Ninety-five percent of Americans believe in God or in a Universal Spirit. While not all people are associated with an organised religion, the quest for connection and spiritual understanding is present in many people. That is in evidence in many ways as companies are becoming more “faith friendly” with meditation programmes and prayer rooms, to name a few of the initiatives that are entering the workplace. Local Dutch magazines like Happinez and the US magazine Spirituality & Health are finding their way into major supermarket chains and to global mainstream audiences who are searching for meaning in their lives.

‘Everyday spirituality’ focuses also on the reciprocal idea of giving and receiving. When some one actively reaches out to those in need or does good works in the world, they are obviously giving out kindness and compassion. But in the giving, they also are receiving grace and building up positive karma around their lives and often abundance follows these actions if they are done with a sincere heart.

The practice of meditation is a major component of everyday spirituality. Making time to quiet the mind and return to balance has many positive effects on work and personal life. Meditation allows us to connect with ourselves, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually and can often return us to health in body mind and spirit.

When you meditate regularly, you can cope with stress better, be more compassionate to others, resolve conflicts more calmly, find creative solutions faster and many more things occur. There is no one right way to meditate; no religion has the final word on what techniques work the best. It is different for each person, but the desired outcome is inner peace; to be able to return to inner peace in any situation.

Everyday Spirituality should be fun, interesting and inspiring and is developed internally – which is that little positive voice often referred to as intuition, gut feeling or close and secure contact with your inner guidance.  Take time to add some type of meditation or read New Age books that interest you from modern day spiritual teachers like Marianne Williamson, Dr. Wayne Dyer , Deepak Chopra or Eckhart Tolle. Take a workshop on a spiritual topic or add time for prayer. It does not matter what methods you use to open up the communications with the universe and to create an atmosphere of Everyday Spirituality both inside and out.    

August 2008

Rev. Barbara Rogoski is the “Expat Minister” for Europe and is an Ordained Minister, teacher, Reiki practitioner and author. Her company, Authentic Matters Ministries is a spiritual development company that teaches empowerment and self mastery through simple spiritual principles. She officiates at English language weddings in Europe, does Reiki Healing and teaches different workshops on spirituality. Visit Rev. Barbara at www.authenticmatters.com

You can ask Barbara a question via our Ask-the-expert section under ‘Spiritual’, or meet her in person at  Expatica's Lifestyle Fair for Internationals - i am not a tourist - which takes place on 12 October in the famous Beurs van Berlage in central Amsterdam.

[Copyright Expatica 2008]