Are you committed to your spiritual growth, but struggle to balance life in the modern world with your desire to become more spiritual? Or, maybe you’re just starting out on your spiritual journey, and have no idea where to begin.
Either way: you’re not alone.
How To Live a More Spiritual Life
In fact, at some point, almost everyone asks how to live a more spiritual life, and lead a life that is alignment with their own values. Regardless of your religion, background, family-status, or career, spirituality is something that we innately need, in one form or another.
In this post, I’ll outline 10 practices you can adopt in order to live a spiritually-focused life. Rather than specific exercises, they are general ideas and attitudes that anyone can apply.
Getting Started with a Spiritual Way of Living
Ultimately, there is no “wrong” or “right” way to become spiritual – and a spiritual practice is, first and foremost, a practice.
Instead, living a spiritual life is about developing habits that consistently challenge you to evolve and grow as an individual, both in terms of your inner awareness, and your personal actions and choices in everyday life.
In a moment, I’ll share 10 practices that are a great place to start. If you focus on each of these practices every day, you will find that you will build a stronger, more powerful connection with your spiritual energy.
But, before we dive into what those practices are, I want to make sure you have a solid framework for how to think about your spiritual journey. I think it’s incredibly important to know where you are – and where you’d like to be headed – before you actually start to apply any of the principles below.
So, I recommend you take 10 minutes right now, to listen to this podcast. Then, continue to the daily practices below.
Podcast: How Can You Lead a Spiritual Life? Start Here.
10 Daily Practices to Grow Spiritually
Take Time for Daily Reflection
One of the easiest and most important spiritual practices is simply to take a few minutes every day for daily reflection. Whether you start a meditation routine, take time for spiritual prayer, start a gratitude journal, or simply spend a few minutes in silence while you have your morning cup of coffee, self-reflection and quietude is one of the best ways to gain control of your thoughts and connect with your inner nature.
Try our free Introduction to Meditation to learn how to quiet the mind.
Become Mindful of Every Action
Mindfulness is another core practice for leading a spiritual life. At it’s core, mindfulness is simply the act of becoming more aware of your life. When you practice mindfulness, you focus in on the experience you are having right now, whether that’s an action you’re taking, the sensory perceptions you’re feeling, or simply taking a moment to notice the breath. When you become more mindful, your entire life experience becomes richer, more peaceful, and more joyful.
Learn more about easy mindfulness exercises you can incorporate into your life.
Follow Your Inner Voice
Spiritual individuals are often very intuitive. This is because being spiritual is about listening to the inner calling you feel, and becoming aware of your own resonance. Whether you think of this as a calling from God, your Higher Self, or simply a gut instinct about what you should do, learning to move in concert with this intuitive source will help lead you to more fulfilling, positive experiences in your day to day life.
Learn more about following intuitive guidance.
Live With Intention
Setting daily intentions is another great habit to develop. When you take a few moments at the beginning of the day to determine what it is you want to do, feel, and experience that day, you put yourself in the position that empowers you to take control of your life. Then, as you move through the day, you’ll find that life begins to cater to your intention, so long as you remain focused upon it. This is the beginning of spiritual mastery.
Related Post: Wayne Dyer’s 7 Faces of Intention.
Develop Compassion
As you evolve spiritually, you will naturally begin to view your life from a higher perspective. This means that you will be more about to understand the causes that underly events and circumstances in the physical world, both for yourself and others. As you seek to understand these causes, you will build a stronger sense of compassion, since you will view others from their perspective more easily, and understand the forces that drove them to action…even if you disagree with what that action was.
Learn more about practicing compassion.
Let Go Of The Past
Often, negative emotions come from holding onto the past. If you seek to move beyond negativity and live your life from a higher level, then you need to learn to let go of past emotions and live more fully in the present moment. As you release the past, you will find that a tremendous burden lifts from your, and you will begin to feel clearer and more centered, every single day.
Try this exercise on how to let go of everything in a single breath.
Learn to Forgive Without Judgment
Forgiveness is another key aspect of spirituality to develop. Practicing forgiveness means learning to look on the actions of others (and yourself) without judgment. Forgiveness accepts that everything has it’s time and place, and that your timing, experience, and attitudes are always perfect. Everyone always acts from the level of consciousness they inhabit, and thus cannot be judged from a different level. So, the next time you’re ready to judge someone’s actions, take a moment to step back, and say this short Buddhist forgiveness prayer.
Learn more about the 3 Steps to Forgiveness from A Course in Miracles.
Accept Life As It Comes
As you become more mindful and learn to forgive without judgment, you also learn to accept life in all of its myriad forms. Non-judgment is very close to the practice of acceptance. Whatever is, simply is. There is nothing inherently bad or good about it, except for your own opinions and beliefs. When you stop imposing your ego-driven view of the world, you find that you can appreciate what is around you more fully, exactly as it is, right now.
Love Without Condition
Unconditional love is one of the most important characteristics of a spiritual life. Spiritual individuals recognize that everything – quite literally, everything – is an expression of love. At your core, you are a Being of Love, and so is everyone else. When you begin to see people for the love that is their true nature, you begin to emanate this love more fully, and express it without bias or condition.
Surrender Your Expectations
Last but certainly not least is the practice of surrender. Surrender means that you turn over every thought, belief, and emotion to a higher power. You can call this power anything you want: God, Spirit, Universal Energy, your Higher Self, but surrender requires total faith that all is well with you and with the world. When you fully believe that everything is always perfect, you can allow whatever may happen to happen without judgment or resistance to it.
Learn more about the meaning of surrender.
Living The Spiritual Life Isn’t Always Easy – But It Doesn’t Have To Be “Hard” Either
One of the biggest mistakes I see new students make when they’re just beginning their journey, is they think that living spiritually is an “all or nothing” game.
We tend to assume that someone either “is spiritual” or “is not spiritual.”
The reality, however, is a lot more complicated.
I believe that we all bounce into and out of different levels of awareness as we go about our lives. It’s very possible that one day you feel incredible joyful, loving, and compassionate, and another you’re stressed, angry, and ready to burn the world down.
That’s ok.
Remember that we are all human, and ultimately becoming a more spiritual person is about remembering to tune-in to yourself and come back to the practices I mentioned above.
No one does this all of the time…especially not immediately.
Living life in this way takes practice. It is a habit that we can cultivate for ourselves, so try not to beat yourself up if you have a few off days, or if you don’t respond to a specific situation the way you think you should have responded.
Learning to give yourself grace is an important part of the process. The key is simply to start acting from that higher, more evolved version of yourself, and then to know that as you take each step, the next step will become easier, more joyful, and ultimately more fulfilling.
That’s the key to becoming a spiritual person.
When you’re ready to step into that better, higher version of yourself, The Joy Within is here to help.
We offer a offer a simple, step by step system to help you become the calm, confident, and happy person you deserve to be, complete with guided mediations and exercises, workshops, and clear learning paths to guide you, every step along the way.
Click Here to Learn More about The Joy Within.
