REAL TALK ABOUT CRAFTING YOUR OWN PRACTICE

Recently I've been noticing a weird (and in my opinion undesirable) trend. I am seeing and hearing people deride themselves because they seem to feel they are not meditating and practicing their spirituality "well enough".

This. Is. Crazy.

We are not doing magical/spiritual things for approval from others. We are not meditating to look cool or be thought of in a certain positive light. This is not what these things are about. Meditation and other contemplative practices are here for our benefit - they are not meant to be one more thing to beat ourselves up about.

Your meditations don't have to "look" like meditation to anyone else. No one (including you!) needs to be judging the frequency, logistics or manner in which you meditate.

Your spiritual practices do not have to match anything you see on Instagram (in fact it is probably better if they don't).

Your inner work should feel like one big long adventure; where you are exploring new terrain and discovering all kinds of treasures that mean a lot to you, but don't necessarily need to be shared with anyone else.

You are free. You can sculpt and craft and create your own practice with no need for approval from anyone else. If you meditate on Sunday mornings with your headphones on for 20 minutes that's perfect - avoid the tendency to then criticize yourself for not meditating the rest of the week. Or maybe your inner work takes the form of reading really good things or taking an afternoon to be in community as you cut and paste together your own oracle cards or creating a simple altar in your bedroom or planting flowers, or writing something beautiful and helpful on your bathroom mirror or walking out in nature or making a really beautiful meal for your friends.

We all go through phases and passages in life, at different times we require different spiritual experiences and input. The idea is to not get carried away by what other people are doing and instead, make your own way that feels nourishing and elevating to you at this moment in your life.

We live in a beckoning world, rife with distraction. My dream is that every person is able to access the relaxation and connection with their guides necessary to maintain big-time confidence in their own ability to know what will really make them happy as opposed to what other people (or worse, corporations) say will make them happy.

This work is about showing up and then flowing with what you discover. There are myriad ways to do this and not all of them are featured on Instagram. :)

If we release the temptation to judge ourselves regarding meditation, etc. we allow our practice to constantly evolve. This free-flowing approach is not only the most beautiful and fruitful way to co-create spiritual experiences in our lives, it is also the most skillful way to sustain our practices throughout our lifetime and in our moment to moment experience. 

So yes, I'm always going to gently recommend that you show up spiritually with consistency, but it doesn't need to look like a rigorous, rigid thing. It can be as simple as looking up from this email and knowing you are here. From my heart, please don't berate yourself internally over the frequency or content of your meditations.

You are doing great, we all are. There is a messiness to life and that is ok, actually that's where a lot of insight comes in. 

If it seems fun to you, challenge yourself today to be deeply sweet to yourself as you seek out the most nourishing, delicious spiritual practice that fits the life you are living today.

So much love to you, wishing you a cornucopia of spiritual experiences that feed your soul and make you feel like magic - which you ARE!!!

xo
JS