Getting to WooWoo

Getting to WooWoo

I love bumping into words that we use all the time, but don’t necessarily agree on what they mean. The one I have been thinking about lately is “spirituality.”

I use it when I say that I am spiritual, but not religious. I use it to describe the feeling I get when I contemplate nature, and then feel part of my natural world when I do so. I use it when I have mystical or metaphysical experiences.

Writing to you everyday is a spiritual exercise for me. I feel connected to my deeper self when I write these contemplations, and that deeper connection is a lovely way to start my day.

It is also easier for me to feel engaged in my life when I feel spiritual. When I make that connection, I feel happy, I feel magnanimous, I feel kind, I feel tolerant, and relaxed. When I feel spiritual, the work I do feels significant and satisfying. Oh, yeah, I am living my natural life. How lovely is it that I have found something to do that consistently gets me to that place of ease.

So that’s my query for the day. What are paths we can use to connect to our natural lives? How do I feel when I feel spiritual?

Curiously, when I approach something as a spiritual exercise, the most mundane activity is imbued with significance.

When I think of housework as a spiritual exercise, I feel like I am blessing my home and family. I notice that when I have made that decision, rubbing the vacuum on the floor takes on a different kind of weight, a cleansing, rather than just a cleaning, a purge rather than a tidying, and it feels like I am contributing to the well being of the world in a tiny way.

When I think of my physical activities; walking, qigong, yoga, running, dancing, weights, and so on, as spiritual activities, they gain in significance. I find myself dedicating that particular practice to someone or something. All of a sudden, that annoying workout becomes a sacred act.

When I think of the tedious tasks at my Clark Kent job as something that contributes to the University’s contributions to world betterment, spending my day cutting and pasting is less heinous, and seems to matter. That one doesn’t always work, but I know that it has more to do with my attitude than with the actual task. I mean, cleaning the cat box is cleaning the cat box.

Likewise, when writing thank you notes, or sympathy cards, birthday cards, thinking of you notes, and so one, by starting with a little intention, the act of writing a note all the way through to mailing it, makes it feel special.

So, for me, inserting a tiny ritual at the beginning of doing stuff can make the mundane feel sacred.

Having changed from feeling like nothing I did mattered to feeling like my being alive makes a difference is nice. Having changed from feeling isolated to feeling connected is nice. Having changed from struggling to living my natural life more and more is so pleasant, and easy.

How do you feel when you feel spiritual? What makes you feel spiritual? How do you live a life of significance? Why is it all so easy?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 080421013