Day 5: Choose Awareness Practices

Today you will make a plan to renew and nurture your spirit or soul - that inner voice of your true nature. Your spirit is not your brain and it's not your emotions; it's your Better Self, or moral compass, and your Essential Self - the part of you that longs for purpose.

Your Better Self allows you to be responsible and honorable, and to reach beyond selfishness in order to serve others. Aristotle said that virtue is a habit like any other, and that we gain integrity by doing virtuous things. Every time you practice the virtue habit, you settle your soul in a nobler direction.

But your soul is also your Essential Self, which thrives on understanding your purpose and intentions. It’s like a rheostat of consciousness: As your level of awareness grows you are lit up ever more brightly, and can see and understand aspects of yourself and the universe more clearly.

Spiritual growth is the basis for a better and more harmonious life, a life of calmness, clarity, courage, and inner strength. It has (at least) four parts: 

-Awareness practices, such as meditation or journaling, or any practice that keeps you in the present moment or brings greater clarity to your daily life.

-Virtue habits, those little and big behaviors and characteristics of your personality that can improve with practice.

-Soul searching, which is the ongoing quest to understand your purpose and intentions. (We've been working on this already, since Chapter 1, and hopefully you are getting a clearer picture of your purpose in life now, and that is already filling the well of your spirit.)

-and opening to God or a higher power. If this is a wall for you, try to just open to the possibility that there is something outside yourself that might love you.

A note about religion: Religion is one way to practice spiritual nurturance, and, at its best, will include all of the above listed parts, plus a community of support. You don't have to have religion, though, to nurture your spirit.

Today you will make a plan to nurture your spiritual self with awareness practices. Next week we will dive into virtue habits, and the following week we will give attention to some other ways to nurture your spirit.

Awareness itself is a huge topic - you can choose to practice awareness of the mind, body, and/or the emotions, with practices that are private or part of a community, or are done while sitting or moving. Some ideas: 

• 
  journaling
• mindfulness and walking meditation
• mindful eating
• body scanning
• gratitude practices
• stoic philosophy
• art practices
• psycho-therapy
• yoga

Your goal is to practice awareness every day, throughout the day, in whatever way suits you best. The important thing to remember while choosing awareness practices is - will they fill you and nurture you, and will you practice them?

Take out your Love Journal:

• First review conversations and interactions you had yesterday, and your general frame of mind with the world.

• Next, think about the people you will see today, and the conversations you may have. Make note of times when you might need to draw on nurturance for yourself.

• And then answer these queries:

-What kinds of awareness practices have worked for me in the past? What new kinds of practices sound fun and fascinating?

-Do I want to do something more active, that involves my body, or more contemplative?

-Do I want practices that are private or part of a community?

• Brainstorm a comprehensive list of possible awareness habits and practices that might successfully bring you into the present moment or bring greater clarity to your daily life. Let your imagination carry you along and add as many fun and creative techniques as you can think of.

• Discern the top 2-4 awareness practices that will nurture your spirit, that might make the biggest difference in your life now, and that you want to try this month. Add some combination of awareness practices to this month's priority grid.

• And end with a 5-minute Love Meditation. Send the "pink light of love" to yourself.