| Heart-Fire Healing | Repair of the Soul Tikkun HaNefesh תיקון הנפש |
| Spiritual Guidance & Shema-nik Healing | Listening for the Sacred Shomei-a BaRuach שומע ברוח
(Listening with the soul / Hearing in the wind) |
Spiritual Direction is a contemplative practice that helps you cultivate awareness of the spiritual in everyday life. With the help of a companion — a spiritual director — you can learn to listen for the sacred in your life. The director acts as a guide, assisting you in discovering and following your spiritual path — developing your relationship with the divine mystery, helping you discern the presence and movement of God or the holy in your life. A belief in God is not a prerequisite for this work; just a desire to find meaning in your life grounded in an understanding of something larger than oneself.
Anchored in prayerful silence, we step back from the turmoil of day-to-day worries to settle into contemplative awareness. From this center, we orient ourselves toward the divine and listen for the presence of the sacred.
Prayerful silence
As you reflect deeply on life experiences, whether joyful encounters of connection or struggles to find and maintain balance, we bring all of our attentiveness to the present, listening with the heart, mind and soul, in faith that we can glimpse the sacred meaning underlying the experience.
Awakening to the sacred in our lives • Discovering meaning and clarity
During a session, the spiritual director helps you focus on the holy, honoring and witnessing the sacred mystery of your life. As you reflect on your journey, you come to recognize the blessing of your life and your unfolding relationship with the divine. Living in the presence of the sacred is a path of deep connection and healing, bringing your soul into balance as you grow in relationship with spirit, self, others and creation.
Deepening spiritual awareness • Connection with the sacred • Developing spiritual practice
A spiritual director does not need to be a member of your own faith tradition or denomination because Spiritual Direction is a process of deeply listening for the movement of the divine mystery, which underlies and transcends the externals of your life. It is important for you to find someone with whom you feel safe and understood, a guide you can entrust with your hopes and fears as the journey unfolds.
The lamp of the Divine is the lifebreath of humanity, searching all of one's innermost being. (Proverbs 20:27)
In spiritual direction, contemplation brings us to "a totally uncluttered appreciation of existence, a state of mind or a condition of the soul that is simultaneously wide-awake and free from all preoccupation, preconception, and interpretation. It is a wonder-filled yet utterly simple experience. ... The goal is ... the realization of one's essential rootedness in God and relatedness in creation." (Will & Spirit, Gerald May)
"Unlike psychotherapy or even pastoral counseling, the focus of spiritual guidance is not on fortifying the self but on the unfolding relationship of that self and God. Rather than helping those seeking counsel adjust to everyday life, spiritual guidance points the seeker beyond the scope of the 'normal,' to see the self in relation to the divine that underlies and transcends the everyday." (Show Me Your Way, Rabbi Avruhm Addison)
"The object of spiritual direction is to cultivate one's ability to discern God's presence in one's life — to notice and appreciate moments of holiness, to maintain an awareness of the interconnectedness of all things, to explore ways to be open to the Blessed Holy One in challenging and difficult moments as well as joyful ones. The 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, your tefillah (prayer), your tikkun olam work (repair of the world), your study, your ritual practice." (Rabbi Jacob Staub)
When two people sit and words of Torah pass between them, the Divine Presence rests between them . (Pirke Avot 3:3)
For more information about Spiritual Direction or to find a spiritual director in your area,
visit Spiritual Directors International.