- Read the Bible and books that support your spiritual growth. Focusing on Scripture and God’s promises can uplift the heart and soul, and remind us that we are not alone. God is with us, for us, beside us, protecting us and guiding us. 365promises.com gives daily promises of God.
- Prayer – Pray to God from your heart. Tell Him your fears, needs, dreams, desires. You can also use prayers such as Our Father, St. Francis, Jesus Prayer and the Psalms. I love to pray Psalm 91. You can practice praying in difference stances: sit, kneel, stand, dance, prostrate, raise your hands or walk. Richard Rohr describes prayer: “Prayer is sitting in the silence until it silences us, choosing gratitude until we are grateful and praising God until we ourselves are an act of praise.”
- Contemplation Time – Taking a walk in nature is a wonderful way to reset your body, mind and spirit. While dwelling in the silence, you can reflect on your life, dreams, feelings, relationships. You may receive guidance, insights and answers to your questions.
- Meditation – Meditate independently or with a guided meditation. Lectio Divina – taking a phrase from the Bible and sitting with it can also be very powerful.
- Focus on your Breath – You can focus on your breath during meditation and also do deep breathing exercises for 5 to 10 minutes to alleviate stress.
- Jesuit Anthony de Mello recommends breathing:
- While you breathe in, be conscious of God’s Spirit coming into you…Fill your lungs with the Divine energy He brings with him…
- While you breathe out, imagine you are breathing out all your impurities…your fears…your negative feelings…
- Imagine you see your whole body becoming radiant and alive through this process of breathing in God’s life-giving Spirit and breathing out all your impurities… (Sadhana: A Way to God)
- Other Breathing exercises:
- Breathe in compassion for yourself—and others.
- Breathe out any fears, doubts, anxiety, grief
- Breathe in God’s peace.
- Breathe out whatever is causing you fear or anxiety right now.
- Journal – Journaling allows us to explore our feelings, insights, dreams and past experiences. We can also record our reflections and guidance from meditation and contemplation.
- Mantras and Affirmations – You can take a verse from the Bible as a mantra for the day or week. Or use a simple word or phrase “Peace, love, unity, surrender, trust, hope, faith.” One affirmation I used for many years was from Al-Anon “Thy will be done, not mine.”
- Body Movements – Sun Salutations, Yoga, Stretching, Dance, Martial Arts
- Grounding Exercises – During times of stress, we can energetically pull up from the earth. Grounding exercises redistribute the energy in your body and can alleviate stress and anxiety. Consciously connecting to the earth and visualizing roots growing down from your feet can help stabilize and ground you. Gardening and putting your hands in the dirt are wonderful ways to ground into the earth.
- Listen to Spiritual Music
- Energy Healing and Chakra Clearing – Energy healing assists in clearing, charging, repairing and stabilizing your chakras and grounding you into the earth. It can clear fear, worry depression and collective fear and despair. You can also do chakra color breathing, take a sea salt bath or sage yourself and living space.
- Gratitude – Make a list of things you are grateful for. Make a list of answered prayers and blessings from God.
- Pray for Others – Praying for others takes the focus off of our problems for awhile and extends compassion to others and the world.
- Centering Prayer – A form of contemplative prayer which is “centered entirely on the presence of God”. Thomas Merton describes it as a “return to the heart,” finding one’s deepest center, awakening the profound depths of our being” (Contemplative Prayer). You choose a sacred word and set your intention to be in the Lord’s presence and open to His divine action within you.
- Pray the Rosary
- Attend a Church Service or Online Church Service
- Take Spiritual Communion
- “I wish my Lord to receive you, with the purity, humility and devotion with which your Most Holy Mother received you, with the spirit and fervor of the saints.” St. Josemaria Escriv
- “My Jesus, I believe that You are in the Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I long for You in my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. As though You have already come, I embrace You and unite myself entirely to You; never permit me to be separated from You.” (www.Catholic.org/prayers)
- Silence
- Take a break from people, TV, phones, social media, work and household chores.
Dr. Susan Muto states: “In silence the scattered pieces of my life fall into place, and I see again where I am going. Silence puts me in touch not only with the human spirit in all its richness, but also with the Holy Spirit. It opens me to the dimension of transcendence….Silence becomes a sanctuary in which faith, hope and love are restored. It readies me to listen to words that ring with eternal truths. Silence is almost like a psychic force that produces a heightened capacity for meditation, prayer, and contemplation” (Pathways of Spiritual Living, pp. 56-57).
- Spiritual Direction – Also called spiritual companioning, holy listening, spiritual friendship and sacred journeying. In this sacred relationship, one person assists another in attending to God’s presence and call upon their life. There is a radical unconditional acceptance of another as they tend to what is and make room for new possibilities to emerge.
- Keep your Sense of Humor – One of my spiritual teachers taught that humor has a Divine origin and can keep our mind and body balanced along the spiritual path. Laughter also boosts immunity, lowers stress hormones, relaxes your muscles, decreases pain, gives you a boost of natural energy, improves your mood and inspires hope.
