A spiritual life is living a life with a focus of growing in inner maturity, fostering a deeper connection with your higher Self, and thereby unfolding your innate divinity. As this happens, a growing inner peace and fulfilment will flood into your mind.
Here are ten habits and practices that help you achieve this and live a spiritual life.
#1 Dedicate all your actions to the divine
We keep busy all day long doing one thing or another. We get so carried away in our busyness that we forget the divinity within us that enables us to perform all that we do.
Even when we are resting or sleeping, the divine intelligence within keeps our physiological functions going like respiration, circulation and digestion.
Think about the wonderful capabilities of our bodies:
- It can see, smell, taste, touch and hear the world around us.
- The hands are amazingly versatile and can perform a countless number of tasks.
- The various organ and glandular systems carry out their respective functions with polished proficiency without requiring our instructions or intervention. If these functions were in our own hands, we would likely forget to breathe, pump the heart or digest the food we eat. But our sagacious creator has made these functions automatic.
- The astonishingly sophisticated human brain is the most complex machine in the world. It has nearly 100 billion brain cells or neurons working alongside the complex nervous system to keep the body functioning beautifully.
What about the blessings in our outer environment that sustain our life? Recall these facts: We have air to breathe and exist; trees and plants constantly clear the air by taking in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen; the sun energises and sustains life on the planet, the earth supports us, and the rain provides us with precious water.
When we allow these facts to really sink in, we can’t help but feel a sense of awe and gratitude. We realise that our entire existence and all our capacities are possible only because of the enlivening presence of the divine.
And so, it is only good and right that we offer our actions back to the divine.
“Offering back our actions to the divine” means dedicating or mentally surrendering our actions and their results to the divine, their real source.
My guru, Swami Chinmayananda tells us, “What you have is all is His gift to you. What you do with what you have is your gift back to Him”
When living a spiritual life, we aim to remember our benevolent and intelligent Source with gratitude, offering all our actions to It.
#2 Read, listen or watch something spiritual everyday
If we don’t make time for spirituality, everyday matters and activities crowd it out.
To stay focused and on-track with living a spiritual life, we must hold up the inspiration in mind.
We must make it a point to read something spiritual or uplifting every day that reminds us that we are not merely human but divine spirit expressing in this form.
We could read books written by spiritual masters or listen to talks on how to live a spiritual life on YouTube and other platforms.
The number of traditional teachings that is available on the Internet coupled with an ever-growing number of new spiritual teachers coming on-line make it very easy to get some inspiration daily.
Daily spiritual reading and learning enrich your mind with higher ideas that help to keep you inspired and on path.
#3 To live a spiritual life, meditate every day
Meditation is not simply a practice to calm the mind or visualise and achieve worldly goals such as to make have greater success, lose weight or advance in your career.
The real goal of meditation is not worldly at all. It is to uncover the spiritual essence within us.
To live a spiritual life without meditation is like living next to the sea and never going in for a dip. We never get the experience of immersing in the stillness of the peaceful Self within.
Here’s a simple meditation practice:
- Find a suitable, clean and quiet spot where you can sit upright on a chair or on the floor. Gently close your eyes.
- Hold your body still and take slow, deep breaths in and out. Your mind will start to quiet down with just this simple practice.
- Now slowly breathe out. Hold the breath out for a couple of seconds. Then take a long, slow, deep breath in. When the lungs are full, hold in the air for a couple of seconds before breathing out again. When you breathe in this way, you will notice that your thoughts are suspended during the two times that you keep the breath out and hold it in. Your thought flow will be greatly curtailed with this practice.
- At this point, don’t congratulate yourself by thinking, “Wow!, it’s so peaceful”, or “I’m actually meditating!”
- Simply continue this breathing practice. As soon as your mind wanders, shift your attention back to your breathing. When you move your attention away from your thoughts, they die away from lack of attention.
- Stay focused and calm. Hold the silence as long as you can.
- When you start to fatigue, you can end your practice.
- Open your eyes and stretch your body.
Practice this simple meditation for about 10-15 minutes daily. As you develop the capacity, aim for at least thirty minutes per day.
The best time is early in the morning before you start your workday. If that’s not possible, the end of the day, when all the responsibilities are over, is also good time.
#4 Chant a mantra
A mantra is a special combination of sounds that contains a mystical power. Mantras were revealed to ancient sages in deep meditation. They are in the language of Sanskrit. The word, “mantra” itself is a Sanskrit word that means, “That which protects the mind.”
The mind is the instrument with which we perceive the world and respond to it. It is a delicate instrument that is easily influenced by its perceptions as we go about living our daily lives. As we know all too well, the world, people, media and our environment can be unhealthy or downright toxic.
If you want to live a spiritual life, it’s important to build a strong, protective shield against negativity entering your mind. Chanting a mantra is a powerful shield. Being a divine invocation, it immediately uplifts your mind and protects it from negativity in the environment, and negative thinking.
It settles down worrisome emotions, positively changes your mood and brings clarity of thought. This enables you to take better decisions and actions and so, reduces the chances of feeling regret or guilt down the road.
Examples of mantras are: Om Namah Shivaya (Prostrations to Lord Shiva),Om Shree Rama Jaya Rama Jaya Jaya Rama (Victory to Lord Rama), Om Namo Narayanaya (Prostrations to Lord Narayana).
You can repeat your mantra, audibly, softly or mentally. You could use a mala or rosary with 108 beads. And you can even write your mantra in a notebook kept specially for this practice.
Personally, chanting my mantra with focus and intention keeps me in alignment with God. Whenever I say or do anything that I later regret, it’s because I’ve gone astray from my divine central focus.
#5 Pray daily
Whether you are spiritual or religious, prayer uplifts your mind through the remembrance of the divine higher power.
It’s ideal to have a dedicated sacred space for prayer and meditation. It could be a table with a decorative cover where you have placed religious or spiritual symbols that represent divinity to you.
For example, they could be images of the embodiment of divinity such as Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus Christ, saints and masters; or symbols such as the Cross, an Om, the star of David, or a simple burning oil lamp or candle.
In prayer, you drop your ego, negative emotions, and worries. Surrender all your concerns to God, the Self within you. Affirm that you are aligning your will with the higher will.
You express your gratitude for the blessings in your life and ask for divine guidance, support and protection.
You will be surprised to see how surrendering makes you feel lighter and calmer. You start to see the divine hand through all the circumstances of your life. This increases your faith in God and purifies the mind.
Daily prayer is a sure way to remove negative thoughts and emotions, gain equanimity, and inner strength. It is one of the cornerstones of living a spiritual life.
#6 Choose the good and right over what is pleasant and easy
We constantly face the problem of making the right choice. And in choosing, we have to decide between the higher path that we know is good, and the easier, lower choice of following what we like and want.
The path of the good is motivated by what we value whereas the latter choice is driven by our personal likes, dislike and desires. For example, we value good health but choose to eat junk food. Or we value and benefit from waking up early for our spiritual practice but can’t seem to get out of bed at that time.
If we want to live a spiritual life, we must conform to the integrity and high values that are the nature of the higher Self. This means taking the higher path.
Taking the path of the good can be difficult, unpleasant, or inconvenient. It requires making a sacrifice now but brings peace of mind and inner growth in the long run. It builds character, inner strength and brings lasting happiness.
The lower path is the easy path. We are led by our personal likes and dislikes and appears attractive and convenient. We act on impulse and are ready to sacrifice long-term benefits for quick satisfaction in the present moment.
Since we give in to the lure of our senses, the lower path is disempowering. It brings regret and sorrow in the long run. Over time, this path weakens our inner strength and makes us easily led by the outer circumstances and people.
Living a spiritual life means looking at the long term and prioritising slow inner growth over quick and easy highs in the short term.
#7 Cultivate heart-based qualities
To live and grow in our spiritual life, we must develop heart-based qualities such as humility, kindness, honesty, compassion, forgiveness, tolerance and non-judgement. These are integral qualities of a tender-hearted, humane personality.
They are called divine qualities because they bring out the divinity lying inside every one of us. We can’t progress on our spiritual path without them.
Just as we work to earn wealth, we must also work to cultivate these divine qualities. That is why they are also known as our inner wealth (of character).
All divine qualities are based on the spiritual truth of unity or oneness of all creation. If we understand and accept that we are all essentially one within, we will not have to be told to be truthful, kind or forgiving. These qualities would come naturally.
To illustrate this point of oneness, let’s take the body as an example. If you accidentally poke your eye with your finger, you would never think of punishing your finger. The finger and your eye are all part of one “you”. Hurting your finger would be hurting yourself.
We each lead by example. As we strive to be better people, practising qualities such as kindness, tolerance, honesty, forgiveness and acceptance, we quietly inspire others to live up to those qualities too.
These qualities build integrity of character which brings inner strength and courage to face life with equanimity.
#8 Introspect daily
Introspection is taking time out to sit and look back at your day to reflect on your behaviour and underlying motives when dealing with the people and situations you met.
You can think of it as a daily balance sheet that gives you a picture of your actions and responses in the day. It helps to highlight areas where changes are needed in your thinking, speaking and behavior.
This awareness is important because you can’t fix a problem you don’t know or see.
Begin your introspection process at the end of the day by re-playing the events and observing your performance. Did you say something but secretly mean something else? Were you friendly to someone you don’t usually talk to because you needed a favour from him? Could you have handled the traffic delay with less stress and more equanimity?
Once you are aware, you will naturally want to change. Negate those behaviour and resolve to change. Substitute with higher responses.
In the examples above, always align your words with your inner knowing. Be kind and friendly with everyone. When facing unexpected stress, delays or disappointments, try to smile and distract your mind with something higher like listening to some soothing music or chanting your mantra.
No one can change us and we must do it ourselves. Self-transformation begins with self-awareness and self-awareness cannot come without daily self-introspection.
#9 Mend your relationships
Relationships are precious opportunities to learn more about ourselves and grow from them. How we react to people and how they react to us reflect our inner state and character. This is because relationships are like a mirror.
When facing conflicts within our relationships, it’s helpful to ask, “Am I holding back love? Am I separating myself from others? What can I do to make things better for us?”
If you’ve prioritised the other person and your relationship over being right and your ego, you are careful to think, speak and act in kind and loving ways. You are ready to apologise for your mistakes, hear the other person and look for win-win solutions.
The ego has no place in relationships. It makes us judgemental, blind to our own faults and quick to criticize others. We hold back our love and slip into competition, comparing, criticizing and arguing.
We must drop the ego and let love guide our thinking, words and actions.
With love, we become humble and better able to see our own shortcomings and mistakes. As a result, we graciously allow others to be less than perfect too.
In trying to live a spiritual life, we must mend our difficult relationships. Our inner growth and transformation will be incomplete without it.
#10 Prioritise peace
To live a spiritual life and maintain inner peace, we must do our best to avoid harbouring negativity in our mind or feeding the negativity already around us.
And so, we carefully choose who we spend time with, where we go, and what activities we take part in.
Peace is a choice. We don’t always choose it because reacting has become automatic. Or sometimes, retaliating in a negative way can bring a sense of immediate satisfaction. However, this satisfaction brings no peace of mind and upsets the harmony around.
When annoyed or irritated by people, prioritise peace above any satisfaction that the ego gets from negative reactions.
The goal is to go from a reactive, impulsive mind spitting out unkind words and actions, to stopping to pause and think before responding from the standpoint of love.
A sincere act of kindness always bring a happy, peaceful state of mind. It is appreciated and enjoyed both by ourselves and others. As we choose peace in our lives, we become beacons of light for others around us.
On track on our inward journey
The above ten ways to live a spiritual life require us to commit to our inner growth and mental peace. It’s not easy and we may lose focus or get back into old habits.
But if our desire to grow inwardly is strong, these detours will be temporary, and we will soon get on track on our inward journey to bringing out the beauty of the divine Self within.
Like this post? Sign up for the free fortnightly Spiritual Solutions Newsletter and receive the latest articles, news and updates in your email inbox
