Becoming fully human

“Becoming fully human is a great adventure – one that requires us to grow and stretch ourselves. Do you too feel the call to grow?”

With this question author Cindy Wigglesworth begins Chapter One of her book “SQ21: The 21 Skills of Spiritual Intelligence”, published in 2012.

Spiritual Intelligence, as she defines, is “the ability to behave with wisdom and compassion, while maintaining inner and outer peace, regardless of the situation”. If this sounds quite challenging, it’s because it is. Yet, it is not impossible.

We all learn and grow from the moment we are born, so why not keep developing ourselves and evolving consciously after reaching adult life?

The SQ21™ Model of Spiritual Intelligence helps us expand our consciousness and spiritual awareness. One of the brilliant aspects about it is that it works for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you are an atheist, a follower of a particular faith or if you just want to be spiritual and yet not religious. This path offers many possibilities of development and growth.

Photo by Edward Howell on Unsplash

Deepen your way of being

Whether or not you are on a quest to find meaning or you feel you are having a difficult time leveraging apparent opposites in your everyday life, this model can actually help you. Most of us feel called to something larger at one point in time. There is an evolved and conscious way of being that we recognize when we see and that some of us will set ourselves forward to become.

How to get there is what the model is about. It introduces a set of skills that can be developed and measured, like for example, the Emotional Intelligent competencies, developed by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis. Different scholars, spiritual leaders, executives and experts have recommended and praised the SQ21™ model, including Ken Wilber, Susanne Cook-Greuter, Diane Musho Hamilton, Richard Barret and Richard Boyatzis.

The model is divided into 4 quadrants: Self Awareness, Universal Awareness, Self Mastery and Social Mastery or Spiritual Presence. The first two are the top quadrants and represent our inner and outer awareness. The last two are the bottom quadrants and represent inner and outer mastery.

Even though not everyone will make the choice of continuous transformation, some of us will. The SQ21™ offers an extremely fruitful path for people who wish to explore personal and spiritual growth. Spiritual Intelligence Skills, as I mentioned before, can be measured – yes, there is a self-assessment tool – and they can be developed over time.

If we wish to make the world a better place for future generations, if we want to communicate non violently, establish healthy dialogues over delicate issues, or if we simply wish to lead a life with less drama, less ego and better relationships, developing our Spiritual Intelligence is what we need.