What Spiritual Practice Is For

Spiritual practice may take on its greatest meaning not when things are going well in your life but when you feel like you just can't go on. Yoga and meditation feel great when you're "up" and "in the flow," and can easily point to the ways they are making your life better. This is often especially true in the early stages of practice, when energy starts flowing and you feel revitalized.

Eventually, however, you're going to hit those limits -- whether it's tightness in a muscle, a habitual behavior or stubborn, deeply rooted emotion. It's going to feel uncomfortable, it's going to hurt, and chances are you're going to want to run. Sometimes we back away from the edge like it's a frightening cliffhang; sometimes we run completely back to the safety and comfort of where we started, trying to forget we've seen the precipice; sometimes we retreat all the way into mental and emotional numbness.

If you're committed to the path of spiritual growth and find yourself at the edge -- of discomfort, pain, even your sanity -- then remember this is exactly the point to which your practice needed to take you. This doesn't mean the practice isn't working -- quite the opposite. It's wringing you out, clearing you, cleansing you, on every level. Feeling sadness? Grief? Anger? Breathe it, let it move through you, and take care of yourself, knowing that this too shall pass. And when it does, you will have reached a new place that you have not yet truly known, but where you are certainly meant to be. This is what spiritual practice is for. [With gratitude to Sri Sally Kempton.]