A Spiritual Life

At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it. Thich Nhat Hanh

When I was a child, someone told me that if I caught a leaf falling from a tree, before it hit the ground I’d receive good luck. I spent years walking under trees, watching for falling leaves… ready to catch one.

What this really introduced me to - was the notion of the universe… of energy, and how we interact with it. How spirit can exist within us, and the world- it’s power to frame the ordinary, and create paths of purity, magic and potential .

‘Spirituality is, logic having magic, beyond normal understanding’ Amit Ray

I was born into a Christian family and went to church every Sunday. Our faith was centred around community and service. It was a foundational part of my childhood - I didn’t question it or doubt it. It just was.

As I grew up, I moved away from this sense of religion - partly because my family physically moved away from the town, and therefore the church I grew up in. But also, as I started to question the world around me and my place in it.

I have always seen myself as a spiritual person. However, this is a side of me I felt a stranger to as I moved from childhood into a young adult. Now, in my thirties, I have gradually returned to my spirit, and have found faith and strength in it again.

I believe spirituality is not observable or measurable. I see it as an openness of spirit to the unitive force around us. It’s potential to enlighten our soul, to gain a sense of connection and peace within oneself, and our place and purpose in the universe.

For me tuning back into my spiritual nature has been an extremely important part of living with anxiety and dealing with life in general.

My spirituality is the most important part of my self care toolkit- the actual box, the structure in which my entire self care kit exists.

It grows as I explore and begin to trust myself more. As I tune back into my authentic nature… there along side me is my spirituality. The more open I am to this, the easier it is to feel the energy around me and within me. The same energy I felt as a child looking up at the trees, watching the leaves shaking in the wind, waiting for that all important leaf to fall into my open hands, and the luck I felt the universe would bestow upon me.

‘No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man’ Heraclitus

My spirituality has changed since my childhood. As I have grown in this world, I - like all of us have dealt with trauma, pain and loss - and at times I have shut down my energy and openness in response. If there is one thing we can be certain of, is life goes on. Change is constant, the world is always changing, and will continue to change long after our time physically on earth has passed.

My focus is to ebb and flow with the energy around me and allow my spirituality to help guide me. Spirituality isn’t complicated, you just have to notice it enough, to give it the chance to grow alongside you, to guide you.

‘None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul’ Swami Vivekananda

---