Before I committed to a non-negotiable daily spiritual practice, I always noticed that when life got awesome, my spiritual practice was often the first thing to slide.
When shit hit the fan, I went crawling back to my spiritual practice with my tail between my legs.
You know the drill, you’ve been showing up, doing the work and things are starting to feel great! Meanwhile, life gets hectic, and because you’re already feeling amazing from all the great work you’ve been doing, your spiritual practice is often the first to go.
I replayed this scenario in my life time and time again until one day I finally decided that I didn’t want to have to start over again—ever. Here are my suggestions for seven tried and tested ways to incorporate a consistent spiritual practice into your life.
1. Meditate.
Meditation is when we listen. You can read all the spiritual books out there, but until you actually take the initiative to quiet your mind, it can be near impossible to hear your intuition and connect to your heart center.
To start, try committing to just five minutes a day where you sit down, focus on your breathing, and ask the universe “What do I need to know right now?” If you struggle to maintain a consistent meditation practice, why not get started with the free 30 Day Meditation Challenge today. The guided practices will help you find focus, even when you’re feeling frazzled.
Meditation is NOT about not having thoughts! You will always have thoughts. So during meditation, observe your thoughts but try not to engage with them—just let them pass on through.
Don’t worry about completely removing thoughts from your mind, as this will create tension and act as a distraction than a benefit.
2. Pray.
Prayer is when we ask for help. This is a beautiful and powerful way to call on your own inner wisdom. Meditation is when we listen, and prayer is when we ask for help or affirm. Both go hand in hand.
The beautiful thing about prayer is that you can pray whenever, wherever. Pray on the way to work, at your desk before a big meeting, or on an airplane before you take off—literally any time.
Here are some simple and powerful prayers you can say any time:
- “I need a miracle.”
- “Thank you for helping me perceive this situation differently.”
- “May love light my way today.”
- “Thank you for helping me see the sparkle of light that resides within all things.”
- “I pray for guidance in shifting my thoughts.”
3. Develop a gratitude practice.
No matter how amazing life is, we all have those days when things just don’t seem to be unfolding in the way we wish them to, when things come up that we need to work on, and we are more sensitive and just feel “off.”
By ending the day with thoughts of things you are grateful for, your perspective begins to shift and you realize that each day really is wonderful and full of gifts—all we have to do is take the time to appreciate them and open space up for so many more wonderful things to enter our lives.
4. Journal your heart out.
How many times have you read a spiritual book, and just skimmed over the exercises, promising yourself you’d come back to them later? Did you ever go back to them? If you are really ready to go deep—DO. THE. EXERCISES.
They are there to help you unleash your inner guidance and bring up exactly what you need to work on. In my experience, if you’re not doing the actual work, living out spiritual concepts becomes a lot harder to live on an experiential level.
Journaling helps you document your journey and reconnect with the truth of who you are; the deeper you are willing to go in your practice, the more you will get out of it.
5. Take care of your body.
Our bodies serve as the container for our mind and spirit in this life. In order for your mind and spirit to be functioning at optimum levels, it’s imperative that you keep your body functioning at peak levels.
This can mean different things for different people. Don’t give in to the latest diet trend or go gluten-free just because everyone else is doing it. Learn how to listen to your own body.
YOUR body knows best, and if you tune in and listen, with a little experimentation you will find the high-vibe lifestyle that’s perfect for YOU.
6. Breathe.
Your breath is your life source. Make a commitment to be more conscious of your breath. Take note of how you breathe in stressful moments—are your breaths short and shallow? Or are you taking full, deep breaths and allowing oxygen to flow through your entire body?
Practicing taking full, deep breaths is both healing and life-changing. If you have lived most of your life as a shallow breather, it can feel like learning to breathe all over again.
Learning to breathe: When you inhale, the belly should expand outward, allowing your breath to completely circulate throughout your bloodstream.
This will help your blood become more highly oxygenated, which will in turn fuel your organs and nerve cells, helping you think more clearly. As you exhale, your belly should contract inward.
7. Surrender.
Meditate, pray, and surrender. This is the part where you release control of the outcome and trust that life has your back and everything is working out for your highest good.
What I have come to find is that when we truly surrender our attachment to a desired outcome, things often turn out a million times better than we could have ever dreamed.
When you surrender to the greater life force within you, you begin to live in the flow. Put the high vibes out there, do the work, and then trust that what is coming to you is absolutely, divinely perfect.
