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How and Why to Pick a Spiritual Practice

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Sophie Rose | CATEGORIES: philosophy, relationships, self improvement

In this age of technology and materialism, when many wonder what tomorrow will bring, the resurgence of spirituality is a normal phenomenon. For centuries, people have turned to religions or other belief systems for support and understanding. Yet it never resulted in a better world on a global level. An improved personal life perhaps, but not a better planet. So one can wonder why, after centuries of religious or spiritual teachings on love, forgiveness, presence or service, the world situation has not improved spiritually; why acts of sharing and forgiveness are the exception, not the norm. We can guess that the big majority of people weren’t ready for these teachings, that the failure to bring peace, love or the end of suffering on earth is the failure of humanity.

After all, the spiritual realm did its job, didn’t it? So why are people not listening?

The answer lies in each one of us. Our perception of the world is a very personal thing, it involves our mind and the infinite interpretations it can make about our experiences. This is how most of us lead our lives: We base our actions on what our minds are telling us. Yet many spiritual teachings tell us to go the other way: love, meditate, watch your mind, forgive, practice compassion, open your heart. The discrepancy between the teachings and what we do with them is as wide as the gap between faith and belief. Faith is the mysterious spiritual touch which brings a sacred dimension to our life. Faith doesn’t abide by rules. Unlike belief, it has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with following one’s heart. Faith is our personal affair with our spiritual Self. Are we in a relationship with our soul or are we cut off from it?

We can tell by the quality of our life: A person who has faith acts from a place of trust and inner knowledge. A person who doesn’t have faith acts from the mind, this person doesn’t trust life and often second-guesses himself.

Faith is this indescribable feeling of knowing what’s right for oneself and acting on it. That’s what soul work is about: the inner knowledge of what one has to learn and do in this lifetime. Every soul has its purpose, every heart its calling. The work required to discover it is a spiritual journey some feel drawn to take. As you embark on this path, the real adventure begins, a new perspective slowly arises, old attachments vanish to leave room for new experiences. Your outlook on life shifts to incorporate spiritual realities and your inner transformation is mirrored in the outer world.

Every spiritual journey leads to a better understanding of your place in the world. Spiritual practice helps you connect with your Self, which is a drop in the sea of consciousness. As you connect with consciousness, you slowly learn that there is an intelligent design underlying your life, and that the spiritual realm contains all you need to know. So why not pick up a spiritual practice?

How do we define spiritual practice? A spiritual practice is the very simple act of getting in touch with your Self. Not with your mind, your feelings or your body, but with this sense of presence or being behind them. How to go about it is a matter of personal preference. A few things should guide your choice: Religion or tradition do not matter, except to your heart, so it is very important to follow your intuition, not your mind (or another’s). Practice will make all the difference:  Spirituality is an experience, not an intellectual pastime. Discouragement is common, the best way to deal with it is not to expect anything from your practice. Flowers only bloom in the right season, provided they were well taken care of.

Your spiritual practice also will bloom in the right season.

Sophie Rose is the author of The Way of The heart, Teachings of Jeshua and Mary Magdalene. She is a contributing author of The Sacred Shift, Co-Creating your Future.  Sophie is not aligned with any particular religion or tradition and has always favored a direct experience of spirituality.   She can be contacted through www.thewayoftheheartcourse.com, facebook or Twitter

Photo courtesy of: Travel Photo Pictures

  • http://www.mlquotes.com ML Quotes

    The only practice that I have is that I sit down, and do nothing, for at least 5 minutes.  During my practice, I really expect anything, like you said, and I think it’s the key…to stop stressing our mind, once in a while.
    Loved your words, thanks

    • http://www.thewayoftheheartcourse.com/ Sophie Rose

      That’s a great practice. I was doing that a few years back and noticed how beneficial it was for the rest of my day- adding more peace and presence – so I began to sit in silence for longer periods of time..

    • http://www.thewayoftheheartcourse.com/ Sophie Rose

      That’s a great practice. I was doing that a few years back and noticed how beneficial it was for the rest of my day- adding more peace and presence – so I began to sit in silence for longer periods of time..

  • http://pristineperception.com/ Suzanne

    Following your heart and intuition. That’s my belief 100%. Insightful post.
    Thanks

    • http://www.thewayoftheheartcourse.com/ Sophie Rose

      Glad you liked the post,  Suzanne! The best advice are often the simplest…

  • http://www.essaywriter.co.uk/personal-statement-help.aspx Kayla

    The other kind of spiritual practice is that which we choose specifically for the purpose of finding our way to deeper spiritual ground.

  • http://www.essaywriter.co.uk/personal-statement-help.aspx Personal Statement Sample

    The other kind of spiritual practice is that which we choose
    specifically for the purpose of finding our way to deeper spiritual
    ground. 

    • http://www.thewayoftheheartcourse.com/ Sophie Rose

      Thanks for your comment, Kayla! There are so many great spiritual teachings out there, it’s easy to pick one that appeals to your heart!

  • http://thebooksthatchangedmylife.com/ Marc Van Der Linden

    Development thinking with your heart instead of your mind is in my experience  the most powerful and meaningful way of living your life. 

    • http://www.thewayoftheheartcourse.com/ Sophie Rose

      I fully agree on that, Marc! By listening to our heart, we listen to what our higher self is trying to show us. That’s actually a very ancient practice, the Egyptians for example considered that the heart was the center of intelligence.
      What our mind tells us is strongly influenced by our upbringing/society standards/people…and often very fleeting. We create our reality, thought after thought, but where do they come from?  Our heart, when we learn how to listen to it, is more constant and wiser. Mind should be an instrument at the service of heart.

  • http://www.facebook.com/marita.steffe Marita Steffe

    Thanks for posting this article, my life has totally changed and I am much happier as a human being, now that I have a spiritual practice. It has changed my life, it is so easy to do and so hard to start, but so worth it, it has given the meaning in my life that I needed

    • http://www.thewayoftheheartcourse.com/ Sophie Rose

      Beautiful Marita and so true! I think it changes your life and makes you happier because you reconnect on a regular basis with an important partner: your spiritual self.

  • http://bandsaw1.com/ Drmartin1981

    i ve been on a spiritual program for 10 years now, since i was 2o y/old and my life is now beyond my wildest dreams, :-) , great post!

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  • http://slasherpastor.wordpress.com/ Steve

    Sophie, thanks for the post. I come from a tradition that advocates belief (as you have defined above) so I do not find complete agreement with your ideas. I do appreciate your desire to connect with the spiritual realm. I interacted with this a bit on my own blog and since I pose some questions there, I figured it would be fair to pose those questions here – with the goal of better understand what you are advocating.

    1) How does this kind of spiritual question connect to large scale societal changes?
    2) By what standard would we determine whether what our Self is telling us to do is right, good, fair, just, etc. apart from the mind?
    3) Much of what we call “belief” comes from individuals seeking spiritual renewal. Wouldn’t it benefit us to benefit from others spiritual insights (and thus not throw out religion and belief) in our spiritual practices?
    4) You advocate a certain blend of morality: love, compassion, forgiveness, meditation. These are categories of thought, tradition, religion, and culture (just by the fact that they are language!) How are we to gain an understanding of these apart from a system of belief? How can they be understand, in any meaningful sense, except through the mind?

    Thanks, Steve

    • http://www.amazon.com/Way-Heart-Teachings-Jeshua-Magdalene/dp/1466314036/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320774418&sr=8-1 Sophierose

      Hi Steve,

       I appreciate the discussion, thanks for picking my brain! 
      Before I try to answer your questions, I’d like to mention that there at least 2 ways to approach spirituality or religion: one is through the study of the beliefs or the scriptures of a certain tradition, another one is through spiritual practice or direct experience.This one is more common in eastern religions or mystical traditions. I think you might relate more to the former, while I relate more to the latter. So my answers below come from my personal spiritual experience.

      1) If I understand you well, you’re asking how spirituality relates to large scale societal changes. There are probably many answers. Society is the sum of the individuals composing it. Individuals make the culture, the trends, the values of the society they belong to. The more we develop a connection to our spiritual self, the more we bring love, compassion, purpose…etc to our lives, therefore reflecting these values in society. I also believe that everyone comes to this earth with a higher purpose and soul contracts that are deeply interconnected with others. While the texts cannot give us information on those, spiritual practice can by helping us access our guidance. Large societal changes are always born in the head of a few.

      2) If you step back for a moment and look at your mind, you’ll probably notice how fleeting and inconsistent it often is. Our minds spend their time trying to make sense of everything so that our egos feel secure, or they build a case against the last person who hurt our feelings. They are beautiful tools when properly used but to make them the decision makers over our higher selves is like letting our egos rule over higher intelligence/God/ source -or whatever name you want to give it. So I’d say the best way to determine whether what our self is telling us to do is right  is experience. Our self is what’s behind our incarnation, it knows a whole lot more than our minds. Once we access it, fully trust it (faith) and go with it, my experience is that the self is always right.

      3) I agree with you, Steve. I benefit from other’s spiritual insights and find interesting ideas in every path. Ultimately though, “The best church or temple is our own inner self”, or ” The kingdom of God is within you”, that’s “the Buddha nature of all things”. The true quest is an inner one.

      4) Using the mind is only one way to understand love, compassion or forgiveness. We can also experience these, more powerfully and meaningfully, through the heart.

      You can also check my other article on this site:

      http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/life-is-what-happens-to-you-while-youre-busy-making-other-plans/#more-11464

      What’s your blog, Steve?

      • http://slasherpastor.wordpress.com/ Steve

        Sophie,

        Thanks for the response and for the clarification and for
        correctly understanding my questions despite the typos.

        After reading your response I think our most fundamental differences
        come down to our view of human nature, and probably human origin as well (if I
        understand your usage of the word “incarnation.”)

        If I understand you correctly we have a higher Self
        (spiritual Self) which has a greater understanding of our higher purpose in the
        world. Living by faith means trusting this higher self which also serves to
        help our minds make sense of the world. The mind is best used in service to the
        Self. Does that sound right (or at least close)?

        My view of the self differs (probably more Western, I
        admit). I agree that we are both spiritual and physical beings but that the two
        are highly integrated and difficult to disentangle. Therefore, any spiritual practice
        has to engage both the mind and the spirit at the same time as an integrated
        whole. Also, I don’t view one as higher than the other. Both are created from
        the same source (God), both have turned to rebellion, so both are inherently
        disordered (not just the mind), however, both can be renewed (by God).

        Because our problem is not just a disordered and confused
        mind, but a disordered and confused spirit (in my worldview) we need to look
        outside ourselves for guidance. Spiritual practices in my tradition are
        designed to primarily look upward toward our Creator.

        You also indicated that the texts cannot give us information
        on our individual higher purpose. I think this is partially true. If the texts
        (I am assuming you are referring here to sacred texts, i.e., the Bible) then
        that would certainly be the case. If, however, they are the revelation of God,
        as my tradition says about the Bible, and if our primary spiritual task is to
        look toward God for guidance, then it will speak authoritatively about our
        higher purpose as humans in general.

        This brings me back around to the question of how we judge
        what our “selves” are telling us. You speak primarily of experience. I would
        argue that we can judge our own thoughts, ideas, intuition, heart through a
        variety of sources – tradition (what others have said), reason, revelation (the
        Bible), and personal experience. It’s still important to look inward, toward
        the spiritual self, and to consider our intuition because we are created in the
        image of God, but this introspection is constantly being formed through the
        other sources of knowledge.

        More could be said about the implications above for how
        spiritual practices can affect large scale societal changes but I’m running low
        on time. For a partial explanation of this see my post “the problem of
        reductionist ethics” at my blog slasherpastor.wordpress.com.

    • Hunt Henion

      Dear Steve,
      Sophie answers your questions below, but I’d just like to summarize my understanding of “beliefs,” which seems key to your issues with the article. 

      Beliefs come in all flavors — from every cultural background and originate from many different depths.  Many beliefs are just assumed for political expediency.  We’re told what we’re supposed to believe and are given incentive to accept that belief.  That contributes to social order and inner harmony — until it leads to clashes with people of different beliefs. 

      At those times, it’s important to examine the source and commitment behind our beliefs.  Your last question is the really big one: “How can we understand [Anything] except through the mind.”

      It seems to me that our human mind is great for organizing beliefs and for giving us easy access to them, but it’s not really a complete tool for accessing the validity of them.  Accessing truth is a personal matter between the individual and God.

      Sophie describes the place of this connection between human and God as the   “heart.”  Others describe it as “soul.”  Either way, this special place has it’s own “mind,” which is entirely distinct from the mind in our heads.  

      I think a good guidepost to as to which mind we’re using when we think through our beliefs and actions is to ask ourselves is the belief includes everyone in the love of God, or if it is a belief that excludes people from God’s “chosen ones” who are deserving of our compassion.   

      When we go to the “kingdom of God within”  (the heart), all are included as children of God and deserving of our care and concern.  Once that foundational belief is firmly established, all our other beliefs are mere details that we can trust to our mind to unravel in a humane way.