Psychology and Spirituality

I've had a couple of conversations recently that have got me thinking again about the issue of how to approach life when you hold a set of beliefs that have wide lifestyle implications. In the environment I grew up in it was generally emphasised that the starting point for life should be working through your beliefs and values and then letting them naturally incarnate as concrete actions. The concept of freedom and ensuring that all actions were natural expressions of an inward desire was very important. Any suggestion of imposing a structure of practices onto life would be met with concern and suspicion as the demon of legalism was lurking round every corner.

I've recently been reading a bit of psychology that I've found helpful in attempting to understand this whole issue.



WARNING: What follows is some seriously amateur psychology.

The perspective that I grew up with seems to broadly reflect the cognitive thread of psychology. Cognitive psychologists see the investigation of the human mind as of paramount importance. In order to understand behaviour, enquiry into the human psyche and the role of cognitive processes in self-regulation and self-perception is deemed to be the starting point. The emphasis here is clearly on the interior over the exterior.

Behavioural psychologists, on the other hand, emphasise the importance of the immediate environment on behaviour as opposed to the interior workings of the mind. This perspective sees behaviour as driven by exterior controls and not internal values or beliefs.

During the mid-1970's, there began to emerge a psychological discipline that sought to combine the previously distinct threads under the banner of cognitive-behaviourism. This approach emphasised that human activity consists of three modalities; thoughts, feelings and behaviour. These modalities are believed to be inseperable, interlinked and interlocked. There is therefore an equal weighting placed on both internal and external processes in relation to human action.

In relation to my own spirituality, I find the cognitive-behavioural approach to be very useful. This allows me to reflect on the logic and implications of my beliefs and act accordingly in my everyday life. However, it also encourages me to put in place specific practices and disciplines that I do whether I feel like it or not. While I would have once seen this as shallow empty ritual, I now recognise that these practices can actually have a forming effect on my thoughts and emotions.

What do you reckon?