What is the material self and spiritual self? How can you integrate those two aspects? What is the connection between the two in our daily lives? These questions will be answered in our blog today.
Our self is our whole being. It is composed of a lot of self- concept to produce a whole personality. Part of this self- concepts are the material self and the spiritual self. Material self refers to us as tangible objects, places, or people that we have or considered as ours. The material self is not just all about in our physical body, it can also be our possessions and relatives. In material self, certain things that we possess or have are highly connected to what we feel and act about ourselves.
According to William James, an American philosopher existed in 1890’s, there are two subclasses of the material self, the bodily self, and the extracorporeal self. The bodily self is our physical self. These are intimate parts of who we are. Examples of it are our arms, legs, eyes, face structure, etc. On the other hand, extracorporeal self refers to the places, people, and things that we regard as ours. In short, it is our extended self that comes in our possessions. James believed that the self was fluid and encompassed more than our physical bodies. Knowing this, we might ask a question of how can we tell whether an entity is part of ourselves or not. We can determine this by examining our emotional investment in the said entity and seeing how we act towards it. For example, a precious watch given by your father abroad is always maintained clean and shiny. You lavish much attention to caring for that watch. But when a certain phenomenon happened and the watch gets destroyed by your classmate you will feel an intense feeling of sadness or anger towards your classmate. Simply, the watch is part of yourself, because it affects your emotional feelings and actions towards it.
Moreover, our possessions are part of our extended self. We usually attached our emotional responses in our possessions to the importance of our self. We take steps to ensure that we can prolong the things on our side. Therefore in material self, we can identify the part of us because of our possessions. “I have, therefore I am” / I shop. Therefore I am” according to Barbara Kruger. A person is defined not by what they think but by what they own. In material self, we also have a thing so-called as “material culture” Material culture is the materialism idea. Man in this concept is highly attached primarily to the goods and wealth that he/she has, which is very important to them. For example, a student value cellphones more than socializing or establishing a friendship with others. A material centered person will exercise to many negative effects on his/her personality like being selfish, manipulative, intrusive, and being unsustainable. It is not bad to have a material culture and a concept of materialism. We should always consider the enough or right amount of having that in our self- concept. Being contended will be the key to our happiness guys!
In contrary to the material self, there is also a spiritual self. Our spiritual self is our inner core. This is our subjective being. It is connected to our moral sensibility and conscience. For James, achieving a high level of understanding of who we are at our core, or understanding our spiritual selves is more rewarding than satisfying the needs of the social and material selves. We can achieve an understanding of our spiritual self through the use of introspection. It is digging inside of our minds and hearts based on what morals, values, and beliefs that we learned and cultivate in ourselves.
How can we integrate our material and spiritual self?
Social status paves the way in the integration of the spiritual and material self. It is where even there are people who are in the lower class they still find a chance to enrich their spiritual self by helping themselves and love ones. Also, being in the high class, some people who are very abundant in the material things they still find a way to share what they have to others. We are all born with a good heart and even time passes es and our personality and beliefs changes and at the end of the line we still able to do good to others. In connection, most of the individuals cannot balance the two in their life. Materialism and being spiritually healthy are highly connected to our own satisfaction and contentment. Some people are very materialistic and sometimes they get drunk by the luxury of life. On the other hand, there are people that even the lack of luxurious things they are still able to follow the flow of their living. Material self and spiritual self for me can be integrated in the manner of making good deeds and securing that we can have a certain equilibrium for the two.
For example, A person who is wealthy in life can still have a spiritual self wherein he/she tends to give a hand to others who are deprived in society. You know true happiness and contentment in life can be found by the two. We are striving harder in this life to provide our needs and contentment, but that cannot stand alone. We do not live just for ourselves. We might be nobody by ourselves but we are somebody to others. After achieving our materialistic needs, we still tend to lend our hands to other people especially to our loved ones.
We can integrate our material and spiritual self utilizing nurturing ourselves and sharing the nurture to others. We should value our morality and ethics in life. We are a big contributory factor in the development of our society. We do not live in our own selves. Doing good deeds, attaining good education and pursuing material things only pinpoint in one goal, our happiness, and contentment in life. We should know our purpose and our contributions in making changes in our society. And in the end, we will achieve self-actualization.
Spiritual and Material self – the connection in our lives!
1. Do our possessions define us? Are they simply ours, or are they us?
It is me who believes that my possessions will somehow define part of my self-image and sometimes can never define myself. The things I collect and like are the reflection of myself.
For example, I like long dresses and I don’t like a very liberal type of clothing. It reflects how conservative I am. And I value those dresses. But it doesn’t mean it will define the whole me, maybe it can define ‘part of my beliefs and values’ but not the whole me. Things existed in our lives are surely useful in our daily living. But still, we should always remember that our possessions should be used for our development and not a thing that will conquer us in defining who we are. We must weigh things and as much as possible make it in balance for our life! Let us be contented in what we have and choose to be happy. What is the end of pursuing higher and higher? There’s an end about it. We should surely develop ourselves, but not only for our selfishness but also for others because that’s what life for. Whether you agreed or not, if you trace everything from the start to the end, there is still the end of everything! So make wise use of it and do good to others. Trust me you can feel something good and different in your heart. Our possessions are simply ours. But there are times that the sentimental values we had in those things should always be in our hearts. There is no 100 percent of securing a certain thing in ‘forever’ and that is certain.
For example, I like long dresses and I don’t like a very liberal type of clothing. It reflects how conservative I am. And I value those dresses. But it doesn’t mean it will define the whole me, maybe it can define ‘part of my beliefs and values’ but not the whole me. Things existed in our lives are surely useful in our daily living. But still, we should always remember that our possessions should be used for our development and not a thing that will conquer us in defining who we are. We must weigh things and as much as possible make it in balance for our life! Let us be contented in what we have and choose to be happy. What is the end of pursuing higher and higher? There’s an end about it. We should surely develop ourselves, but not only for our selfishness but also for others because that’s what life for. Whether you agreed or not, if you trace everything from the start to the end, there is still the end of everything! So make wise use of it and do good to others. Trust me you can feel something good and different in your heart. Our possessions are simply ours. But there are times that the sentimental values we had in those things should always be in our hearts. There is no 100 percent of securing a certain thing in ‘forever’ and that is certain.
2. What material culture do you think influenced the development of the self so much?
Technology in this era has a wide impact on each of us. For me, my phone is part of my material culture. This develops many aspects of my life. My social life and my school life is an example of it! I spend a lot of time staying at school. My phone helps me to gather information related to my class demands. My phone helps me establish and maintain certain types of bonds between myself and my loved ones. With this, I develop a certain part of my self-concepts and image. It also influences me. So with you too. My material culture is my phone, but what is yours? Are you using it wisely or not? Make some time to think about it! And if you come up in an answer that your material culture is not being used wisely make changes about it! And trust me you can see the later effects of development in yourself if you choose to use it in your wisest way.
3. Is religion the only way of improving our spiritual self?
3. Is religion the only way of improving our spiritual self?
The majority of our spiritual self is uplift by our religion. But there are still things we can do to become spiritually healthy.
-Dig your spiritual core.
We can explore our spiritual core by simply asking ourselves about who we are and what is our purpose. Introspection guys! Who am I? What is my purpose? What do I value the most? These questions will lead us down a road where we can think more in-depth about ourselves and allow us to notice things about ourselves that will help us achieve fulfillment.
-Try yoga!
Based on the articles I’ve read about the benefits of Yoga. I have noticed that yoga can help us improve our spiritual wellness by reducing emotional and physical strains in our mind and body. Yoga is taught at all different levels and can help lower stress and lower blood pressure, boost our immune system and reduce anxiety, depression, fatigue, and insomnia.
Based on the articles I’ve read about the benefits of Yoga. I have noticed that yoga can help us improve our spiritual wellness by reducing emotional and physical strains in our mind and body. Yoga is taught at all different levels and can help lower stress and lower blood pressure, boost our immune system and reduce anxiety, depression, fatigue, and insomnia.
- Travel and Unwind.
Lessen your stressors and give time for yourself to relax and chill out. This can help our minds to take a temporary vow of silence and focus on reflecting on ourselves.
Lessen your stressors and give time for yourself to relax and chill out. This can help our minds to take a temporary vow of silence and focus on reflecting on ourselves.
- Take time to meditate.
Make some time to connect to yourself during all the stress you are encountering. Even before going to sleep, I spent at least 10 mins of it. Take a break and help your inner self cope up in this material world!
Our spiritual and material self is highly connected to our daily lives. We are all born with having possessions already. Our self- love should be shared with others. We do not live alone on earth, we are humans living with other living things. In a small context, we do not live just for the sake of our selves. Let’s share it with others. Let us nurture ourselves, our self- concepts not for our selfishness but also for the sake of others. We should motivate ourselves to have the initiative and energy to give a hand to others. As we develop ourselves we can also develop others! Be mindful of the purpose of your life. Keep in track in the great deal and deeds of life. There is no more satisfying feeling in helping others and doing good in our life. We are all not perfect and that is surely understandable, but what is bad to ‘try’ and ‘try’ to be perfect. Trust me, the more you try to be perfect the lesser the mistakes you can do. Just don’t keep yourself be blinded on the beautiful horizon of life.
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