Experiential Spirituality in the Pursuit of Balance - Prayer/Meditation
Posted on June 27, 2013 by Scott Peterson, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Practices of experiential spirituality enhance our ability to find balance in the midst of stress created by the constant striving toward success.
“It was a dark and stormy night…” A classical opening to an ever-present reality. The ‘darkness and storms’ we experience throughout life and how a person responds to them, says more about the person than about the struggles themselves.
After many years of teaching martial arts, I have found that one of the most important pieces to being able to becoming proficient in the physical aspects of the practice is a sense of balance. Knowing how your own body moves and shifts in relation to the challenges that are presented can make your response much more effective than if you are coming from a place where you are off-balance. An effective defense, shifting into an appropriate offense, is only possible when you are in a state of physical balance.
How does a person learn balance? Practice. Lots and lots of practice. Becoming familiar with your physical body, and how it moves through repetitive movement, builds a foundation that is adaptable to different situations and a feeling of competency and strength follows. The use of outward props (balance boards, uneven floors) increases the challenge and so also increases the effort needed to respond in an effective manner. It often feels like learning to walk again, because you begin to be aware of yourself in a new way that opens up a number of previously unknown variables.
What doest that mean for a life lived through experiential spirituality? Again, practice. Experiential spirituality is less focused on ‘what’ one believes and more on the ‘how’ a person puts that belief into action.
One of the first practices that should be undertaken is that of Prayer/Meditation. Spending time in relationship with God (Ultimate Reality) expands a person’s perspective and brings a new understanding of what is important in life. Individual problems slowly melt away as they are approached from a wider perspective that can be found in prayer and meditation. Now the prayer/meditation that I am advocating is not prayer comprised of a long list of wants and needs, requests for help, and intervention from “something or someone ‘out there’” needs to take care of. It has more to do with connecting and opening the self to that which is Greater, and being receptive and listening for direction.
Quiet becomes precious in the struggle to keep up, to succeed, to drive forward, as it is looked upon as wasted time. But it is often the most beneficial time spend because of the chance to step back and take a look at a situation from a detached position. The choice to see a challenge from an objective viewpoint released the emotional ties that often create a vortex of energy that pulls a person deeper into problem, rather than working toward a solution.
Create a practice of quiet Prayer/Meditation that begins with even 5 minutes of stepping away from the turmoil and stress and finding a place of peace and wholeness. Feel the benefits of the experience, not for any insights or solutions that may appear (although they may), but rather for the experience itself. Let whatever happens, be what happens. Time spent in prayer or meditation is time invested in your path toward accomplishing all you want achieve. It is precious, it is beneficial, it is life giving.
In my next article, I will be writing about how creating or being a part of communities of support and accountability are part of an experiential spirituality.
Coming around to the power of change…
Scott
