As we reflect on our spiritual biography, it helps us to reconnect with our spiritual self. It’s a way to explore and renew our inner spirit. The Art of Intentional Living requires us to “get on the path” to be present, to be aware and to awaken our hearts as everything is connected and everything belongs.

As we begin this process of reflection, we see that our life is an unfolding story. This reflection helps us to understand where we are in that story. It can also reveal the possibilities and the paths ahead of us if we are willing to be open and present to them.  These paths can lead us to self-understanding, spiritual growth and intentional transformation.

A spiritual biography may include a collection of stories: stories of hope, faith, love, joy, transformation, pain, suffering, desolation or consolidation. This collection of stories may include times of deep faith in which we felt connected to a deeper meaning and purpose in our lives. They may also include stories of despair and loneliness in which we felt alone and abandoned.

When we record our stories, much awareness, insight and wisdom is revealed to us. By claiming and voicing our stories, we are able to embrace the spirit within to appreciate our gifts, heal our wounds, and intentionally move forward on our path.

Creating a journal is another tool that can help us deepen our spirituality and reflect on our journey. There is no right way to journal; whatever way you approach it is right for you.

Here are some thoughts for reflection and to help get you started.

Be Intentional When You Journal

Journaling can be a wonderful tool to reconnect with your spiritual self and embrace the spirit within. If you decide to journal, set aside a time to relax, quiet your mind and be attentive to your spirit. You can set a specific time of the day or week to journal such as every evening before going to bed, before you have breakfast, or on an afternoon break.

Think about how journaling can be used as a tool on your spiritual journey. What are some of the reasons and ways to journal?

Recording Your Spiritual Story

In addition to sharing our thoughts and feelings, journaling can help us to record our spiritual story.  We can continue to add to our spiritual lifeline and our spiritual biography as we cross thresholds, experience conversations and grow in our spirituality.  As our spiritual story develops and unfolds, the art of journaling can awaken our heart to connecting the human story and the divine story.

Getting “Unstuck”

Journaling can help us get “unstuck” and work through obstacles by shifting our thinking and re-imaging our spiritual life force. As we reflect on our spiritual journey, we can ask questions to help us obtain clarity such as:

What am I afraid of?

What do I appreciate about myself?

Where is God or the Other in all of this?

When do I feel the most in touch with my spirituality?

Forgiveness

If we are having a problem forgiving someone, it may be helpful to write down the person’s name or the question: Why am I unable to forgive this person? Or the question: Why am I unable to forgive myself?

Gratitude List

Begin or end your day by creating a gratitude list. Asking the question: What am I grateful for today? This can help us to be present and attentive to the spirit within. What is on your list today?

Sharing Emotions

Sometimes we are unable to find words to express our emotions, when this occurs, we can doodle or scribble in our journal. For example, this can be especially helpful if we are angry and we don’t wish to talk about our anger at a particular time. However, we would like some expression of this anger.  We can also journal expressions of love, compassion, bliss, and doubt.

Self Expression

Try using crayons, markers, charcoal, or other artistic tools to express yourself in your journal.  Get in touch with your inner child by drawing, coloring or writing with colorful expressions that relate to your thoughts and feelings at a particular time.  Write sideways, upside down or backward, or use your left hand. Be open to possibilities of self-expression.

Joy

Journal those things that bring you true joy: people, places, events, things, times of day, etc. Reflect on why these things bring you joy.

Centering Ritual

Develop a centering ritual associated with your journaling. This can strengthen your journal practice and create openness to self-nurturing. This centering ritual can include enjoying a cup of tea, listening to music, breathing mediation, centering prayer or reading a favorite quote before or after journaling.

General Reflection

Think about a general reflection before journaling such as: What am I feeling right now? or What ‘s been on my mind? or What is stirring in me at this time?

Think about recording the day, time, and place when your journal.  This may help to understand the context of your thoughts and feelings at a later date.

1. Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. Dalai Lama
2. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. Dalai Lama
3. There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way. Thich Nhat Hanh
4. If it isn’t good, let it die. If it doesn’t die, make it good. Ajahn Chah
5. If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher. Pema Chodron
6. As soon as we wish to be happier, we are no longer happy. Walter Landor
7. Hatred never ceases by hatred; it only ceases by love. This is timeless truth. Joseph Goldstein
8. There is no enlightenment outside of daily life. Thich Nhat Hanh
9. Realize that this very body, with its aches and its pleasures…is exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake, fully alive.                                 Pema Chodron
10. When we scratch the wound and give into our addictions we do not allow the wound to heal. Pema Chodron

As we read about the history of the Jewish people, we find that they did not speak God’s name – Yahweh.

They breathed it: inhale – Yah; exhale – weh. It was the first word in the morning and last word at night to pass their lips.

In its simplicity, the Yahweh prayer harkens to that first moment of life outside the womb when we drew our first breath of the Earth’s air and our first cry.

As you begin the Yahweh prayer, let it remind you of your first breath and your first cry of longing.

Breathe the syllables with open mouth and lips, relaxed tongue:

Inhale – YAH
Exhale – WEH

Begin in the morning. Repeat throughout the day. 

Remember that we speak the name of Divine Reality – all the time, consciously or unconsciously.

By our very breathing, we are praying, participating in God’s grace.

The purifying of our intention and motivation is the basic way that we unite our inner and our outer worlds. (Please read that twice!) Richard Rohr

Be intentional about your movement from no-where to now-here.

We know that our path to intentional living and to our spiritual life begins when we become aware. Awareness is about making the leap to living an authentic life. We commit to being fully present, feeling our heart, and engaging in the next moment without an agenda.

As we continue to awaken to our spiritual life and embark on our spiritual journey, it may be helpful to have spiritual principles to guide us along the path.  You may already have spiritual principles developed or you may wish to explore another foundation for intentional living and the leap into an authentic life.

The following spiritual principles provide a way to begin to frame some possibilities.

Five Spiritual Principles:

1. Listen deeply to your heart and trust what it says.
2. Commit your heart firmly to God, Jesus, a higher power, the Spirit, Buddha, the Divine, or the Other.
3. Strive gently for freedom of the heart.
4. Belong joyfully to the Other in the midst of all you do.
5. Do each day’s ordinary things with great love.

These five spiritual principles express a spirituality that seeks inner transformation:

Why #1: The cost of not listening to our hearts can be high. Until our health suffers or we develop destructive life patterns, we may not realize that our spirits are bruised and battered – we may not even recognize ourselves anymore.

Why #2 Spirituality is about love – being loved and loving in return – ourselves, others and the “Other.” Like all love, if it is real and if it is to last, it has to have a spine: the firm commitment of the will to life-changing resolutions.

Why #3 Choices involve losses as well as gains – we always choose one thing over another. Freedom of the heart means letting go of anything that threatens to possess us. We must let go of everything that gets in the way of our spirituality – of who we really are.

Why #4 Belong joyfully – be present. To live in the present moment is a miracle. The miracle is to appreciate the peace and beauty that is available now. Peace is all around us – in the world and in nature – and within ourselves.

Why #5 Love is the measure not the deed.

Think small steps, every day, joyfully:

1. Listen deeply 2. Commit firmly 3. Strive gently 4. Belong Joyfully and 5. Do Daily