Creating New Spiritual Practices in the New Year

The beginning of a new year usually brings about conversations regarding resolutions, goal setting, and self-improvement. The typical resolutions of losing weight, getting into shape, spending less money, and get organized seem to fall flat by the last week in January. these common goals seem almost too vanilla. We usually end up wanting more or wanting something better than just dropping a few pounds.

Self-improvement doesn’t need to stop at body transformation or home reorganization projects. When looking to make substantial, life-altering changes we need to take a close look at all areas of our being. We need to examine our physical, mental, and spiritual health. They all work together and when one is out of whack, the others won’t function at top capacity.

Spiritual wellness isn’t something that is normally examined until an individual is face-to-face with a crisis of some sort. It seems that witnessing or experiencing devastation brings about deep questioning of faith and belief. If we aren’t actively and consistently working on our spiritual health and wellness, when we are met with a difficult situation we will find that we aren’t as strong and resilient in our faith as we had thought. Recovering from a weakened faith is much more difficult than recovering from weakened health.

As you look over the next 12 months and plan your resolutions and strategize your goals, I would encourage you to consider looking into building up your spiritual foundation by trying out some new spiritual practices. Take a look at some of the following ideas and see if any of these might be something you can incorporate into the coming days and months.

‘But the Spirit produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.’ Galatians 5:22-23

1. When looking for a new spiritual practice to try out, you don’t have to look much further than the list of the fruits of the Spirit that are listed in Galatians 5:22-23. These two verses list out nine qualities of someone who is deeply connected to the Holy Spirit. Each of these attributes play a significant role in an individual’s response to their daily routine, relationships, work stressors, and to crisis situations. While it seems almost impossible to live out each and every one of these attributes, it doesn’t hurt to pick out one or two of them to focus on. Choosing just joy and focusing on practicing joy, finding joy, and radiating joy will vastly improve your outlook on life.
   

2. Psalms and prayers go hand-in-hand. Reading the Psalms is almost like getting a peek into David’s journal. For many, the Psalms give permission to praying prayers that seem taboo. Can we really shake our fist and cuss at God? He won’t strike us down if we angrily hurl words of disappointment His way, will He? The Psalms prove that theory wrong. David uttered many angry words at God and God still loved him and blessed him anyway. In fact, those prayers created a deeper relationship between David and his God. Try choosing a few Psalms and rewriting them in your own words of prayer. The passage you choose can act as an outline for you as you lay out your heart’s hurts, needs, and desires.

1. If you are more of an active type and need to be moving in order to process out your day or a certain situation, you might want to consider prayer walks. Prayer walks come in many forms. If you are walking and praying together, you are doing prayer walking! However, you can make it more creative by adding different elements. For example, you can download the Pray As You Go app and listen to prayers as you walk. As you walk through your neighborhood, say prayers for the people that you see, or say blessings over houses and businesses as you pass by them. Walk and pray your way through a labyrinth, which is a guided walking path that leads to a center and then leads back out. You can learn more about them and locate one near you by visiting this link.
   

2. What about learning a new art form while practicing a new spiritual habit? Prayer and art go beautifully well together. God is the original artist and the most inspirational. It only seems natural to use art and creativity as a means of prayer. Pick up a blank sketchbook and create an art journal filled with paint splotches, drawing, magazine clippings, and written prayers. There is no need for methods, steps, or organization to it. Just pick the medium that feels appropriate and add it to the page. Using a Bible as the foundation of an art journal is quite popular. You can find quite a bit of inspiration and ideas from Illustrated Faith. Try your hand at creative lettering and practice lettering Bible verses or prayers. Another popular activity is coloring on artistic coloring pages that are filled with Bible verses, inspirational graphics, and quotes. I know a handful of people that find meditating and praying while coloring is calming and soothing.

There are many ways to incorporate spiritual practices into your new year’s resolutions and goals. Many of these practices can be intertwined with physical, psychological, and social goals you may be setting. It doesn’t matter which practice you choose. What matters is that you are consistent with practicing and working on those new practices enough that they become entrenched into your soul. If you are looking for other ideas on how you can incorporate new spiritual habits or practices, I recommend the Spirituality & Practice website. They have lots of great ideas and resources.

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