Create a Soothing Spiritual Practice

To many people spirituality usually has religious meaning, however, spirituality has a broader meaning outside of religion for many other people. Spirituality can be hard to define as it is primarily a personal experience. For many people, spirituality is a connection to their emotions as well as a higher purpose that includes other people and a purpose to life outside of themselves.

Spirituality can mean a connection to people, animals, nature, and experiences that elevate our consciousness and emotions. Spirituality is always personal because it refers to what sparks your internal meter for purpose, intention, love, and meaningfulness.

When you define what spirituality means to you, you can then define your spiritual practice. Essentially, spiritual practice is the steps you take and the activities that you enjoy that spark your spiritual connection to yourself, other people, and the world around you.

While spirituality can be a spontaneous experience, we can also undertake purposeful activities that develop and encourage spirituality in our lives. When we create a spiritual practice, we actively seek to stay connected to spiritual matters in our life.

Examples of spiritual practice might include:

• Meditation
• Walking in nature
• Mindfulness

Your spiritual practice goes beyond emotional development. A spiritual practice embraces all aspects of yourself including your emotions and helps you work towards connecting to all nurturing aspects of being human.

Spiritual practice will always contain what is most relevant and meaningful to you. For a spiritual practice to be effective, it must relate to your specific values, beliefs, and experiences. For some, this may involve prayer, and for others, it may involve quiet contemplation on a word or series of purposeful thoughts.

Below are some of the common elements that people use to develop their spiritual practice.

• Prayer
• Meditation, including walking meditation
• Yoga stretch
• Gratitude journal
• Affirmations
• Learning about spirituality in books, video, audio
• Join a spiritual community
• Walking in nature
• Singing in a choir
• Volunteering at an animal shelter
• Spending time with an elderly family member
• Practicing self-development on forgiveness, kindness, self-compassion, empathy, acceptance
• Explore your beliefs and values through personal development
• Engage in creating or view art and other creative outlets
• Engage in mindfulness
• Engage in laughter and joyful activities

If you haven’t connected with spirituality before, some of these activities may be new to you and therefore you may feel like you don’t have enough experience to draw on to create your spiritual practice. This is ok and is only a reflection of your journey to date. It’s also a reflection of how you can choose to create your spiritual journey into the future.

If you haven’t had exposure to some of the practices listed above, seek out some groups or community organized events that may give you an introduction to a specific spiritual practice activity. Your local community center may hold free meditation sessions. You might want to join a local nature walking group or seek out different events such as pub choir.

Exploring a spiritual practice can encourage an open-minded approach to new experiences and different perspectives.

Your spiritual practice can be enhanced by your surroundings. If you are surrounded by inspiration, motivation, safety, and comfort, then these feelings will transfer to the quality of your spiritual practice. If your space is disrupted and surrounded by chaos, this can impact your ability to seek a calm and intentional mindset to carry out your spiritual practice activities.

Your space will depend on what is available to you in your home. The space should ideally be a place where you can store a few meaningful items that will help support your spiritual goals.

Some common components found in a spiritual practice space include:

• A journal to write in
• Crystals, gems, beads
• Essential oils, candles, incense
• Books, affirmation journals
• Fresh flowers or natural elements
• Chair or soft pillows to sit on

If you are unable to create a separate space in your home, you may want to consider creating a space outside of your home. This may be at another location or it may involve finding a space in nature where you regularly walk. Examples might include a bench at a public park or a quiet spot on your local beach. When limitations exist in your environment, this is a time to be creating about finding an alternative solution to help foster your spiritual practice.