Soul practices for the journey

When we think about engaging in some form of spiritual practice, those that usually come most readily to mind are such traditional religious practices as prayer, fasting and worship. Indeed, it may be that these are the only ones we know about. Consequently, when we are soul journeying, we may struggle to find specific practices that will resource us along the way.

Spiritual practices take many forms, however, and there is a much greater variety of them than most of us realise. Alongside the traditional religious practices which many of us engage in, there is also a whole host of other activities that we might not think of as being spiritual in nature. For example, ordinary, everyday actions and activities such as reading, writing, creating art, listening to music or communing with nature can become imbued with spiritual significance and can play an important part in our search, whether for the More or for soul.

The art of soul practice

Soul practices are those that we engage in with the specific intention of resourcing what I call our 'soul work'. Fundamentally, soul work is the process of awakening to our deeper self, reconnecting with it and bringing it into being. It is about exploring the inner landscape of our soul, listening to and dialoguing with it, healing and nurturing it and finally, learning to live from this essential core of our being.

'You create a path of your own by looking within yourself and listening to your soul, cultivating your own ways of experiencing the sacred and then practicing it.
Practicing until you make it a song that sings you.’
Sue Monk Kidd

The art of soul practice rests on the understanding that each of us is unique and each of us will tread a different path in our search for soul. What may be right for someone else may not, therefore, be right for us. It also recognises that what our soul needs may change as we move through life and that what used to nourish this deeper self may no longer do so now.

It calls us to be open-minded, adventurous and creative rather than relying only on what is familiar, conventional or traditional. For the particular practices that will resource us are sometimes to be found in strange and unlikely places. When we create time and space for soul in the midst of our busy lives; when we listen to a piece of music that touches us deeply; when we read a poem that moves us to tears; when we create a mandala or walk a labyrinth; or when we journal our thoughts and feelings as we walk the path our soul has shown us, we are engaging in soul practice.

And finally, the art of soul practice urges us to let our soul be the guide, to listen to its promptings, to trust its intuitive knowing and wisdom to set us on the path that is right for us. For there are no traditions we have to adopt, no rules we have to obey, no requirements we have to meet, no wrong ways to practice. There is only the path that is right for us and the only way to find it is to trust our soul to take us there.

Every month, I will be publishing a blog post which will give you information about particular soul practices that I and others have found useful on our journeys. Some may be helpful to you; others may not. If need be, feel free to adapt them so that they will work better for you or to ignore them if you do not feel drawn to them. .

'What matters is how quickly you do
what your soul directs.'

Rumi