For several years, spirituality has been a major part of my life. It has been the foundation of my healing, personal development, and career decisions. With time, my spirituality has continued to form and change, as I uncover the essence of my true identity.
Spirituality, as defined by the dictionary, is “the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.” To some, spirituality and religion are synonymous and to others, spirituality is a separate entity. Whatever your take on it is, the reality is that the concept of spirituality is a broad concept that leaves room for many perspectives; similar to our spiritual paths. For many years my spirituality was something that I could separate from my work and career. I would hold jobs and positions that didn’t resonate with me on a spiritual level. However, with that separation came a sense of emptiness and lack of fulfillment. As I grow on my spiritual journey, I realize how intertwined my spirituality is in EVERY aspect of my life. I can no longer, nor do I want to, separate the two; they are meant to intertwine. It is for this reason that I’ve decided to transition from a general life transformation coaching approach to a spiritual life coaching and teaching approach.
Often times with life transformation coaching, you may have clients who have a spiritual belief, and the ones that do not, I am deciding to work with those who have a spiritual belief, are unsure of their spiritual belief, or working to develop a spiritual belief. To be honest, I don’t know how to do life without my spiritual foundation and I am not going to try. Please note, this is not about religion, this is about spirituality, as I believe spirituality and religion, though can be related, are not synonymous. Spirituality, in my opinion, is about elevating in connectedness with self, others, and nature. It has to do with spirit and realizing the truth of who we are, consciousness, and who God is.
With that being said, it is my opinion that spiritual life coaching requires going beyond the surface level of one’s life. It focuses beyond the external things and how they affect us, and focus on the internal and how the internal affects the external. In other words, spiritual life coaching helps and guides you on how to live your life from the inside out. Unwrapping the layers of who you believe you are and truly getting to the root of your divine identity, pure awareness. It entails finding your purpose and connecting to your infinite intelligence within. From personal experience, working from the inside out has helped me to change the narrative of who I say I am which positively effects the way I experience life. Now that I am experiencing life from a deeper space, I live with much more peace, oneness, purpose, love, compassion, and understanding.
We all come into this world, after being in the womb, exposed to certain energies and affected by the environment in which we are developed. Then, as we develop and grow outside the womb, we start to develop beliefs, which get stored in the subconscious (or ego self). These beliefs are not absolute truths. Yet, there are those beliefs that we have gathered from others through teaching, experience, or observation, which we have adopted as our truth. Those beliefs become our narrative, they become the things which we attach to and use to identify ourselves and perceive the world through. These beliefs (also referred to as conditioning) are often inherited or developed in school, from our community, teachers, therapist, family, and/or coaches. Some of these beliefs are those that result in self-doubt, low-self esteem, fears, apprehensions, and limited beliefs. These limitations keep us from our true essence, consciousness. As we are so wrapped up in these thoughts and beliefs we don’t realize that they aren’t who we truly are, they are form, as we are formless. The more limited beliefs we hold, the further we move away from our soul-self, our essence, consciousness. Behind the self-doubt and all the other limiting beliefs, which are stored in the subconscious, sits the soul-self (also known as inner space or consciousness).
In the Mindful Living podcast, author Richard Barrett indicated that we start off in the fetus as soul-consciousness and then, between 18 months and two years old, our ego begins to develop. The ego is created as an agent of the soul, in order to “protect” us (so it’s a defense mechanism). The more we start developing these false beliefs and identities, the further the soul gets pushed back and we begin to experience soul-loss. We then spend about half of our life developing the ego and then spend the second half of our lives surrendering ego and getting back to our soul-self. This is just a general view, and there are many things to consider when viewing one’s development and the time frame of each stage. Additionally, I have done quite a bit of research where other concepts and ideas were used. Nonetheless, it generally balled down to us separating from our soul, often due to our limited beliefs, development of the ego, and our processing of traumatic experiences.
However, though we experience soul-loss, we can get back to our true essence of consciousness-the parts of us that are covered by the false self. We can do this by bringing awareness to the ego, the more awareness to the ego, the more it diminishes; it loses its identity. Once we surrender our ego, we can then begin to reprogram our thoughts and beliefs and heal wounds of the past, which can result in us being healthy, realizing our wholeness, and living a harmonious life. This creates that inner space for consciousness to flow through. By peeling back the layers of who we think we are and reprogramming our thoughts and beliefs, we can connect back to consciousness and the replace those reactive negative thoughts with positive thoughts and truths about who we are. Additionally, we learn to live a life of balance, authenticity and true self-love.
By working with a spiritual life coach, this is the type of soul-work you engage in. The soul-work looks beyond your current goals and invites you to develop a solid and healthy foundation to succeed in your purposeful and fulfilling goals, now and in the future. It’s this soul-work that will reintegrate the smothered and rearranged parts of who you truly are, consciousness, opening you up to a life of soul-self existence. You’ll tap into self-healing work where you may discover relationships or circumstances that have been subconsciously holding you back. You will be able to identify your triggers, witness the areas needing healing, and start the work for reprogramming your subconscious thoughts. You learn tips and tricks on how to deal with situations that may appear chaotic while holding on to your peace. In other words, you take full responsibility for your life experience, step into your power, and you start co-creating as the creator that you are!
Ultimately, by going deeper and deeper, continuing to expose layer by layer of your different personalities and beliefs, you are connecting more and more with your soul. Let’s be clear, this is work that you can do on your own, however, a spiritual life coach not only brings support and tools but their experience. Through spiritual life coaching, you begin to realize or confirm that you haven’t been living the life that you truly desire, or the one that is you deserve, simply because you exist. However, you’ll learn that you can live your desired life, and you’ll also learn how to do it. Spiritual life coaching helps you tap into your power and realize how powerful you are. You will be empowered to show up in this world fully and completely. You’ll walk away from the relationship with a toolkit full of ways to stay in your power and help others through their personal spiritual journey.
A spiritual life coach will guide, educate, encourage, and support you. They help you figure out what truly lights your soul on fire and makes you happy. Often times, by the end of your work together, you’ll have an idea of what it is that you wish to accomplish while here on earth (your secondary life purpose), what’s been holding you back, and you’ll see through experience- how you can co-create, with God (source, higher power, mother nature—whichever you prefer) the life you desire.
FINAL WORDS
To be honest, when I first started offering my coaching sessions, as much as I loved God, and was led by Him, I never even considered spiritual life coaching. And so, I would completely understand if you haven’t considered a spiritual life coach as an option. However, you are now aware that it exists, it is an option, and it’s here for you. Think about whether this article resonates with you.
- How did you feel while reading it?
- Could you feel the words speaking directly to your soul?
- Are you curious to know more?
- Were there things mentioned that you want to experience?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, ask yourself, “What is keeping me from moving forward?” Is it fear? Fear often times stop us from diving into learning and trying something new. Is it the fear of what may be uncovered during the journey or fear of the unknown? Not to mention, ego does not want to let go of who it thinks it is.
Though I can’t guarantee that the journey to your soul-self will be comfortable the whole way through, in fact, I can almost bet that you’ll experience many uncomfortable moments. But as you shed layers of beliefs that no longer serve you, you will begin to feel free and lighter. If you commit to the process and show up for yourself, you won’t regret the end result; it’s liberating. Though shadow work, healing, reprogramming the mind, and acknowledging your false self can bring you to a place of major vulnerability and discomfort, it opens you up to so much love, compassion, and new beginnings. It frees you from limitations and welcomes you to a life of fulfillment, hope, purpose, and Truth. Your birthright allows you to have abundance; come and get what’s yours by divine right!
Are you ready to unmask your fears, limiting beliefs, and insecurities… and start acknowledging and living in the power that lies within YOU. The power is already there, waiting for you to make the choice to USE IT… Now is the time! Click here to check out what services I have available.
P.s. curious to get more viewpoints on what the soul is…check out this perspective filled video on Huffpost.com about What is the Soul?
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