Welcome to Week 5 of our Exploring Adult Spirituality Class!
This week we will examine the practical side of spirituality: the actual spiritual practice. I love the word practice. It’s really beautiful when you think about it, especially within the context of spirituality. This week our class is about the ideal way you can practice spirituality. Too often ideals are mistakenly equated with perfection. There is a subtle difference. Ideals are totems to live by, whereas perfection is a penultimate state of being. If we hold ourselves to the standard of perfection in our spiritual life, we will struggle and suffer in our inadequacy because living in a state of perfection is unattainable for most (if not all) human beings. Living by ideals is different. They require work, perseverance and some sacrifice, but they reflect choice and are doable. Spiritual practices are exactly what the words imply. We practice living our spirituality. We try it on, move around, wiggle, see if it fits, and make adjustments as needed.
This week you will explore what your spiritual ideals are and how you can put them into practice. It is very possible that your ideals need to change, or that you need to change parts of your life to accomodate practicing your spirituality in a meaningful way. Keep in mind that spiritual practices are fluid. Where you are at this point in life and what resources you have may effect your practices. Answer the questions for your life as it is in the present moment, but hold on to them. It’s a good idea to return to these questions when a life circumstance has changed or some time has passed. As you grow, so will your practice.
Week 5 Journal Questions
What do you consider to be ideal components of a spiritual practice for someone at your stage of life on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis? For example, should there be prayer or meditation everyday? Studying of religious texts? Formal expression of gratitude? Should there be community worship or structured fellowship? What about service to others? Spend some time to get detailed and specific answers here.
Is there enough time in your life to practice your ideals?
If not, how can you make time or adjust your ideals?
If so, what is holding you back from practicing your ideals?
Describe your favorite holidays associated with religion.
Can you still participate in them if you change your practices?
Should you? Answer this from your heart, not your reason or someone else’s judgement.
If you are considering a big change, are you willing to celebrate new holidays?
Would you mind if you never quite feel comfortable in that? Many holidays include a sense of coming home. If you change your celebrations, you may never quite have that familiar feeling again. Are you OK with that?
What about family? Yes, this is a BIG question; give it a BIG answer.
Activities
1. Choose a span of time ranging from 2 -7 days to live the ideal practice you created in the first journal question. Ideals are tricky. It’s hard to know when they must be adjusted for reality and when they should remain the gold standard to which you need to hold yourself accountable. Very few people actually spend any time living their ideals completely. Mostly ideals are relegated to an exercise in imagination or romanticism. By assigning yourself 48 hours or more to live up to your ideals, you will get a better understanding of their importance and level of realism. Once you choose the amount of time you have for this activity, do not adjust it if you find it challenging. Stick it out and see how that changes your perspective on the first few journal questions.
2. Look over your day-planner or jot down how you spend your time for a few days. Add up the time you spend on each activity, such as watching TV, making phone calls and running errands. See if you can be more efficient. Identify any time guzzlers and look for a solution. Do you need less time relaxing and more time sleeping? Is there a commitment you made that is taking up too much time? If you want to incorporate living an ideal (or a scaled-down version of ideal) spiritual life, you must make room for it. Unless you have vast quantities of free time, you must remove something from your life to make room for something else. Only you can determine what that is.
Next week is our last class. I will synthesize the concepts that we have explored and leave you with some ideas to consider. As always, please feel free to contact me at rebecca@mamaguru.com or leave a comment below. Have a beautiful week.
Namaste,
Rebecca
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