Would you believe me if I told you that at the core of my therapy work is life between seeking and finding spirituality? That is indeed the case.
I am reminded often in my work with people that, in a way or another, we all try to make sense of who are we, why are we here on Earth, what is our purpose and who created the universe around us. In seeking answers some of us follow religions and believe in Gods or other higher-powers, and others, more skeptical, look at sciences. If you like me, perhaps you have explored both avenues and when neither of these have offered you the answers that you were looking for, you started looking through the emptiness and despair right in your soul through prayer.
The healing power of prayer is an undeniable human experience common to millions on this planet, irrespective of the religious doctrine. Nowadays, however, I am learning that many people are searching the soul outside the religion realm and turn their face to a new way of being, embracing spirituality.
Spirituality gives meaning to our human life
Far away from the confined and rigid religious teachings, spirituality can be about everything that connects us with our souls and the universe around us, and can be found virtually everywhere and in everything.
Some of us are introduced to the practice of spirituality in our early years in life, but others discover it later in life, when their minds feel overwhelmed by the demands of this world, or perhaps when their bodies get ill and require the support of the mind and soul for healing.
Whatever the case, today we have sufficient evidence that deep levels of spirituality give our human life a different meaning, a sense of purpose and, from my personal and client work experience, a much richer experience of life.
It is as simple as this: allow your senses to connect you with your real self and accept that your thoughts do not belong to you but are particles of energy in motion. Recognise that vivration inside of you and believe that you are part of something bigger, call it a higher power or a universal consciousness or whatever force it is that keeps us all connected.
Are you still searching for inner peace?
I have not always placed emphasis on spiritual connection in my work, but today I do. We all long for love and connection and when we feel connected we are more in touch with our intuition and we communicate better in all 4 relationship circles. This way we keep ourselves open to happiness and develop more fruitful relationships with ourselves, our family, others and the world.
Being with people has showed me that, although not easy, changing our perspective in life and embracing other ways of being can bring us vitality, increased awareness and inner peace.
I know that connecting with our three-dimension body-mind–soul is not a simple endeavour, since in our early years of life we were taught to focus on the physiological sensations in our body and throughout the school years we are trained to enhance the abilities of our minds.
It seem that, unless we grow up in a highly religious or spiritual family system, we gain little insight into our souls and we fail to sense its power and healing benefits.
But the reality is that we do not need to be scientists and understand quantum physics to feel that we are energy and we are all connected, and not separated as we the scientific revolution has made us believe over the past centuries.
I have learned that when we connect with our body-mind-soul energy, with the others and the universe around us we reach a much high level of spiritual maturity and we come closer to finding some of the answers we are searching for. Every day I find that some of us have found the answers to their most fundamental existential questions and have connected with the source of their inner peace, but others are still searching.
There is more to reality than the physical world
What seems to come more clearer is that those that have found answers to their existential questions are generally curious people which feel that there is more to reality than the physical world. Some think that there could be unseen worlds out there that might transcend our understanding, and others look at our dreams and intuition as channels used by the higher-powers to communicate with us.
What I found extraordinary is that those people that believe in transpersonal experiences think that maybe the purpose of their lives is to become who they have to be, to turn their human potential into life, into experience, and probably they are right and we can all reach that understanding if we believe that is possible.
It is fascinating to see that over the past years it is becoming more accepted that going into our inner world through prayer or meditation can bring fantastic benefits to our wellbeing. Mindfulness is receiving in recent times a lot of attention and I find it absolutely amazing to see people from all corners of the world, all ages and cultures, interested in gaining awareness and heading towards more clarity and inner awakening.
This has compeltely changed the way I work and has helped me guide clients answer the 6 most fundamental existential questions:
– What are you made of?
– Where are you coming from?
– How did you get here?
– Who are you really?
– What is your purpose in life?
– Where are you heading from here?
At the end of this article I would like to invite you do a little exercise yourself and reflect on your own purpose in life. How did you dream your life to be when you were young? What did you want to become, what did you want to do and where was your passion? And what did the important people raising you wanted you to be and do? Where are you now? Are you close to your dreams or quite far away from them? How did you get there? Do you believe you can turn your life in the direction you feel will make you happier within? Connect with that core of your being and let it guide you into your future life.