7 Signs You’re Growing as a Person and Evolving Spiritually

I used to carry a lot of grief, and it made life perpetually miserable.

I don’t know if this is due to the family I’m from or if this is simply a task my spirit was meant to deal with in this lifetime. Regardless of what it is, my inner struggles have made me into the person I am today — somebody who always wants to grow and understand their inner workings better.

Perhaps you’re on a similar journey, and if you are I encourage you to stay the course.

It takes consistent, intentional, and diligent effort on your part to grow and evolve as a person.

Here are a few ways you can tell if this is happening for you.

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Being able to empathize easier

When I was younger, I used to be totally consumed with myself and the issues I faced. It was all about me, me, me. Because of this, I was unable to fully empathize with or be fully present with other people.

I wasn’t able to be present due to great levels of anxiety I felt about myself, and how the other person perceived me, and this made me unable to make real connections.

You need to be fully present in order to connect with and empathize with other people, you can’t form connections otherwise. Presence communicates empathy. Empathy shows a strong level of respect for the person you’re interacting with.

When you show people a lack of respect, whether it be somebody you’re close to or the local barista, this communicates a lack of respect for yourself. Whatever you project out into the world exists within you.

When you’re able to remove yourself from the small and limited “me-centered” worldview, it shows that you no longer deal with a lot of the deeper spiritual issues that caused you to be so self-consumed, to begin with.

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Being with yourself

When you weren’t mature, you used to constantly need the company and assurances of other people in order to feel at ease within yourself. Now you find that you’re much better able to be of comfort to yourself.

Sometimes people can show in very obvious ways how uncomfortable they are just to be with themselves and their own thoughts. They might frantically search for people to be around on a weekend when they have nothing else going on. They might scour social media for people to chat with when idle moments present themselves at home, even when they have nothing of substance to say.

We’re social beings and we need other people, but it’s also healthy to be able to be with yourself without needing the constant energy and validation from other people.

If you find that you can be at peace even in moments of solitude, this is a solid sign of growth.

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The opinions of others

They don’t carry as much weight as they used to!

The less evolved version of yourself used to agonize when other people would give their opinions about you. You never stopped to think before, “Do I even respect the person who’s sharing their opinion of me?” — yet their opinion still carried so much weight for you.

The fact of the matter was that you weren’t as sure of yourself then as you are now.

Now, you might still consider what other people have to say, and they can still help you to see different scenarios in a new light.

You’ve been evolving though, and you now have a greater level of trust in your intuition, and this is what matters most.

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When you say “yes”

The less evolved version of yourself used to be pulled in twenty different directions at once, and you had no good idea of what you wanted to do with yourself — this is why you used to say “yes” to everything presented to you.

Every favor somebody asked of you.

Every time you got tempted into going out and getting hammered, you did so because you wanted to fit in. You paid by having the next day completely ruined.

You didn’t totally understand the value of your time, so you weren’t discerning when it came to how you doled it out.

Now you only say yes to things that you genuinely want to do.

You have to mean it, and when you genuinely do you can go into each endeavor much more powerfully.

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Tough conversations

Your less evolved self used to always shy away from difficult and potentially confrontational conversations. On some level, you believed that you wouldn’t be able to handle them.

Now you understand that if you wish for your relationships to thrive, you need to breach these waters if you truly want for the relationship to last and thrive.

You’re no longer defensive or overly confrontational either, but you’re able to calm yourself enough to be able to navigate the tricky waters of these tricky dialogues.

It isn’t about “winning” for you anymore either. Now, it’s about finding a level of common ground so the relationship has the opportunity to survive and thrive.

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You know what you know

Which means you understand that you don’t know it all.

Some of the most immature people have the belief (whether it’s conscious or not) that they know everything. When you know everything, then there’s nothing more to learn.

When you’ve matured, you no longer see the world as black and white, you can see the nuance around you. You understand that there’s plenty that you don’t understand about a whole host of different topics, and there are certain life experiences you don’t understand either.

With this, you are able to treat every individual person with decency and respect and you look to see what you can learn from other people as opposed to what you can teach to them.

You know what you know, and you know that much.

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Your pace of life

You used to always be in a constant rush, everything was urgent and you always had this pervasive twang of anxiety that lived within your gut. Your conversations used to be rushed, and you would give half of your best effort whilst trying to get everything done fast so you could go home and watch Netflix.

You wanted to get the best results even when you were putting in minimal effort.

You were always rushing around and going too fast because of a lack of comfort with yourself.

Now, you’ve found a rhythm that you can live by. Sometimes it might speed up, but on the whole, it’s far slower and more intentional.

You find that life is much more pleasant when you allow yourself to slow down, smell the coffee, taste your lunch, savor a conversation, and give your full attention to your personal projects.

Stop rushing, you’re missing out on the juicer parts of life.

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Summary

Growth isn’t linear, it takes place over the course of a lifetime. Maybe you’ve evolved in some of these areas but not in others. Nonetheless, stay the course and continue being intentional and self-aware.

Have you noticed any of these changes in yourself:

You are more present and better able to empathize with other people.
You no longer feel so uncomfortable being by yourself.
You aren’t so preoccupied with the opinions of other people.
You only say “yes” to offers when you genuinely want to say “yes”.
You no longer avoid difficult conversations with other people.
You understand you’re still learning every day and you aren’t under the delusion that you know everything.
You’re becoming more comfortable with a slower pace of living.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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