Whether you’re reading this article in the context that you’ve never heard of spiritual competitiveness, or that you’ve felt that vibe off someone or perhaps you’ve looked at another person’s journey and thought how much further you are down the road of spirituality than they are. Either way; stop. Just put it down; there’s no place for judgement in spirituality and everyone’s journey is unique and exquisitely personal. When people are encouraged and supported in spirituality, the collective positive energy rises; this is the intention… To love and let live and cheer from the sidelines as people carve their mark and blaze their own spiritual trail. Karmically, this is where we’d like to be and let’s face it, feeling competitive in this context is likely to be an indicator that a little self-love and assuredness in awareness could be beneficial. 

It’s in our nature as human beings to want to be good people, being a good person usually smooths the path to good social interactions and gives us purpose through positive reinforcement. Belonging to groups and feeling as though our contribution is significant and meaningful is proven in social psychology to be of core importance to us as human beings. 

As a collective of individuals looking to harness the esoteric and mystical subtleties of this world, our intrinsic beliefs are in being and doing good; creating good karma and positive energy. Therefore we, by the result of human nature, can sometimes find ourselves in a paradox of wanting to be ‘as good as’ or better than others. An apparent contradiction of our karmic purpose (whoops!). Self-awareness comes with practice and mindfulness and competitiveness is natural but when it comes to creating a negative rhetoric, we have to keep it in check.

As a collaborator at The Risings Signs, we are guided to write from experience, to discuss real situations and share how we took onboard new perspectives. When I was on the receiving end of this type of spiritual competitiveness, it straight up knocked me for six. I mean, the self-doubt monsters came screaming, you’re a fraud, leave the arena Joelle, get out before people realise!!

And the tricky thing to comprehend when you are reeling from such an experience is that although the competitive nature of this feels negative, it comes from a desire to be more, to grow, to learn, to be experiencing a journey of growth, which are all positive. It was a Brené Brown quote that sprung to my consciousness and settled my fears: “I know my life is better when I work from the assumption that everyone is doing the best they can.” This perspective of underpinning positive intent helped me grasp that everyone’s path is different, and we are all exactly where we’re supposed to be. 

“I know my life is better when I work from the assumption that everyone is doing the best they can.”

–  Brené Brown, Dare to Lead

So how do we evolve, how do we channel this desire to be more, to be a good person, without needing to relegate another’s path or journey to be less important or impactful than our own? How do we stand strong when we are on the receiving end of this kind of questioning of our spiritual character? Firstly we need to remember that there’s no finish line on this journey, it certainly isn’t a race, and we all have different routes and miles per hour. Regardless of our temp or timeline, we can still raise the collective vibration by doing the work on ourselves and focussing inward. Another person’s journey isn’t for us to judge, in the same way, that another person's judgement cannot affect our journey into and through our spirituality (unless we let it). 

For me, it all boils down to self-love, filling ourselves up from the inside, making ourselves unknockable in the face of judgement or criticism, whilst understanding that when this happens, people are doing the best they can with what they’ve got. The more we can accept the duality of different types and approaches to a spiritual journey, the more aligned we become with our own.

Meet The Rising Signs founder, Joelle and find out more about her work with energy, astrology and spiritualism.