Boost Your Spirit: Six Steps for Strong Spiritual Hygiene

Spirituality is a personal journey of traveling inward. It is a broad experience in which an individual gathers internal knowledge through expanding their consciousness to seek a purposeful life and develop a relationship with something larger than themselves. It is a deliberate path to connecting with a higher power for lifestyle enhancement.

Spirituality differs from religion in the sense that being “religious” is the act of following strict rules and lifestyle habits. Exploring spirituality is the engagement in practices that help discover one’s sense of self and their life purpose, also known as their dharma, whilst building a union with a higher power. Simply put, spirituality is a practice of devoting energy to nurture your spirit. The spirit is an incorporeal part of human essence, separate from the body and mind, designed for communication with God. It provides a sense of liveliness, cultivates joy, and fosters inner harmony – providing a synchronization between your body, mind, and soul to a higher power.

Diving into spirituality begins with cleansing, nurturing, and protecting your spirit through hygienic habits, known as “spiritual hygiene”. Spiritual hygiene defines practices of self-love woven into actionable steps to clean your spirit, expand your consciousness, and uplift your perspective. Comparable to caring for the physical body with nutritious foods, exercise routines, and sanitary habits – your spirit also craves cleanliness for optimal wellbeing.

Exploring spiritual hygiene practices intended to cleanse, nurture, and protect your spirit may be the antidote for solving any gloominess, doubt, or uncertainty about your life path. Below are six unique spiritual hygiene habits intended to offer perspective shifts and nurture your spiritual health. Experiment with these practices to lighten your heart and boost your spirit – bringing you closer to God and delivering more clarity, peace, and harmony into your days.

Confront Your Critics

Flip the manuscript of your thought patterns. Vigorously monitor the words that flow through your mind and catch yourself when it conjures a judgmental, critical, scrutinizing or negative thought – either of self, situations, or others. When your mind brews a criticism, pause, and immediately find a compliment to switch the vibrational energy of your thoughts and extract yourself from a potential spiral of pessimistic or pitiful thinking. Proclaim the compliment by either thinking it or speaking it, and carry on with your thoughts.

Purge while praying

Frequently, your spirit can feel bogged down by the excessive clutter and accumulation of material items that fill your life. Assess how your external environments – such as your living spaces, workstation, and vehicle – support your spiritual health. When your spirit feels heavy, begin with purging trash, junk, outdated items, and unneeded items from your environments. While deep cleaning, listen to healing music and declare words of gratitude and appreciation for your spaces. Invite God’s support to energetically cleanse your spaces and ask for discipline to keep them routinely organized. More often than not, a healthy spirit is derivative of a clean, systematic, and tidy environment.  

Cook with consciousness

Spiritual health is contingent on your consumption – so bring this practice into the kitchen. Honestly evaluate how the items in your refrigerator and on your pantry shelves may influence your spiritual health. Envision these spaces as a portal to your soul. When stocking and organizing these spaces, ask yourself – “What do I want to fill myself with?” Intentionally choose nourishing options that productively fuel your body and mind. These conscious choices directly affect your spirit and your overall performance. While cooking, preparing, and enjoying these healthy choices, excessively pray with an abundance of gratitude. Offer thankfulness for the harvest, farming, baking, hunting, or food production process to show appreciation for the blessings on your plate. Pray over your food, asking God to bless your plate, and eat with intention.

Presence is a present

In a fast-paced, productive society, offering presence is the best present to give, and receive. Learn to love the present moment and free yourself from the stress of multi-tasking, ruminating the past, or hyper-fixating the future. This begins by actively focusing on one task at a time, holding eye contact vigorously, ignoring the notifications from your phone, listening with intention, and controlling your thoughts. These are active steps to control the mind to lighten your spirit. Similarly to how the heart naturally beats, the mind naturally conjures thoughts – some positive, others not so positive. Do not bog down your spirit with negative thoughts of the past or the future. Work to control your mind to live in the present moment. Consistently remind yourself that your future is a continued expression of the present – so cultivate how you wish to feel and perform in the future by creating that in the present.  

Never neglect nature

Dedicate time each month, or week, to delving into the healing properties of nature. Time spent in nature offers significant mental and physical health benefits, naturally improving your spiritual hygiene by reducing stress, lowering blood pressure, increasing cognitive function, and uplifting your overall moods. Explore the different options that nature provides (forests, oceans, desert, mountains, meadows, lakes, or rivers) and assess which enhances your creativity, simplifies your thoughts, minimizes your worries, and boosts your energy best. Spend time there often. It is free medicine and yours to soak up.

Walk with wanderlust.

Walk as often as possible, with or without a destination. When available, allow ample time before an appointment, fitness class, or social commitment and choose to walk there. Soak in the surrounding scenery and awaken your eyes to notice something new every time. This simple act will turn a necessary appointment into an exciting adventure – adding creativity to your daily routine while uplifting your spirit. When walking, absorb the scenery while keeping your spine long and your chin high. Watch the world around you, not your shoes or the screen on your phone. Look up in wonder, and allow your thoughts to freely wander.

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Essentially, these spiritual hygiene practices are intended to shift your mindset, and can be easily integrated into your daily life – only requiring a willingness from yourself. When applied routinely, your spirit will adjust to the perspective changes and naturally lighten.

If you are interested in exploring healing modalities that boost your spirit, begin with exploring yoga, Reiki energy, sound healing, kirtan, journaling, meditation, or breathwork. There are countless ways to ground your body and uplift your spirit – naturally releasing stress and bringing you closer to God. Explore what supports you best and practice it often. Life is precious, and when you enjoy yours, you inevitably make the world a brighter place.

What are your favorite ways to boost your spirit and feel closer to the divine? The comments section is a safe, judgement-free space. Please feel free to share below.

With Love –

The JIM