Spiritual Practices

Sharon Porter

Spiritual practices are anything you do intentionally to help you grow spiritually.

The following list of useful spiritual practices was generated at a Joyful Living retreat at Belton, Texas in 2011. These practices are useful for contemplation. Also, you can pick one and “test” it for a day or a week to see what experience it brings.

Enjoy spiritual poetry. Read, write, or memorize and recite.
Enjoy inspirational music. Listen, play, or sing.
Pray for spiritual progress for yourself and others. Imagine how that progress would change motives and actions.
Adore God’s qualities. Desire them deeply for yourself and others.
Meditate and encourage receptivity to spirit.
Read spiritual teachings and think deeply about them.
Memorize sayings or “scripture”.
Schedule time for spiritual focus and keep the appointment.
Journal (write) your inner feelings and thoughts.
Nature walk to observe and reflect.
Commune with nature. Feel more than think. Appreciate.
Make a habit of looking for good in others.
Pray silent, brief prayers in the moment of need or gratefulness.
Clear bad feelings and lift spirits by counting blessings.
Apply creativity to imagine what would be best.
Produce inspirational art or music.
Garden as cooperation with the spirit of life.
Commune with your Spirit Within.
Engage frequently in conversations with your Inner Spirit.
Think of spirit as unseen but real, and contactable.
Treat everything as sacred and entitled to respect.
Contemplate the spiritual impact of what you do.
Spend some “porch time” daydreaming and letting ideas drift in freely.
Think deeply on the meaning/purpose of life and its activities. What is it for? What are we supposed to learn from it?
Cultivate values.
Contemplate values for the meaning they add to life. Why does it matter to you if you care about others?
Prepare the path with spiritual values to be used in the future. (See BillsBooks”N”Beyond.com Activities – “Prepare the Path”.)
Listen and respond with spiritual motivation (kindness.)
Go about giving mental love hugs. Be gentle.
Serve others unselfishly.
Physically dance while imagining the spirit to be your partner.
Move with music while communing with spirit.
Practice intentional empathy. (Empathy is understanding how another is feeling.)
Practice intentional compassion. (Compassion is sympathy for the suffering of another and a desire to help.)
Greet your new day with joy and optimism. Expect new insights.
Acknowledge the involvement of celestial persons in your life.
Explore spiritual living by thought, feeling and action.
Express your gratitude to spirit for life’s gifts and opportunities.
Make a commitment each day on awakening to find and express goodness in that day’s events.
Enjoy gentle and polite humor.
Visualize spiritual reality.
Trust and have faith in spirit.
Engage in spiritual speculation. Why would God do it that way?
Love, respect, and appreciate yourself and others.
Let God love you. Feel God’s presence.
“Soak” in values.
Engage in intentional forgiving.
Predict spiritual consequences.
Act on your service urges.
Seek spiritual guidance, listen and respond.
Contemplate the immensity and the miracle of the cosmos.
Spend some time in rapt attention to what you are experiencing. Mindfulness of what you feel physically and spiritually.
Let go of what is bothering you, especially guilt.
Review and contemplate a list of spiritual practices.
Surrender control to spirit.
Celebrate spiritual success and insight.
Look for and plan service opportunities.
Contemplate the meaning of love repeatedly.
Play with spirit.
Soak in spiritual practices.
Trust and confide in others.
Feel your soul and the Spirit Within.
Share your goals and sense of purpose with your Inner Spirit as well as with other people.
Remind yourself and others “Everything you do in this world matters”, even though it may not have the result you expect or want.
Contemplate how love would behave in various situations.