Is downshifting a
spiritual act? Is deciding to live more
in alignment with the needs
of the planet, humanity and ourselves an
act of defiance, a refusal to comply, to
be “socially included” or is
it maybe a shift towards a mode of living
that supports both our personal spiritual
growth and the raising of global consciousness?
I have met plenty of atheistic, sustainable
living and sustainable business enthusiasts
who tell me that they see many reasons to
simplify our social and business culture,
to consume less, to emphasise personal and
planetary wellbeing more, without needing
to subscribe to any kind of spiritual beliefs
or moral code. So, clearly, some sense of
or belief in our spiritual nature is not
a prerequisite for living more simply. For
those who view living and working sustainably
very much as part of their spiritual path,
though, some kind of regular spiritual practice
is paramount.
Why is that?
It’s like preparing to run a marathon.
For most of us running a marathon is not
something that we can just get up in the
morning and do! We first need to train, to
prepare and attune ourselves so that the
task in hand becomes possible. For us to
learn to change our approach to living and
working to one where the needs of the planet,
humanity and ourselves is uppermost in our
consciousness, we need to practice being
in touch and then remain in touch with that
part of ourselves that guides us from the
heart rather than from the head. I’m
not saying that we never need guidance from
the head, rather that our heads do a very
good job of influencing us anyway, and flooding
our consciousness for much of the time. By
learning how to maintain contact with our
hearts, our Higher Selves, the Divine, God,
whatever that is for us, we will be redressing
the balance between head and heart.
In my experience, regular, preferably daily,
spiritual practice is a way to achieve this.
What is it that gets in the way of us committing
our time and energy to regular spiritual
practice? What can we do to work with these
obstacles and remove them?
Common Obstacles
Practical
• Lack of a
physical space.
• Lack of a time space.
A very effective way
around these kinds of obstacles is to consider
our options more
openly. If we can’t find room at home
to meditate, pray, or practice Yoga, T’ai
Chi or QiGung, for example, perhaps we can
explore what changes can be made in our home
environment to accommodate some space. Perhaps
it is easier to go out to a regular class
or support group some days and practice at
home on others. Perhaps there’s another
space away from home that we can use. Perhaps
there are some changes we can make in how
our home space is used in order to accommodate
some room for our spiritual practice.
Personal health/physical
• Illness of
some kind, either an acute episode or an
ongoing physical or mental
illness.
• Surgery
•
Personal weaknesses – physical or psychological.
• Lack of knowledge
In an ideal world,
we would establish a robust spiritual practice
when we’re
feeling well in order to carry us through
any illness that might emerge later. In practice,
this doesn’t always happen and we will
need to be honest with ourselves about what
we can handle when ill and balance that against
the healing benefits of maintaining some
form of practice. We will need to let anyone
who is caring for us know that this is a
priority for us and part of our care regime.
Whatever our state of health, we may well
benefit from working with a spiritual teacher.
Emotional
• Limiting beliefs
(those that lead us to sabotage rather
than support our efforts)
• Conditioning (unconscious patterns of behaviour,
usually learnt in childhood, which may hinder
our progress in adult life.)
Awareness is the key
here – to watch
our automatic reactions and unpack them to
reveal our underlying needs and how we might
meet them in a life-sustaining way. Coaching
can help to raise awareness.
Social
• Family, friends,
colleagues unsupportive.
We can choose to ignore
unsupportive comments, or we can choose
to talk gently with those
who appear to be putting obstacles in our
way. In my experience, most of us would rather
keep quiet and seethe than have what we fear
might be a “difficult conversation”.
In practice, it’s usually easier in
the longer term to have the discussion.
Spiritual
• Unsure of
my path, lack of clarity.
• Conflict between what attracts me now and
the religion I was raised in.
Ironically, it’s
maintaining a spiritual practice that helps
us to achieve awareness
of, clarity with, and insight into, all of
the above. We can ask ourselves how flexible
or rigid we want to be and where our boundaries
lie. We can also investigate areas where
we feel we would like to extend our knowledge.
Spiritual growth can be a dynamic balance
between the experiential and the expansion
of knowledge.
Conclusion.
Whilst not a prerequisite for living and
working sustainably, maintaining a sound
spiritual practice is something that many
downshifters find supportive, inspiring and
a great comfort. Whilst there can appear
to be many obstacles to this approach in
our modern, fast-paced way of life, it is
possible to remove these. As with many areas
of downshifting, effecting life changes that
are important to us can lead us to question
our assumptions and beliefs and thus to benefit
from the process of growth that accompanies
the change.
