By Jolie Dawn
How can you get started on a spiritual path or deepen your current practice? If you want to connect to your spirituality, intuition, and divine potential, and you’re ready to release control and be guided, let’s get you started. Maybe you’ve tried to take up a spiritual practice before — meditation, yoga, reading all the books — and whatever you’ve tried hasn’t worked. Maybe you’ve gotten dissatisfied with the whole thing and come to me (or someone like me) to help you find the right way to do it.
I’ve got some bad news for you.
There is no “right” way to connect to the divine. There is no one way that is better than any other. It is solely based on you and how you feel. If what you did before didn’t work, then it wasn’t the right thing for you, or else you weren’t looking at it the right way, like something you chose rather than something someone was supposed to do for you. Beautiful soul, no master, book, or workshop will ever be able to do it for you. You must make a choice to become at one with God for yourself — no one else can do that for you.
Why? Because the relationship you seek with the divine is actually the relationship, you seek with yourself.
Whatever you perceive as the divine — God, another deity, spirit, the universe, the earth, anything else — created you. You are a part of the creator, and the creator is a part of you, just as a mother is part of her children and a child is part of their mother. To love the divine is to love yourself, and to love yourself is to love the divine.
Maybe you’re thinking that spirituality means being a hippie and burning incense and never showering and talking in big words that no one understands. Um…maybe? If that’s your thing? But if it’s not, then no.
I remember attending a sound healing event once and looking around at everyone, thinking they had completely lost their minds. I was so uncomfortable. Everyone was all airy-fairy and overly scented with essential oil. I couldn’t focus on what I was there to learn. Everyone had a powerful experience, and I just wanted out.
Have you ever felt that uncomfortable around other people’s spirituality?
I had to ask myself: Why was I so triggered? It took me a while to understand what was going on, but eventually, I realized I was being shown that I was not comfortable in my own expression of spirituality. To me, spirituality was right only if it was done in secrecy. Maybe I wasn’t totally into sound healing, or maybe I was, but what was really bothering me was the openness of it all. Such an open expression of spirituality made me really uncomfortable, even though I’d chosen to be there in the first place.
But the more I thought about it, the more I understood that spirituality is a unique expression for each of us. However, you like to connect to something that’s greater than you, to divinity in whatever form you envision is perfect.
Here are some things that can help:
DEVELOP A CONSISTENT PRACTICE. Whatever you commit to, whether it be meditation, journaling, chanting, praying, singing, yoga, or gardening, do it consistently. Do it with joy. Allow yourself to find pleasure in the practice. They say it takes twenty-one days to form a new habit, so give yourself those three weeks. If one practice doesn’t work for you, try another. Remember, there’s no wrong way to get spiritual.
LOOK INTO THE EYES OF YOUR FELLOW HUMANS. Really. It’s called eye gazing, and I love it. I was so freaked out by this practice initially. It can be a bit uncomfortable at first to see and be seen so vulnerably. But let me tell you, when you can quiet your mind and then gaze into another human’s eyes, you will find a spiritual beauty that can move you to tears. The eyes are the gateway to the soul. Allow yourself to experience the resonance, the wonderment, the curiosity of what those eyes have seen. There is always so much more than what you see on the surface.
Note: this is best done either with a close friend or in an eye-gazing event, at least at first.
STAY IN GRATITUDE. Being grateful expands your vibration, makes your energy field lighter and allows you to easily attract what you desire. It lets the universe know that you’re happy to be here. It reminds you that you’re happy to be here.
LIVE BEYOND THIS PHYSICAL DIMENSION. When I first worked with an energy healer, it completely shook up my reality. She could see things that I couldn’t: my energetic body, my aura, my chakra system. You don’t have to be able to see these things to know that they are there. Live beyond the confines of this reality, whatever that means for you. Speak to your angels, request support from your guides, and honor the mystery beyond what meets the eye.
BE AWARE OF YOUR VIBRATION. A mind filled with doubt, worry, regret, resentment, jealousy, or anger will affect your vibration. We all know the Negative Nancy — when she enters the room, we feel a shift. We can all feel the tightening. Be responsible for your vibration. Cultivate a mind filled with peace, love, possibility, light, and joy! You will be the light in the room that magnetically attracts others.
Love Yourself with all You’ve Got. How much love do you have for yourself? Are you willing to fall into a deep romance with yourself? I challenge you to look in the mirror, look into your own eyes, just as you are and as you’re not, and say, “I love you” ten times every day. This will completely alter your vibration. In this practice, you are honoring yourself as divinity, as the light itself. See beauty and perfection in your own eyes. See the infinite, divine being that you truly are.
