Skip to main content

My Spiritual Journey

Goodness, I have no idea where to start with this. 

Sorry I'm rattling through these topics at top speed. 

One, because with the summer holidays we have plans this week and I won't be able to blog. 

Two, I want to get round to planning the book I intend to write. I'm trying to get the blog and you up to speed in record time before September 4th, my Day 1.

As every area of our lives is interrelated I'm going to try and focus on this area alone if possible. It's actually much harder than you think.

I believe in something bigger and greater than us. We are all the sum of something bigger that we don't understand in the universe. We are all connected as humans but also inexplicably in other ways. To be all hippy about it, we are one, the sum of the whole so to speak.

Anyway, what exactly that is, I'm not best placed to say. 

I'm still searching and seeking... 

I am the wanderer when it comes to spirituality and faith. Open to all and everything while belonging nowhere. 

I'm forever learning and I find it all very fascinating. During childhood, I spent a lot of time reading, discussing and thinking about spirituality and faith. It's always been with me. I think I was a little frustrating to be around with my hundreds of questions.

I've had my share of experiences and moments with people and situations that have solidified my position. I can't get into any depth on this post, to do any of them any justice. Also, I don't feel inclined to talk about everything. It doesn't move this particular narrative forward. 

Anyway....

I know that a lot of decisions I make are based on gut and instinct. It's served me well. You could say experience and knowledge plays a big part in this feeling, but I do think there is something else. A something extra which I can't describe, that can't be nailed down and quantified (yet perhaps). That's where I put my faith.

I say that as a scientist primarily. If you are coming to this, without knowing me, then you won't know I have a degree in Biochemistry and I spent the best part of a decade in research and development at a global consumer goods company. 

I don't think that's exactly shocking. Some of the greatest scientific minds of our time could balance the idea of scientific principles with their faith and the idea of faith.

Regardless, I'll take anything that warms my soul and calms my ever racing mind. My mind is forever flitting from one thing to another. It never quietens and it never slows. 

This is why this blog comes naturally to me. It suits the way my mind operates. This for me, is like making a list before bed in order to sleep. 

I've tried meditation here and there in the past and I've found it has this quietening, calming and focusing effect. However, there never seems to be time to fit it in. So as with everything, habit changes require starting somewhere and then persevering until it's part of the everyday. I know that people find meditation very powerful and they've reached levels I am frankly very jealous of.

My wonderful, beautiful friend introduced me to an app called Insight Timer. I've trialled it and the meditations can be as short or as long as you want. I can spend a few minutes each day clearing my mind. It really does work. I'm only using the free stuff on the app at the moment. You can set a daily reminder etc. I have but I'm still struggling to do anything during the summer holidays. It's not exactly a quiet household!

Also, there is a Buddhist meditation centre nearby so I'll be dropping in for their meditation classes. I'm aiming for 1 session per week. 

Bold ambitions what with the gym, swimming and writing but I guess we should aim big and risky vs. small and safe.

I guess the main thing I want to stress and I want to end on is this...

I believe, that we should always be respectful, loving and kind to everyone. We should always (try to) come from a place of love and positivity. It doesn't serve us or move us forward to be otherwise. It just holds us back from living our best lives. 

That's my 2 cents anyhow and it has constantly served me well. 

Even during times when I'm spiralling and feeling terribly low and negative. It's not all sunshine and rainbows and it's not always easy to be that way! However, for me personally, it's the only way I attain peace. Peace of mind and soul.

*Featured image was created using Microsoft CoPilot Designer powered by DALL-E 3

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Reflections on Change and this very Emotional Week

I have had very mixed feelings about 4th September. In the run up, I'd been purposely very vocal on this blog that this was the day that a) all the kids would now be in school and b) that I had ambitious goals I wanted to achieve with the time I would now have available. Emotionally, it's been tough. Seeing my two older boys go back to school and my youngest start school, has made me incredibly sad. You realise there is no ownership when it comes to children. That's what I've realised as a parent. You are their caretaker and their biggest cheerleader. Nurturing and guiding these little souls to independence, always from the sidelines while they take center stage. Until you are no longer needed but hopefully wanted.  Then there is a part of me that needs space. Physical and emotional space from the kids. To not be a mum for awhile. To explore parts of myself that I've shelved, put on hold or never had a chance to look at. I will always be a mum now but I am also me...

A Change in Mindset from New Year's Resolutions to Anytime of the Year Resolutions

This is an odd time of year. No man's land. The build-up and excitement of Christmas is over and suddenly the days between now and the New Year, Twixmas, are really just stepping stones to get us from one point in space and time to another.  Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash I always feel very low at this time of year, especially in January. Which feels like a never-ending month. For me, New Year celebrations have always been overrated. We are told how we are meant to think, feel and act, and that in itself makes this time hard when we can't possibly deliver on those high ideals and conjure up thoughts, feelings and actions to order.  Don't get me started on New Year's resolutions.  Why is this single point in time, a turning point in itself? Without some external or internal change bearing down on us, resolutions of any kind can't possibly stick. The clock ticking over and the year changing is hardly the impetus needed for habit change or habit formation. It re...

The Importance of Identity and the Need to Respect it

Recently, I had a conversation about identity. About my identity to be precise.   I was having a well needed cuppa with a friend and we were discussing high schools. In passing, she mentioned that the school has an LGBTQ+ club. I was very pleasantly surprised. It had never occurred to me that these clubs now exist in high schools. They certainly didn't when I attended in the 90s.  Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash It got me talking about my own sense of identity. My own exploration of it.  For background, my parents are of Indian descent and moved to the UK in 1970 and 1980, I believe. We grew up in a very white Christian home counties town. There were very few, if any kids that looked like me and while my first language was my mother tongue, I stopped speaking it when I attended nursery and preschool. So at home, I'd experience my parents culture but outside of the house, where I increasingly spent more time, I was exposed to everything British. I grew up with British TV,...