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The connection to your higher self can give your life great meaning and purpose. For this, having a spiritual practice is crucial.
But where do you start?
I have found a combination of spiritual practices to be best for me. You should find what feels right to you. Feel free to experiment with different practices.
Keep in mind, however, that sticking to a practice when it feels right, will reap the most benefits.
And remember, learning a new skill or having profound insights requires courage, openness, honesty, and persistence.
Before we get into the spiritual practices, let’s quickly address the question of what the higher self is.
Although there are many elaborate definitions of the higher self, it’s not helpful to get stuck on defining something that is beyond the rational mind.
So for the sake of this article, think of the higher self as the main control center of all being.
Now then, here are 7 spiritual practices you can incorporate in your life to connect with your higher self.
1. Prayer
Prayer is especially attractive for people who are part of a religion.
In new age spirituality, on the other hand, prayer is like a neglected child.
Yet you shouldn’t feel turned off by the idea of praying only because you don’t consider yourself religious.
You can use prayer as a way of talking to the higher self.
Asking a higher power to help you out of a difficult situation and putting some responsibility into the hands of God, or the Universe, or whatever you want to call it, can be a liberating feeling.
Nonetheless, keep in mind that the most powerful prayer is a prayer of gratitude.
When you are grateful for what you have in your life, you invite universal forces to send you more to be grateful for.
2. Meditation
Meditation is hands-down the most beneficial practice I have implemented in my life.
If prayer is talking to the higher self, meditation is listening to the higher self.
Apart from that, meditation is the one spiritual practice you shouldn’t miss out on.
There are many different types of meditation, but the essential idea is pretty simple, you sit down and become aware.
Start by listening to your surroundings without identifying any sounds and focus on your breathing.
Thoughts will come up and that’s completely normal. Meditation is not about making your thoughts disappear, it’s about observing them, letting them go, not giving them any meaning.
Imagine your thoughts being a river just flowing by.
When you do get lost in your thoughts don’t judge yourself, just gently return to your breathing, that’s all.
A good description of meditation is focused non-focus.
Although Zen Buddhism, for example, says to meditate for the sake of meditation, meditation has a lot of positive long-term benefits.
Meditation improved my life drastically. Through meditation, I became more peaceful, relaxed, and mindful.
Moreover, it helped me to be calmer in stressful situations and essentially became a tool I can fall back on when I find myself in an anxious state of mind.
Eventually, you might even start receiving specific impulses from your higher self.
Check out my simple guide on how to start with meditation.
3. Yoga
Yoga is more than just physical exercise or moving meditation, it’s a science to be in complete harmony with life.
There are many different types of yoga and sitting unmoving meditation, as mentioned above, can be part of your yoga practice.
Although yoga includes physical movement, the most important part is the breath or pranayama.
This is a means to stay present in the moment. Also, focusing on your breathing will help you to keep your balance and deepen your postures, or asanas.
Yoga is a comprehensive approach with the goal to bring body, mind, and soul into harmony, and it is considered as a way to reach enlightenment.
For many, yoga is a lifestyle, and a regular yoga practice can deepen your connection to the higher self.
So if you’re looking for a comprehensive spiritual path, yoga might be worth looking into.
4. Quiet Reflection
Quiet reflection is something all of us should do regularly.
It can help you create order, make meaning, and discover what’s important to you in life.
Find a quiet place without distractions and just be with yourself.
It’s a way to connect to your feelings and understand yourself better.
It’s also a method to examine where your reactions or opinions might be flawed and what parts of your life need improvement.
You don’t have to sit. You can walk, lay down, stand, whatever works best for you.
If thinking is not enough, feel free to talk to yourself or write. Use whatever supports your self-reflection process.
In time, you might start to feel like you’re in communication with something beyond your individual self. Thoughts, impulses, ideas, and insights from the higher self could be reaching you.
Seek out silence and solitude and take time to reflect.
5. Time in Nature
Another good way to connect to the higher self and to feel interconnectedness is to spend time in nature.
Go into a forest, a park, to a lake, to a beach, or on a mountain and let your worries and anxieties melt away.
Observe the nature around you, immerse yourself in the experience.
Be mindful, stay present in the moment, and appreciate the beauty of mother earth.
Time in nature can increase your feelings for a greater force. Many awakening experiences happen in a natural environment.
Further, studies indicate that forest bathing, or Shinrin Yoku, can have positive effects on physiological and psychological health, such as decreased blood pressure and improvements to negative mood.
Apart from that, most people can confirm that time in nature increases overall well-being.
As a bonus, you can also do the above-mentioned practices in nature. That way you kill two birds with one stone so to speak.
So go outside, it’s a beautiful world.
6. Art
“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” – Thomas Merton
Artwork of various types has been around for a long time and the first prehistoric artworks can be dated back to 70.000 – 40.000 BC.
Art in any kind of form – be it painting, music, or dancing – is a powerful way to express or process your feelings, experiences, or ideas.
Having a form of creative expression will help you to connect deeper to yourself and bridge the gap between your mind and soul, and the material world.
It takes courage to express your creativity – to create something, which has its origins in the depths of your mind.
Arguably some art has its origins even beyond the mind. Many artists report being connected to a higher power when they are in the creative process.
Becoming an artist is a process as you figure out your style and way of expression.
Moreover, it’s a humbling experience. In the beginning, you might not be able to portray your vision the way you have imagined it.
But sometimes you don’t have to. Your vision can develop in the process.
Another difficulty is knowing when you are done, and some artists even say that this is the hardest part.
Creating art can teach you to finish things, not overthink, and let things go.
Non-perfection is perfection, or as Salvador Dali put it:
“Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.”
7. Psychedelics
First, I’d like to say that I do not condone the use of any illegal or legal substances.
Nonetheless, with the growing interest in psychedelics and more research being done on the therapeutic use of psychedelic substances, I just had to include them.
My first experience with psilocybin mushrooms rocked my world and changed my outlook on life forever.
It’s also fair to say that this experience kickstarted my interest in spirituality.
Still, psychedelics are by no means a shortcut to enlightenment.
However, they might open a door of perception for some people – a door to the idea that there is a greater force.
Also, while meditation or other spiritual practices might not do anything for some people, psychedelics will almost certainly induce a feeling of significance.
Although many people describe profound spiritual or religious experiences while under the influence of psychedelics, they are not for everyone.
You must know what you get yourself into, as the experience can be very intense and for some even uncomfortable or scary.
Be ready to be confronted by yourself.
Nonetheless, as it is more a bungee jump into a higher state of consciousness, you should not neglect more sustainable spiritual practices.
“Beware of unearned wisdom.” – Carl Jung
Luka
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Thank you for your post 🙂 it’s helping me kickstart my journey.
Excellent list of approaches! Contemplation, meditation, mindfulness, self-inquiry, and writing have been the most transformative methods of “self-re-realization.” I say re-realization because I’ve always known “who I am,” but I have not consciously and directly experienced this “truth of self,” perpetually. I discovered (or re-discovered) that I am existence; nothing more, nothing else, nothing less – beyond form and content or magnitude. No matter of mind energy or any ‘doing,’ can alter or change this. Knowing this is apparent and accessible to all sentient beings, however ‘staying’ as this and only this; resonating with only this – this is the… Read more »