If you attended any of my meetings or read my articles, you know I am passionate about sharing and engaging in spiritual practices.
Personally, I left traditional religion as a young adult because I yearned for a spiritual practice that would speak to my heart. Like many raised in traditional Christianity, I was taught to recite a routine prayer to a ‘God in the sky’, or petition a God, outside of me and my world, to fill my wants and desires. Neither of these ancient traditions I had learned as a child served me as an adult.
When I found Religious Science, my flavor of New Thought, I found spiritual practices that expanded my awareness in order to move me 
closer to Spirit within. I discovered, through this teaching, that I did not need to beg God to align with my wants and needs, but needed to align MYSELF with the Spirit that dwelt within me already.
The six main spiritual practices to move you to a closer relationship with Spirit
Meditation (listening to Spirit): “A tool for a conscious experience of this reality. Any type of meditation that brings your attention to this present moment, in which you let go of the mind chatter and the past and future, will also bring to you an experience of Oneness.”
Affirmative Prayer (speaking the nature of Spirit into form): “A positive statement of prayer asserting that the goal the thinker wishes to achieve is already happening. Affirmation and affirmative prayer are effective tools for training your thoughts and feelings regarding what you desire to experience in your life.”
Spiritual Study (opening to new ideas and greater Good): “The study of the Divine life and how it relates to human life… Spiritual reading where you leisurely allow time for thought and prayer.”
Sacred Giving (sharing of our money to participate in the flow of Substance in the Universe): “This spiritual practice begins with the recognition that it is part of our nature to not only receive but to give. Your inner life deepens when you make a conscious plan to give.”
Sacred Service (enacting the nature of God on Earth): “. By engaging in the act of serving others, you must affirm your wholeness since you are the Source of giving… It is a powerful source of love and manifestation.”
Visioning (calling in spiritual guidance on and strengthening our intuition): “An excellent tool for personal direction, ideas for communities or any important project or life structure that you are presently engaged in … Through Visioning, we make ourselves available to embrace the highest idea for our lives and work, in order that we may more completely experience and live the highest good.”
(Taken from Centers for Spiritual Living, Foundations workbook)
This is just a sneak preview (while I am out of town for a few days) of basics of New Thought teaching. Over the next months, I will be addressing each of these practices in more detail.
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