I’m sure that a lot of people (including me) have lived moments where they feel that they lack something. This feeling can arrive in any moment of your life, whether you are having success or not, whether you are happy or not, whether you are in trouble or not. Surely more than once you have heard that feeling empty is a sign that you are just focusing on mundane things and that you have lost connection with the superior being of your choice (this depends on your own beliefs). Most of the times this is true (although there are times where this sense of lackness is just an indicator that you need to sleep more, at least this has happened to me :P) and is for those times that I want to share with you the following list of six things you can do in order to reinforce your connection with God and your beliefs:

Keep an open connection with God

Talk with him. Pray. But *really* pray. I use the term “canned prays” for those commonly used prays that are always repeated but are never understood (Lord’s Prayer is an example of a commonly used canned pray by christians). I don’t say that one should not say them, I say that you must put an effort to understand what you are saying or if you can’t do that then just talk with God in your own words. Besides that I like to maintain an open connection with him and not only concentrate our communication in small moments of prayings. I have integrated God in my life and he’s always with me, teaching, helping and taking care of me :).

Spend time in the nature

Just by looking at nature you can recognise that everything was put there for our joy. The beauty of the sky and clouds, the sea, the trees, the soil, mountains, etc., it’s a clear sign that somebody loved us and that he wanted to provide us with a beautiful place to live. This is particularly hard in our times, where we are almost always concentrated in our jobs, studies, problems and objectives. Well, when you feel that you need to approach him just stop a moment and take a look at the world. I live in Antofagasta of Chile a city in the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world, and even here I enjoy by just looking the sky and the mountains, which don’t have grass or trees at all, but they look really beautiful with an amazing quantity of brown’s tones, specially during sunrise. You can do something similar too.

Identify your spiritual triggers and use them

Much people have read something that caused them a feeling of ‘wow, this really motivates me to be a better person’. Well, when suffering a sense of emptiness take that book (or open that blog ;)) and read it! Or sometimes that trigger is music, then just listen to it! Spiritual triggers are a very easy way to approach God because it’s a quick way to diminish your sense of emptiness by just using a clever trick ;).

Recognise all the good things that surround you

It doesn’t matter how your current situation is: If you are happy or not you have good things surrounding you. That can be your family, your sons, your friends, your coworkers, your whole current situation, a job, a pet, whatever. You always have something that gives you happiness, so be thankful for that and recognise that it’s a sign that somebody wants you to be happy. I have all this happy things identified and when I’m talking with God I refer to them as ‘my treasures’. I’m very thankful for them.

Analyze your current situation and determine if it has changed from the last time you felt good

There are times where I just don’t feel good and I don’t know why. Sometimes there’s no reason for that and for that times I have found useful to remember how was my personal situation the last time I felt happy. A lot of times that’s just remembering the last day so the logic is “if the last time I felt good my situation was the same as my current situation then where in the earth it’s the reason for which I’m not feeling good right now?’. Since 99.9% of the time there’s no reason for that, then I start to feel good and the first step to do that is invariably opening a connection with God.

And if this tips aren’t enough, then imitate

If nothing works then just pretend to feel good. After some minutes doing this I have found invariably that I actually start to feel good. This has proven to be very useful because it has helped me to overcome hard situations for which I couldn’t see an exit. And then, talking with God I have found the necessary force to surpass them successfully.

Finally, I must say that all these tips must be brightened up with a good dose of faith, but faith in a broader sense than just the abstract idea of ‘I believe in God’. I have experimented, and I continue to do it, wonderful effects in my life thanks to the faith. In my next post I will write about them, and how I managed to obtain those effects in my life ;).

This entry was posted on Monday, August 21st, 2006 at 11:10 am and is filed under Religion (old posts). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.