Starting Your Own Practice

Regardless of religious background, starting a practice to find moments of transcendence is highly beneficial.

Most human beings are looking for meaning in their lives. Forming connections in troubling times eases stress and depressive symptoms, and increases immune response.

Here is a rough guideline on how to begin:

1. Start small and make new habits easy. There is no need to fully adopt a set of beliefs overnight. Becoming more spiritual can be as simple as staying silent for 5–10 minutes a day in a quiet, soothing environment.
2. Commit. Love yourself enough to attempt to find moments of transcendent emotions daily. Through increasing hope, kindness, self-compassion, gratitude, and awe, anyone can start being more spiritual right away. All it takes is one decision to change perspective.
3. Practice. Finding moments of transcendence to replace moments of frustration will not happen by waving a magic wand. Human beings must practice mindful attention to their thoughts, emotions, and behavior to find experiences in spirituality.
4. Study. Explore others’ experiences of spirituality, whether through religion or personal journeys. Find something that you find relatable. Ask questions and get curious about people who have cultivated this beautiful way of being in the world.
5. Develop an optimistic explanatory style. While getting curious and beginning to ask more questions, slowing down how you speak and exploring strong personally held beliefs can open your mind to more possibilities.
6. Choose love and respect. With every interaction, lead with a loving and kind way of being. Even when dealing with awkward interactions, staying calm and in a loving mindset can deescalate the situation. Can you imagine the Dalai Lama yelling at someone? He interacts with skeptics and highly intelligent people who might seek to threaten his way of being in the world, yet he shows up every single time with love. He respects his interactions as opportunities to learn from alternative perspectives.