Integrated Spirituality Principle #1:

There is not a single myth that was ever literally true – mythology is a powerfully metaphorical language, that offers up it’s gifts to those who learn to think symbolically.

Integrated Spirituality Principle # 2:

No-one has ever had real magical powers, this is not the purpose of spirituality. Those who claim magical powers are charlatans who are lying to you and seek to have power over your mind.

Integrated Spirituality Principle #3:

Spiritual practice makes us more fluent in the language of the inner life, which is where meaningful transformation, healing and insight arises. Being mindfully present with our emotions, thoughts, memories, longings, sensations is a journey into deeper self awareness, heart awakening and embodied liberation.

Integrated Spirituality Principle #4:

Trying to pretend everything is always ok, perfect and divine is the antithesis of spiritual inquiry. By cultivating awareness and compassion, spiritual practice enables us to face the shadow material of life: suffering, injustice, trauma and death with more honesty and courage.

Integrated Spirituality Principle #5:

Grounded spiritual practice invites us on an “in the body” experience. we are literally retraining the nervous and endocrine systems and activating the brain’s capacity for neuroplasticity. We are also observing how the mind lives in the body and how emotional tension patterns tell the story of our lives.

Integrated Spirituality Principle #6:

Spirituality has stages in its development. The more invested we are in defending faith-based belief against honest inquiry, the more we will stay stuck in a certain stage and not continue growing. The stage of spiritual growth that is becoming possible now requires an open-ness to science and psychology and a letting go of outdated superstitious beliefs.

Integrated Spirituality Principle #7:

When we are open to beauty, love, pleasure, reason and wonder we find that the natural world and our relationships with one another are infinitely more spiritually satisfying and meaningful than the misguided emphasis on anything supernatural.

If you are interested in a model of spirituality that is rooted in these principles and much more, please visit my website. I teach ongoing yoga classes, a workshop series on the chakra system as a way of understanding and experiencing mind-body process, have developed something called Open Sky Bodywork, lead retreats and have a teacher training with Hala Khouri called Awakened Heart, Embodied Mind.