What are you seeking? Are you seeking a deeper sense of purpose or meaning? Are you searching for a feeling like inner peace or happiness? Going on a spiritual journey or undergoing a spiritual awakening can take you there.
What is Spirituality?
Spirituality is a path or vehicle that moves you from one level of awareness and understanding to another. The new understanding you discover depends on what you’re seeking. Whether you want a deeper connection with the Divine, or simply more peace in your life, a spiritual journey starts with taking stock of where you are now.
Unlike religion, spirituality doesn’t subscribe to the notion of one (or more) God, rather a Source or Divine energy which can be interpreted by each person differently. To practice spirituality, you don’t have to be religious, you just need to be committed to living a spiritual life, whatever that may mean for you as an individual. You may adopt all or some aspects of spirituality into your life but the concept always remains the same: whatever part you choose to include, it will always involve you connecting with who you are on the deepest and most profound of levels.
Why Practice Spirituality?
Spirituality can offer many people great comfort in their lives in a myriad of different ways. From offering a way to see the world and understanding your purpose in it, to improving mental health, the reality of those who see the spiritual side of the universe is generally a positive one.
Spirituality offers a way for those who choose to walk the spiritual path to reach a level of wisdom and consciousness of themselves and the world, which helps them tune into what their soul really wants.
Understanding yourself and your soul on this deep level allows you to take the steps that are right for you as you walk through life. It can help you choose work that’s in alignment with who you are. It can act as a powerful healing tool for your mind and body. And it can help you accept and embrace all of your emotions, which allows you to respond to all situations from a place of love rather than fear.”
There’s no right or wrong way to practice spirituality but many people who do, enjoy meditation, yoga and other such exercises which settle the mind and allow the participant to connect with their soul, self, and spirit.
How To Commence A Spiritual Journey
There are 3 stages of any spiritual journey or awakening, and they are: Awareness, Transformation, and Mastery.
The first stage of any spiritual journey is Awareness. Becoming aware of your feelings, thoughts and beliefs, and bringing them into your consciousness is so important! Your beliefs and thoughts create how you feel about your life. Many of your beliefs were given to you in childhood, and you had no choice but to accept them. These beliefs may not really resonate with you, and they may not serve you in your adult life now. The only way to let them go or change them is to first become aware that they exist.
You may have beliefs you take for granted. The first step of your spiritual awakening is figuring out what you truly believe, as well as how you really feel. So many of us are taught to repress our emotions. Because of this repression, we don’t really know what we feel.
Spiritual Journey Step One: Connect With Your Consciousness
Create a daily practice to sit in a quiet place and scan your body for feelings. How do you feel? Can you sense anxiety, fear, irritation or sadness within? What’s moving in you? Don’t be tempted to skip this step. It may be uncomfortable at first, but bringing your internal emotions into your consciousness is crucial. Your emotions are a gift that helps to guide you. What you’re doing in this practice is opening to door to feelings that may have been shoved aside.
Once you become aware of what you’re really feeling, it’s time to figure out what you believe. Make a list of categories in your life, such as love, money, sex, marriage, family, responsibility, etc. For each category, write your beliefs.
To help, take your first category (let’s say it’s money) and write, “Money is: ______________.” And then fill in the blank. Do that for each topic or category on your list. Find out what you believe. Get it down on paper.
What you’re doing is making an inventory of where you are right now — what you feel, and what you believe. This gives you a starting point on your journey.
Have fun with this! Imagine that you’re an archaeologist uncovering treasures that were buried under the surface of your awareness, and you’re chipping away at the earth that holds your secrets. Make it your job to love and accept everything that you discover. Bring acceptance and love to the feelings you find swirling around inside you. Have compassion for those feelings, especially if they are feelings you wish you didn’t have. Welcome everything you find.
From this simple practice of scanning your body for feelings and uncovering what beliefs were given to you about life, you begin to move into Stage 2 of your journey, which is Transformation.
Stay tuned for next week’s video, How to Progress Your Spiritual Journey (Intermediate Guide).
I hope you found this video helpful. Please leave a comment or share with someone you know who might benefit from watching.
