Life-Changing Spiritual Principles: Everything You Need to Know

Spirituality can be your path to peace, purpose, or a connection to something bigger than yourself.

Generally, Principles are defined by universal truths or fundamental beliefs interwoven in one’s life and how you choose to live by them. Here, we are talking about spiritual principles. They are believed to help those who want to have a life of purpose and find one for those lost in their lives.

Today, we will get to know about all the spiritual principles and how they can help you in different ways. Without further ado, let’s dive in.

Universal Spiritual Principles

Here is the list of all spiritual principles. We will have a detailed look at some of them further.

Accountability	Acknowledgement	Alignment	Awareness
Authenticity	Balance	Belief	Boundaries
Choice	Clarity	Commitment	Compassion
Completion	Consciousness	Consideration	Courage
Determination	Discipline	Divine Guidance	Enthusiasm
Faith	Fearlessness	Flexibility	Focus
Forgiveness	Freedom	Fulfilment	Gentleness
Grace	Gratitude	Healing	Honesty
Honour	Hope	Humility	Inner Authority
Inner Strength	Innocence	Integrity	Intimacy
Joy	Kindness	Love	Mercy
Observation	Obedience	Openness	Optimism
Order	Ownership	Patience	Peace
Perfect Healing	Perseverance	Power	Presence
Purpose	Relax	Responsibility	Self-Love
Self-Value	Silence	Support	Transformation
Trust	Truth	Vision	Wholeness

These are the universal spiritual principles that you can incorporate into your life. In fact, you do not have to have all of them in your life to achieve complete self-awareness and peace of mind, which are the eventual goals of spirituality. Let’s understand how different sets of spiritual principles can help you achieve various goals of your life.

12 AA Principles/NA Principles/Steps of Spirituality

More often than not, when talking about spiritual principles, the twelve-step program from Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is mentioned. The organization helps people to stay sober and support others to achieve sobriety. Other organizations like Narcotics Anonymous (NA) have adopted and implemented their own such programs. That is why some of the most popular iterations are Spiritual Principles of NA & Spiritual Principles of AA. But in reality, those are 12 Steps that promote spiritual awakening for recovery.

Let’s have a look.

1. Acceptance

Acceptance is always the first step towards healing. It can lead you to freedom. For some, it may be the hardest step to take. Remember, it is never weak to accept something, and it is certainly not your way to make do with whatever the situation is. The fact is, to heal, we first need to accept the problem. This is what makes acceptance one of the most important steps.

Acceptance is also about being receptive towards the situations rather than resisting them. Instead of dwelling over the past and worrying about the future, acceptance helps us see the present for what it is. At the end of the day, it is better to be open about what exists rather than change things and do nothing about them. In short, acceptance can bring you to reality.

2. Hope

Hope is about optimism, looking forward to the best of the possibilities in life. It can fill you with enthusiasm and energy. Negativism can overwhelm you when hope is absent in your life. Without hope, frustration and impatience come instantly. Hope is important in keeping the fight on, as those who are defeated in their minds are often found on the losing side.

It will fill you with courage and give you the strength to keep fighting against the adversities you are facing. Hope is what keeps us away from distress and unhappiness. If you are feeling a loss of hope, sit down and express. Remind yourself that things will work out the best way for you in the end, and even if they don’t, it will be okay either way.

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3. Faith

Things we put our faith in hold the power to change our lives. The greatest battles we have with ourselves cannot be won overnight. It is a constant state of improvement that will shape our lives for the better. At times, you may feel defeated, and it may all feel like a lot of hard work. That is where faith comes in.

In spirituality, faith has a crucial role to play. It is a belief that a higher power is guiding you through all adversities for a reward. Faith does not have to be religious. In short, faith is there to boost your morales when you are going through tough times. It comes in all different types. You can pray, meditate, or speak to a higher power.

4. Courage

Courage here is more about our inner strength. It is about the courage to be our real self, with integrity, and continue to improve yourself relentlessly. A deeper meaning of courage can also be about asking the right questions to yourself. Spirituality is always about finding your purpose, and the courage makes you ask yourself that.

It is also important to be courageous enough to stand up for yourself and the things you believe in. It is about taking yourself to the standards you look up to and setting the boundaries for others. Those who are not familiar with it may find practising courage a little intimidating at first, but it gets easier after a while. Moreover, it is one of the most rewarding qualities to possess.

5. Honesty

Honesty is one of the strongest pillars of spirituality. It is about not lying and covering up anything. In that sense, honesty is very close to acceptance. But whereas acceptance is more about the situations, honesty is more about the day-to-day nitty-gritty. Also, acceptance is about yourself; honesty can be about yourself or others.

Honesty also demands that you do not leave anything out or sugarcoat the truth. Admit what you are doing wrong and be honest with yourself. It is similar to the others as well. Honesty is an everyday practice, and it will get easier as you practice it more and more. Telling the truth is the key.

6. Patience

Patience is a virtue that will help you avert frustration and anger. In simple words, it is a process of eliminating anger from your mind. When you eliminate anger from your mind, it cannot harm you and the people around you. Patience has the power to change your perception of the things that make you ignorant or angry. This will help you boost your psychological and spiritual health.

Just like every other virtue that is mentioned here, patience also comes from practice. It helps in improving how you treat yourself and the people around you. Next time you are stuck in the traffic, instead of honking at the car in front of you, you can take a deep, deep breath and let the moment of impatience pass. Remember, anger comes from delusion, and there are a lot of disadvantages attached to it.

7. Humility

When you develop the ability to see divinity in everything, you achieve humility. It is about understanding that your abilities and actions are not greater or lesser. Again, it boils down to complete honesty that you find within yourself. An honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses will take you close to humility more than ever. Being modest is rewarding.

Humility also means peace and harmony. We should look into ourselves and make peace with who we are, as mentioned above. Humility, in simpler terms, is also an act of being humble. It is the respect you give to others. It is a crucial aspect of spirituality. Apologizing when you are wrong is also a part of humility.

8. Willingness

It is easy to visualize the results when we are thinking about achieving something. However, when acting on what we want, the act is hard to come by. We are unwilling to make changes and go out of our comfort zones to do something.

Willingness is that determination and perseverance to keep going when the odds are against you. These are the things that you do not want to accept and things that you do not want to do. Willingness is about standing up to these not-so-favourite thoughts and facing them. For example, if someone asks you to go for a brisk walk after a hard day of work, it will take some willingness to say yes and act on it.

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9. Brotherly-love

As the famous philosophy goes, it is about loving thy neighbour. To help someone in need is what it means to show brotherly love. Sometimes, a little bit of support is what someone might need. It is about training ourselves to see and love everyone as one of our own and help them as one of our own.

Many times, it also includes forgiving others. Brotherly love takes away negative qualities like favouritism as we train ourselves to see everyone with the same lens. There is no indifference towards anyone. In the end, brotherly love is about loving everyone with the same compassion.

10. Integrity

Integrity would be a mixture of honesty and morals that we carry. Integrity is what you are when no one is watching you. It applies more and more to everyday scenarios than bigger things for the most part. If someone accidentally gives you extra money at a shop, you return it even if he doesn’t know his mistake.

These are again principles and values, the standards that we set for ourselves and living by them. If we talk about self-reflection, we are not always honest with ourselves, and therefore we make mistakes in recognizing what we do wrong. Spiritual integrity will help you see those perspectives and be brutally honest with yourself, too.

11. Self-Discipline

Self-discipline is very self-explanatory. Just like integrity, it is about being a good person when no one is looking. Even if there is no one there to oversee you, always walk the right path. It leads you to make good decisions and surely will help you change your environment.

There are times when imposed discipline helps a lot of people, but self-discipline has its advantages. It can be discipline to follow anything. Make a routine to pray, worship, something creative, do a service, or study. Self-discipline is important everywhere and will always help you grow in all aspects of life immensely.

12. Service

By talking to someone who needs your help, offering advice to someone who needs it is defined as service. Helping the community in any way will only help you make yourself better in the process. It is important to understand that others have the same needs as us, and helping them will give you satisfaction and inner peace.

Many think there are 36 principles of spirituality when it comes to AA. However, 36 spiritual principles of AA are 12 steps, 12 traditions, and 12 concepts that they place. Here, we have talked about 12 principles of spirituality, or as they are called ‘steps’. Now, let’s talk about 7 more spiritual principles that can help you succeed.

7 Spiritual Principles You Need to Succeed

Apart from the above 12 step programs, other spiritual principles can help you succeed in your life. Once again, they do not have to be religious. Here is the list of spiritual principles you need to know if you want to succeed.

1. Gratitude

Gratitude is nothing but acknowledging that every day and every breath is a gift, and we should not take life for granted. Gratitude will help you lift yourself from negative feelings like resentment, anger, and annoyance. It is again a practice to be thankful for everything you have.

2. Humility

Yes, humility was also one of the spiritual principles of NA, and it is also one of the principles that will help you achieve success. Here, it is a little different. It will help if you let go of the need to put yourself above others. Understanding everything is not a race and ego will only bring you negativity. Humility will help you free yourself from a lot of issues.

3. Optimism

It may sound repetitive when we say always focus on the glass half full. But, it is a state of mind that will lead you to positivity. It will also help you understand that the things we want to achieve, our goals that we have set, are in our hands. It believes that the best actions will get you the best results or at least open a window for it. More than ‘positive thinking,’ it is more about ‘positive doing.’

4. Generosity

If you want to come out of any narcissism, this is the principle to practice. It can get rid of any resentment or bitterness you may have. Earning the gratitude of someone else will help you lead a life of purpose and positivity. By the simple act of giving others, you can feel more engaged with others. Even the simple acts of saying “PLEASE” and “THANK YOU” can go a long way.

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5. Forgiveness

Forgiving is an often misunderstood principle of spirituality. It is not about accepting what others have done to you, but the act of letting it go. It is important not to get caught up in the vengeance as it can quickly turn out to be your misery. Negative emotions like revenge, anger, and resentment can overwhelm you if forgiveness is not practised.

6. Intention

The principle of intention tells us to know the part where to focus. Before going anywhere, we need to know the destination to tell you which road to take. The same applies to spirituality. When you focus your energy on the right places, it will take you to the places where you want to go. Do not carry the fear of wrong choices as it will keep you away from deciding at all. The intention is about owning those decisions and committing to them.

7. Expectation

The combination of intention and expectations will play a big part in your success. It will guide your energy to the right places. It is important to visualize what you want to achieve, to achieve it. However, if you expect something and get something else, do not label that as a failure. Instead, it can be an experience.

Conclusion

Believe it or not, this is not an exhaustive list by far. There are several spiritual principles to look forward to and implement in our lives. Just like these AA and spiritual principles to succeed, there are other sets of principles such as principles of spirituality for healing. You can work your way around them as you require for your goals. Eventually, every one of them will help you align yourself with the universe and achieve that peace of mind.

How do you apply spiritual principles in your life? Consult our online therapist to get the perfect guide.