I used to be shy about talking about spirituality with my clients. What I have found recently however is that there is a hunger for it. The hunger may not always show up as someone saying to me, “I want more spirituality in my life” – instead people call me and want to talk about doing work that has deeper meaning, that serves others or that has a lasting impact in the world. This to me is a call to spirituality. It is the call we hear or the urge we feel that seems to come both from deep within ourselves and from a connection to something greater and outside of ourselves. The opportunity then for my client is to learn to create an open communication channel with that deepest part of themselves so that they can hear and respond to that call.

One of the ways I’ve established this channel is through daily meditation. Rather than share a lot of my own personal thoughts about meditation at this time, I will share with you an excerpt on the topic written by the philosopher Ken Wilber. The following passage is found on page 5 in the book; The Essential Ken Wilber:

There are ways to explain meditation, what it is, what it does, how it works. Meditation, it is said, is a way to evoke the relaxation response. Meditation, others say, is a way to train and strengthen awareness; a method for centering and focusing the self; a way to halt constant verbal thinking and relax the body-mind; a technique for calming the central nervous system; a way to relieve stress, bolster self-esteem, reduce anxiety, and alleviate depression.

All of those are true enough; meditation has been clinically demonstrated to do all those things. But I would like to emphasize that meditation itself is, and has always been, a spiritual practice. Meditation, whether Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, or Islamic, was invented as a way for the soul to venture inward, there ultimately to find a supreme identity with Godhead. “The Kingdom of Heaven within” – and meditation, from the very beginning, has been the royal road to that Kingdom. Whatever else it does, and it does many beneficial things, meditation is first and foremost a search for the God within.