Ask yourself some questions;
What’s your definition of spirituality?
What does feeling more connected look like for you?
“Recognising and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected by a power greater than all of us – grounded in love and belonging” Brene Brown
“Knowing that you’re on a team even if you don’t know who the other players are” Simon Sinek
“An energetically felt connection to an invisible life force” Anni Hood
Professor James Pennebaker – Texas University
70% of resilient people use writing as a way of coping – they get their story down on paper as a means of release and method of practising connection with themselves.
Compassion – Recognising the light and dark in our shared humanity
Being able to communicate emotions;
Getting under the bonnet of how we feel – can we articulate the granularity of feeling?
Emotional literacy – being able to articulate and communicate emotion, most people can articulate three – we need 30 to be emotionally literate and be able to effectively communicate in a way that is clearly understood.
We are NOT cognitive beings who occasionally feel? No!
Emotional feel is at the wheel
We are hard wired to physiologically respond to feeling FIRST
5 good reasons to cultivate spirituality;
- Hopefulness and optimism
- Increased compassion
- Sense of meaning and purpose
- Inspiration and appreciation
- Peace of mind
Insights and Takeaways
Spiritual access points – there are several ways that one can become more connected with oneself, with nature and with a higher consciousness, whatever that means to an individual – it could mean;
- Conscious/awareness practice process
- Addiction recovery – the AA process is deeply spiritual
- Writing and the creative process
- Nature – wild swimming, wild sleeping, walking
- Observation of unconscious reactions within our bodies (autonomic nervous systems) spiritual practice will positively affect the parasympathetic system
- Breathing
- Stillness
“Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become”- Be conscious of your response to situations and circumstance
- Noticing
- Wanting
- Doing
- Liking
Take your own snapshot of connection in action;
- How do you feel in your physical body?
- What emotions do you feel?
- Has there been a shift? What has allowed the shift?
‘Energy flows where attention goes’ – the more practice we give to how we want to feel or the life and emotions we want to embody, the more those thoughts and actions become a consistent reality.
International Journal of Children’s spirituality;
“ In a modern world that is consumed with materialism, which moves at a frantic pace and which is frayed by cultural, racial and religious divisiveness, the yearning of the human spirit to connect and find meaning is sometimes overlooked”