Are you looking for effective ways to help your spiritual resolutions survive beyond mid-February? Resolving to 
change is the first step but, without an effective action plan, we run the risk of not fulfilling our spiritual goals. One important component of an effective action plan is evaluating the roadblocks that stand in the way of our spiritual growth.
What do you encounter in your day that is keeping you from achieving your spiritual goals? If you think of your spiritual life as a journey down a road, the rocks and tree trunks that block the road are the things that are keeping you from growing spiritually.
Some roadblocks can be small (like a pile of rocks) and other can be large (like a tree trunk lying across the road). The roadblocks that are smaller, like a pile of rocks that lie in the road, are relatively easy to walk around but after a while, it can get tedious to navigate around these on our spiritual road. These roadblocks are the little things we struggle with every day and if we’re not careful, they can weigh us down and we can become discouraged. Whatever your spiritual roadblock is, wouldn’t it be freeing to remove these obstacles from your spiritual road once and for all?
This is where practical application becomes extremely important. Once we’ve recognized what our roadblocks are, the second step is learning to apply practical steps to overcoming those roadblocks. The key is having steps that are achievable, otherwise we can become easily discouraged.
Ian Butler, LMHP, a Catholic therapist, offers some practical suggestions for overcoming roadblocks and preventing discouragement in his webinar entitled “Healing Perfectionism: Am I Good Enough?”. His webinar can be found on the newly launched Institute for the Psychological Sciences’ Online Library. In his webinar, Butler uses neuroscience and the teaching of St. Ignatius to explain why, even when we have the best intentions, we can easily slip back into our old, unhealthy habits and compulsions. According to Butler, it can be as simple as recognizing the origins behind our old, unhealthy habits and compulsions and retraining our brains to form new, spiritually healthy habits.
Butler uses the techniques recommended by Saint Ignatius which include imagery, the importance of affect, and repetition and takes you step-by-step through the process in his webinar. When used effectively, Butler says that this technique can free us from our old, unhealthy habits, and leave us free to travel unobstructed on our path of spiritual growth. Removing spiritual roadblocks can give you the jump start you need to grow spiritually.
Check out the webinar and let me know what you think.
Graphic: Death of Perfectionism graphic provided courtesy of Hello This is Jeff Design.
