Four Tips for Managing Spiritual Stress
Loss of purpose in life or challenge to personal identity stresses the human spirit.
How you define who you are and the meaning and purpose of life is critical to the health of your spirit. You experience spiritual stress when these definitions are questioned or unclear. The human spirit asks: “Who am I?”, “What is life about?” and “What is my purpose?”
These questions peak at times of major life change or loss, such as the identity challenges of adolescence and midlife or the loss of a child, spouse, job, or body part.
Attaching identity and purpose to variables outside of your control makes you vulnerable to spiritual stress.
Here are four tips to de-stress your spirit.
Tip #1 ~ Connect with yourself. Look deeply into your eyes in a mirror. Contemplate. Who is watching? Realize that the same awareness within you today has been there since the beginning of your life. There is a stable and permanent Being that does not change with changes in your body, emotions or thoughts. This invulnerable core is a foundation for inner strength and support.
why it works~ When you don’t depend on external conditions to define you, you feel free. The outside world is constantly changing and unreliable. Your inner being is solid, rooted in reality, and invulnerable to attacks from others. Viktor Frankl describes this beautifully in “Man’s Search for Meaning”.
Tip #2 ~ Connect with the moment. Feel the water on your hands as you wash them. Notice the specific way you wash them, the slipperiness of the soap, the temperature of the water. Feel your feet on the ground, take in the sights, sounds, and smells around you.
Feeling your experience in the moment is a practice for being present and helps you connect with life in a deep and meaningful way. Set an intention at the beginning of your day to stop and be present often. You will find that this practice reduces stress by increasing awareness and meaning in each moment.
why it works~ Connecting to the present moment centers, relaxes and enlivens your life experience. You are not ruminating on the past or worrying about the future, which are stressful. The insight, knowledge, and experience of this moment are available to you. Stress decreases when you have a sense of control within yourself.
Tip #3 ~ Connect with your purpose. How do you know what is important to you? You feel it. Notice the small voice or the feeling of knowing inside you when something draws you to it. Your body alerts you to what is dangerous or attractive long before your mind can explain why. Pay attention to those signs. This is your intuition, or sixth sense. Your deepest values and purposes are not in your head, but in your heart. What does your heart respond to? What touches your spirit? Purpose is the force that energizes. It inspires you to get up in the morning. What excites your passion for life?
why it works~ When your inner impulses guide you, you cannot make a mistake. These are signs that lead to your truest desires and lasting happiness. Joseph Campbell, the great mythologist says: “Follow your happiness.” When you follow your true path or calling, you become empowered instead of stressed.
Tip #4 ~ Connect with nature. You are part of a larger cosmos. You are not isolated as the limits of your body suggest. Whether you look at life from a religious, spiritual, or scientific perspective, what you think and feel affects the environment, and the environment affects you. Spending time in nature reconnects you with your natural rhythms. It’s easy to lose focus when attending to other people, TV, computer, shopping, etc. constantly grabs your attention. Taking time each day to be quiet in a natural setting, reflect, journal, or just be present can bring you back to yourself. When you take a break or before going home at the end of the workday, take a moment to smell a flower, watch the river go by, or appreciate a tree.
why it works~ The Earth vibrates at a certain frequency. Spending time in nature synchronizes our vibrations with the natural vibrations that support us. Locking yourself in hermetically sealed buildings with fluorescent lighting and recirculating air all day can cause a loss of balance and connection to yourself and your natural rhythms.
Spiritual stress results from losing connection to your true self, values, purpose, and nature. Taking time each day to reconnect with these aspects of your life reduces stress and supports happiness, security, and connection.