Putting my spiritual woo on display

Here I am, today, declaring my love of tarot, oracle decks visualisation, meditation, manifestation and communing with the Universe.

I also declare that I’m not letting my spirituality mean anything less about how serious, professional or capable I am in my work, business and every single client interaction.

I say this out the gate precisely because that’s always been my biggest fear: that I’d be taken less seriously if I talk openly and candidly about my spiritual practices and beliefs in my coaching work.

But spirituality, or being spiritual, isn’t something frivolous, or extra, or apart from our work and lives and the things we do. It’s what defines and shapes how we do what we do. It forms an inextricable part of our beliefs and values, and informs the integrity and attitude we bring to our work.

After all, isn’t that what spirituality is? At its heart, it’s a belief in our connection with something larger than ourselves: other people, animals and nature, a divine presence (however we might define that), connections between all beings.

Even if you don’t follow a faith or don’t believe in any divine being/source, you can still be spiritual, simply by believing that there is something larger and more important than you, as a single being.

It’s not about the tarot cards and crystals

I grew up in Southeast Asia, where spirituality and religion is a big, prominent, everyday part of everyone’s life there. Nobody bats an eyelid at the talk of hiring a witch doctor to stop the rain or going to the local temple to consult a Taoist god through a medium. The presence of other-worldly beings and the spiritual practices to communicate with them have been a part of my life for as far back as I can remember.

Today, I still love me a good divination - tarot, oracle cards, psychic downloads that come through reiki and energy healings, human design, astrology, past life readings, dreams, a medium channelling my late grandfather.

I love manifestation rituals, chakra healings, prayer circles, knowing when it’s a full moon or a new moon. I love the physical paraphernalia of prayer beads, crystals, blessed charms and sage wands.

I love all of that - but really, those are just the bonus bells and whistles.

What any and all of that comes down to is trust:

Trust in the connections and support we always-already have around us, seen or unseen.

And most of all, trust in ourselves, in the deep-intuitive knowing that each of us have.

Whether you call it a gut instinct, a premonition or a ‘feeling’, every single one of us has had those moments where we just knew - even without any discernible, definitive proof - that something was “definitely off”, or “would be fine” or was going to happen before it did.

Very often, a powerful, literally life-changing spiritual moment can come in that single, simple decision we make to trust that intuitive nudge, or not.

And that’s it. That’s really what spirituality comes down to for me.

You’re always, always supported

Let’s go a little bit deeper. I believe that those intuitive hits aren’t random. Making a decision from intuition isn’t a gamble.

Instead, we make those decisions from a full, deep knowing that we are supported. We’re not just thrown into a wild place having to figure it all out on our own, but we sink into the trust that there are forces beyond us that conspire lovingly to guide us to wherever we need to be.

This means that even if something seems to be going disastrously wrong, that ‘disaster’ is divinely supported and has the potential to lead us to something better - some learning, a new relationship, growth and strength, a redirection towards something that’s going to serve us in even richer ways.

We’re not just set adrift, on our own.

You might believe in a God (however that manifests or looks like for you); or in other divine beings - angels, ascended masters, enlightened Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, guides, the spirit of deceased loved ones.

Or you might not believe in none of that.

Ultimately, I believe that however these version of divinity materialise for us, all of this energy is connected - including the energy that is us.

This means that there’s a spark - or a whole burning flame - of divinity in each of us too.

So even if you don’t believe in anything at all, believe in yourself - your higher / inner self / inner Guru that supports your best interests all the time and always-already knows what to do for your highest good and growth.

There’s always a place for tarot cards and crystals

I know I just said it’s not about the tarot cards and crystals. But.

As much as I try to listen and tune into my own intuition, sometimes it’s not always clear. Sometimes the noise of worldly life - external ideals, advice from well-meaning friends, my own overthinking - intrudes and disrupts that pure, clear line to myself.

So, I need a little extra help. I continue to work with tarot cards, energy healings, astrology readings and human design as tools to connect with divinity - and thereby to reconnect with myself.

I also bring these tools into my work life - to help me clarify my purpose in each moment (and lifetime!); to gain insight and guidance from an energetic space that isn’t muddied with all my overthinking and the social messages I’m (unconsciously) juggling.

And finally, I intend to bring these spiritual practices and tools more into the way I work with my clients. This isn’t about doing something to clients - it’s not like casting spells or handing out blessings! Instead, it’s simply about reconnecting them back to their own inner guidance; reflecting back to them what they will likely already know to be most true for them.

That’s really all that spirituality - and its many practices - comes down to, for me anyway. It’s trust, self-trust in our own wisest, most compassionate, always-already-knowing self; and listening to the guidance that comes through from that place of trust.

I’d love to hear if you’d consider yourself to be a spiritual person too. And does spirituality play a part in your everyday work and life? How does that look like for you?