Practice
- Spiritual and Otherwise
Our Spiritual practice can take many forms
Our 12th Step says, among other things,
that we are to "practice these principles in all our affairs."
In fact, any way we look at them, the 12 Steps are a spiritual discipline
that makes an ideal spiritual practice.
A spiritual practice goes a long way
toward helping us stay in conscious contact with the God of our
understanding.
Fortunately, spiritual practices can take many
forms. One of the best, and most obvious, is some sort of meditation done at
least once a day, preferably twice, both morning and evening.
Meditation
Meditation can be difficult, but with practice
it gets easier to do.
I also like Wayne Dyer's
Meditations
for Manifesting. The trick is to find a meditation practice that works for
you.
I've recently become aware of another way to
practice - it doesn't, as far as I know, have an official name. I think of it as
finding out an attitude or way of thinking/being that Spirit guides me toward. I
was given this in a White Stone Ceremony at a Unity
Church.
Another method
Each of us was given a flat, white stone and a
pencil when we entered. The minister talked a bit about the value of spiritual
practice and gave some examples from a variety of disciplines. Then she
had us sit quietly asking Spirit (the God/Goddess of our understanding) to tell
us what practice we might have for the year. She asked us to put aside any preconceived
notions we might have (really difficult for me) and to go deep and wait.
While she was talking the word 'love' came to
me; when she asked us to go deeper I was given a word to go with love - and that
word was gratitude.
I have no idea what other people heard or were
given, but I was moved to tears. I wrote 'Love and Gratitude' on my stone and it
is now on my alter. The idea of
practicing Love and Gratitude for a full year is both daunting and exciting to
me. I'm generally aware that my life is by and large good, but I tend to mutter
and mumble to myself and those who will listen about what's wrong. To stop my
muttering and change it to love and gratitude for all that is good in my life
will take some effort. But to really do it well, I must also be grateful for
everything I don't like, or those things that seem to be problems. Like traffic,
or slow book sales, or my stiff neck! Yet
I know there is a lesson in everything for me... and an opportunity. I can
complain or I can get grateful... I can love... What
might it be like to live truly from love and gratitude? What might it be like to
live from whatever Spirit guides you toward? Can you feel transformation
happening? I can. Now, let me give each
and every one of you a huge thanks for reading and being with me on this
journey... I am truly grateful for each one of you... and I am filled with love. Love, peace and
abundance,
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