Spirit Love combines two great loves:
the love for your own spirit and the love for the greater spirit.
The Greater Spirit can be defined as Source Energy, God, the Universe, or just the acknowledgement that there is something greater around us that cannot be seen. I personally call it the Universe.
When we acknowledge that both of these loves are imperative to our fulfillment on this planet, we can move toward deeper connection with them, and ultimately the flow of our life.
My definition of spirituality has drastically changed in the last few years.
Before I started my journey, spirituality was woo-woo, crunchy granola, love and light, whispers that I wasn't privvy to, hippy freedom, incense, crystals, and a belief in some higher power that is not religious. Nothing about it was concrete or real. It was just ideas and philosophy that didn't ever really help you with living this life.
Now, I see it so differently. I see it as compassion for yourself and others, understanding how to be with your emotions, awareness, seeing and engaging with parts of yourself that you don't like, peeling back the layers of yourself to get to the true heart of who you are, seeing how all of life is connected and there are no coincidences, knowing that so much is happening around us and for us, that we are here on this planet to evolve and grow.
I have a team of Spirit Guides or helpers. I believe that everyone has their own team as well.
They are spirits- beings that are not in physical form- what many people would think of as a ghost. Most psychics or mediums are tapping into their own team of Spirit Guides to get the messages for the person they are reading for.
Over the years my team of Guides has evolved and changed. At first they had names and different reasons for being on my team. Now a days, I feel them more as one entity that connects me to the spirit realm. I don't worry about their names or who I'm talking to because I know and trust in our connection. They exist to help me navigate the world and give guidance to me and anyone who seeks it. They don't always give me the answers, and they certainly let me fail when I need to. But they are ever-present, so I can tap into their guidance or ask a question any time I want to. I trust that their guidance is coming from a place of unconditional love, so I know that "you will always get exactly what you need."
I hear their guidance as a voice in my head, much like my own thoughts, but over the last few years I have figured out how to distinguish between the two.
I believe the most important purpose of meditation is to learn to understand our emotions, desires, judgments, and fears. Without the awareness of these things, we make decisions clouded by them, leading to a distrust of our self. Through meditation, we begin to listen and trust in ourselves again, freeing us to truly change and grow.
Meditation is a way for us to quiet our mind, quiet our thoughts. Humans have 60,000 - 80,000 thoughts per day. Prior to having a meditation practice, most of us don't think about our thoughts. Rather, we simply let them flow, often taking on a life of their own. This becomes the perfect breeding ground for feelings like guilt, shame, resentment, and fear to grab hold of us and send us into a spiral of anger, worry, stress, or anxiety. As researcher, storyteller, and podcaster Brene Brown says, "the shame spiral."
Meditation allows us to notice these thoughts, sit with them, understand them, and stop our habitual reactions to them- the spirals. It allows us to listen to what we are really feeling beneath the surface of fear, guilt, shame, or anger. It allows us to listen to what we truly desire or need, without the distraction of outside influences. When we can tune-in and truly listen to ourselves, we can free ourselves to live in authenticity and love.
I began meditating in January 2019. Truthfully, I was seeking some personal space and time to myself; surrounded by my 2 and 4 year old boys most of my waking hours. I began by using the Headspace app and fairly quickly (a few months) found myself seeking complete quiet rather than guided meditations. Each night I would go to bed looking forward to the next morning with my meditation pillow (a recliner chair), a quiet house, candle light, and my coffee :) It wasn't long before I realized that I had discovered something that would forever be a part of life. Now a days I meditate most weekday mornings before the kids get up. On the weekends I allow myself to sleep in and find other ways to recharge like exercise, solo shopping or time with my girlfriends.
Simply put, to feel good. I have laid out my more specific argument for meditation in the text above, but the main reason I continue to do it is because it brings me peace to start my day and that makes me feel happy. There are many other data driven reasons to do it, but you can find that info on your own if you choose. I don't focus on that stuff, I just know that when I meditate, I feel better than when I don't do it.
No. My advice to everyone who is new to meditation is to make yourself comfortable. I started by laying down on the ground because that is what felt best for my body. Now a days I usually meditate in a comfy chair with my feet up and my head laid back. You will never find stillness if your body feels uncomfortable and fidgety. There is no right or wrong, only what feels good to you. And that may change from day to day, so be open and listen to what your body is telling you.
Photography by Kristen Marie
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