We cycle through phases of grief and healing when we’ve experienced religious trauma.
Easter brings us face to face with where we are in that cycle and if we’re paying attention, our bodies will tell us what we need next.
As I’ve healed from the pain of leaving church and then God as I had always known God, Easter has become more about rest and connection.
I’ve made time for myself, gone for long walks, done longer meditations than the usual 10 minute grabs of time and cooked beautiful food. These all fill my cup.
Grief used to overwhelm me at the time of year. I feel like recently, I’ve settled into new ways of being spiritual and I’m enjoying exploring these with clients as well.
Spiritually is often so narrowly defined and requires faith.
Whereas, it can be anything that feeds and strengthens our life force, makes us feel more alive, the most like ourselves.
Because spiritual practices are so familiar to me as part of a faith tradition, it feels good to replace them with new practices that can be anything of my making.
Breath work
Meditation
Yoga
Nature
Swimming
Anything embodied, swaying, dancing, humming, Havening Touch exercises
Music
Visualisation
Any of these practices with others are powerful.
Stream of consciousness writing.
We can reframe and retrain our language and the way we feel, shifting grief and heaviness and opening ourselves up to a new kind of spirituality that frees us.
