A wise spiritual teacher once said that you don’t actually spiritualize your life, you spiritualize yourself. Therefore, the quick answer to the question this blog poses is, you bring more spirituality into your life by becoming more spiritual yourself.
But what does that even look like?
Let’s Define Spirituality
Oxford Languages dictionary tells us that spirituality is: the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.
That pretty well sums it up. Of course, we might also want to ponder what human spirit or soul means. Basically, it is the non physical part of ourselves.
Not everyone has a sense of that part. Hence, they are not interested in spirituality.
But for many, including me, I have always had a sense that there was more to life and more to me than the physical world. What about you? What brought you to read a blog about bringing more spirituality into your life?
How I became spiritual as a kid!
It started for me when I was a child playing a lot of sports. I always felt as if something greater than myself was moving me, telling me where to go on the field, pushing me without thought to be the fastest runner in the race.
Technically, I wouldn’t call that spiritual. But it was the first idea I had that there was more to me and life than what meets the eye.
During those athletic years, I broke my wrist high-jumping. It was a terrible break and I had to have surgery to repair it. But, not at the time I broke it! I don’t know why, but they booked the operating room for 8pm that night. I broke my wrist at noon.
The pain was unbearable!
They sent us home with my arm wrapped around a resting kind of contraption. The pain was unbelievable. In fact, it was unbearable. And I couldn’t take anything for it.
I went upstairs to lay on my bed. While I was resting, and literally moaning, I heard a very calm, authoritative voice inside me, kind of my voice but way more confident. This voice said:
Stop fighting. Go into the pain.
And so I did. I used my will to think myself right into that pain. I let it hurt to the point of agony and then all of a sudden, it was like something washed all over me, rather like a wave starting from the pain and rolling throughout by body.
Magically, I was at peace.
Now, I could feel the pain, but it didn’t hurt anymore. I wasn’t suffering. I was, I think, lying in my first state of deep meditation.
I never forgot that experience at 10 years old. And by the time I was 16, I was reading about yoga, watching the Beatles sit with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and trying my hand at sitting in silent meditation.
I have been a meditator for over 50 years now. Wish I could tell you that I was enlightened. But, alas, I am not.
I am however, spiritual.
How to Bring Spirituality Into Your Daily Life
1 – Daily Meditation:
Yes, you guessed it. Let’s start where it all started. There are many types of meditation. If you have been thinking about starting a meditation practise, there are many paths. I’ve tried most. There is Zen, Mindfulness, Yoga, Guided, Mantra, etc. I would suggest you read about them, try them and find out for yourself which one suits you.
I found Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) over 30 years ago. And that is where I have stayed. But during a time when I had lost my practise, I turned to an app called Headspace. That was just so good. It got me back to a consistent habit and I was able, after about two years, to get back into my SRF practises.
I think most spiritual seekers will tell you that consistent meditation is key to bringing more spirituality into your life.
And why is that?
Because the core purpose of meditation is to train your mind away from the pull and mesmerism of the physical world so that you can get a glimpse of Spirit, what lies beyond. Yes, meditation is ultimately mystical even when it’s practical.
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2 – Daily Spiritual Reading:
Oh my, there is no greater pleasure than to read the great Truths of life from the pen or soul of a spiritual master. We have some living now who are writing beautiful books. We have an amazing library from those who have passed. And of course, there are the great ancient texts that are still relevant today.
You don’t have to be religious at all to be uplifted and inspired by the teachings in the Judeo Christian Bible, the Bagadva gita, The Tao te Ching. Today we have Pema Chodran, Eckhart Tolle and my favourite, Michael A. Singer. His book, The Untethered Soul has been my constant companion for years.
I meditate and read, every morning.
And I do that, not just because I feel so much better all day, but because it reminds me to keep my mind focused on the invisible, on spirit all day. We all get drawn into the material world with the force of a hurricane. It takes some effort to step back from all that.
Reading each day just helps to remind me that there is something beyond the physical and hopefully, that stays with me all day.
3 – Journaling:
One of the key aspects of bringing more spirituality into your life is being aware of when you are not…aware. Raising your awareness to where it is more like Meta awareness, being aware that you are aware is not all that easy.
Journaling can really help with that. Particularly when you write with paper and pen! (Oh the horror!!!)
There is something about pen, paper and the brain that just works differently than a keyboard.
I know many people wonder what to journal about. Start by doing what Julia Cameron calls Morning Pages. It’s automatic writing. You put the pen to the paper and don’t lift it up until you’ve filled three pages.
Basically, you are writing what you are hearing in your head.
And that is the point. That is meta awareness. You are becoming more and more aware of the voice, the cacophony of noise that is going on in the background of your mind all day and likely night.
Just the act of awareness changes it. Don’t ask me how. Well, you can ask me how and I could try to explain the physics of how consciousness affects matter, but I really don’t know anything about it except to agree with the idea.
Writing down what the voice in your head is saying will help you to learn not to get caught in it.
Soon, you’ll see that it doesn’t have much importance to add to your life, or that it is full of melodrama, or that it’s a little boring. Doesn’t matter really. You are bringing more spirituality into your life by practising listening and not reacting to all those thoughts.
Daily meditation, daily spiritual reading and journaling are three powerful ways to bring more spirituality into your daily life.
Life Coaching and Spirituality
And speaking of thinking, are you wondering how come a Life Coach is writing about Spirituality? My spiritual practise is really the most important aspect of my ability to be a good coach. In particular, it has taught me how to be calm within and to listen with all my heart. Coaching for me is a lot like meditating. And with that inner stillness, I am able to “hear” the things necessary to help my clients find their way to the success and fulfillment they are after.
It’s also key to my developing compassion and love for people including my clients. It has deepened me to where all I want is for my clients to be happy and to be free of suffering.
That’s it.
I have loved talking to you. Would love to hear from you too. Please, tell me what you think, what you do for spiritual practise and what is on your mind. I promise, I read all the comments.
Peace & Love to you
Lisa
