What is Spiritual Companionship?
Spiritual Companionship, sometimes referred to as Spiritual Direction, is the process of deepening one’s relationship with the Divine, to learn about or grow more fully into one’s own personal Spirituality. We each experience this relationship with the Divine, a Higher Power, God, Spirit, whatever description is used or not used, in very personal and unique ways. In my relationship with you as a Spiritual companion, the path that is distinctly yours may become a more definite presence in daily life and more indivisible from how you experience yourself and your relationships. Sometimes we’ve adopted other people’s beliefs as our own and begin to struggle with in congruencies between what we really feel inside and what we’ve been taught to believe. In this relationship there is the freedom to explore and discover a spiritual path that feels congruent with who you are now. The conversation is about life and the essential nature of faith. Within a group structure, it illuminates the diversity that exists in our spiritual foundations and explores the commonalities and collaborative strengths.
Spiritual Companionship enables each person to pay attention to their own direction and guidance from a higher source, deepen the relationship with this co-creating source and live out the expression and gifts that are a reflection of this presence. In the words of Hafiz, “If your love letters are true dear God, I will surrender myself to who you keep saying I am.”
The focus of this relationship is not on solving problems or giving advise but facilitating a deeper Spiritual connection. We engage in a process of mutual discovery and disclosure which opens new doors to self knowledge, self love, compassion, kindness and authenticity. Spiritual companionship can also create more peacefulness, serenity and feelings of love. It is not about fixing anything or about accomplishing or doing, but about allowing things to be as they are, bringing in more awareness and taking appropriate action when called for.
Some of the focuses that show up in Spiritual Companionship:
- Meditation Practice
- Presence & Focus
- Meaningful Life Exploration
- Acceptance
- Clarifying Intentions
- Identifying and Reducing Distractions
- Simplification
- Exhaustion. Body/Mind/Soul Re-balancing
- Reconnecting with Nature
- Grief and Loss
- Faith in the Unknown
- Life Transitions
- Gratitude
- Relationships
- Forgiveness
- Connecting with Universal Wisdom
Tree Trunks and Bird Wings
How did I find you, God,
Without icons, scriptures,
And other holy maps?
You arrived mysteriously
In tree trunks and bird wings.
I called you poetry
And began to translate.
That is when silence
Became music
And solitude,
Company.
—Zan E. Nix ( An Ocean of Fierce Loving: Poems on Love & Transformation)
Song of the Wren
These wings of inspiration
Grow strong
Flying me to your next line
But not over the whole story.
Your writing style
Appeals to me, Beloved,
Giving just enough to
Keep me engaged
But not so much
That life’s predictable.
Devoted to your direction,
Like a new born wren,
I open my beak to
Swallow whatever you place there.
I am hungry
For the meals you bring now,
Knowing that every nest
You push me from
I fly a little more gracefully.
—Zan E. Nix (The Angel You Least Want to Know, 2018)
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