Is Your Spiritual Practice Working for You or Against You? Ways to Tell

 Posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 by Lily Wong in Spiritual Practice

There are many tools, techniques and practices available to assist you in your spiritual or inner work. How do we know which ones are right for us? We won’t know, until we try them.

I like the idea of 30-day trials as suggested by Steve Pavlina. If you try something for 30 days and it works for you, then carry on. If not, then move on to the next one. Life is an exploration of many things, so don’t be afraid to give things that catch your eye (and heart) a test run.

There is no mathematical format on how to choose the right kind of spiritual tools other than gauging your own experience of that particular practice. A good rule of thumb that a certain technique is working for you is to check whether you experience joy while doing it.

Here is a simple guideline to help you gauge how much you experience joy when you are using a new spiritual tool or practice.

# 1 Do you feel more uplifted, happier and lighter?
This is the number one clue to tell how compatible you are with your chosen tool/practice. If 20 out of 30 days of using a certain technique makes you feel depressed, blue, apathetic and just downright unwell, STOP. If it gives you a sickening feeling of dread and terror in the stomach, listen to your gut feeling and STOP. If it takes away the joy of living life because you are always feeling out of sorts, STOP.

“No pain, no gain” is merely a belief system. Yes, some tools and practices may evoke healing crises, but if a big chunk of your experience is mostly doom and gloom, it is time to pause and reflect.

In this case ask yourself: Does doing this give me more joy or take away my joy of everyday life? Remember that spiritual growth, enlightenment and self realization is never a goal, it is a journey. So the quest here is to keep elevating the quality of your experience of everything you do for that reason. There is no finish line, where you need to cry, go crazy and have your heads in the darkest clouds to reach it – unless of course, you choose to experience your spiritual journey this way.

# 2 Do you find meaning in it?
For instance, are you doing those yoga poses without knowing why? Do you know what benefits that downward facing dog would give you? And are those things aligned with your spiritual growth? Or let’s say you are doing a meditation course where you are not clear about the real philosophy behind it. This is also a time to stop and reevaluate your choice of tools and techniques.

It is important to be clear about the things you do because knowing why you are doing something helps you to align the practice to your spiritual intentions. It also ensures you can keep to the practice. If you find yourself always ‘missing’ your meditation classes either intentionally or unintentionally, this may be why. You are not clear about your intentions.

That said, finding meaning also relates to your intentions or motives. Why are you taking on this practice? Is it because all your peers are doing it? Or is it truly for the self? You need to be honest with your motives when it comes to spiritual practices so that the fruits of your practice feed what your soul needs. Remember with every effect, there is a cause; and the cause is your intention. Good intentions give birth to beautiful creations (the effect). To create good intentions, is to be authentic about what you truly want and enjoy.

# 3 Do you do it very naturally?
If you need to force yourself to do something, chances are it is not really for you. When force is used, it is the Ego that wants it, not the spiritual self. When something fits you, you will flow with it. Trust me, if something is really right for you, you simply move with it as if it has always been part of your rhythm. In some cases, you don’t even need to ‘break’ into it using the 21-day rule. There wouldn’t be push-pull with it.

Of course there are exceptions – like a block within you that creates resistance to a certain practice. So how can you tell? For this, you need to go back to number 1 (above) to see if you are always happy doing it. Then check number 2, do you find meaning in it and are your true intentions aligned with what you want for yourself spiritually? If yes, then ask for clarity to find out what is blocking you.

The above is merely a list of questions to help you find the truth of what gives you joy. It is definitely not a measuring stick. This is because our spiritual practices will evolve as we evolve. The tools and techniques that are perfect for you today will stop being enjoyable when you have grown out of it. So work with things with a sense of detachment, and enjoy every bit that you can NOW.

Also know that everyone may have different responses to different techniques. For instance MeditationXYZ may give your peers complete bliss and peace. But it left you feeling awful 90% of the time. Perhaps it’s time to move on to a practice that suits you better. It is not that MeditationXYZ is ‘wrong’ – there is no right or wrong. It simply means that something else would benefit you more. The awfulness you feel is merely a message to usher you along into the right direction.

That is why; I emphasize this again: if something does not bring you joy, let it go. I find that this not only applies to spiritual practices and tools – it applies to everything in life as well.

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