Introduction
Everyday concerns and problems are an integral part of the modern person’s life, and their number is only growing. However, in a rush, people forget important things that allow them to feel life profoundly. Various stimuli and goals create people in a rush, neglecting the attention of God. This essay will discuss possible approaches and methods that will allow us to analyze life and focus on its most essential aspects. Spiritual disciplines such as contemplation, examen, journaling, and simplicity give an opportunity to create a qualitative analysis of what is happening in a person’s life, find peace, and reunite with God.
Description of Four Spiritual Disciplines
Four disciplines were chosen for conducting soul retreatment. Among them are contemplation, examen, journaling, and simplicity. This choice of spiritual disciplines was motivated by a desire to deeply analyze what was happening to me and focus on only the most essential things in life. In The Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, the author, Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, describes each approach to reuniting with God.
Contemplation
The contemplation discipline implies complete solitude to find peace for soul retreat (Calhoun, 2009). This method will help avoid various irritants and things that can distract from the process.
Examen
The second discipline is the examen, which is vital for analyzing the event that happened to me. For example, it will allow one to consider their day’s negative and positive aspects and think about them complexly (Calhoun, 2009). This factor will create a clear image of my life and identify the things that need attention and improvement.
Journaling
The following discipline, journaling, allows one to record all the abovementioned thoughts and memories by writing them on paper. It is important to stress that this discipline will be vital, as it will not allow essential thoughts to be lost or forgotten (Calhoun, 2009). Consequently, my thoughts will evolve logically, moving one into the other.
Simplicity
The fourth discipline is simplicity, the main feature of which is simplifying many things that cause me anxiety or stress (Calhoun, 2009). This discipline is helpful to me because many events happening to me make me overthink. Simplicity will allow me to concentrate only on the most important. As a result, it is essential to emphasize that each spiritual discipline performs its unique function.
Description of The Retreat Experience
To conduct the soul retreat process using all disciplines mentioned above, I found a place in the city park without people. The unique feature of this space was a large number of plants and trees, which created unity with nature. However, since this was only my second experience of soul retreatment, some distractions, such as the noise of passing cars, distracted me from the concentration process. However, after a while, I could ignore these aggravating factors. I took the carpet, laid it under the trees, and sat on it. Then I closed my eyes and began to breathe deeply. After 15 minutes of this practice, I became calm and started to think about how I spend my life. In particular, most of the time, I used the examen discipline. The process of talking to myself allowed me to look at my actions and desires from the outside. Calmly and thoughtfully assess my life and concentrate on the most important things, such as feelings, love, and family.
Reflection on the Retreat Experience
Reflecting on my retreat experience, I must emphasize that I must practice. At first, when I was judging my life, I had a high level of anxiety and stress. I was thinking about my mistakes, looking for guilt and other things. These actions prevented me from relaxing, added stress, and increased my overthinking process. Therefore, I was struggling to concentrate my attention on my true feelings.
However, what went well and helped me significantly was my attention to natural sounds. Choosing the city park as a place for soul retreatment, the sounds of birds and insects, the rustle of leaves from the wind, and the sounds of grasshoppers and crickets allowed me to pacify and abdicate the city and people. As I have gained insights from soul retreatment, it is essential to emphasize the conclusion that I am too concerned with minor things in life. In addition, I realized that I could not live in the moment and enjoy life. In my quest to achieve something, I must remember the importance of feeling.
In addition to the abovementioned changes that will be important to improve the process of soul retreatment, I will take advantage of the tips that Calhoun describes in his book. According to Alhoun (2009), “To celebrate God’s grace to you, write a song of celebration, make a collage that represents your joy, write a poem of praise, play music, and dance before the Lord” (p. 28). These actions will help me demonstrate my involvement in joining God through personal qualities and talents. In addition, it diversifies the whole process by allowing, for example, dancing or singing between meditations in nature.
Difference Between This and Next Retreat
If I were to make a personal retreat again, I would find an even more natural place than a city park. It will be vital to leave the city for total unity with nature and, therefore, with God. It can be a broad field, a dense forest, or a place by the river where one can hear the sound of the water flow. Finding a place without artificial factors, such as cars, roads, or homes, will be important. In addition, it will be necessary to take a notebook and a pen to record all the thoughts in the process of the soul retreatment. I will pause a little between my attempts to reconnect with God and write down what I have come up with. In addition, I will try to find various fruits, such as berries and fruits. It will allow me to understand nature better, as I will put part of it inside me.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is essential to emphasize that the process of union with God and the retreatment of the soul requires high concentration and patience. Four Spiritual Disciplines, described in The Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Calhoun, identified critical and qualitative approaches to joining God. The significant benefits of each discipline, such as analyzing events in life, focusing on the most important things, writing down thoughts, and finding the right place to connect, became essential factors that helped me in this process.
In addition, I have identified vital actions that will improve the quality of the soul retreatment and enhance the unity with nature. Reflecting on the nuances and problems of the experience, I stated what things I understood and what insights I have obtained. As a result, constantly practicing and improving concentration will allow one to cleanse a person’s soul and help focus on the most crucial things in life.
Reference
Calhoun, A. A. (2009). Spiritual disciplines handbook: Practices that transform us. InterVarsity Press.