement Theory from Quantum Physics. This is because everything is ultimately derived from the same piece of matter. Going back far enough in time, this is accurate when we consider the Big Bang. 

This was the explosion of one giant ball of gas that produced everything we know of in existence today. Although we now have an infinitely large number of particles, they are all connected because they were once all one piece of matter.

Keeping the action simple is the key. Just extend a helping hand. Pick up a neighbor's paper, smile at people or offer to volunteer at a food bank. 

This helps you open your heart and increase your spirituality. You also feel better about yourself and gain a boost in happiness as well. 

2) Practice self-love and self-compassion 

It's difficult to love others if you don't love yourself. Take the small steps of treating yourself kindly, with respect and as your own best friend. 

Seek self-appreciation, self-acceptance and self-gratitude. Look for ways to relax and spend time in peace and quiet. Fulfill your innermost desires, wishes and dreams. 

Who couldn't be happier when they love themselves and treat themselves as their own best friend?

3) Always tell the truth 

Greater spirituality and happiness is created by more positive energy and higher vibrations. Telling a lie creates negative energy that produces a stress response in the body, leading to a faster heart beat, which is why lie detectors are so useful. 

To clean your energetic body, you need high vibrations that are only produced by telling the truth and maintaining a positive energy. It may be difficult to always be truthful (even white lies are negative), but the spiritual benefits are well worth it. 

Additionally, it helps your happiness since there is no associated guilt or emotional upset. So keep an eye on how truthful you are.

4) Keep a gratitude journal 

One of the biggest ways to boost your happiness and spirituality is by focusing on gratitude. The more you can be grateful for, the happier you'll feel. Focus on what you like, not on what you don't like. 

When you keep a gratitude journal, you make the gratitude more concrete, and more real. It becomes more tangible. Consequently, your happiness becomes more real, and its intensity increases. 

Focusing on gratitude also has health benefits as it lowers stress hormones, calms your nerves and keeps you smiling, which keeps your healthy "feel good" hormones flowing. 

5) Listen to your instincts 

When you get that "gut feeling," that's your instinct telling you something. Intuitive people have always listened to their solar plexus (the reason why it feels like it's in your gut) and usually they have good results. This is part of your path to raise your spirituality. 

It's like the grade school teacher who always said to go with your first answer on a test--that was your immediate response without your conscious mind interfering. Too often we ignore our instinct and let our conscious mind make the decision. We need to listen to our instinct.

6) Laugh more often to maintain joy and contentment 

The saying "Laughter is the best medicine" has basis in fact. Laughing not only makes us feel good, but it releases endorphins that help reduce stress and keep us positive and high energy. Laughter is one of the higher vibration emotions akin to love and joy. 

The phrase "Laughter is contagious" also is factual. When you laugh, you elevate the vibration of the room and others begin to laugh with you. It's like a filter that gets added so that no matter what is happening, you see life through the lens of happiness and joy. 

7) Have faith in yourself and faith in something greater 

Spirituality is your own personal relationship with a higher power, whereas religion is an institutional set of creeds and dogmas established for practitioners to follow, like a set of rules in some cases. That higher power can be a higher being, an energy, the universe or just something beyond yourself. 

When you have faith in something greater than yourself, you can have a unique perspective on existence that completely changes how you see yourself. 

This is the true nature of spirituality. You begin to realize that you are no longer alone on this journey called life, and that there is someone or something out there who truly cares about you and wants to help you. All you have to do is ask. 

8) Practice patience 

Benjamin Franklin one said, "Patience is a Virtue." Oh, how true this is. The more you try to practice patience, the more calm you become, the lower your stress levels, the greater your happiness and the more clear you become. 

Rather than allowing your primal urges of frustration and anger bubble to the surface, just allow whatever is bothering you to pass you by. Most often the things that cause us frustration are things we can't do anything about anyway. 

By getting frustrated or angry at things you can't control, you're wasting valuable energy that could be spent on something more productive or enjoyable. Practicing patience will lighten your spirit and improve your inner peace. 

9) Eat healthy foods 

The saying, "You are what you eat" has never been more true than the present. It seems everyone eats foods that are processed or loaded with chemicals or contain heavy fats or other substances that wreak havoc with the body. These foods weigh on your body both literally and energetically. 

In order for your body to maintain high vibrations and optimal health, you need to consume foods that are high energy, high vibration, and are beneficial for it. This includes organic, unprocessed, clean food. While this may cost a bit more and may take slightly longer to prepare, the benefits far outweigh the costs.

When your body is functioning optimally because of eating healthy food, your individual vibration increases and you're better able to access personal spiritual insights. 

10) Enjoy the little things--slow down and savor the small moments 

Think of the saying, "Stop and smell the roses." This concept is vital to help you stay more in the "now" and appreciate more of what's around you in your world. 

Too often people are in such a rush to get to their destination or achieve their goals that they don't pay attention the the journey. It's like being on a bullet train and focusing only the train's destination. It's traveling so fast that you don't have any chance to see the beautiful countryside passing by with all the many colors and shapes in view. 

Pay attention to the experience, the tastes, the sounds, the sights and the feelings. This simple shift helps you boost your happiness and ability to enjoy everything that surrounds you. This increases your connectivity and thus your spirituality. 

11) Meditate to help yourself stay calm 

Meditation has multiple benefits, physical, emotional, and spiritual. 

Physically, it helps you maintain your focus on serenity which lowers stress hormones, improves heart health, and improves your acuity. It increases your immune system and improves your body's resistance to disease. 

Emotionally, you feel happier and more content since you're concentrating on gratitude, positivity and love. The increased feelings of gratitude boost your happiness and contentment. Consequently, you raise your feeling of being calm. 

Spiritually, when you meditate you open yourself to a greater connection to the Divine. Ideally, you should meditate daily for a minimum of 10-15 minutes since consistency is far more important than duration. Set aside time to meditate at the same time every day, and seek to connect to your higher power and your heart. 

So if you're seeking to raise your happiness and spirituality, try these simple 11 steps. 

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Tags: meditation, living spiritually, spiritual life, spiritual reading, positivity, helping others, compassion, patience, gratitude, joy, laughter, healthy foods