5 Ways to Start a Spiritual Routine

Being Mindful with the Spiritual Litigator

This week's podcast is about starting a spiritual routine.

All busy lawyers know that it is difficult to take time out of their busy schedules for a spiritual routine. However, in my personal experience, a spiritual routine is essential for stress management and its effects are evident in my everyday life. If you would like to implement a spiritual routine into your daily life, the following 5 tips will help you get started.

1. Don't Call it a "Challenge"

These days, it seems like everything that is supposedly good for us is often called a "challenge" such as diets, exercise plans, fundraisers, etc. Calling it a challenge encourages you to start doing it but it also suggests that it will be difficult, mildly inconvenient and that it has an ending. When you want to implement a spiritual routine into your daily life, the idea is that you want it to be easy, practical and sustainable. So don't give it a name, don't make it a thing, just decide what you're going to do and start doing it.

2. Start Small

You could commit to meditating twice per day, doing daily yoga, writing affirmations, making 5 vision boards and that might work out for you. But when you start a spiritual routine with too many daily commitments, you may burn out and stop doing it altogether. Instead, start with a small goal.

For example, I started by meditating for 5 minutes every night. Then, I started doing yoga every other morning. Then, I started writing 10 things I am grateful before doing my night meditation. Sometimes I don't feel like doing yoga in the morning and may write 10 additional things I am grateful for instead. Once you begin integrating certain actions into your daily schedule, you may gradually add other activities into your routine. The goal is to have a routine that is sustainable, not one that is stressful.

3. Do What Resonates With You

Meditation works for me, but it may not work for everyone. Writing 10 things that I am grateful for on a daily basis is something that I enjoy doing, but it may be annoying and a waste of time to you. Try a few things out for at least a week and see how you feel. If you do not enjoy portions of your spiritual routine, then find something that you do enjoy. Whatever you do, make sure it resonates with you.

4. Don't Tell Everyone

Often, the key to manifesting success is to avoid speaking with people about it. Sure, there may be some people who will encourage you to meditate and may be inspired to start their own spiritual routine because of you. Others, however, won't understand what you're doing and will likely say negative things to you about how weird or silly it is.

We all know that co-worker who starts the diet cleanse who tells everyone in the office who will listen about it or that family member who has rediscovered religion and wants everyone in the family to follow suit. Although those individuals have great intentions, telling everyone about some new course in your life may sometimes be a way to convince yourself that it is right and that other people not taking that same course of action are wrong. Also, telling people while hoping to receive encouragement can backfire if people react negatively to it causing you to question whether it's a good idea. You don't have to make announcements when you're doing good things for yourself.

5. Get Back on if You Fall Off

You will have days when you work late and miss your daily meditation or days where you just don't feel like doing anything. That's fine. No matter what the reason is, you can get back to your routine any time. Just like when you fall off a workout routine, the effects will begin the wear off over time. However, unlike returning to an exercise routine, returning to a spiritual routine won't hurt at all and the benefits will be noticeable a lot sooner.

In conclusion, it is important to remember that the purpose of a spiritual routine is to make you feel happy and to make you feel good. I truly believe that the emotional state of your internal being creates your external circumstances. Therefore, if you can develop and maintain a spiritual routine that works for you and makes you feel happy on a consistent basis, I can almost guarantee that you will see the effects in your every day life.

Want to get started? Click here to get access to a 5 minute meditation for beginners and see if it resonates with you.