Kevin
Welcome back to another episode of “Coping”.
Kathy
Yes, welcome back everyone. Today we're finishing up our series titled Summer Soul Care and I wonder Kevin, thinking about your life and the ways and practices that you've nurtured your soul throughout the years, would you categorize those practices as traditional or non-traditional or combination of both?
Kevin
So growing up, we went to church every single Sunday. That was pretty traditional to be there in the same pew every service on Sunday morning. And then we prayed the same prayer before dinner every evening. So some pretty traditional ways of practicing soul care. But as an adult, I have definitely been more intentional about having a good well-balanced diet, if you will, of my soul care practices. And I think now I know there's a good mix of both journaling and therapy; pretty traditional ways of soul care.
Kevin
But then I've also implemented non-traditional ways -- spending time outdoors, playing video games, things that typically wouldn't be perhaps considered soul care, but are things that bring me joy and that are fun and give me some low stakes stress that I enjoy.
Watching sports, playing sports, all of those things can be nurturing from my soul. And what about for you? Do you have a traditional soul care practice regimen or is it a mix of both for you too?
Kathy
So I think it's a really interesting question, it has evolved like yours. It has been traditional many years ago and it's become more non-traditional and so I'm excited to discuss the evolution of that with our listeners today.
Kevin
All right, well, let's get started.
Kathy
So in today's episode, we want to address the ways that we can feel better connected to our faith and nurture our souls. And for some of us, you know, that comes out of traditional ways to connect, for example, going to church every Sunday, reading some sacred texts, like the Bible, or fellowshipping with those who share a faith. And that's how I was raised to have practices that were traditional. How about you, Kevin?
Kevin
Yeah, so like I said before, we had some pretty traditional practices growing up, and I would say what's probably helped me the most is my work as a chaplain. You know, in the work of ministry, I think especially in chaplaincy, I found you use yourself as the conduit through which you offer good spiritual care.
And so really the hardest work that a chaplain does is to nurture and care for themselves so that they can be made available to people in some of their worst times in their life. And so I've had to build some really important and meaningful practices for myself so I can do really good and meaningful spiritual care. Has that been your experience and your work with other people?
Kathy
Yes, definitely. I think as I've grown in leadership, it's essential that we as leaders take care of our souls because we're helping take care of so many others.
Kevin
Right.
Kathy
And I found also in my life that the traditional ways that used to nurture my soul are not working any longer. So I'm excited today to introduce the work of Gary Thomas and his book "Sacred Pathways". In his book, he outlines nine pathways we can discover to nurture our souls. We suggest you reading this resource, but there's also a quiz you can take to discover your pathway. And we have a resource guide. These will be in the podcast notes for you.
Kathy
And we're going to begin with the first pathway. And the first are the naturalists. And these are people who nurture their faith by exploring the outdoors. I know this resonates with you.
Kevin
Yes, absolutely. Outdoors, being outdoors, going outdoors can be very nurturing for me. As you know, Kathy, I love going to the beach. I'm definitely a lake person. I love when we, our family drives up to Big Bear, about an hour and a half drive from us here, and to get away in nature and spend it outdoors.
Even if it's just going out to the pool, reading outdoors, going for a walk, something about it just really grounds me, gets me away from technology, away from a lot of the man-made noises and sounds and alerts, and it just gets me to a place where I'm feeling grounded and free and gives my brain some space to think.
And so, if you're a naturalist like me, some really important spiritual practices are to go on nature walks, to witness a sunrise or sunset, spend some time in the mountains or at the beach, there's going to be really important places for you to nurture your soul.
Kevin
And I think that leads us well into our second pathway here, and that's the sensates. So basically, this pathway is all about using the five senses to nurture our souls. So, lighting candles for a space to create like a nice peaceful ambiance, singing songs, especially worship songs that lift your soul, listening to sacred or calming music, those types of practices that really get us in tune with our five senses. Is this a pathway that you rely on yourself, Kathy?
Kathy
Yes, I think that I do, even though in college we were banned from using candles, I snuck them once in a while all the way back then because candles have always helped me open the door to nurturing my spirituality and cultivating peace. And for sensates, some other practical ideas, if you are a sensate, you could create a worship space in your home. You can use a pocket piece, so this could be anything that you can hold in your pocket. Sometimes it's a wooden cross, a rosary, beads, something, a religious artifact that you actually hold in your pocket. And then also viewing spiritual and religious art is also a way for sensates to access their connection to the divine.
And that leads us to our next pathway, which are the traditionalists. And these folks embrace the spiritual traditions of symbols and rituals to access their faith. I really resonate with this one in many ways for sure. I love visiting churches and being in the traditional spaces to access my faith. How about you?
Kevin
Yeah, I am not naturally a traditionalist. I lean towards more being non-traditional and wanting to have some more freedom in the way that I express my faith. But I think as I've gotten older and I seek to understand other traditions that are different than my own, I've begun to see the importance of religious symbols, especially types of prayers or a worship spaces that really helps people from all faith traditions connect with the divine.
And so if you are a traditionalist yourself, there's a couple of different practices that might be important and useful for you to implement. And those include celebrating religious holidays, especially those high holy days throughout the year, reciting liturgical prayers, or making use of symbols in any type of space that you spend some time in for quiet reflection.
And this also can include serving, if you sacrifice your time or even your money, if you give a tithe of some sort. These are some of the traditional ways to connect with the divine and have been so meaningful for generation after generation.
Kevin
And that leads us into our next pathway here. This is number four, if you're keeping track. And this is the ascetics, access their faith through solitude and simplicity. I wonder if you can relate to this Kathy.
Kathy
Well, for sure. I feel I've embraced coming out of the traditional practices some more simple practices in the last few years and I can appreciate their practice of solitude and you know as we've discussed in our last podcasts and also some of the spiritual practices if for ascetics if you resonate with this could be practicing fasting and attending a silent retreat or simplifying your life this idea of purging and having a yard sale or a garage sale house cleaning just simplifying your spaces that's actually what ascetics do really well and also maybe creating a prayer room or for some it might be a prayer closet and that leads us now to our fifth pathway these are the intellectuals and they nurture their faith through the use of their minds I know for sure you and I love this pathway Kevin is that correct?
Kevin
That's absolutely right. You and I are both always seeking new information, wanting to challenge our ideals, the thoughts that we have. You and I spend a lot of time challenging one another and our beliefs are the systems from which we came from, our family of origin, the systems in which we operate.
We spend a lot of time learning about, you know, Enneagram, Myers-Briggs, personality stuff, and taking classes and always learning. And so if you're like us, seeking out intellect, if you're an intellectual, and this is a pathway for you, some of the really important practices for this pathway include taking classes, even if it's just a certificate or to get a new degree, you know, specific classes could be like theology, could be psychology, those sort of things. Also, just leisurely reading books on faith or self-betterment, the way that people move in the world can be useful to you.
You know, this also, this pathway could also include listening to podcasts like you're doing here, listening to this episode, but also include videos of sermons or TED talks and spiritual teachings, going and listening to people share on new ideas, new philosophies, or ancient ones that are still relevant today. And that is leading us to our next pathway here. And this pathway is the caregivers. Now, this is so amazing, because I never viewed caregiving as a spiritual pathway.
Kevin
And although it comes really naturally to me, and I know to you as well, Kathy, we're both caregivers, the twos on the Enneagram here. There's something about caregivers and the way in which they nurture their faith by loving and caring for others. Can you say more about that?
Kathy
Yes, when I first read this book and took the quiz and scored high on this, I could not believe that caregiving was a way that we could nurture our faith. But it makes complete sense, right, that even tenants of all of the major religions are, including Christianity, are all about caring for others and reaching out to those who are in need.
And in that way, we exercise our faith and our spiritual muscle. So some practices, if you are a caregiver, that you could practice include acts of kindness, making meals for others, donations, volunteering in your community, helping friends, widows, single moms in need.
And I just have to say, if you're a caregiver out there, we just want to just give you three chairs because it's been a very difficult time over the last four or five years in helping. There's so much need in the world, and we just want to encourage you and also champion you that this is in a way you can access your faith is through caregiving.
Kevin
Yeah, absolutely.
Kathy
Speaking of cheerleading, our seventh pathway are the enthusiasts and they access their faith by embracing mystery and celebration. This is a really neat and fun way to nurture our spirituality. What do you think about these enthusiasts and do you relate?
Kevin
Yeah, I would say I have to give credit to you for being the person in my life who taught me the spiritual practice of celebrating even in the midst of hardship, or I would even say especially because of hardship. You've always been the type of person to encourage us going out to eat or getting a sweet treat somewhere. We do this with our kids, celebrating every opportunity that we have because life can be really hard.
And so finding a pathway to celebrate makes life just a little bit sweeter, a little bit more meaningful. One of my chaplain colleagues likes to say, you have to balance the bitter with the sweet, and something sweet to enjoy can often balance out anything bitter that's going on in your life. It certainly won't change the experience of the bitterness, but it can balance it out just a little bit, enjoying a sweet treat, especially shared with somebody else. And so, you know, enthusiasts can have the practice of cultivating a vision board.
They can write down their dreams or their goals for the year or the next five years. They can also be the types of people who journal or do like a prayer in a journal. They can spend time with children doing some play activities, something fun. Also they can be the ones who create some visual or written artwork. And so, you know, the enthusiasts are the ones that seek out fun and lightness in order to express their spirituality and to have their cups filled up.
And this is hard to do when there's not a lot of time or there's a lot of really stressful things going on. It can feel quite superficial to be celebrating or to be enjoying life when things are hard or there's things in your life that may make you feel like it's not worth it.
But gosh, it's such an important practice, especially in the midst of difficulty. And so now we're down to our last two pathways here. And I hope that those that are listening are finding some connection to all the pathways that we've shared thus far.
Kevin
And so the eighth pathway here are the contemplatives. Contemplatives find a way to the divine through adoration and reflection. Is this something that you practice, Kathy?
Kathy
Yes, I would say that within the last 10 years, I've been introduced to this area, and this is where I have grown the most in my life. I was not familiar with practices like Lectio Divina, the Examine, Centering Prayer, but now feel like my life and spiritual life is fuller as a result of these practices.
And if you are a person that enjoys reflecting in non-traditional ways, some of your practices could be the Visio Divina, along with Lectio Divina, and Centering Prayer, as I mentioned, Walking a Labyrinth, which is a really neat experience, and also participating in seasonal events like, for example, Stations of the Cross during Eastern Lent, or even Advent practices.
Kathy
And so that leads us to our ninth spiritual practice. These are the Activists. This practice was also very eye -opening to me when I took the quiz. To know that activism could be a spiritual practice was groundbreaking for me, I would say, because these folks, and I really resonate with this, connect to their faith through confrontation. What do you think about that?
Kevin
Yeah, you and I are not confrontationalists. We do not like to seek out discomfort in that way. But this is an important practice to learn how to do when needed and when necessary. And I can't think of a time in my entire life, certainly in the last 50 years, where standing up and being an activist, marching for social justice, to speaking up on the things that matter most, it being more important than it is right now.
And so there's certainly an important practice here. And people who find this to be a natural practice for you, gosh, we need these people in our society on both sides, really, so that there's constructive and helpful conversations and a coming together of making the world better and more just and more fair for all people.
And so for activists, spiritual practices can include community service. It can include voting drives or food drives. It can be canvassing or helping sign petitions or writing to congresspeople. It can also be getting on the telephone during election years or being at a texting bank for issues that matter to you most, participating in a march or even organizing any of the events listed here.
Activists do such important work in our community and the grassroots effort that they put in is just remarkable. And so just to kind of recap here, we've talked about a lot of different things over these nine pathways.
Kevin
It might be overwhelming for you, but I just wanna remind you that we're gonna put the notes in the description of this episode. So you'll be able to look back and read through all of the different notes and what we've said here.
And then we're also gonna put in a link to Gary Thomas' book, Sacred Pathways, so that you can read it for yourself or even take that quiz if you wanna learn about which of these pathways come most naturally for you.
Kathy
And to end our time today, let's pause and listen to this blessing for all of the nine sacred pathways.
Kathy
For the naturalists, may you find the creator in every leaf and breeze, seeing God's cathedral in the grand expanse of nature, and may you find renewal in the beauty of creation. For the sensates, may you experience the divine through every sense, feeling God's presence in the melody of worship and the beauty of sacred art.
Kathy
For the ascetics, may the rituals and symbols of faith deepen your experience of the divine and be a source of strength and inspiration. For the traditionalists, may solitude and simplicity bring you closer to the divine and your life be a testament to simplicity and devotion.
For the intellectuals, may your pursuit of knowledge and wisdom bring you closer to the heart of God, and may your knowledge be used to enrich and bless others. For the caregivers, may your acts of service and kindness be a reflection of God's love, and may your service be a source of joy and fulfillment to those in need.
For the enthusiasts, may the mysteries and celebrations of faith fill your spirit with awe and wonder, and may your journey be marked by joy and reverence. For the contemplatives, may your reflections and moments of stillness bring you closer to the divine, and may you find peace in his presence.
For the activists, may your advocacy and efforts for justice reflect God's love and righteousness, and may your actions be guided by compassion and faith. In all of your spiritual pathways, may you find the divine presence, and may your journey be blessed with peace, insight, and grace. Amen.
