Spiritual Well-Being Assessment Tools

Whether or not it's your regular house of worship, an empty church can provide a quiet place to take stock.

Spiritual well-being is mostly subjective, but if you're wondering about it, you may already be in better spiritual condition than someone who never gives it a thought. If you have a spiritual tradition and community where you feel at home, that may be the first place to look for practices and advisers to help you work through a time of doubt or pain. Such a time, however, may also be a good time to try some new practices and consider new sources of guidance.

Spiritual Direction

A spiritual director or member of the clergy you trust can help you review your spiritual well-being. Rabbi Jacob Staub, an American Jewish member of the semiprofessional association Spiritual Directors International, has written that a spiritual director "serves as a companion and witness, someone who helps you (sometimes with questions, sometimes just by listening) to discern the divine where you might have missed it and to integrate that awareness into your daily life [and] your ritual practice."

Reading, Singing

Go back to the sources of your spiritual experience and look for the material that speaks most clearly to your present situation. Check in larger bookstores for editions of scriptures or other writings that suggest readings for each day of the year. Sample reflections and prayers before you buy to see how helpful you may find the material.

Borrow a copy of your spiritual community's hymnal or missal and spend a few hours paging through and singing different songs to yourself, or simply read the lyrics over. Some may list scriptural references that you can look up. Many hymnals also have an index of the contents by theme.

Informal Meditation

Neuroscientist Andrew Newberg has found that regular meditation can strengthen the parts of your brain that make for empathy and kindness, but not if you meditate on a threatening universe; then you strengthen the parts that make for fearfulness. Newberg did his studies using an abstract meditation with no words, but you can use whatever helps you focus, from traditional prayers with beads to count them to the view out your window. Zen master Thich Nhat Han has said that you know when you're meditating correctly because you find yourself smiling.

Specific Spiritual Practices

Many traditional practices can help you focus on assessing your spiritual well-being, including fasting, directed meditation and walking a labyrinth. Zen mindfulness practice is compatible with any other spiritual tradition. Look for a local sangha, or practice community, which can assist you with sitting, walking, and other meditation practices. A labyrinth may look like a maze, but you can't get lost in it, and like other meditation practices, it keeps your mind and body busy and lets your spirit do its own work.

Pilgrimages and Retreats

For a time of concentrated spiritual focus, get away to a place that feeds your spirit for a few hours or a few days. The annual Muslim Hajj includes rituals of purification, meditation and self-assessment. The Roman Catholic Church and other Christian denominations maintain shrines, monasteries, retreat houses and conference centers where you can stay on your own or in connection with their programs and activities. Your retreat could also be as brief and simple as a walk in the woods to a waterfall where you've found inspiration and peace.

Journaling

In combination with other tools or as a practice by itself, keep a record of your assessment by writing in a journal day by day. Look back to see where you started for the most complete assessment of your spiritual well-being.

References

• Spiritual Directors International: "What Is Jewish Spiritual Direction?"; Jacob Staub
• "The Presbyterian Hymnal"; Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); 1990
• "How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist"; Andrew Newberg, Mark Robert Waldman; 2009
• "A Brief Note on the Hajj Rituals"; Iraj Bashiri; 2004

Resources

• Spiritual Directors International: Find a Spiritual Director
• "A Year With Rumi"; Coleman Barks; 2006
• The Labyrinth Society