Spiritual Transformation is More Than You Think

Spirituality means different things to different people, so the process of spiritual transformation can be approached in different ways. However, whatever the approach, anyone en route to a spiritual transformation will work through many emotions and look to something bigger than themselves for help.

Have you ever been asked by someone if you’re spiritual? It can be a loaded question, and I had a personal experience with this when I was a writer for Bodybuilding.com. I was asked this exact question on a questionnaire. Sure, I thought, not necessarily God or Jesus, but I generally felt spiritual. I prayed every night. I grew up Catholic, so I did all my sacraments, baptism, the whole nine, but then we stopped going to church after confirmation.

I always felt spiritual, but the environment around what I knew church to be didn’t necessarily provide a source of comfort or belonging. My belief was in praying to people who passed on. I looked to them as angels, like they were with me in spirit.  So, if something happened, I would think, oh, that’s Nana or Uncle Frank, or that’s just Pops being Pops.

My personal spirituality came from those feelings and leaning on my prayers. It was easy for me to surrender and understand that there was something bigger and greater than me out there because life kicks us all around a bit. And if we’re not in the middle of getting kicked by life, it’s right around the corner or down the road somewhere because that’s life.

We all face challenges and respond differently, but almost all of us will ask a litany of questions when life starts kicking.

• Why did this happen?
• Who’s in charge of it?
• Why isn’t this going the way I planned?

And if we ask ourselves those questions enough, it leads us to want to find out more and seek out help. Those questions and life’s circumstances are what brought me back to the church. My dad died, and some of the trauma I experienced in life flooded back as I grieved the loss. I couldn't help but look for answers and comfort.

Submitting and finding security in something bigger than me was a life-changing experience. And I’m not telling you it’s God for everyone. People have their thing and a connection to a higher self, and it’s important to understand what that is for each of us.

But more importantly, no matter what life throws at us, we are not in control of everything, nor can we be, no matter how hard we try.

When things go down that are outside our control, it makes us see that something bigger than us is at play. But it's not always on the downswing we feel this way because we can also have similar feelings when things are going great. So, for example, work can be great, and we can have a wonderful marriage, our forever home, and supportive family and friends, but we might still feel like something is missing.

That’s when it’s time to look deep, get spiritual, and work that into everything to see the results. Part of the transformation is connecting to something bigger than ourselves and weaving that into our everyday lives.

We've all experienced loss, and we think about those people and their impact on our lives sometimes every day. So, a question we can ask ourselves is, what does our higher self look like? Spirituality comes from within. We can pull it from any higher power we believe in, but whatever it is, there’s something so much greater than us that created us and walks with us constantly. Our experiences and life situations prove that, whether we’re willing to admit it or not.

Spiritual transformation is letting go of our clutching hold on control and just being the best version of ourselves regardless of the situation.

So again, it leads back to body transformations being interwoven between the physical, emotional, and spiritual. You can’t be strong in one without the other. It’s a circle. It’s a matter of having faith and letting go of things outside our control, calling on our higher power when it’s time.

Check out this full podcast episode with personal stories from Karen and me here.

So, are you ready? All the tools you need to transform your body and life are yours if you want them. LET’S GO!  

Check out our Project My Life podcast here.

If video is more your speed, you can find us here.