Of course, spiritual practice IS optional, and most people regularly opt out. We say: “It gets boring.” “There’s not enough time.” “I don’t think I’m doing it right.”
But beneath our usual excuses, I’ve found two deeper, common reasons why our spiritual practices so easily fade:
Why try to resurrect what worked in the past. Once upon a time, we actually did have the experience of sticking with something meaningful, and we try to get back into it. We restart the practice and it lasts for a day or a week. But before long, the shine wears off and the practice fades away.
Our practice becomes starved of the essential nutrient of creativity. Many people to look to pre-existing forms as they ponder what might be next. They may reach for a habitual reading from scriptures or a tried-and-true kind of prayer. These activities are great, until they start to feel like the same-old-same-old. Our soul gets bored. The truth is that, as natural explorers, soulful humans need novelty in order to keep showing up.
Recycling past inspirations or getting stuck in spiritual routines are recipes for an anemic spiritual life. It’s no wonder they get overtaken by the pressures and complexities of our outer and inner worlds.
But the hard truth is that a practice is no longer optional. We need spiritual nurture, inspiration, and guidance in order to deal with the pressures and complexities, the stressors, fears, and overwhelm, that daily infuse our culture, the news, and our bodily cells.
So how do we keep refueling ourselves with inspiration and creativity?
The writer W. Somerset Maugham was asked if he wrote on a schedule or only when inspired. He said, “I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.”
Maugham understood that inspiration and creativity are the fruits of practice more than the generators of it. Here’s the key: spiritual practice flourishes when it is a daily commitment of the heart.
You may have 20 minutes or 2. You sit down and read a poem. Or you write one. You say the prayer. You breath 10 deep breaths. You listen for the whispers of Spirit. You go for the walk, write in the journal, reflect on the painting, doodle with colored pencils.
What I and many others have found is that something mysterious starts to happen when we dedicate a portion of our day, every day, to a spiritual practice.
Peace, power, and purpose concentrate around the practice.
What we find is that the inspiration and creativity we were waiting for starts to peek their heads into our practice - sometimes they shout and sometimes they whisper. But the more we practice, the more we trust and find that inspiration and creativity are seeking us as much as we are seeking them.