Practices for the journey | In search of soul

Spiritual practices for the soul journey

Anything that we do regularly with the intention of deepening our connection with our soul is a form of spiritual practice. I call them soul practices. When we think about engaging in some form of spiritual practice, those that usually come most readily to mind are such traditional religious practices as prayer, fasting and worship. Indeed, it may be that these are the only practices we know about. Consequently, when we are soul journeying, we may struggle to find specific practices that will resource us along the way.

Spiritual practices take many forms and there is a much greater variety of them than most of us realise. Alongside the traditional religious practices which some of us engage in, there is also a whole host of other activities that we might not think of as being spiritual in nature. For many of us, ordinary, everyday actions and activities such as breathing, walking, running, singing, dancing, reading, writing, creating art, listening to music or communing with nature can become imbued with spiritual significance and can play an important part in our search for soul.

we create sacred space in our lives and just as our spirituality changes and evolves over the years, so too does the way in which we practise it in our lives.

As Sue Monk Kidd reminds us, we need to create our own path rather than blindly follow someone else’s. And we need to allow that path to change course whenever it needs to as we move through life. From time to time, therefore, it is important for us to examine the practices we engage in and to ask ourselves whether they are feeding our soul, refreshing our spirit and helping us to connect with the More.

The particular practices that our tradition points us to or that others find helpful may not always be beneficial for us and practices that we have found helpful in the past will not necessarily be so now or in the future. As the Buddha once said, ‘To insist on a spiritual practice that served you in the past is to carry the raft on your back after you have crossed the river.’ We need to have the courage to experiment, to make changes and perhaps even to look outside the walls of our own tradition for practices that will resource us effectively.

The art of spiritual practice

The art of spiritual practice rests on the understanding that each of us is unique and that, therefore, each of us has different spiritual needs and preferences. It also recognises that the food our soul needs to nurture it will change as we move through life. It calls us to be open-minded and adventurous in searching for the food we need rather than relying only on what is familiar, conventional or traditional. It reminds us too that it is not enough simply to ‘go through the motions’, that we need to approach our practice both with an open heart and a genuine intention and desire to connect deeply with the our soul. And finally, it urges us to let our soul be the guide, to listen to its promptings, to trust its intuitive knowing and wisdom as we seek to discover the way home.

If we are finding committing to spiritual practice difficult, it may be that we are drawing on practices that are not right for us. Just as our spiritualities are unique so too are the ways in which

'You create a path of your own by looking within yourself and listening to your soul, cultivating your own ways of experiencing the sacred and then practicing it.
Practicing until you make it a song that sings you.’

Sue Monk Kidd

Every month, I will publish a new blog post which will give you information about a particular soul practice that I and others have found helpful on our journeys. You can join the mailing list for the blog by completing the Contact form on the Contact page.