What is a spiritual life coach? We as humans have many bodies: a physical body, an emotional body, a mental body, and a spiritual body. We nourish our physical bodies with good food and exercise. We nourish our emotional bodies with letting ourselves have a good cry or resting when we are overwhelmed. We nourish our mental bodies with learning and meditation. How do we nourish our spiritual bodies?
Spiritual disciplines go beyond religious activities. Have you ever gone through a Dark Night of the Soul and well-meaning so-called Christians ask if you are reading your Bible regularly and having your quiet time ("quiet time" sounds like punishment - "Go to your room and think about what you did to God."). Additionally, if you are in a Dark Night of the Soul, you will likely benefit more from resting in just being rather than trying to use a strategy to "fix" things. Spiritual healing and "fixing" are diametrically opposed to each other.
Spending time in God's Word and spending time listening to the Lord and giving Him your burdens are helpful and can be nourishing. However, humans also have the tendency get stuck in spiritual ego and advise those methods in a trite, dismissive way that can easily leave the struggling person feeling discouraged, if not shameful and guilty. As if we brought this upon ourselves because we weren't doing enough spiritually, so this suffering is just punishment.
By the same token, we do tend to neglect our spiritual bodies either because we don't know how to nourish ourselves spiritually, we don't realize we need spiritual nourishment, or we do not value it enough (e.g. we give our time away to things that we perceive as being more important).
What ignites the Spirit in you? It will likely be different things at different times. I went through a dark season where the Puritan prayerbook was my daily go-to, but eventually it ended up on my coffee table and is an occasional (always beautiful) read. Now I have new disciplines.
The ego naturally wants to stay stuck and go back to the same patterns and routines that may have once been helpful but now no longer serve us. Meanwhile the true Spirit in us wants us to expand and grow and doesn't want us stuck repeating the third grade over and over again.
Spirituality goes far beyond what many see as evangelical Christianity. Your spiritual body is your true Self. Your spiritual body may have been deeply wounded by childhood abuse or neglect. Religion has nothing to do with spirituality.
And by the way, Jesus Christ had nothing to do with religion. He rebuked the religious leaders. He was a friend of sinners.
If you are interested in investing in your spiritual self and would like spiritual life coaching, I would love to work with you. Please reach out via my Contact page.
What spiritual practices have you found to be fruitful in your life?