Spiritual Practice
Why Practice?
Before we can address what your spiritual practice is or will be, it’s important to know why you do it in the first place. The obvious benefits are:
Feel better: Reduce stress and anxiety and replace them with contentment and joy (emotional health)
Feel better: Increase vitality and improve your immune system—overcome fatigue, and dis-ease (physical health)
Feel better: Increase focus and improve decision making while overcoming patterns of overanalyzing, procrastination, and various other self-created challenges (mental health)
The less obvious, and very real reason to practice: Your life has a Purpose that is revealed through this practice. This is synonymous with spiritual health.
This topic will be touched on throughout this website, and if you choose to work with me directly it will be woven into the foundation of what we do together. Your purpose is something you align with—not something that is identified and then sought after with a plan and strategic execution. As you begin to explore beyond the limits of your personal power which is limited to mental and physical only, and invite spiritual power into your life, you will discover:
Solutions to problems you previously couldn’t solve
A level of thought that produces more than just achievements—it produces inspiration
The purpose of your life. It will come through accessing your highest consciousness which I call Awareness. Some of this will come to you through your thinking mind, once cleared of all the conditioned clutter. A lot of it will come through organic, divine guidance in other forms. I will coach you how to discern between the mind and spiritual guidance.
In The Real World:
When emotional , physical, mental and spiritual health improve you will experience more joy, energy, clarity, and sense of purpose—internal experiences. Those reveal themselves in the following external experiences:
Rich, intimate relationships
Meaningful professional endeavors beyond simply making more money
Stamina to create, experience and enjoy your gifts and the world around you
Your “real life” begins to match the highest vision of yourself you can imagine
Details:
Earlier I said “invite spiritual power into your life.” This means we are going to talk about the mysterious force that is accessed from inside you, but is also bigger than you. Some people call it God, Spirit, or the Universe. You will pick your name for it. I will guide you to develop your relationship with it.
There are lots of benefits to a practice that includes contemplation, prayer and meditation. It will not take you long to find countless success stories. Entrepreneurs, parents, artists, and people overcoming the most challenging obstacles almost always report the same common denominator—a daily devotion and consistent practice.
Your practice is not about becoming “more spiritual,” a common misconception in popular culture. It doesn’t mean you’ll participate in a specific spiritual group, hang symbols in your home, eat/not eat certain foods, or donate to charity in a particular way. Your practice will produce observable results—you will operate in your professional life, your relationships, and other key areas of your life with more awareness, trust, confidence with humility, and purposeful ambition. The bottom line is you’ll be joyful because your real life begins to match up with that small voice inside that has always told you who you really are and what you want to do.
My coaching is ideal for the person that has already tried self-help programs or attempted to comprehend and follow religious doctrine to no avail. Additionally, if you’ve used any tool to get in touch with Awareness, and now want to make it a lifestyle through consistent practice rather than an occasional ritual. There is nothing esoteric about this program. The practice that I will help you develop is used by seekers, agnostics, and religionists. This program will work for anyone who is willing to be rigorously honest, and follow instructions that are simple but not easy.
Click here to learn more about available services or email me for more information.
Contemplation
Contemplation is relaxing into, allowing, and exploring your relationship to consciousness beyond thought but not necessarily without thinking. Contemplation is regularly confused with meditation in popular culture.
Contemplation might include periods of no-thought but if you make that a goal and focus on it, you are contradicting the purpose of the exercise.
Rather than “trying” to stop thinking, Contemplation is the complete willingness to have everything you think you know set aside by a power greater than you and experiencing consciousness beyond your mind. It happens to you rather than achieving it.
While you might experience blissful and remarkably unexplainable phenomenon, contemplation is about surrendering your human faculties and allowing your Higher Power to fully engulf you without resistance. Much of the value will reveal itself after the event —clearer discernment of divine guidance, power to make the next right choice in your life, and a contentedness with the real world consequences no matter what they are.
If it sounds confusing, but feels right, then you’re probably getting it.
Prayer
Prayer is talking to your Higher Power. This simple action develops a relationship over time.
You can’t do it “wrong” as long as you do it, however we will identify your existing beliefs and practices and explore formats that you find most valuable. Most people don’t pray at all, and for good reasons. Many teachings about God or a Higher Power are mythological, or at least, very difficult to comprehend so lots of us come to the logical conclusion that either there is no God or it’s so complicated that we can’t communicate with it directly. To our relief, not only is this erroneous but I suspect you’ll find that it’s exactly the opposite—it’s simple.
I will support you and guide you as you develop your practice.
Meditation
Contrary to western culture’s current perception, meditation is listening to your Higher Power. It is not the perfect ability to stop your thinking. No wonder so many people give up their practice almost as quickly as they begin—almost nobody can consistently stop their thoughts and sustain periods of bliss as frequently described by mystics, poets, and gurus!
Perhaps ironically, meditation is listening to messages sent by your Higher Power, frequently using your thoughts (when combined with Contemplation explained earlier). While this will be discussed in depth and practiced in your program participation, your Higher Power must have a way to communicate directly back to you in conjunction with prayer. This does include some of your thinking, as well as instincts, intuition, and inspiration.
Discernment of thoughts and messages that come from ego alone (self-will) vs. your Higher Power will improve over time. This will come through consultation with me as well as practice in the real world.
Together prayer, meditation, and contemplation along with participating in real-life such as your work, relationships, your body, and your emotions, become your spiritual practice.
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