by Cricket Wingfield, MD
Connecting with your spiritual essence
It’s easy to have our attention caught up in the doings of life. Achieving, tending, building, and maintaining ourselves, our families, and the world we’ve created. Behind our doing, however, sits a quiet witness, our essence, our soul, consciousness itself. It waits quietly for our attention. How do we connect with our spiritual essence, the unchanging, beautiful, peaceful being that we are, and build a life from there?
Who am I?
That is the question a great saint, Sri Ramana Maharshi gave to his students to ask themselves over and over in order to attain enlightenment. When you ask yourself, what answers do you give? I’m a woman, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a doctor, a teacher, and so on. So many identities. Keep asking. Are you your thoughts, beliefs, habits, roles? On one hand yes, those are your outer identities, and yet those change as we go through life. Our spiritual being is unchanging. The witness looking out through our eyes, feeling sensations, watching the endless train of thoughts and experiences go by.
If you’ve tried to meditate, you know it’s nearly impossible to stop the stream of thoughts passing through. That is the nature of the mind. While we can influence the pattern of thoughts we choose to attend to with some training, those thoughts are not our essence. They are thoughts.
Using a vision board for spiritual alignment
A vision board can serve as a map or portal for spiritual alignment. It can help point us back to our spiritual essence. A map is not the territory, but still very useful!
Create a spiritual vision board
To create a spiritual vision board, gather images and words that remind you of your unchanging essence, and have a feeling of peace, clarity, unity, and deep connection. Imagery, symbols, beautiful photos, and inspiring words can act as signposts, pointing you back to your true nature. You can also include photos of spiritual teachers that inspire you, whether living or dead. A photo of yourself as a child can also remind you of your more playful, unencumbered self. Your free spirit, and own uniqueness.
You might want to create an atmosphere conducive to connection with your higher self. Some music, a candle, or a warm cup of tea to set the tone. Then take a few minutes to connect, and ground in your body with a few deep breaths, feeling the support of your seat or your feet on the floor. Take another moment to connect, set an intention to remember who you are and why you’re here, then dive into creating your own beautiful spiritual vision board.