Daily Question, August 27 What are some experiences that have shaped my spiritual life? 53 Reflections Share Click here to cancel reply.Please log in or Create a Profile to post a comment. Notify me when someone replies to my comment via e-mail. Mike2 months agoMikeEvery person wiser than me who has said something hard that I needed to hear has bettered my spiritual life. – To shape it for the worse, all I have to do is trust my own good intentions. 0 Reply k'Care-Reena2 months agok'Care-ReenaWHAT ARE SOME EXPERIENCES THAT HAVE SHAPED MY SPIRITUAL LIFE? Some experiences that have shaped my spiritual life are as follows: 1. Journaling at night 2. Dream journaling in the morning 3. Power Down hour: no tv , meditation & affirmations w/ journaling 4. Victory Log: enter achievements/goals daily 5. Sister time 6. Therapy/coaching 7. NATURE TIME !!! 1 Reply sunnypatti3 months agosunnypattiSitting in the ocean on my surfboard, gazing out into the big open blue, looking to where the ocean meets the sky. I've sat out there alone and amongst friends, and no matter what, if I stop and look out there, I feel God. I feel my connection to all that is. When I was younger, I could feel the ocean shifting my inner self. There's something about being engulfed in nature that does that to you! But I've also had my times of suffering and chaos, and somehow during or at least right after mos...Sitting in the ocean on my surfboard, gazing out into the big open blue, looking to where the ocean meets the sky. I’ve sat out there alone and amongst friends, and no matter what, if I stop and look out there, I feel God. I feel my connection to all that is. When I was younger, I could feel the ocean shifting my inner self. There’s something about being engulfed in nature that does that to you! But I’ve also had my times of suffering and chaos, and somehow during or at least right after most of it, I find my center and feel God’s presence. I didn’t always listen to what I needed, but I’ve grown to hear better because of those times. One particular time that I felt my lowest… when I decided to stop and meditate and focus on my breath… I felt my greatest connection and knew that I was going to be okay. And I was. I am! What a life! Read More4 Reply 3 months agoUsually the ones I wasn’t looking for not always the easiest to handle but present momentum for positive transformation 4 Reply MahoganyLit3 months agoMahoganyLitThis has been a hard life and the reflection on my experiences and the decision to not allow the past to define me anymore has contributed greatly to my spiritual wellbeing. God is the forefront of this journey. He has always carried me through. His unconditional love is what anchors me. 5 Reply 3 months agoGod bless you 3 Reply Blossom3 months agoBlossomBeing 5 Reply Don Jones3 months agoDon JonesWhen I saw that Don was really only a sock puppet – you know, a sock on your hand with buttons for eyes. When the Truth burned through me like a white hot coal and saw that one was actually three. When thinking was beyond words and feeling was beyond emotions. When I discovered I didn’t have a head and “saw” who was really looking out and how to look in. When I sipped green tea made consciously. When a bow draws across cello strings or the whisper of the note of a wooden flute. I don’t...When I saw that Don was really only a sock puppet – you know, a sock on your hand with buttons for eyes. When the Truth burned through me like a white hot coal and saw that one was actually three. When thinking was beyond words and feeling was beyond emotions. When I discovered I didn’t have a head and “saw” who was really looking out and how to look in. When I sipped green tea made consciously. When a bow draws across cello strings or the whisper of the note of a wooden flute. I don’t really know. Read More2 Reply Cody3 months agoCodyfailure, hardship, marriage, family, friends, reading, silence, and kind of weirdly, my study of mathematics in college. 8 Reply KC3 months agoKCMy life experiences and spiritual life are intertwined, perhaps like a Celtic knot with a series of threads woven together. As the dust of life settles, the key threads are emerging as clear, resilient, vibrant and strong. I am humbled and grateful. 6 Reply Jess3 months agoJessI like that and can relate to it. 2 Reply KC3 months agoKCThanks Jess. 🙂 2 Reply Mica3 months agoMicaYogaville, VA, and Swami Satchidananda for many years. Byron Katie and Adyashanti, later. Gratefulness.org now. Hardships, too. 7 Reply Javier Visionquest3 months agoJavier VisionquestI’m familiar with Yogaville! 2 Reply Mica3 months agoMicaThe one with the LOTUS, Javier? 2 Reply pkr3 months agopkrThere have been many for me, however most recently I was called by family to return to my “home”, 2000 miles away to care for my brother & my 96 yr old mother. I put my life on hold to be their sole caregiver, with very little help from anyone else, to be their “everything”. My beloved brother passed away 10 months later after a hard fought, courageous battle. I had to place my mom in a nursing home as her dementia is getting the best of her. Now, 14 months later I have returned to m...There have been many for me, however most recently I was called by family to return to my “home”, 2000 miles away to care for my brother & my 96 yr old mother. I put my life on hold to be their sole caregiver, with very little help from anyone else, to be their “everything”. My beloved brother passed away 10 months later after a hard fought, courageous battle. I had to place my mom in a nursing home as her dementia is getting the best of her. Now, 14 months later I have returned to my home, numb & empty. My faith in a higher power has deepened because of all of this sadness & turmoil. If I did not have my faith I would not have survived. I thank Source everyday for All, the good, the bad. I am blessed.🙏 Read More13 Reply Carla3 months agoCarlapkr, I’m sending supportive thoughts & prayers. May you find the rest you need to rehydrate body, mind, spirt, soul. You are Beloved 2 Reply pkr3 months agopkrDear Carla, thank you for your warm, thoughtful wishes. Yes, I do need rest….❤️🙏❤️ 2 Reply Mica3 months agoMicaWow, 😯 pkr – warm wishes to you as you face these new changes. Give yourself a big hug 🤗 4 Reply pkr3 months agopkrDear Mica, thank you kindly, ❤️🙏❤️ 3 Reply Antoinette3 months agoAntoinetteDeep suffering has shaped my spiritual life. I know it may sound awful but without suffering could there be happiness? 7 Reply Mica3 months agoMicaThanks, Antoinette – there’s probably lots more boredom without suffering! We wouldn’t appreciate our happiness. 3 Reply sparrow3 months agosparrow. . . my early childhood upbringing in the Protestant church, which made me question the dogma of religion, the sudden death of my first child, and my departure from the church, the tortuous years that followed . . . addiction, poverty, abuse, and degradation, a temporary abandonment to joy, a return to the deepest abyss, the gentle nudges of a spiritual teacher, my first victory out of loss, the plethora of teachers who helped me, through guidance, reading, and meditation, finding the gratefuln.... . . my early childhood upbringing in the Protestant church, which made me question the dogma of religion, the sudden death of my first child, and my departure from the church, the tortuous years that followed . . . addiction, poverty, abuse, and degradation, a temporary abandonment to joy, a return to the deepest abyss, the gentle nudges of a spiritual teacher, my first victory out of loss, the plethora of teachers who helped me, through guidance, reading, and meditation, finding the gratefulness site, and now the teachers & fellow students we all are here, and on an off-shoot of the original gratefulness forum . . . all of this has guided me to where i am now, still struggling, but still moving forward & upward . . . Read More14 Reply Ed Schulte3 months agoEd Schulteyour sharing adds greater depth to Ps 119:71 and the ever present ‘challenges’ after being given the responsibility of being a human-being ….Thank you very much for your sharing. “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes” (Ps. 119:71). 7 Reply sparrow3 months agosparrowThank you . . . This is true, dear Ed . . . I don’t believe I ever would have learned without the suffering… it is what brought clarity in the end. 6 Reply Ed Schulte3 months agoEd SchulteYES! Dear sparrow!! and As RUMI expressed it so well in…… Word for the Day “Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life”. RUMI That “cloak” is what I referred to as “Angelic form” to-day. Be Well Be Present 7 Reply sparrow3 months agosparrowYes, dear Ed . . . I too, see the ‘Angelic form’ as my cloak of Gratitude . . . 6 Reply devy3 months agodevyWhenever I am informed about the death or sickness of someone I know or who I grew up with, it is like a shock to the body that brings me back to the reality that life is precious, our time is limited so enjoy each day and try to live it as your last . I am also connected more to what is in store for me once my time is up and the importance of our connection to the after life… 5 Reply Mike3 months agoMikeThe work of Wilfred Cantrell Smith, the later work of John Hick, and Parker Palmer opened a pluralistic spiritual landscape where I could live and work, leaving behind the punitive, fearfully circumscribed religious upbringing of my youth. 7 Reply Mary Pat3 months agoMary PatLOVE Parker Palmer. Thank you for mentioning him. 5 Reply Pilgrim3 months agoPilgrimMe, too! I don’t know the others, but will look them up. 3 Reply Ed Schulte3 months agoEd Schultesome are at the closing off of the many , many, every- morning contemplation exercises …..this morning’s was ….” …..Concentrate again on the area of your [material] heart [BUT NOT THE PHYSCIAL DETAILS] and mentally hear your heart beat.Receive from the Absolute Being-ness the message about the meaning of love and life and mentally express your love and respect to life, to the Cosmic Life and to the Power of Life.Absolute tranquility reigns in your Noetical body.Absolute calmness reigns...some are at the closing off of the many , many, every- morning contemplation exercises …..this morning’s was ….” …..Concentrate again on the area of your [material] heart [BUT NOT THE PHYSCIAL DETAILS] and mentally hear your heart beat.Receive from the Absolute Being-ness the message about the meaning of love and life and mentally express your love and respect to life, to the Cosmic Life and to the Power of Life.Absolute tranquility reigns in your Noetical body.Absolute calmness reigns in the world of your emotions in your Psychical body.Your life is a harmonious pulse of life in the pan-universal Pulse of Life. Wish that any imperfections appearing, in your material body be dissolved.But simultaneously mentally say, “Thy will be done, O’my Lord”.Slowly, slowly, see your material body out of your Archangelic form. Now concentrate more on your human existence in the material world.”End M25 –T1 [14:55] Post Note : the “experiences” during these “awaking exercises” give add etheric vitality to the bodies in order to spend it lovingly on others during the day ( iow no need for stimulants such as coffee or tea ). All in all it gives experiential meaning to the words of Joshua Emmanuel >>>>>>Through work and willpower you slowly, slowly, have to be awakened from the slumbers of every day Consciousness into a state of expanded self-awareness.<<<<<<< Read More7 Reply Rosemary3 months agoRosemaryReading Marianne Williamson’s “A Return to Love” was a turning point for me. I was raised to believe in a God who punished those falling short, and I always fell short. To be shown that the Divine is all about love for everyone and everything, including me, changed my life. 8 Reply Mary Pat3 months agoMary PatLike others, there are so many through the years, and I didn’t always recognize some of them at first…. I have written about some here before, and so not to repeat myself, let me say they have changed my life and I am so grateful…. I will mention four briefly that stand out: when I was very young, probably in 2nd grade, an experience in a church, another was seeing my grandmother the instant of her death in my bedroom, filled with light and love, the third was when my late husband was on ...Like others, there are so many through the years, and I didn’t always recognize some of them at first…. I have written about some here before, and so not to repeat myself, let me say they have changed my life and I am so grateful…. I will mention four briefly that stand out: when I was very young, probably in 2nd grade, an experience in a church, another was seeing my grandmother the instant of her death in my bedroom, filled with light and love, the third was when my late husband was on his deathbed, and witnessing going from this world to another, different loving place, and fourth a juvenile whale and literally seeing eye to eye with that being…those four stand out more than others…. Read More5 Reply Mica3 months agoMicaThank you 🙏 ☺️ 😊 Mary Pat – 4 Reply Carla3 months agoCarlaThere are too many to write. However, a starting place happened as a child. I had an intimate experience of feeling I was connected to the Energy of the Divine via a cold window pane as I watched the flicker of Christmas lights outside across the way. Years later I would experience and viscerally know, yes there Is a God, and I’m not It. 6 Reply Katrina3 months agoKatrinaFirst of all, being born into a family that "churched" me in a place where there was a true sense of family - as in we were all God's family. It never occured to me that wasn't the case. However, the true spiritual growth began when I began going to church camp as a counselor with youth and felt drawn to attend seminary. It was there that I was introduced not only to the academics of religion, but the definition and practices of spiritual formation. It was there that I was able to finally put wo...First of all, being born into a family that “churched” me in a place where there was a true sense of family – as in we were all God’s family. It never occured to me that wasn’t the case. However, the true spiritual growth began when I began going to church camp as a counselor with youth and felt drawn to attend seminary. It was there that I was introduced not only to the academics of religion, but the definition and practices of spiritual formation. It was there that I was able to finally put words to experiences I had had and would have, and to begin to look at life through spiritual lenses. It was there that I began to understand what Kevin says ” Experiences didn’t shape my spiritual life; my spiritual life shaped my experiences.” Read More5 Reply 1 2 Next » My Private Gratitude Journal Write an entry in your private gratefulness journal Get Started This site is brought to you by A Network for Grateful Living, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. All donations are fully tax deductible in the U.S.A. DONATE https://gratefulness.org/content/uploads/2015/03/GX-Gold-Participant-L.png Community Engagement Guidelines Privacy Policy [email protected] Connect with us on Social Media: © 2000 - 2021, A Network for Grateful Living Website by Briteweb
