The Spiritual Self Schema (3-S) Development Program

Step 1: Increasing the number of contexts for Spiritual selfschema
activation
Now that you have incorporated into your Spiritual self-schema each of
the qualities you listed as the moment-by-moment destinations of your
Spiritual path, you will increase the number of contexts in which your
new Spiritual self-schema is activated. You will begin by activating your
Spiritual self-schema not only in more and more contexts that are
compatible with the experience and expression of your Spiritual nature,
but also in contexts in which you may have difficulty remaining on
your Spiritual path. For example, you may find that experiencing and
expressing your Spiritual nature is difficult when in the company of
certain individuals, or when you are in locations or situations, or
engaged in activities, that trigger the activation of incompatible selfschemas.
If this is true for you, you will need to discipline yourself to
take back control of your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, rather than
allowing yourself to be controlled by your automatic pilot's habitual
reactions to perceived obstacles (real or imagined) that cause you to
swerve mindlessly off your Spiritual path and onto old habitually
traveled paths that lead to suffering.
Reflect. Reflect on those people, places, situations, and activities
that are part of your daily life and that have been incompatible with you
being able to experience and express your Spiritual nature. Reflect on
which of these can be avoided during the next week, and which ones
cannot; the ones that cannot be avoided will need to be transformed.
(You will eventually also transform those that you now avoid.
However, to make your task more manageable in the beginning, select
only those people, places, situations, and activities that are usually
incompatible with you remaining on your Path that cannot be avoided
during the coming week). Reflect first on whether there are any early
warning signals (your cues-to-action) that could let you know when you
are in danger of veering off your Path. Then reflect on the cognitive
scripts and behavioral action sequences that you can deploy to keep you
on track. For example, you might want to have a particular prayer or
passage from scripture ready to recite in such a context, or an
appropriate self-affirmation (e.g., I remain focused on my Spiritual path;
what would my (.... Spiritual Guide .....) do in this situation?). Also
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