The value of having a spiritual practice or two

      

      I’m currently in the middle of a six month house sit for a friend of mine. For years I’ve lived without cable TV and done the streaming thing. The house I’m taking care of has Direct TV. For a couple months I watched a lot of TV because it was there and got a good reminder of just how addictive that form of space out and shut down can be.

    For the past month or so I’ve been turning the TV off by 7pm or not turning it on at all and writing or reading instead. The difference in how I feel reminded me again how important regular spiritual practice is.

    I have friends who meditate, do yoga, teach yoga, dance and practice mindfulness. Spiritual practice comes in a myriad of forms but the aim of all these practices is very similar. Spiritual practices connect us to our inner world and to Self. That’s big self, not the little personality self. Ultimately spiritual practice is about authenticity. It’s about learning to come from a more inward centered place in our daily lives.

     For me that’s about walking my talk. When I’m in authenticity I am congruent with myself. How I feel, what I say and what I do match. When I’m not congruent I can feel “no” or “maybe”, say “yes” and then procrastinate because I don’t really want to show up for what I said I’d do. I don’t like how I feel in my own skin when I find myself doing that.

    Authenticity is a process. Being completely congruent with me all the time is an ideal. I’m a work in progress. I don’t hit it all the time. I may never be able to do that but staying in the process of getting there is important to me. Having regular spiritual practices is a vital part of that journey to authenticity.

     Finding a spiritual practice that fits for you can be a bit like a treasure hunt. In my early twenties I learned a couple different forms of meditation. I learned, not because I was really drawn to meditation but because I had friends who meditated. It seemed to work for them so I decided I should go learn to meditate.

     After learning a couple different forms of meditation I learned something infinitely more important….meditation doesn’t work for me as a practice. I dreaded doing it. I came up with all kinds of excuses for not doing it. When I did meditate I spent most of my time wondering if I was doing it right. Nothing about meditation resonated with me deeply enough to push through those internal obstacles. (I had a similar experience with yoga. Just not my thing.)

     My experience with mediation gave me some vital info about my assumptions around spiritual practice and about what I needed in a practice. I’d looked at a spiritual practice as some defined thing that had a name, a lineage and could be given to me by someone else. While there are spiritual practices that fit that definition, a lot of them don’t.

     Spiritual practices that are heavily structured and rule based don’t work for me. I’m not oriented that way as a person. For me sitting cross legged every day for 20 minutes at 7am with my hands in a specific position facilitated rebellion and monkey mind, not connection.  I needed to find practices that were more open and fluid. For some people the structure provides a framework for connection. I’m just not wired that way.

   The most important thing I learned from my mediation experiment was that I needed to find something that resonated with me rather than trying to fit myself into a practice that worked for others. While that may seem obvious, looking for someone to teach me to meditate was looking outside myself for a practice rather than going in first to see when I felt connected. I began paying attention to when I felt the most connected, present in the moment and at home in my skin.

         I felt that when I drew, wrote or took a walk outside in nature. So those things became my first spiritual practices. That led me to discovering other places where I felt connected. I also checked out a whole lot of things that I was curious about or felt drawn to. Some fit, some didn’t. Some fit for a while and then didn’t so I moved on to something else.

     I’m pretty eclectic and so are my spiritual practices. When I engage in a practice, I want to do it consciously so having a number of them to choose from works for me. If I try to repeat the same thing every day, it’s easy to slip into functioning on autopilot. I pay attention better when I mix things up. Having multiple practices also lets me go with what feels right in the moment. Some days it’s 5 Rhythms dancing and a gratitude list. Other days I might draw and go to a sweat lodge.

      When I’m really present in a spiritual practice, I step away from the mundane bits of daily life. I leave the “do” list, email, phone and give the practice all my attention. Over time, as I continue to engage in connection to the deeper parts of me and the interrelationship between me and the Universe, that connection grows stronger. It's easier to come back to that centered place in daily life, even when the proverbial crap hits the fan.  When I do get knocked off center, I know how to return to that place.

     In addition to those benefits, the allopathic medical community has begun to recognize the physical health benefits of spiritual practice. An article on spirituality from the University of Maryland Medical Center states:

      Spiritual practices tend to improve coping skills and social support, foster feelings of optimism and hope, promote healthy behavior, reduce feelings of depression and anxiety, and encourage a sense of relaxation. By alleviating stressful feelings and promoting healing ones, spirituality can positively influence immune, cardiovascular (heart and blood vessels), hormonal, and nervous systems.

      Stepping away from the busyness of daily life to engage in spiritual practice opened me to finding practices I can incorporate into my day-to-day routines: gratitude, saying “thank you”, mindfulness, stopping to be fully present with others rather than multi-tasking and giving them only half my attention. Bringing those practices into the day-to-day bridges the illusory gap between the secular and the sacred. That is another step toward authenticity.