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Spiritual Design: Enrich Your Spiritual Practice with Lessons from Behavioral Science
It’s hard to make time for a meaningful spiritual life. This book can help you do it: by making small, clever changes to your environment.
Understanding how our minds are wired, and how our cognitive biases can lead us into temptation or hinder us from following through on our spiritual leadings,
Overcoming the common obstacles that we face, and building habits that help us make time for our spiritual life,
Learning why our daily lives are structured to distract us from what matters, and how to change that.
Spiritual Design offers a wealth of research to help you enrich your spiritual life, whether your goal is to meditate or pray regularly, follow a personal calling, or anything in between. You’ll also learn about breaking bad habits and avoiding the moments of weakness we later regret.
You'll apply lessons from behavioral science — the interdisciplinary study of how people make decisions in their daily lives — to design your environment to support spiritual growth and practice. This process, Spiritual Design, includes:
Understanding how our minds are wired, and how our cognitive biases can lead us into temptation or hinder us from following through on our spiritual leadings,
Overcoming the common obstacles that we face, and building habits that help us make time for our spiritual life,
Learning why our daily lives are structured to distract us from what matters, and how to change that.
Dr. Stephen Wendel is a behavioral scientist, who leads a team of researchers that helps people overcome behavioral obstacles in their lives. In Spiritual Design, he offers practical lessons on applying behavioral science in one’s spiritual practice regardless of one’s beliefs or denomination.
To learn more about Spiritual Design, read Steve’s blog at www.spiritualdesign.co.
168 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 10, 2019
16 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Wendel
6 books30 followersDr. Wendel is a behavioral scientist who studies how digital products can help individuals manage their money more effectively. He currently serves as the Head of Behavioral Science at Morningstar, a leading provider of independent investment research. At Morningstar, he leads a team of behavioral scientists and practitioners to conduct original research on savings and investing behavior, applies behavioral insights to Morningstar’s products and services, and frequently speaks with the media and industry groups on these topics.
Stephen has authored three books on applied behavioral science: Designing for Behavior Change (November 2013), Improving Employee Benefits (September 2014), and Spiritual Design (September 2019). Outside of work, he is also the Founder and Chair of the non-profit Action Design Network, which helps over 10,000 practitioners apply behavioral research to product development through an annual conference and monthly events in ten cities across the United States.
Stephen holds a BA from U.C. Berkeley, a Master’s from Johns Hopkins-SAIS, and a PhD from the University of Maryland, where he analyzed the dynamics of behavioral change over time. He has two wonderful kids, who don’t care about behavioral science at all.
Stephen has authored three books on applied behavioral science: Designing for Behavior Change (November 2013), Improving Employee Benefits (September 2014), and Spiritual Design (September 2019). Outside of work, he is also the Founder and Chair of the non-profit Action Design Network, which helps over 10,000 practitioners apply behavioral research to product development through an annual conference and monthly events in ten cities across the United States.
Stephen holds a BA from U.C. Berkeley, a Master’s from Johns Hopkins-SAIS, and a PhD from the University of Maryland, where he analyzed the dynamics of behavioral change over time. He has two wonderful kids, who don’t care about behavioral science at all.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 27, 2019
Spiritual Design is a book for anyone who has experienced a gap between what they mostly deeply want to do, and what they actually do. It's a book for limited, forgetful, often-confused humans who - in spite of all our limitations - feel called to a deeper way of life. This book is a starting place for those of us who want to create the circumstances where faithfulness can occur.
This book should properly be subtitled: "An Introduction." Wendel provides the reader with an abundance of useful information about how we can encourage mindfulness, deeper contemplation, and faithful living. Yet one gets the sense that he could easily write several additional volumes, focusing in on specific strategies for mindful and faithful living.
This is a book that in many ways defies categories. It is not an academic work, yet it is steeped in the latest in behavioral science. It is a book that is deeply religious in its intention, yet which shies away from sectarian pronouncements. It is a book that is light on sentimentality and heavy on practical application.
In the course of the book, Wendel teaches us about how the human mind makes extensive use of shortcuts, and how we can take advantage of those shortcuts to develop and enhance our spiritual practice. He teaches us the EAST principle - that actions that are Easy, Attention-getting, Social, and Timely are more likely to happen - and applies this principle to establishing the habits we want to live out (and avoiding the ones we want to leave behind). Wendel also examines the downsides of habits - how even the good habits we develop can become rote and empty.
I particularly appreciate the way that Wendel draws on his own experience as a Quaker, and a committed participant in a Lutheran congregation. He speaks convincingly of his own spiritual journey, and brings the reader along as we discover together how we can use the insights of behavioral science to commit ourselves more fully to the spiritual core of our lives. He speaks poignantly of the spiritual "hunger" that drives our seeking after God's presence - the "something more" - in a way that most of us - including the non-religious - can identify with.
As Wendel points out towards the end of Spiritual Design - this book is unique in the way it engages with the behavioral science of spirituality. I hope that other behavioral scientists and religious practitioners will find encouragement to continue down the trail that Wendel is blazing here. If we are fortunate, we may be witnessing the birth of a new discipline that will benefit the development of both human spirituality and behavioral science.
This book should properly be subtitled: "An Introduction." Wendel provides the reader with an abundance of useful information about how we can encourage mindfulness, deeper contemplation, and faithful living. Yet one gets the sense that he could easily write several additional volumes, focusing in on specific strategies for mindful and faithful living.
This is a book that in many ways defies categories. It is not an academic work, yet it is steeped in the latest in behavioral science. It is a book that is deeply religious in its intention, yet which shies away from sectarian pronouncements. It is a book that is light on sentimentality and heavy on practical application.
In the course of the book, Wendel teaches us about how the human mind makes extensive use of shortcuts, and how we can take advantage of those shortcuts to develop and enhance our spiritual practice. He teaches us the EAST principle - that actions that are Easy, Attention-getting, Social, and Timely are more likely to happen - and applies this principle to establishing the habits we want to live out (and avoiding the ones we want to leave behind). Wendel also examines the downsides of habits - how even the good habits we develop can become rote and empty.
I particularly appreciate the way that Wendel draws on his own experience as a Quaker, and a committed participant in a Lutheran congregation. He speaks convincingly of his own spiritual journey, and brings the reader along as we discover together how we can use the insights of behavioral science to commit ourselves more fully to the spiritual core of our lives. He speaks poignantly of the spiritual "hunger" that drives our seeking after God's presence - the "something more" - in a way that most of us - including the non-religious - can identify with.
As Wendel points out towards the end of Spiritual Design - this book is unique in the way it engages with the behavioral science of spirituality. I hope that other behavioral scientists and religious practitioners will find encouragement to continue down the trail that Wendel is blazing here. If we are fortunate, we may be witnessing the birth of a new discipline that will benefit the development of both human spirituality and behavioral science.
Displaying 1 of 1 review