Post three of seven, in section About Practice
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 be open to uncertainty, unexpected things, and ineffable qualities.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t have any sense of purpose or progress, and having a method for reflecting on practice will help keep your practice focused and meaningful.
There are a number of ways you could measure or reflect on a practice based on what it is and what is most important to you.
Lots of practices and traditions have systems for mapping progress within them, and this can be super helpful, as long as you can hold it lightly and recognise that this is not the be all and end all of life. Even when a practice does have a way of recognising progress, it can be useful to pop your head out of the rabbit hole to reflect on your practice from a wider view point. To think about the benefits from outside the frame that you have been given.
Some practices and traditions have no methods for recognising progress or reflecting on the benefits of it; this can be a little disorienting and make you lose track of what’s important.
The exercise below is an example of a way to reflect on practice. If you can make some time and space to reflect on a practice, it will help you see what works for you, appreciate the positive changes you are experiencing, 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.
I have split the reflections up into embodiment, heartfulness, mindfulness, and soulfulness. A practice or approach definitely doesn’t need to meet all these bullet points; it could be that just meeting one or two really deeply feels the most meaningful way to dedicate your practice time.
The purpose of doing this exercise isn’t for it to be a final arbiter of your practice, but engaging with the reflection will give you a way to access a wider and more objective perspective on what you’re doing and how it’s going.
Embodiment
My practice…
- puts me in touch with my subtle body
- allows me to be present with sensations more directly and gives me a more refined sensitivity to my embodied experience
- facilitates me to be more present in my life, even in challenging situations
- 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
- 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
Wholeheartedness
My practice…
- puts me in touch with feelings of love for self, other and the world
- allows me to feel emotions with more clarity and freedom
- 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
- helps me feel like I belong in the world
- helps me to feel more relaxed and open in a wider range of circumstances
- increases my capacity for honesty and sincerity from myself and others
Mindfulness
My practice…
- gives me access to open awareness
- allows me to see things with more clarity and precision
- shows me that reality is more malleable than I previously may have thought
- changes my view of life, myself or experience
- gives me a meaningful perspective on life that includes both the light and dark aspects of the world
- allows me to access altered states of consciousness that feel nourishing or meaningful
- increases my capacity for uncertainty
- helps me stay curious in a wider range of situations
- shows me how everyone has a different perspective and worldview
- relieves or removes anxiety and mental suffering
Soulfulness
My practice…
- puts me in touch with the imaginal realm
- has created intimacy with the deepest parts of me
- helps me to know myself and my inner world more deeply
- allows me to lean into mystery and not knowing
- 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 and connects me to a sense of meaning and purpose