Cultivating Spirituality
A spiritual perspective helps me to make sense, or at least be more accepting, of the objective world. It helps me to nurture an inner core, which serves as my compass for navigating through life. When I get away from my spiritual practices for too long, it becomes harder to cope with the demands on me. I lay awake at night repeating the same thoughts. My day becomes more mechanistic. I am distracted in the evening, rather than enjoying my family. I need to cultivate spirituality to connect with life and get joy from the simple things in life. And it does not take money, a good job, or a Ph.D. to get that joy. It does require surrender.
So what is spirituality? We use the term spiritual in so many contexts, such as cosmogenesis, anthropomorphic genesis, religion, wisdom, life practices, nonmaterial aspects of a lifeform, morphic fields, and more. I am talking about spirituality as an experience of recognizing, accessing and engaging an inner subjective part of your being so as to achieve a more optimal state of wellbeing.
Cultivating spirituality is a process of looking beyond the material, objective reality and letting go of rational, mechanistic thought. This entails an element of surrender and often engenders a sense of vulnerability. In looking beyond and letting go, we may receive inspiration, see a subjective inner world, or find subjective meaning from an objective outer world event or form. This is not escapism, nor is it fantasy. It is seeing from a more expansive perspective, feeling with naïve innocence, and being connected to clarity and knowingness.
Eastern religions teach physical and mental disciplines for cultivating spirituality. Examples include meditation, asana yoga (physical postures), bhakti yoga (devotional practices), and buddhist dharma (life practices/values/wisdom). These practices help us to connect with our body and slow down recurring thoughts. The judeochristian religions also teach practices for cultivating spirituality, such as prayer, contemplation (including introspection and reflection), brotherhood (community), and sacrifice. These practices help us to connect with our inner core and embrace a reality greater than ourself.
Practice some of these exercises: (1) Pause and take in the world around you, noticing how sights, people and events make you feel. (2) Pay attention to the inspirations that come to you in quiet moments. (3) Look for the cycles and patterns of events and outcomes in your life. (4) Pay attention to whatever task you undertake and to what your inner voice says and feels. (5) Seek out moments and places where you can embrace your vulnerability and surrender to your inner self.
Steven Koda, ND
