I believe that developing a daily spiritual practice is the cornerstone to health. Why? Because taking the time to daily tune-in and connect with yourself sharpens your intuition, calms the mind and the body and helps to create a sense of peace and positivity in one’s life – even in the midst of stress.

The good news is creating a spiritual practice doesn’t have to be hard work or involve any sort of religious dogma. It’s just about you creating time to connect with yourself and what you identify with as divine, on a daily basis. It can take as little as 5-10 minutes or longer depending on what your schedule allows.

So let’s get started by first outlining what I believe to be the essential elements of a spiritual practice:

Gratitude

I like to begin my daily spiritual practice with 3 things that I am grateful for in my life. Sometimes I write these out in my journal, other times I just make a mental list. I feel this helps to set a positive tone for my day and also help to raise my vibration attracting more wonderful things into my life.

Begin your daily spiritual practice by listing 3 things in your life that you have to be grateful for. They can be big or small. They don’t have to be things that you think you should be grateful for, but things for which you are truly grateful. Notice how thinking of these things changes your mood and lifts your spirits.

Prayer

The next essential part of a daily spiritual practice is prayer. I love the quote that “Prayer is talking to God. Meditation is listening to God.” You don’t have to be a religious person to incorporate prayer into your daily life nor do you have to use the word God or Universe. Prayer is simply speaking to the divine, whatever you believe that to be. So please feel free to make this process your own – there are no rules!

Prayer is fundamentally about connecting to the divine and asking for help, guidance or offering gratitude. I use my time of prayer to offer up all of my worries and cares to the universe and ask for wisdom in problem solving. I also use this time to practice surrender and non-attachment. Knowing that I can off-load all my cares and worries and ask for divine help is a massive stress-reliever.

If you can’t think of anything to pray about, here is an example of a prayer that I will often use:

“Divine Beloved, Please guide me today. Let me be love. Let me be light. Let me be peace. May I show compassion and grace to myself and others. Grant me wisdom and show me the next right actions in my life. Amen.”

Meditation

Meditation is the ultimate tool to create peace from the inside out. It helps us stay connected to the loving and strong parts of ourselves and observe our circumstances without getting caught up in them. It is my go-to to help me ground myself when my world gets crazy and my stress levels rise.

Meditation is scientifically proven to help you become healthier, happier and more productive. It has the ability to determine your daily power and presence. Meditation helps you establish a clear connection to yourself and your inner wisdom. Because whether you realize it or not, you have an inner teacher (aka your soul) that is full of guidance, wisdom and love – all there ready for you to access 24/7. The more that you get quiet, meditate and listen to this inner voice, the more you will be told all that you need to know.  Whether you’re seeking wisdom about a business decision, your health or a relationship, I promise you if you get still and meditate you will hear your own divine soul guiding you to the next right action.

So how do you meditate? Well there’s lots of different methods out there but the simplest is to sit up straight, whether cross legged or sitting upright in a chair, hands on your lap, close your eyes and bring your attention to your breath. I usually set a timer for 10 minutes or so and sometimes I repeat a mantra, sit in silence or put on some mediation music. Do what feels right for you in the moment. With your eyes closed become fully present and notice your thoughts, feelings and emotions – observe them like you would clouds rolling by in the sky. Then come back to your breath or mantra if you find your thoughts wandering and need to keep your monkey-mind in check.There’s lots of meditation resources out there so experiment and see what suits you best.

And that’s it! It’s as simple as that. Start with gratitude, then prayer and then finish with mediation. I usually take 5-10 minutes for gratitude and prayer and then another 10 minutes for meditation, sometimes longer depending on my day.

I personally love to bookend my day with my spiritual practice routine. In the morning it helps to set the tone for the rest of my day and in the evening it helps me gain perspective on the day’s events and helps me have a restful sleep. Some days I only have between 5-10 minutes, other days I have more. Regardless, I still take the time to go inward and connect to myself, my emotions and inner wisdom. I have found that this practice has changed my life for the better giving me more self awareness, happiness and compassion for myself and others. Not to mention the fact that it’s a simple but powerful way to nourish myself mind, body and spirit. I hope you find the same!

Namaste.

xo, M