In this video Josh speaks to us about spiritual and existential change in the context of post-traumatic growth. It involves a deep reflection on life’s profound questions, such as identity, purpose, and belonging, often spurred by struggles. It encompasses six key aspects: understanding spiritual matters, strengthening faith (if applicable), finding harmony with the world, feeling connected to existence, facing questions about life and death, and gaining clarity about life’s meaning. Ask yourself: How have your challenges reshaped your beliefs, and where do you feel called to grow deeper? Begin exploring how reconnecting with your inner values and experiences can redefine your path forward. This journey allows individuals to rebuild their beliefs, make sense of their past, and use their experiences to inform a more meaningful future. Ultimately, it’s about aligning intentions with impact, embracing one’s struggles as a source of growth, and discovering a personal sense of purpose and clarity.
Transcript:
Aristotle said it best, ‘An unexamined life isn’t worth living.’ That quote captures the essence of the PTG domain known as spiritual and existential change. This domain relates to the things that are at the core of what makes us human but also the deepest and most philosophical questions that we can ask about life.
It is when we struggle that we are often forced to reflect upon and seek deeper answers to questions like, who am I? Why am I here? And where do I belong? These questions speak to the wisdom and all of the experiences that you’ve had in your military and first responder careers – and on the home front – as you seek to figure out who it is that you are, where you’re going, and who you want to take with you on that journey.
And I can’t stress enough to you my surprise with the fact that these are the types of questions that people ask at hospice centers. They’re talking to people on their deathbeds about this stuff – and if you haven’t figured out the answers to those questions, well then what? Then you’ve lived a life where you haven’t found meaning and purpose of why you’re here. It’s why struggle is so valuable because you don’t want to wait till the end to figure it out – you want to do it now – now when you’re well placed to make the changes you need to make to align your intentions with your impact.
I’m reminded of a quote from George Washington Carver where he talked about the idea that each of us must leave a legitimate reason behind for why we were here – and spiritual and existential change is about that reason. For me, coming from a civilian background – and by now you’ve no doubt seen some of the videos on my story – but these ideas and concepts, the more philosophical and spiritual aspects of life didn’t appear for me on my journey until I was about ready to hang up my cleats – until I was about ready to give up and quit life and take my own life – and so some Joseph Campbell and Viktor Frankl and many members of the warrior community helped me realize that it was in that struggle and in that abyss that I could find treasures that I could find nowhere else.
Like I have talked about many times, it is in that cave that we fear to enter, that we find the treasures we are after. In the context of posttraumatic growth, when we talk about spiritual and existential change, we have a very specific definition – definitions that emanate from people who’ve walked the path from struggle to strength and growth – and so when I say spiritual and existential change, what I mean is a deepening of your spiritual life and an exploration of beliefs and notions that were previously unconsidered. A deepening of your spiritual life and an exploration of beliefs and notions previously unconsidered. This goes to the idea of asking and answering and reflecting on really deep questions – so that’s the broad definition when we think about the specific ways it’s defined that are part of spiritual and existential change there are six different definitions from the posttraumatic growth inventory.
The first is I have a better understanding of spiritual matters. Now we define spirit as being about character, relationships, service, and purpose – and spiritual in this sense can really be whatever you make it and whatever it means to you.
The second is I have a stronger religious faith. At Bouldercrest, we’re not a faith-based organization but many people we serve and engage with are. Some people are religious, some are spiritual, some are agnostic, some are atheist, some are in between – or just confused like me – but for some people as they walk their journey, they find themselves more connected with a religious upbringing and religious teachings.
The third is I have a greater sense of harmony with the world. We have talked about what happens when we go through deep struggle and traumas in our life. It is like an earthquake that damages or destroys our core beliefs about ourselves, about other people, and about the world. Part of the rebuilding process is getting to reflect on those beliefs and beginning to make sense of the why behind life.
The fourth is that I feel more connected with all of existence. This statement, ‘I feel more connected with all of existence,’ kind of brings up visions of somebody sitting in a field of wild flowers cross-legged, just sitting there – but the simple idea is the recognition of the connections between human beings and animals and nature. We have beautiful retreat centers that are situated in peaceful, natural settings – places where you do feel more connected to the world and everything that’s in it. It’s also true that we are at our most human when we struggle and we speak about our experiences, so if you want to go deep with somebody and talk about the struggle you’ve encountered in your life – but more importantly you want to talk about the growth and the strength – you could connect to anybody, in any language, in any place because that’s the one thing that will be a common element of anybody’s life – these ups and downs.
The fifth is I feel better able to face questions about life and death. Better able to answer questions about life and death – and this really goes to this idea of understanding why we’re here and respecting our mortality. We’ve spoken about writing a eulogy and understanding the notion about what the purpose of life is and what it means to live a meaningful life. In so many ways, PTG provides that framework.
The last is that I have greater clarity about life’s meaning. Sometimes when people ask us what business we’re in, sometimes we say we’re in the training business but often I’ll tell people we’re in the clarity business. We see our job as exposing people who are struggling to modalities and mechanisms and people who can help you find a sense of clarity and when you combine clarity and good questions, what you find are answers to questions about life buried deep inside of you – and so this idea that you have greater clarity about life’s meaning gives you a sense that you understand where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. You’ve made sense of your your story, you’ve made sense of your past, you’ve made sense of your hard and difficult and tragic and traumatic experiences and you’ve been able to use those to inform your life as you walk your path – and those are the six things that capture the essence of what spiritual and existential change means in the context of posttraumatic growth.
I want to remind you, it’s not to say that every one of these things you’re like yeah, I’m a five out of five on this – so for me I would never be able to answer that question about religious faith because I’m not a religious person and similarly we each have our own specific understandings of this stuff. There isn’t any right way to experience posttraumatic growth – there are many, many, many ways. You know how important it is to live a meaningful life – not necessarily a happy life – but a meaningful life.
That’s what spiritual and existential change means in the context of posttraumatic growth – so I want you to reflect on three questions. The first is what does it mean to you – what does spiritual and existential change mean to you? The second is where have you experienced spiritual and existential change in your life? And the third is why would experiencing spiritual and existential change benefit you? How would it enrich your life – how would it make your life better, more meaningful?
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