A human path to spiritual development

As a master, teacher and practitioner of a healing and spiritual practice like Reiki, students, clients, family and friends often ask me what I believe in, what do I turn to in times of need, despair, loneliness and is Reiki the answer to these questions. My experience has shown me that my Reiki practice has opened me to my doubts, to ask questions and challenge what my family, culture have taught me, it has shaken up my ideas about what words like Spiritual and Divinity mean to me.

I have asked myself questions throughout the years; what do I believe in? How do I word the experiences of feeling connected, at one with what I cannot see nor describe? I´ve spent a long time pondering on my desire to understand, follow and cultivate the developmental curve of my spiritual life. I see that we hold restraining ideas or beliefs about what being spiritual is supposed to be, or what a spiritual life should or could look like creating great pain in our desire to belong. I often become exhausted by what our current culture values as spiritual.

This conjuncture of forces places extreme demands and expectations on the way we value or undervalue ourselves. I know many of us are challenged by what we´ve learned, embraced and/or moved away from spiritually, often blindly moving through the journey of the blessings and challenges of our everyday life. On the one hand we have to uphold the upmost positivity, mindfulness, consciousness to be spiritual, and the other has to face the most heart braking separateness and destruction of the sacredness of nature, life and people created by our own flawed human nature.

I wonder what a day to day, 'normal' life infused with a spiritual quality is like. For example do we know how often we internally ask for help without even realizing it? To whom, or to what, do we offer a moment of intense gratitude and joy? How many times do we place ourselves in the mighty power of the Unknown with an inherent trust that it is all we can do, all this without even questioning ourselves?

Is it possible to live our life with a conscious awareness of the spiritual nature of All that Is. Knowing that the essence of Life is imbued in the small and inconsequential encounters, events, places and actions that make up the fabric of our everyday life? Can we allow ourselves to relax in our limited yet powerful human reality, in our desire to be who we are, as we are, willing to let go of the need to be grandiose. Can we willingly sharpen our eyes, ears, touch, hearts and minds to the extraordinary relief of fully enjoying what we are living in the moment!

I choose to believe that this is possible, for us all. Believing that we can use the moments when we feel at one with infinite mystery of existence. We experience it as we savor the flavor and scent of an apple, smile to a stranger and are gifted with the same response, when we are touched by beauty or pain, these can be the touchstones of a spiritual life. They enables us to face and respond to the restrictions and potential of our human, flawed and deeply spiritual nature.