For my 175th article I wanted to share my daily spiritual practice and why it’s important to me. For a healthy spiritual life, to achieve balance in your life, and to build firm, unshakeable foundations, and even to create peace, joy, love, and abundance, it is worth incorporating these practices into your daily routine.
It's time to transcend the personal, access the changeless within you, and lose your craving for attachment to superficial people, places, and things. You are the witness. You are presence. You lack nothing. You are beyond need and fear.
Spiritual practice
Prayer
Upon wakening, the very first thing that I do, before I even open my eyes, is to pray. Prayer is a form of asking, whereas meditation is hearing God’s intuitive advice. My prayers are not supplicative, but rather prayers of gratitude: It assumes that what one is asking for has already been given. Supplicative prayers represent lack, so you are effectively asking for more lack in your life. I use the word God when I mean my Higher Power for practical reasons. My prayer changes each day but is typically something like this:
Dear God,
I give my life for you to guide today. Please guide all my decisions from my Higher Self. Please help me to see life through the lens of love, rather than the lens of fear.
Thy will be done.
Thank you, thank you, thank you,
Amen
Make your prayer your own. And you can modify it daily.
I meditate for 20 minutes each morning, immediately after my prayer, and again in the late afternoon. Typically, this is a silent meditation, where I hear the intuitive thoughts of my Higher Power.
I would say that meditation is not just beneficial, but that it is an essential part of our mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical wellbeing. It's the road to Self-Mastery, the path to your highest Self, Truth, wisdom, creativity, and is your conscious contact with, or direct line to, the Universal Intelligence that is far greater than our human intelligence alone. It's the way out of the 'catastrophising' negative repetitive thoughts that we are so addicted to, but that ruin our lives by incessantly screaming our Self-limiting beliefs into our minds. We have 60,000 of these negative thoughts per day - no wonder that we are all struggling. Meditation is the ticket out of our ego.
For my full article on meditation, and for my favourite guided meditations, please click on the following call to action button:
The practice of prayer and meditation are like taking a daily shower. You would not face the day without washing off yesterday’s dirt: These practices wash away yesterday’s negative thinking.
Meditation has proven benefits in terms of mental wellbeing and longevity. Scans of the human brain show that meditation brings us out of the survival mode that we have resided in since our childhood, which never makes good decisions, and allows us to not only integrate and access all the parts of our brain, but also something more than that.
Mindfulness
This is like meditation in motion. It brings me into presence throughout the day. Always return to the breath.
Nature
I walk in Nature in woods every day for an hour. This brings me into total presence, where the fog of fear and illusion is lifted. My ‘safe place’ is in the woods – the place that I think of when I want to ground and centre my Self. Being in Nature allows me to drop out of my mind and make direct conscious contact with the force that runs the Universe, as does prayer and meditation.
This is one of the simplest yet most powerful techniques for spiritual practice and bringing me into presence.
For my full article on breathwork please click on the following call to action button:
Set an intention
Begin your spiritual practice by setting a clear intention. Reflect on what you hope to achieve through practice and what areas of your life you wish to focus on. Whether it's finding inner peace, cultivating gratitude, or deepening your connection to the divine, having a specific intention will guide your journey and give it purpose.
Find your sacred space
Identify a space in your home or outdoors that you can designate as your sacred space. This could be a corner of a room, a cozy nook in your garden, or even a quiet spot in a park or wood. Make sure this space is free from distractions and allows you to feel relaxed and at ease. Fill it with items that hold personal significance, such as candles, figurines, or meaningful symbols (for me that's Buddha, Jesus, and the virgin Mary), to create a sacred atmosphere that resonates with you.
I serve daily. This involves helping those who are struggling with fear and are lost in despair and ‘The Dark Night of The Soul.’
When you feel an inner sense of overwhelming urgency, that is the biggest indicator that you need to slow down, as you won't be productive. It’s time to focus on BEing. Trust that everything will unfold as it should. Trust the process, and just BE. Be totally present in the moment. Go with the flow, like water: Flow into every situation and fill the space. This, of course, is against the dictates of our ‘Hustle Culture’. It would have you believe that you can’t work long enough hours, drink too much coffee, have enough probiotics, skip too many breaks, miss too many holidays, do enough 'Life-Hacks', and that burnout doesn’t really exist. Yet, the faster you hurry, the slower you go. If you want to find peace, or increase your performance, or both, then please, slow down.
For my full article on slowing down please click on the following call to action button:
Gratitude changes your perception from fear to love, thus changing your experience of life, and creating miracles. Every evening make a gratitude list for what you are grateful for. You can write it out or do it in your head. Joy and peace do not come from having what we want, but from wanting what we have. For my full article on gratitude please click on the following call to action button:
I am a voracious reader since being on a spiritual journey. For my list of suggested reading click on the following action button:
Connecting with others is essential to a life free from spiritual dis-ease. When we are alone, our ego pumps itself up. When we are alone, we are behind enemy lines.
Listening is key to deep connection. When we get caught up in our thoughts, we stop being fully present and we lose track of what the other person is saying. And they don’t feel truly listened to: We lose the deep connection. Yet most of us go habitually inside our heads while supposedly listening to formulate our response to what is being said. This can be the beginning of the end for many relationships.
We must listen like a rock. I would not be doing anyone any favours to you by listening to agree. After a few moments, or a few short minutes, you can see that the person speaking realises that they are being truly heard and valued, and an inevitable deepening of the connection happens, and you become one. From that moment on, you are plugging into the other's Higher Power. I will often begin a coaching session by listening to you uninterrupted for a full ten minutes. Most people will want to speak for much longer. When was the last time you listened to someone for ten minutes without your thoughts wandering and without interrupting them?
When it comes to relationships, when you are playing to win, you have already lost. If you give someone the gift of truly listening, being fully present, and not hooking on to any of your own thoughts, then you are hearing the highest version of the other person, their true Self, their soul: And that person intuitively knows all the answers to what they must do next. You are allowing them to BE.
Connection is the secret of all great relationships. But connecting is a deceptive skill, as there is no actual skill involved at all. Connection is what happens when human beings spend time together without their thinking getting in the way.
For my full article on connection please click on the following call to action button:
I journal and write daily. This brings me into presence. It allows me to leave my complex PTSD behind, drop out of my mind, into my heart, and again, to improve my conscious contact with my Higher Power. Here are all my articles:
Yoga
I practice yoga five times per week. Yoga means ‘To unite’. As per Yogic scriptures the practice of Yoga leads to the union of individual consciousness with that of the Universal Consciousness. In addition to this it is one of the recommended healing modalities for a dysregulated nervous system following childhood trauma, according to the ‘bible’ of trauma ‘The Body Keeps The Score’ by Bessel van der Kolk, which is in my recommended reading list.
You don’t have to substitute negative thoughts with positive ones or chase pleasant feelings or try to escape unpleasant ones. You don’t have a reality problem or an emotional problem: You have a thinking problem. Don’t worry: It’s the human experience and is very common, but it doesn't need to be that way. Everyone does this until we awaken to the Truth. So you can stop making mountains out of molehills and monsters out of thin air.
All thoughts are transient: This too shall pass. You will wake up when you realise that you can only suffer from your own thinking; not from your circumstances. Our thoughts then change by themselves, weeding out negative thoughts through conscious awareness. Your thinking is the only cause of your suffering. Let it go. Surrender the thought. ‘Unhook’ the thought. This does take a little practice, but it’s the easiest way to drop out of negative thinking and the inevitable negative feeling that follows.
Emotions are simply shadows of our thoughts. Stop charging up negative thoughts. Don’t board the 'train of thought' to a destination that you don’t want to go to. Your thinking is only a variable guide to reality. Feelings, however, are a foolproof guide to our thinking. Feelings tell us about the quality of our thinking.
Don’t analyse or give power to your thoughts. You are the thinker, not the thoughts. Feel your feelings and then let them go. Jump off the 'train of negative thought' and let the feelings go once you have felt them. Just stop thinking about your thoughts. Let them pass through like water through sand. Remain seated at your ‘seat of ease’: The seat of your soul. There is no need to get up and join the fight that is going on outside.
What I think doesn’t matter. What other people think doesn’t matter. Surrender all judgement and you dissolve all negative thinking. Visualise the thought caught on a little hook and visualise you taking the thought off the hook and letting it go. What remains is no thought. This is the state of pure consciousness, spiritual bliss, and it is your natural state. It’s the state you were born in. By unhooking your Self from negative thoughts you return to your natural state. The negative emotions stop coming. If visualising doesn’t work for you, then meditating about unhooking your Self, breathwork, yoga, and walks in Nature will assist you in returning to spiritual bliss. This is why these practices need to become part of your regular daily routine.
For my full article on letting your Self off the hook of negative thinking please click on the following call to action button:
Conclusions
These practices will give you a taste of BEing and the freedom that it brings. Never leave this place again. Consciousness does not rely on the past or trauma. You are complete and whole. You can speak directly from this natural, undisturbable state of presence. It is pure intuition, Truth and wisdom. Marinate in your own BEing. Simply remain in this blissful, silent, spacious place, empty of negative thinking and passing 'clouds'. It is our True place. The ego has no power here. You are beyond ego.
For me, yoga, meditation, and coaching are the Holy Trinity for mental wellbeing.
Remember that spirituality is a personal journey, and what works for others may not work for you. Be open to exploring different techniques, rituals, or modalities that resonate with your unique path. Trust your intuition and allow yourself the freedom to adapt and evolve as you continue on this sacred journey.
For the one who is free has no fear of the mind. The mind can not intimidate the natural Self. The Self is untouchable. This demonstrates the effortlessness Self-awareness and of BEing. This is the journey within...
Namaste.
Let me know if you would like to continue this conversation...
Email me: hello@transformativelifecoach.co.uk
My gift is to be your guide on your very own 'Hero's Journey'...
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“Transformative life coaching uniquely creates and holds the space for you to see your self afresh, with clarity, and step into new ways of BEing, which will transform how you perceive and intuitively create your world. My work is to guide you to raise your own conscious awareness to the level that you want to achieve.” Olly Alexander Branford
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Suggested Reading
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Hello,
I am very pleased to meet you. Thank you for reading this far. I very much look forward to connecting with the highest version of you, to seeing your highest possibility, and to our conversations. Please do contact me via my website for a free connection call and a free experience of coaching.
See you soon,
Olly Alexander Branford MBBS, MA(Cantab), PhD
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I have a Bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences from Trinity College, Cambridge; a Master's Degree in Philosophy from Trinity College, Cambridge; a PhD Doctorate in Scientific Research from University College London (UCL); a Medical Degree (MD/MBBS) from The Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London and have been a doctor and reconstructive trauma and cancer surgeon in London for 20 years. I have published over 50 peer reviewed scientific journal articles, have been an associate editor and frequent scientific faculty member, and am the author of several scientific books. I have been awarded my Diploma in Transformative Life Coaching in London, which has International Coaching Federation (ICF) Accreditation, as well as the UK Association for Coaching (AC), and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). I have been on my own transformative journey full time for four years and I am ready to be your guide to you finding out who you really are and how the world works.