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SPIRIT
LODGE
LIBRARY
Spiritual
Development
Page
7
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(Main
Links of the site are right at the bottom of the page)
Some of the links for the 97 pages in this Spiritual Development
section are below. For the rest please go HERE
BUILDING YOUR SPIRITUAL MUSCLES
By CinnamonMoon
Many new seekers wonder why they
need to practice exercises for their spiritual development.
The truth is that while it would be nice to just flip some switch
and have all our abilities turn on
functionally it doesn't quite work that way. Just as we physically
exercise our bodies, we need to
spiritually exercise our abilities…both build muscles.
First of all spiritual abilities may or may
not be known to the individual, may or may not be under control,
may or may not open to them
unless they know how to work with them. It is often haphazard
experiences that trigger things
and lead us into events we don't understand. Taking a positive
approach helps the individual
avoid wrong turns, pulled mental hamstrings, or worse. Understanding
that exercises are
designed to help you do things properly and gain control over
your abilities (we all have them) it
really is going to make a huge difference.
In order to open a channel to guidance, to connect with your
Inner Spirit, to meditate, journey,
open to clairsentient ability or weave energies it's vitally
important to be able to concentrate. By
concentrate I mean *all* your attention must be on accomplishing
what you are setting out to do.
That means a focused mind, use of the imagination to get you
started and then going beyond that
gradually to explore what you're capable of achieving. It means
study and understanding of how
your spiritual nature functions and learning to work with it.
In order to concentrate and focus
your mind you have to gain control of it and exercises help
you do just that. Once you've
achieved control meditation and guided visualization will help
you begin to open channels to
guidance, other dimensions, and spiritual growth as you develop
yourself.
Doing this leads to self-empowerment and it leads to many exciting
experiences that add to your
growth through the knowledge they bring you. So starting out
there's a lot of reading to do on
spiritual topics and there's time that needs to be set aside
for practicing spiritual matters. The
time you devote to exercise need not be intense, in fact, it's
always best to keep it short at first
and build to longer periods. By short I mean that 15-20 minute
sessions are enough-we should
never push ourselves to the point of exhaustion or beyond comfortable
limits so learn to set a
reasonable pace from the start. It's also important to make
it part of your daily routine…a
convenient time set regularly each day is best. It establishes
a routine that your Guides and Spirit
Helpers can focus on to assist you from the Otherside too, at
least at first. As time goes on they
will pop in on you as needed. As you get more accomplished and
that comfort level grows you
can extend the sessions gradually until you're doing an hour
or more if you like.
You will discover that in taking the approach of exercises that
your awareness sharpens along
with your ability to recall more of what you're learning. Your
sensory impressions go right along
with that and as they sharpen you start to expand your awareness
with them like radar. Mental
agility, efficiency in getting things done on a daily basis,
responsiveness to energy signatures and
shifts etc. will begin to show and you'll start feeling the
control come into not only your spiritual
development but it's very present in daily life too. Exercises
assist you in training your mind to
respond to your will and by that I mean your intentions. This
is much better than it trying to
control you with distractions. You're exploring what initially
is an intangible reality and the mind
likes tangibility so abstract thought takes concentration and
understanding to accept. The mind is
a creature of habit, it really doesn't favor abstractions so
it functions based on logic. The mind's
logic is based in the reality found as we experience things
as well as what we're taught.
Concentration on abstract theory requires experience to accept
and that sort of concentration is a
trained focus, a skill we can all develop. It begins by incorporating
relaxation exercises,
breathing exercises, and a disciplined routine.
If we don't discipline ourselves and take a haphazard approach
we're not going to gain the
control we want and so we don't get very far. In fact, we usually
end up running in circles
confusing ourselves more than ever. This is at first a decision
someone needs to make and stay
with if they want to develop their abilities. It does take dedication
to open them up, and it takes
practice to bring them under control, and then we are building
muscle. If you are a serious
student then exercises are going to be your best friend because
once you master them they lead to
everything else.
It's also important to follow foundational steps initially in
learning to develop spiritually. You
will find that while all traditions offer them, sticking with
one (anyone of your choosing) initially
is going to be less confusing. We all explore various teachings
at first until we come to find
something that makes sense to the point that we can relate and
our interest is piqued then. There's
nothing like the exhilaration that comes when passion arouses
our interest is there? *Soft smile*
Find your initial area of interest and follow it to where that
leads you. You'll find the tradition
that you can understand. Here at Spirit Lodge the Native tradition
is what we focus on to get
people started, it's nature-based and so the exercises in our
libraries will be presented in that fashion.
Anyone working with an exercise should be willing to put in
the effort for at least a few weeks to
a month before looking for another one to try in a given area.
It's perfectly okay to work on
different areas at the same time too…exercises for say
mind control and sentient abilities for
example are great combinations. You should not be disappointed
if you don't get immediate
results, sometimes the door hinges are pretty rusty and they
need some oil…repetition in our
effort oils them and the doors to spiritual understanding, your
abilities, and higher awareness will
start to open for you. There is nothing like it when you make
connection with your Inner Spirit
and Guides and exercises help you do just that.
Exercises that help you quiet the mind are generally going to
be all about repetition. The mind
loves to chatter, it loves to be in control, and it loves to
wander all over the place. If your mind
thinks it is losing control it will jump from one thing to the
next trying to get it back. We have to
train it. When the mind starts to run amok all we have to do
is bring it back to the point of focus,
gently or firmly as the case may be, but without judgment or
self-recrimination for a wandering
mind, we do all have them and it doesn't matter how seasoned
we are, there are times the mind
just refuses to focus. As a side note, it is always recommended
that if you are stressed or ill it is
best not to exercise until you've regained your composure. In
the case of stress, deep breathing
helps restore stability and allows you to get centered properly
so it is a release valve in that
sense. You will find that most exercises involve breath control
too.
Breathing exercises train the body to enter into a more relaxed
state, they slow down the system
and heart rate promoting vibratory rate changes to our energy
levels calming them. While some
exercises recommend inhaling and holding the breath for a certain
count and exhaling for the
same count. Pushing yourself to achieve that can just as easily
create stress so if you are just
starting out set your own pace to a comfortable level. If you
can do a count of ten seconds
inhaling, holding and then exhaling that's wonderful, but if
your count is 5 then start there. It will
begin to increase with practice. It's sort of like holding your
breath under water, you don't wait
until you're hurting to get to the surface, let it flow gently
in, hold and then release it. If the body
is not relaxed and the mind is not relaxed you have a wandering,
fidgeting, fussy condition that
hinders developmental processes by distracting you from what
you need to focus on so training
the mind and body are important…that means finding a comfortable
position and environment
where you will not be disturbed too.
Different exercises lead to different experiences and you may
find yourself with several that you
want to work with. Mind and breath exercises can often be found
combined together and when
they are you are essentially accomplishing two things at once
while entering into more spiritual
experiences at the same time. Different forms of meditation
will bring you to different
experiences too and as you develop your skills you will find
that they open the door to shamanic
journeys, deep inner journeys to your spirit, projections and
out of body experiences, all sorts of
things. It all begins with the exercises to achieve a balanced
state of disciplined control and with
that comes a growing sense of self-empowerment. Those experiences
leading to journeys and
projections all begin with the imagination as you work with
guided visualization exercises and
expand from there. By learning to work this way with energy
we can see how to co-create with
Spirit or interact with our Guides and Spirit Helpers. Sensory
exercises develop your sensory
awareness raising that into a conscious state and as we practice
them they become a sort of
second-nature…we hold them in our awareness and we are
sensitizing ourselves to the triggers
that set them off….learning that our radar picks up blips
on the screen of life and assisting us as
we move through it. Spiritual development enhances mundane life
too, it's not restricted to the
physical reality; however the physical reality can block spiritual
development. Exercises help us
overcome our fears and blockages or perceptive obstacles.
Daily exercises are important, the steadier you are with your
practice sessions the faster you will
achieve your goals. Daily exercise develops your sensory awareness
as well as your conscious
awareness and it brings the two into balance so that you're
able to shift your perspectives as
needed and walk between the worlds (between the physical and
spiritual realities) functioning on
a much higher level because of it. That's when the development
really takes off. You will find
that by studying the Seven Sacred Directions and the exercises,
as well as advice in the articles in
our library on them, that you will be taking steps in laying
the foundations you need. Once those
foundations are in place any tradition you want to explore is
going to make more sense to you
because you will have something of your own to relate those
teachings to; that's when you see
the universal truths are everywhere, just presented in a myriad
of ways to meet all the different
ways people grasp things. I hope in sharing these insights that
you will find value in practice
sessions and see that they are keys to so much more.
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Libraries
are on this row
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INDEX
Page 3
(Main Section, Medicine Wheel, Native Languages &
Nations, Symbology)
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INDEX
Page 5
(Sacred Feminine & Masculine, Stones & Minerals)
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Text:
© Copyright: Cinnamon Moon & River WildFire Moon
(Founders.) 2000-date
All rights reserved.
Site
constructed by Dragonfly
Dezignz 1998-date
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