Developing a Deeper Level of Spirituality

Many people would like to develop a deeper level of spirituality. The more you work with the subconscious mind, the deeper your understanding becomes that the universe is connected by unseen principles. At a certain point you realize that you can participate in creating your own reality by transforming your subconscious mind. This exciting realization brings new meaning to the idea that there's a Universal Mind at the hub of mankind's subconscious minds. You have been created in the image of that Universal Mind. The book of Genesis states: So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. There are so many layers of meaning in this passage from the Bible. No matter what your religious or spiritual beliefs may be, one way to look at this statement is that God, the Universal Mind, or the Source created us to create just as the Source creates. In this sense, we are the mirrors that reflect the Source.

Day-to-day life can be mundane. Our attention is taken away to consider our work, our bills, and the problems faced by our families. Sometimes if you slow down you can tap into the present-moment mindfulness that will help you touch the divine. You look up and see a beautiful, pale blue sky filled with puffy white clouds. The vibrant colors of a rainbow take your breath away. You're walking with a friend outdoors and complaining about something and suddenly a butterfly lands on your hand. Your manager smiles and without words makes you feel good for a job well done. Your children giggle as they splash around in the outdoor pool. A sudden rainstorm makes meditative sounds on the roof and lulls you into a pleasant slumber. These moments of divinity are so close and yet so far at times. You need only to slow down and feel your connection with others and with the Universal Mind. This is the ultimate prayer, the connective tissue that gives meaning to life and allows us to help others as we help ourselves.

Unique Spiritual Practices

We each strive to be better. We fail and succeed each day. In our quest to communicate with the divine and to share the positive energy that is ours for the taking we can use techniques that others have found helpful on their spiritual journeys. Here are some of those techniques:

• Psychic Abilities and Intuition: The ability to use a "sixth sense" to see the future, to mentally read what others are thinking or feeling, or to communicate with beings on another plane of existence.
• Meditation: The ability of quieting the mind from thoughts and thereby experiencing connection with the Universal Mind.
• Aligning with the Universe: The ability to transform your subconscious mind to reflect and to benefit from the Universal Mind.
• Law of Attraction: The ability to attract positive manifestations of reality through positive thoughts.
• Astral Projection: The ability to leave one's body to go on a spiritual journey through time and space.
• Lucid Dreaming: The ability to be conscious during dreams and therefore use dreams to work out problems and to enhance creativity.
• Remote Viewing: The ability to see images at a distance for predicting the future.

What's Holding You Back from Your Deeper Spirituality?

Many people long to connect with divine energy but secretly they are afraid. They feel unworthy or are frightened of the different states of consciousness they might experience while trying these techniques. If you're interested in enhancing your spiritual side, begin with small steps. Learning to meditate is a great first step because it will quiet your mind and allow you to feel the presence of the Universal Mind. It's important to remember that each of us takes three steps forward and five steps backward in our quest toward spirituality. No human being is perfect, but because we have been made in the image of the Source, we can strive to create and part of that creation process is a new creation of ourselves. We strive toward the light and bask in the grace and joy that connection with the divine can bring.

Curing Negative Self-Talk Patterns

A feeling of unworthiness, lack of self-esteem or self-confidence, fear of the unknown, fear of success--all of these can impede our progress toward personal development and the enhancement of our spiritual natures. Our negative self-talk sometimes causes us not to pursue the path we truly wish to pursue. See if you recognize yourself in these negative thinking patterns:

• "I'm not worthy to feel the divine spirit."
• "My mind is always so crowded. I can't empty it out to meditate."
• "What if I lose myself as I try these different techniques?"
• "What if I go out of my body and can't find my way back?"
• "If I see the future and it's scary, how will I handle it?"
• "I'm a sinner, why would God be revealed to me?"
• "I don't know what I believe. If I'm still exploring how can I have faith?"
• "If I'm able to communicate with someone on another plane, will I be too scared to do it?"
• "I've tried to use the Law of Attraction and it just doesn't work for me."

Using Positive Affirmations

To start on enhancing your path to spiritual practice, you'll need to replace any negative self-talk patterns with positive affirmations. You can customize these to your particular situation. Here are some examples:

• "Love exists all around me and in me."
• "I have faith that everything comes to me at the perfect time and in the perfect way."
• "My thoughts are positive and the words I say are encouraging to others."
• "Every day I'm getting closer and closer to the divine energy."
• "Whatever I need to know is revealed to me in this moment."
• "My mind and body work in unison to do the work I was meant to do."
• "As I help others and give them joy, I do the same for myself."
• "I reflect the Universal Mind in all that I do."

Place your favorite affirmations where you'll see them every day.

Using Hypnosis or Self-Hypnosis

One of the problems with trying to transform your subconscious mind is that when you try to transform it with new positive affirmations your conscious mind takes over and quickly rejects these transforming statements. There are several methods you can use to sidestep your conscious mind so that your subconscious mind will accept the new messages more readily. You can engage a hypnotherapist and under hypnosis you can make sure that your subconscious mind receives the messages and begins to act on them. You can also learn self-hypnosis, which takes some practice but is not really difficult for most people. Find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed for 1/2 hour to an hour. Slowly give your body suggestions to relax and let go. Take deep breaths in and out. As you do this, visualize positive energy coming into your body and negative energy going out. Once you are almost on the edge of sleep, but still very focused, you can play your positive affirmations over and over in your mind and couple them with visualizations. At this point, your subconscious mind should be ready to receive the messages that will ultimately transform you.

Using Subliminal Audio

Another way that's highly effective in replacing negative self-talk is subliminal audio. Subliminal audio messages are created to ease your mind into a theta wave pattern. This state of mind is a hypnotic, receptive state of consciousness. The messages that will transform your subconscious are not audible by the conscious mind. They are masked by music and background sounds. In this state of mind, your subconscious is open and ready to receive these new affirmations. By using subliminal audio over a period of a few weeks you can cure your negative self-talk. You can also purchase subliminal audios that will help you to succeed with the spiritual practices described earlier in this article, such as meditation, lucid dreaming, and astral projection.

Using Visualization Techniques

Visualization techniques are very powerful when used in combination with positive affirmations. See yourself surrounded by divine energy. Listen to the small, still voice that speaks to your heart during your meditations. Create a vision board that shows you transformed into the person you long to become.