Spiritual practice can be very mysterious, ineffable and nebulous. Unlike other aspects of life, where your goals can be more concrete, one part of the process of going on a spiritual journey is letting go of fixed ideas and allowing yourself to open to both uncertainty and the magic of existence.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t have any sense of purpose or progress and it’s important to have a way of reflecting on practice, if you want it to be meaningful.
You can use this exercise to reflect on an existing practice that you are currently doing or have done in the past. If you can make some time and space to reflect, it will help you see what works for you, to appreciate the positive changes you are experiencing, to cut away the unhelpful stuff and focus on the most meaningful things.
It’s important to answer honestly. If something isn’t working for you, it’s better to be aware of this, so that you can change it.
You can use the statements below to evaluate what aspects of experience your practice is meeting.
Presence
My practice…
- facilitates me to be more present in my life, even in challenging situations
- has put me in touch with new aspects of myself or my experience – e.g. the subtle body, open awareness, the imaginal realm (see this experience infographic for more examples)
- has facilitated a shift in my baseline experience of day-to-day life
- helps me feel safer in life and has reduced the amount of fear-based decisions that I make
- helps me process energies or traumas that are held in the body
- allows me to be present with sensations more directly
- puts me in touch with pleasant sensations or experiences in the body
- gets me to connect with the present moment and start from where I am
- helps me act with more courage and integrity
- helps me honour and care for my body
Openness
My practice…
- allows me to be more honest or sincere with myself and others, even when that is confronting
- gives me the skills and capacity to allow other people to be more sincere or honest in my presence
- increases my capacity to be open to painful, challenging or dark aspects of my experience in a compassionate way
- helps me process difficult emotions or thoughts
- increases my resilience
- relieves aversion and emotional suffering
- allows me to feel emotions with more clarity and freedom
- helps me feel like I belong in the world
- helps me to feel more relaxed and open in a wider range of circumstances
- creates a sense of connection to myself, others and the world
- encourages me to embrace myself, others and the world more whole-heartedly
- gives me access to non-dual states
Emptiness
My practice…
- gives me access to something that feels transcendental or bigger than me
- gives me a meaningful perspective on life that includes both the light and dark aspects of the world
- changes my view of life or experience
- changes my relationship to who I am
- changes my perception of time or my sense-making system
- shows me that reality is more malleable than I previously may have thought
- allows me to access altered states of consciousness that feel nourishing or meaningful
- increases my capacity for uncertainty
- relieves or removes anxiety and mental suffering
- helps me stay curious in a wider range of situations
- shows me how everyone has a different perspective and world-view
- gives me a healthy view of myself and the Universe
- allows me to see things with more clarity and precision
Flow
My practice…
- allows me to give myself more freely to experience, even when that is scary or challenging in some way
- has created intimacy with the deepest parts of me
- helps me to know myself and my inner world more deeply
- helps me feel like I understand life or the Universe more deeply
- creates a richer feeling of aliveness
- encourages me to release control
- connects me with my most wholesome desires
- puts me in touch with what I find most beautiful and meaningful in life
- inspires me to be of service to others and the world
- connects me to a sense of meaning and purpose