The spiritual in the mundane

For generations, we have been told spiritual can’t be in with the mundane. Well, I disagree. If you have ever taken one of my classes, especially the ones on ritual, you will know I take a very practical approach to these things.

What do I mean by these terms? What is the spiritual in the mundane?

I have a whole blog post on “What is Spirituality?” but here we go.

What is spirituality?

There are four key elements that come up whenever spirituality is mentioned:

• sense of interconnectedness with the cosmos, nature
• reverence for life
• transcendence
• meaning in life

Now, I’m not going to go into detail with all of them because it’s already there in that last post I’ve linked above, but ye get the idea yes?

Mundane

mundane

/ˌmʌnˈdeɪn/

adjective

1. lacking interest or excitement; dull.”his mundane, humdrum existence”
2. of this earthly world rather than a heavenly or spiritual one. “according to the Shinto doctrine, spirits of the dead can act upon the mundane world

Good old Dictionary.com!

So, usually, when I use “mundane” in this contect, I mean non-spiritual.

Yeah, it’s that easy. It’s the day-to-day. Life. The stuff we spend our time on.

Now there is that secondary definition which essentially links to “not very interesting”. But here’s the thing: we’re fascinated by the Roman Empire. (Well, a distinct subset of the population is, anyway). How many people in the Roman Empire though their bathroom habits were anything but mundane?

And yet, try google “Roman bathroom habits”. Go on. I’ll wait.

Exactly. People are fascinated.

So while the mundane might seem uninteresting and energy-dragging to us, we can train ourselves to include the spiritual in the mundane.

Spiritual in the mundane

So, how do we practice this spiritual in the mundane business?

Awareness.

We pay attention. We are mindful. The nature around us – and I don’t care where you are, urban or rural, trust me, there is nature around you – is a great way to practice this.

What is the wind doing? What’s the weather like? Are there birds around you?

What can you notice in the world around you? How can you incorporate the spiritual in your mundane life?

Most of us don’t have the wherewithal to dedicate hours a day to the spiritual side of life. We have jobs, families, chores, etc, etc, etc

Even the sheer mundanity of feeding ourselves…

So, we incorporate.

Fine, but bloody, hell, HOW?

When you make your cup of coffee in the morning – make two, give one to Brigid.

Pause before leaving the house in the morning or before getting into your car, take a breath and say “Hi, Brigid”.

Light a candle (or light an electric candle)

Take a deep breath and think of Brigid as you do.

there’s just a few practical, solid, authentic ideas. Sure, you can spruce them up a bit. Use a bit of Irish. Try 5mins meditation. But I’m kinda assuming time is a scarce resource here, to be honest.

Why do I care about this?

Cos I’ve been there. Brigid has taught me how to mix spiritual and mundane in a way that makes sense to me and support my life. And I want to help others do the same.

Listen, the 5mins a day method was a great way for me to get started, but as you can see from my email the other day, things are very very different now. These days, I do a LOT more than 5mins a day and Brigid has been so helpful in creating that life so that I can do this.

Oh, and there’s so much I can do to help you along the same way. I don’t care how busy you are, there are ways to do this. To see the spiritual in the mundane. To incorporate the spiritual into daily life. Let’s allow ourselves to ease into that flow of right relationship with deity so that it’s not an added extra chore to do.

What’s next?

Maybe, making a spiritual practice an extra chore is heading back towards religion by rote. A lot of us grew up with that, and we moved on for a reason. I want something different for you. I want something more for you, something better. The idea of anyone heading back into a rigid, rule bound spirituality, similar to the one they’ve worked so hard to leave, is abhorrent.

And maybe, that means we have to deconstruct some of the beliefs and thoughts that are still hanging on from that time. Maybe it means we look at what you liked about the community you left. Because it wasn’t necessarily all bad. There might be golden nuggets in the dross. That doesn’t mean you go back and restrict and limit yourself. But it might help inform you as to how you build your new practice.

So, you can head back through my many blog posts and figure things out from there. You reach out to me for help. Check out my Brigid’s Path Collective coaching group (yes, I finally named the damn thing!)

Most of all: trust yourself. Take a look at the brief things I mentioned above. Pick one. Move forward!