One of the best things that any Seeker can do is establish a daily spiritual practice. This is a regular period of time in which you can reflect on spiritual matters, work with whatever ideas appeal to you and monitor how they affect your happiness, serenity and your general experience of life.

How much time you set aside for your daily spiritual practice, and when, is completely up to you. If you have the time then I would suggest that you start with 30 minutes each day, or 15 minutes twice each day, and to extend that time later if you find yourself wanting to do so.

I would also suggest that you try and schedule your daily spiritual practice at the same time each day so that it becomes habitual and consistent, rather than something that you ‘squeeze in’ as and when circumstances allow.

By prioritising and scheduling your daily spiritual practice, you are demonstrating that this is something which is genuinely important to you. Even more important, by making your practice habitual and consistent, you will find that it becomes something that is solid and dependable, and serves to keep you grounded and peaceful regardless of whatever else is happening in your day to day life.

Having set aside a certain time each day for your spiritual practice, the next thing you should do is decide how you will spend that time. As always, you are free to adopt whatever practices you feel drawn to, but if you have no particular inclinations at this point, you may want to consider starting with the following:

Silence

Spending time in silence is advocated in almost all spiritual traditions, so you may want to consider adopting that as the foundation for your own daily practice. There are a number of ways in which this can be achieved, but the most common are by practicing meditation or by walking or sitting quietly in a natural environment, so select the method that you would like to focus on to begin with and go from there.

Spiritual Reading

Learning about the spiritual ideas of those who have gone before you can be a very good way of discovering your own intuitive truth. Whilst you may not (and probably won’t) agree with everything that you read, the texts you explore may help you to clarify your own thoughts on the matters at hand. It is recommended that you read traditional hard-copy books or use a dedicated reading device, such as an Amazon Kindle, during reading, so that you won’t get distracted by texts on your phone or by the internet at large.

Spiritual Journaling

Journaling is the simple practice of writing down your thoughts and feelings in a dedicated notebook. There are many different ways of journaling, but you may want to begin by writing down why you are attracted to the idea of creating your own spiritual path, what you hope to achieve by doing so, and which traditions or practices currently resonate with you the most. You can also use your journal to note down anything that occurs to you during your time of silence or spiritual reading.

Gratitude

The practice of gratitude means thinking about all the good that you have in your life, and cultivating a feeling of gratitude and appreciation for those things. Even though nobody’s life is perfect, there is still much to be grateful for, so pause and be thankful for all the things that you welcome in your life. By focusing exclusively on the good in your day to day experience, you will find yourself feeling happier about life in general. In addition, you will also find that the good things actually expand, giving you even more to be grateful for in the months and years ahead. Of course, you should not blindly accept that latter statement as fact, but rather try the idea for a few weeks and find out for yourself.

I will discuss each of these four basic practices in more depth over the next few days, but right now I would encourage you to schedule a regular time for a daily spiritual practice of your own. View it as a daily vacation from the hustle and bustle of life, and it will soon become a high point in your day.