Develop Your Path of Spiritual Meaning

Many of us believe that we are spiritual beings on a physical journey rather than physical beings on a spiritual journey. However, many of us live our lives as though we have no spirit at all. Here are twelve ways to develop your spiritual walk through this physical world.

In our western culture, we may not think of diet, exercise, and rest as spiritual aspects of our lives, especially here in the west. Being sick actually does little to improve our relationship with God. It might get you to ask for prayer, but being healthy improves our ability to flex our spiritual wings.

I find it is easier to feel spiritually fit when I am physically fit as well. In addition, by disciplining myself in caring for my body, I am better able to discipline my spirit as well.

• I eat more such as green vegetables, some fruits, nuts and seeds, and whole grains, and drink alkaline water, to become more creative and connect better with God. Meat and dairy decrease energy levels. I notice that after eating a large meal of these foods, I feel lethargic. I find that it increases my likelihood of worrying, having anxiety, or depression. By eating lots of raw, living foods, I detox my physical body and this enables me to better deal from a spiritual level. In addition, I drink 6-8 glasses of water per day.

• I do some stretching exercises first thing every morning, again I began small. In the beginning, I took as little as three minutes per day doing stretching exercises. Here is an easy one that I used to begin. I stand with my feet together, arms at my sides. Now, I raise my arms over my head and stretch upward. Now, bending at the waist, I bend forward and attempt to reach my chin down to my knees. Hold for two minutes. During the hold, I breathe in and allow myself to move out the stretch, and then breathe out and gently stretch as I exhale. I do not bounce but gently move with my breathing (I use an alarm to measure the time.). When the two minutes are over, I reach and stretch upward again. I return to the original position.

• I ensure that I get the amount of rest I need every day. Different people need different amounts of sleep. A good way to determine how much sleep you need is to go to sleep at night and then awaken without an alarm clock. Whatever time you awaken is your optimal number of hours of sleep.

• Every day I take a walk every day. This increases my energy and my awareness of God and his will.

While I am on my walk, I like to get out into nature and appreciate what God has given me. In the evening, I write down everything I can remember that I was grateful for receiving that day in my journal.

• To further connect with nature, in addition to getting out and walking every day, I try to find different ways of communing with God through his nature. Sometimes I’ll go to a park. Sometimes I work in my vegetable or flower garden.

I try to make spiritual awareness a daily habit. I begin with my routine in the morning. I start with a short time commitment. I try not to over-commit, especially in the beginning because it is harder for me to maintain if too much time is allotted in the beginning. If after a month, I increased because I decided that I was able to add more time, but I made it a point to do so gradually. If I find that I cannot do the extended time, I revert back to the original time span.6

• I sit for a few minutes and listen to some spiritual music. One song every day is enough to begin. I sit and do nothing but be in God’s presence. I soak up his love.

• I spend some time every day reading The Word. If I read for about 20 minutes every day, I know that I can read through the Bible in a year. Again, I don’t hurry. I read five minutes a day until it became a habit, then gradually increased over time. I believe that it is more important to be consistent than it is to go into reading intensely for a few days and then lose interest because the discipline was too rigid to maintain.

I try to work on a few things on a consistent basis throughout the day. I place cards in various locations around my home, work, and automobile to remind me to practice these disciplines:

• Practice Forgiveness and gratitude. Every day at the same time during the day, determine if you need to forgive anyone, including yourself. Remind yourself to forgive others before eating every meal. Do the same before bedtime. You’ll be amazed at how much better your food will taste and you will sleep when you know that you are holding nothing against anyone.

• Keep a daily journal. Write down your prayer requests and write down how he answers those requests. Highlight the answered prayers with a highlighter. Whenever you’re feeling down and feeling like God isn’t listening, read over those highlighted answers.

• Take time to help others. Show them that God loves them and you do too.

It is important that I practice consistent spiritual practices on a daily basis. By doing the above twelve steps, I feel better physically and spiritually. My spiritual growth has astonished me.