91–100 of 966 posts
Not religious and not really spiritual at all to be honest. The closest thing to "spiritual" that I do is walking slowly. Years ago one day I noticed I had the habit of walking very quickly everywhere I went and that this was pointless. I walk much more slowly now, looking around, watching things, people, anything. I make a point of always leaving earlier than I need so that I never have to hurry. Kind of like the re…
Muslim here. Ritual prayer is the core exercise. Before sunrise, after sunset, and 3 other times during the day. But as important or more so is constant remembrance of God. If that's not institutionalized in one's day-to-day psychology, one will lose spiritual momentum, if we can use such terminology. "Worship" in Arabic عبادة actually means something like "conformity to God's order", as far as I understand. So even…
In the morning, I think while drinking coffee. Then I really think in the shower. As a result I take long showers. Sometimes during the day, I'll sit back and think. While going to bed, I'll think some more. Usually I think about problems to solve, reflect on my life so far, course adjustments, things to self improve. One day I'll pick up a religion, but it seems like they all would require a lot of mental gymnastics…
I am quite fond of stoicism. Not that I follow it religiously or would even call myself a stoic, but I think it is one of the best 'tutorials how to live a good life' out there.
Then, ideally, I spend 30-60 minutes in personal prayer, usually in the form of journaling, and sometimes study of scripture and/or spiritual books. I have given this short/no shrift most days the last couple weeks and I’m missing the intimacy with God that I have when I do it more consistently. It’s like when my wife and I get over-busy with work: we still see each other, exchange enough words to coordinate schedules and household matters, still love each other of course, but we’re not as close and I miss her. Same with Jesus right now. He’s still caring for me and I’m still trying to follow him, but I’m missing out on that warm connection.
Five minutes before the hour every waking hour, a notification pops up on my watch with a prayer to draw closer and dedicate the next hour to God. I change the text of it periodically to reflect what God is teaching me currently and to keep it from becoming too routine for me.
Whenever I’m stuck or frustrated or sad, I try to (1) notice it and (2) talk about it with Jesus. There’s not a scheduled time for this, but it probably comes up at least daily.
Wherever I am, whomever I’m with, the closer I am with God, the more automatically I notice how beautiful the sky is, or how lovely it is that people have developed the craft of making a beautiful tabletop like the one I’m typing on, or how happy it is that other people are happy. E.g., I find noise very unpleasant, but the other day a very loud car with temporary tags drove by, and I gladly shifted from annoyance to being happy that the driver was able to afford transportation (if the engine noise was incidental) or that the driver got to enjoy their very impressively loud engine (if the noise was something they had sought on purpose). Then the noticing and the joy bring me back to gratitude to God, which draws me closer to God and reinforces the joy, etc..
So the joy God has in creation becomes, in tiny part, my joy, and the love of Jesus begins to become love I have for others. I’ve been a practicing Christian my whole life, and generally tried to do what I thought I ought to, but this growing intimacy with God is a new development for me since August this year. I find myself approaching interactions with others not to get them over as quickly as possible or say the appropriate things or to demonstrate my cleverness but with love for the person, gladness that they exist, and curiosity how I might be able to bring them some bit of love/happiness/blessing in the conversation.
Not sure if it counts as spiritual, but for 10 years I've consistently done subconscious, mind+body healing exercises. It's been profoundly transformative. Prior to that (and for quite a while after) I had a huge amount of drama and chaos in my life, and after searching far and wide for answers (starting with the usual stuff - mainstream therapy, meditation, etc) I learned about these healing practices, which address…
I’d love to learn more about this. Do you have any links or resources you would recommend?
I also don't want to recommend particular practices here, lest I be seen as making health recommendations, which I'm not qualified to do.
I've written a lot of content about my own journey, which can help people to know what different practices are available and enable people to decide for themselves what practices are worth trying. Anyone is welcome to email me (address in bio) if they want to read what I've written. I also have a Discord group for people who want to discuss this stuff with other folks who are interested (pretty much everyone in the group is from HN).
But if you just want publicly available info and modalities, try these:
Authors: Gabor Maté, Peter Levine, Bruce Lipton, Bradley Nelson, Stan & Christina Grof.
Modalities: NET, Psych-K, Somatic Experiencing, Holotropic Breathwork, EFT/Tapping, Family Constellations, Ericksonian Hypnotherapy (but not NLP, in my opinion).
Every morning I read a section of the Bible's Old Testament, Psalm, Proverb and New Testament. I then use the Lord's Prayer as a framework to pray. Having done this for many years I have observed we begin 'Our Father' and focus on God. My own inclination would be to start with 'Forgive me' and focus on me. I then spend my day trying to honour Jesus's teachings. The highs and lows of the previous day are discussed the…
Do you ever struggle with the parts of the bible that feel outdated in the modern context? I never read the bible by myself, but I went to Sunday school for 9 years and I remember struggling as a child to conciliate what I was being taught at school and at chruch, and specially ignoring the hipocrisy of the people lecturing the bible stuff not practicing any of that. I don't remember specific examples, as this was 15…
Also Christians aren’t perfect. My hope is that you don’t let us ruin what could be the best thing that can happen to you.
I have not taught my kids any kind of religion or spirituality, and they don't seem to miss it. I wanted to spare them the effort of getting out of it later. What I hadn't anticipated is that as a result, they are pretty ignorant of most things, they have little idea who Jesus or Mary are, etc. (We tell them about it sometimes, of course, but it's very different than going to Sunday School for 10 years).