Finding God Within Ourselves
/What is God
God is a big word. You and I have different images of God. When I refer to God, I am talking about an energy/force within and around you that connects everything, both animate and inanimate.
It is the higher power within us that speaks to us through our bodies (sensations), hearts (emotions) and heads (quiet mind).
God is a loving force that seeks to bring out the best in each of us and sustain a world where all life has a chance to thrive.
There is the spark of God in each of us. It is not something we earn. It is a gift given to us to be used wisely and with compassion.
The good news is that God is within all of us.
9 Ways to Find God in Yourself
1. Quiet Your Inner Critic:
Slow down. Find a place in your home where you can sit quietly. Maybe you want to look out into your back garden or watch the people and their pets walking down the street.
Observe the conversations going on in your head. Are these conversations hindering you or helping you?
Learn to notice the difference between the voice of your true self and you're your inner critic.
The voice of your inner critic is usually loud, demanding, impatient and critical, while the voice of God within you is gentle, kind, patient and encouraging.
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The more you quiet your inner critic, the easier it will be for the Spirit to get through to you. You can have faith that God is within you.
2. Meditation and Prayer:
Quieting your mind through meditation and prayer can help you connect to the Spirit within you. There are many ways to pray and meditate.
One of my favourite forms of prayer is called Centering Prayer. You pick a focus word through prayer that will help you repeatedly get centred in God's presence.
Start slowly for five minutes. Take some deep breaths to get centred. When you feel centred, begin the prayer using your focus words to help you stay calm. You can also focus on your breath to stay centred before God.
There are now many meditation Apps available. My favourite is Insight Timer, which is available I iPhones and Android.
Another great App is Pray as you Go, which invites us into daily prayer using Ignatian Spirituality.
Ignatian prayer begins with a process to help you connect with God. It provides you with space to review the day with gratitude, helps you pay attention to your emotions, asks the Holy Spirit to direct you to something important in the day, and then helps you to look forward to tomorrow.
Try different forms of prayer and meditation until you find a practice that works well for you.
The more you pray, the more intimate your relationship will be with God. The more aware you will become that God is within you.
3. Somatic Work
God chooses to connect with you through your body and mind. Somatic work invites you through your breath to connect to the wisdom of your body. It helps you to know how you are in the moment.
Breathwork helps you connect with body memories that no longer serve you. Somatic work is not easy because you are starting to feel the physical and emotional pain you have repressed for a year.
The power of somatic work is that when you can acknowledge the pain, it will start to lose its power over you.
There are many forms of breathwork that you can find on sites like Insight Timer.
The more connected you are to your body, the easier for God to communicate with you and for you to feel that of God within you.
4. Look Deeply into Someone's Eyes
If you want to connect with the Spirit with another person, a powerful way to do it is to sit down and spend a few minutes looking deeply into their eyes.
You will likely find this very uncomfortable at first, but with practice, you will experience a profound unity with another person you never dreamed was possible.
As you connect with another person, you will also link the God in you with the God in them. You will become more aware that God is within you.
5. Conscious Walking
Walking with intention can help you connect with your community, whether a person, tree or animal.
Doing something physical helps you quiet your mind and pay more attention to what is happening in your body.
Want to Learn How To Start A Daily Habit Of Talking To God? Click Here
It opens your eyes to the world's beauty, even in the most surprising places like the inner city that most people want to avoid.
Walking helps us open up to experiencing new insights and recognize the world's wonder and beauty.
When we feel in awe, we always get a little closer to God. The more we recognize the daily miracles, the more we can experience God within us.
6. Gardening
Do you love to get your hands dirty in the soil of your garden? When you kneel and get close to the earth and plants, you can not help but be in awe of the miracle of life.
You can see God's greater purpose. You start to experience God in the most surprising places, such as in the dandelion weeks we love to hate.
As you discover the miracle of life in plants and animals, you start recognizing it yourself.
7. Learning the Enneagram
The Enneagram is a powerful tool to help you recognize God within you. The Enneagram shows us how we disconnect from Source and how to get back.
Identifying your primary type is the beginning of a new adventure that will help you let go of old habits, beliefs and inner conversations that block you from living the life God intended.
The Enneagram helps you to inhabit your three centers of intelligence. When you are present, you are in your three centers, the body, heart and head; you are most open to connecting to Spirit. When you are connected, you will know that God is within you.
8. Show generosity to Others
When you are generous to others, you open your heart. You start to see the miracle of each person, and that helps you to know the miracle within yourself.
9. Love your neighbour as Yourself
To love your neighbour, this teaching of Jesus requires us to love ourselves before we love anyone else. It is not just the people we like or who look like us; it is everyone!
Whenever you choose to love another person, you are choosing to love the Spirit within you. You will feel that God is within you.
God is everywhere. There is nowhere to hide from God. The more you can let go of the barriers you put up to protect yourself, the easier it will be for you to connect with God. The more you connect with God, the greater confidence you will have that God is within you.
Don't ever forget you are a holy being. The more open you are in your body, heart and mind, the feeling of being disconnected from God will vanish.
Roland Legge is a Certified Spiritual Life Coach and a minister in the United Church of Canada in Yorkton, Saskatchewan. With the help of the Enneagram and Coaching, you can learn to recognize the holy within you. You can join my newsletter for free advice, get your free E-book, and sign up for a Discovery Call that will include a mini-coaching session at no charge
