If you are feeling stressed out and like life is too much to handle, taking time to explore your spiritual side can benefit you. In fact, there have been many studies suggesting that taking a spiritual journey and getting in touch with God can help you to feel a greater sense of purpose. Whether you join a church or simply dedicate time to listening to your inner voice, there are a number of ways to get started. Take a look at these suggestions for how to explore your spiritual side and get your wheels turning.
Listen and Grow
While being more spiritual is a practice that tends to focus a lot on the self, many of the rituals spiritual people explore are about interacting with others. As a human being, you are not alone in this world. Each and every human you meet is someone living with fears, concerns, wishes, and ideas. When you take a moment to listen to someone else and show empathy for what you are hearing, it can help you to connect with another person on a deeper level.
Empathy is a specific emotional quality. It allows you the ability to look at things from another person’s perspective. It helps you to broaden your perspective and become a more knowledgeable and caring individual. The connections made throughout life are what help to pepper your days with meaning. Being spiritual often involves thanking higher forces for the good people in your life. When you listen and love the people close to you, it can help you to feel like you are connecting to a higher plane of existence.
Come Together
For some, being spiritual means coming together with others to worship. Most of the world’s religions are community-based. This means that the people of each congregation view one another as neighbors, people who are in the same proverbial boat. There is comfort in being able to share something so powerful with others. If you have a strong desire to be a more spiritual person, then you might find it helpful to reach out to someone you trust.
Organizations like The Way International bring together people who want to connect with members of their communities and share in the power of their faith. By finding a group of people that matches your specific ideology, you might discover that you feel a sense of kinship that you did not think possible. This journey might also help to broaden your horizons and teach you about how different people of varied faiths come together to worship. Get yourself a copy of Rome Sweet Home to read about the incredible spiritual journey of one married couple.
Know Thyself
Connecting with another person or a large group of people can be wonderful for your spiritual journey. Still, you need to dedicate time to be alone with yourself. Finding time to be your thoughts can help you to gain perspective on your life. The days often rush by, one after another, and life often gives very little time for information and emotions to be processed. When you take a moment to yourself and meditate or ruminate upon a day’s events, it can have benefits.
Anxiety and stress can often come about or be made worse by feelings of emotional confusion. Suppressing emotions is easy when you keep yourself too busy to deal with them. Unfortunately, everything comes to the surface at some point. To handle your own thoughts and feelings in a healthy manner, you need to sit with yourself for a bit and think. Knowing yourself and what motivates you can help you to know your place in a broader spiritual sense.
Commune
Nature is often a good reflection of the power and brilliance of existence. To take a long look at the varied trees of a forest or the sheer magnitude of a mountain can help you to see just how beautiful the world can be. If you are looking to feel more connected to your spiritual side, communing with nature could be an easy step to take. Poets, priests, musicians, and great thinkers of all kinds have expressed how one’s life can change forever simply by making time to be surrounded by the natural world.
You also might discover that having animals in your life can help you to feel a greater sense of purpose and spiritual satisfaction. There are many abused animals in shelters who need love and affection. If you want to help another living creature and do a deed that will help you feel like you are living your life with a sense of meaning, then adoption could be a good idea. Having a pet around your home can also help to increase your overall happiness, which is an added bonus.
Discover Your Path
Start by finding a church near you with an app on your smartphone like OneParish. You can quickly find mass times near you, read the daily Mass readings and scriptures, read prayers, listen to sermons and homilies, and more. Another great way to incorporate God’s word into your busy life is with the Word Alert app. You get an alert on your phone with a new scripture every day. This is a great way to start your path to becoming more spiritual.
