Are You Ready to Explore Your Spiritual Journey?

Inclusive ~ Genuine ~ Listening ~ Accepting ~ Contemplative ~ Wise

Spiritual journey companions support the unique spiritual journey of every individual. They are welcoming and present with those they companion, listening and responding without being judgmental. They are contemplative and honor silence as a spiritual practice. They are intuitive spiritual friends — accountable and compassionate, hospitable and open, loving yet independent.

Spiritual journey companionship inspires people to experience authenticity in their lives as they connect with and explore the ground of all being, that deepest of truths which is beyond life and death and goes by many names, including Spirit, God, and no name at all.

To put it another way, spiritual journey companionship can help you get closer to the insights that already lie within you.

Key factors to look for in an authentic spiritual journey companion include:

• Attends regular spiritual direction for self
• Receives supervision by peers and teachers—and is responsible for her or his work through that direct supervision
• Shows respect for the capacity of individuals to act independently and make their own free choices
• Follows universal ethical guidelines, summarized as “Do no harm”
• Finds support and is accountable in a community setting.
• Inspires others to explore and embrace: trustworthiness; vulnerability; openness; courage; faith; integrity; transformation
• Integrates values into daily life, such as: nonjudgment, inclusion, contemplation, compassion and service for the common good

They often do very similar things. The difference often arises because of training, spiritual tradition or simply an intuitive sense of the practitioner, who chooses the name that he/she/they feel best fits their calling.

Many spiritual directors honor this traditional name for its history and because their training is in spiritual direction. Many spiritual directors also come from a faith tradition where the term can connote certain religious beliefs as well as core ideas of companionship like respect for the agency of the other and honoring contemplative “space” for discernment.

Other people have trained in spiritual direction but prefer to call themselves spiritual companions, spiritual guides, soul friends, anam cara, or give their spiritual care other names. Some might smile and quote Shakespeare and say: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Yes ... and ... 

As we attempt to unspool our own discernments, the mystery might seem elusive, even daunting. But the good news is, you don’t have to approach it alone. With a spiritual companion, access to this mystical connection with Spirit, the infinite, the ground of all being, the Universe, beyond the beyond, or however you might choose to describe it, can become easier.

The mystery begins to reveal itself. 

As we finally bathe in the infinite, we will have found our way home, describing the indescribable, thinking the unthinkable, pondering the imponderable, and experiencing something far beyond ourselves.

The adventure begins when you are ready!