Spiritual Muscles: What They Are and How Life Helps You Build Them
Most people associate spiritual growth with quiet moments—meditation, reflection, or time spent away from life’s noise. Yet the deepest growth rarely happens there. It unfolds in moments of irritation, misunderstanding, and emotional strain. Spiritual Muscles are not formed in comfort; they are strengthened in situations that test patience, inner calm, and emotional maturity.
A short story of strength revealed in hindsight
Arjun was known to be calm and centred—even under great pressure. Tight deadlines, tense meetings, and difficult conversations never seemed to disturb him. Colleagues noticed this quality but assumed it was simply his nature.
One day, after a particularly stressful week, a colleague finally asked him, “How do you manage to remain so calm?”
The question stayed with Arjun. He realised he had never consciously cultivated calmness. It wasn’t a trait he had started with. Looking back over the past twenty years, he saw a series of trials—professional setbacks, unfair criticism, broken expectations, and personal disappointments. Each situation had demanded restraint. Each moment of choosing not to react had quietly added strength.
What others saw as calm was simply the accumulated result of years of inner resistance training. Life, he realised, had been shaping him all along.
Spiritual Muscles and the wisdom behind life’s challenges
This insight is articulated with remarkable clarity in The Golden Lotus Sutras on Spiritual Practice: Creative Transformation, where Master Choa Kok Sui writes:
“Sometimes it is the tendency of a person to be a pain in the neck, to influence people negatively. These individuals are needed to help other people grow. Regard a person who is a pain in your neck as a way to develop your spiritual muscles.”
This teaching reframes difficulty entirely. Certain people and situations appear repeatedly not by accident, but because they provide the exact resistance required for inner development. Just as physical strength grows only when muscles are challenged, Spiritual Muscles develop only when life presses against us.
Where these muscles are actually built
At work, this training often appears as learning how to stay calm under stress, practising emotional maturity in professional relationships, and responding with clarity instead of defensiveness. Each moment of restraint strengthens tolerance. Each conscious pause builds emotional resilience. These ideas are explored further in Life Lessons from the Difficult People in Your Life, where challenge is seen as instruction rather than disruption.
At home, the training becomes more intimate—and more demanding. Familiar relationships activate deeper emotional patterns. Here, Spiritual Muscles are exercised through everyday choices: listening without interrupting, disagreeing without hostility, and choosing kindness when irritation arises. It is important to remember: kindness is not weakness; it is disciplined inner strength.
Mistakes are inevitable in this process. Reactions will surface again and again. But as reflected in Growth Means Mistakes: Understanding MCKS’s Teaching on Inner Transformation, errors are not failures—they are feedback. Each misstep reveals where awareness still needs strengthening.
What maturity looks like when muscles have formed
Over time, Spiritual Muscles express themselves quietly. You become harder to provoke and quicker to recover. You begin to observe thoughts and emotions instead of being driven by them. Discernment develops—knowing when to engage, when to disengage, and when silence serves better than speech.
Life continues to repeat lessons until the inner capacity is built. When challenges persist, it is often because a deeper strength is being asked to emerge. The “pain in the neck” is no longer an enemy but an unwitting trainer, helping forge tolerance, inner calm, and emotional stability.
Closing reflection
Spiritual growth is not proven in peaceful moments. It reveals itself in meetings, family conversations, and moments of emotional pressure. Life is the training ground. People are the resistance. Awareness is the method.
And one day, like Arjun, you realise that what once felt like hardship has quietly made you strong.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions: Spirituality Beyond Religion and Traditions in Daily Life
- What are spiritual muscles?
Spiritual muscles are inner capacities such as tolerance, emotional maturity, inner calm, and non-reactivity. Just as physical muscles grow through resistance, spiritual muscles develop through life’s challenges—especially difficult people and emotionally demanding situations. They determine how we respond under pressure, not what we believe. Spiritual muscles are revealed in behaviour, not words, and become stronger only through repeated, conscious practice in real-life situations.
- How do spiritual muscles develop in daily life?
Spiritual muscles develop through everyday interactions—at work, at home, and in relationships—when we choose awareness over reaction. Each time we pause before reacting, observe our thoughts and emotions, or respond with clarity instead of impulse, these inner muscles strengthen. Life provides repeated situations until the required inner capacity develops. Growth happens not through avoidance, but through conscious engagement with discomfort.
- Is spiritual growth possible without meditation or rituals?
Yes. While meditation and rituals can support awareness, spiritual growth primarily happens in daily life. Emotional triggers, interpersonal conflicts, and stressful situations are powerful training grounds. Spiritual maturity is reflected in how one behaves under pressure—how calmly one responds, how kindly one listens, and how responsibly one acts. Without application in life, spiritual practices remain incomplete.
4. Why do the same challenges repeat in life?
Repeated challenges usually indicate that a particular inner lesson has not yet been fully integrated. Life continues to present similar situations until the necessary emotional strength, clarity, or maturity is developed. From this perspective, repetition is not punishment but guidance. Once the required spiritual muscle is strengthened—such as patience, discernment, or inner calm—the situation often changes or loses its emotional charge.
5. How can I stop reacting emotionally and respond calmly?
The first step is learning to observe your thoughts and emotions instead of immediately acting on them. A brief pause—sometimes just a few conscious breaths—creates space between stimulus and response. Over time, this observation weakens habitual reactions and builds emotional regulation. Calm responses are not accidental; they are the result of repeated conscious restraint and awareness practiced in daily situations. Read more on it here.
6. How do you stay calm under pressure at work?
Staying calm under pressure is a skill developed through repeated exposure and conscious response. It involves separating the situation from the emotional reaction, focusing on clarity rather than control, and responding instead of reacting. Professionals who appear calm have usually faced sustained pressure over time and learned restraint through experience. Calmness at work is a sign of emotional maturity, not lack of responsibility. Read more on it here.
7. How can spiritual growth help in professional life?
Spiritual growth enhances emotional intelligence, decision-making, and resilience in professional settings. It helps individuals remain composed under stress, handle criticism without defensiveness, and interact with others respectfully even during conflict. These qualities improve leadership presence, trust, and long-term effectiveness. Far from being abstract, spiritual growth directly supports clarity, stability, and maturity in one’s professional conduct.
8. How do I deal with a difficult colleague without losing my peace?
The key is shifting focus from changing the other person to managing your inner response. Observing emotional triggers, setting clear boundaries, and choosing measured responses protect inner stability. Difficult colleagues often act as training opportunities for tolerance and discernment. As taught in The Golden Lotus Sutras on Spiritual Practice: Creative Transformation, such individuals help strengthen inner capacities when handled with awareness rather than resistance.
11. How do I observe my thoughts and emotions without reacting?
Observation begins by noticing thoughts and emotions as they arise, without judging or justifying them. Instead of engaging with the mental narrative, you simply witness it. This practice gradually weakens emotional compulsion and strengthens clarity. With time, reactions lose intensity, and conscious choice becomes possible. This skill improves both emotional balance and decision-making in daily life. Read more here.
- Why does spiritual growth feel uncomfortable at times?
Spiritual growth often feels uncomfortable because it requires confronting ingrained habits, emotional patterns, and unconscious reactions. Growth involves inner restructuring, not comfort. Just as muscles ache during physical training, inner discomfort signals strengthening. Emotional unease is often a sign that awareness is expanding and old patterns are being challenged. Discomfort, when understood correctly, is a sign of progress—not regression.
Where Growth Becomes a Choice
Life will continue to apply pressure until inner strength appears.
The question is not whether challenges will come—but whether you will use them consciously.
Start today. Observe your thoughts. Restrain one reaction. Choose clarity once where you would normally react.
That is how spiritual muscles are built—quietly, daily, and for life.
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