Spiritual Practices

Inspiration

Spiritual Practice: Inspiration comes from within, though it can be awakened through external sources. Study inspirational spiritual writings for a half hour every day for a week. See if it kindles inspiration within you. If you find it beneficial, commit to another week, then another, until it becomes a habit.

Spiritual Practice: During the next week, attend a talk or church service, or listen to a talk on a CD or DVD, conducted by someone known to be inspirational. Pay attention to what effect the talk has on you. If you felt inspired, realize that that inspiration is yours, that it came from within. If you didn't already have it, you wouldn't have felt it in the speaker's words. And if you didn't feel inspired by the talk, don't automatically blame yourself. The speaker might not have been inspired on that day, or you just might not resonate with his or her communication style.

Spiritual Practice: Contact your soul through the peace of meditation and be open to the inspiration that can come from that. Spend time at the end of meditation feeling the presence of the Divine. That consciousness is the ultimate source of inspiration.

Spiritual Practice: Write down your memories (or read them if they're already recorded) of your most memorable inspirational moments. Relive them in your consciousness and feel the joy of that inspiration. Write down those that happen in the future as they occur.

Spiritual Practice: Listen to sacred music for ten or fifteen minutes or more every day over the next week. Feel what it does for you. Spiritual music can have a powerful inspirational effect.

Spiritual Practice: Before your meditation periods each day, chant or sing a hymn or spiritual song that inspires you.