This question has always raised in my being an answering call for equilibrium, balance, homeostasis and many more adjectives that can only do so much to describe something that my heart can feel, my soul absorbs but my mind cannot quite describe …………. a profound feeling of rest within myself.

It is an invitation to find a way into a deeper dimension of the quiet place in me, honouring and anchoring into the centre of my true being and from that place of sacredness and love, to expand out and live my life in the world yet still connected to this centre.

This journey involves learning to ground the spiritual, emotional, mental and physical dimensions of myself through the heart on a daily basis. When I bring the sacredness of the spiritual dimension through the feelings and intention of my heart to ground into the physical dimension through the use of rituals, ceremonies or other spiritual practices, I bring all aspects of myself to the present moment. This provides an authentic rooting point or point of reference that informs my attitudes and actions for everyday life.

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There is something beautiful and magical in engaging with my rich soul expression, letting it “speak” through the emotion of Unconditional Love in my heart, fired by a strong intention of my Will and being embodied by ritualized(symbolic) or ceremonial actions of my body. It is one of the most effective ways that I have experienced to honour the sacredness of life, its participants and its experiences. It has always brought me into a place of calibration, reverence, gratitude and humility within myself.

My heart-space is the place of Truth in my being and it is a highly creative space as it holds so much potential and possibility. This creative, life-giving energy forms the core of my relationship with my spiritual practises. I have fun creating rituals (sometimes as simple as lighting a candle and consecrating time to read or write something to express my soul), ceremonies (to celebrate and anchor stepping over a certain threshold in my growth, honouring myself and others etc.) and practises like fasting (to take my focus to my inner energies and away from the more mechanical or practical needs of my body and mind) in order to break through into deeper dimensions of myself. Personal spiritual practises are exactly this, they are very personal and the invitation is to find the right “fit” for oneself. It is not a good idea to take part in a ritual or ceremony or other spiritual practise if one is not comfortable doing so or as I would say, if it does not “resonate” with you.

We, as the human race also have societal practises that can be classified as group rituals and ceremonies such as baptisms, bar-mitzvahs and bat-mitzvahs, quinceneras, engagements, bachelor & bachelorette parties, weddings, kitchen teas, stork teas, birthdays, funerals to name just a very few as there are so many cultural practises around the globe all marking milestones, initiations, healing, honouring and anchoring something in the physical, making it manifest for all to feel and see. We sometimes do not consciously take in how much these practises are a part of who we are as humans and as a society.

So the invitation is to engage very consciously and creatively with practises that resonate with us and our journeys, be they societal practises that we have taken for granted or our own spiritual practises that we can create so that we might bring our whole multi-dimensional being into meaningful connection and relationship with our true natures, each other and Mother Nature and all her beings.

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Written by Zuzanka Jansen van Rensburg, Co-founder of Nature Within SA