How spirituality can sometimes lean into the job you’re doing?
Finding Inner Peace Through Gratitude, Nature, and Creativity in Everyday Life
Spirituality is a modern-day buzzword for hermits from Europe who travel all the way to Asia to find their inner spiritual dimension. Not to say that is wrong, but that is commercialized spirituality. What is spiritual can be achieved from the confines of your four-wall bedroom on a prayer mat. Or even better, acclimatization of the heart to carry the frequency of prayer. I work in Sales as a Specialist at a Middle Eastern multinational company that sells SAP. When you are repeatedly calling multiple customers over and over again, it is natural to experience compounded fatigue and lethargy that almost overpowers you. I have written in my previous articles that I take meticulous breaks in which I practise devotion to One God, silently. At my work place, there is a non-denominational prayer station where people sometimes go to explore, to chat and sometimes even nap to enjoy quiet moments of gratitude and oblivion. Last month, I experienced multiple visits to the prayer room in a day. Sometimes I wished I would have carried a yoga mat with me. Others I wished I taught more of my colleagues the downward dog technique just to shift the balance in the body. But this is not the spirituality I am talking about. Over time, I have become a devout practitioner of organized religion. One of the facets that I truly enjoy about that is conversing with God. It may be hard to believe at first, but that really tends to my soul. I am a soul living in a body. It my equal duty to take care of my soul as I do of my body. What I like best about my embodied practise of religious-spirituality is the belief system that more than inside the mind, worship comes from the body. Through different movements, energy flows through the body that changes the frequency from which I vibrate into the world. Some would call that the aura. Practising hygiene of the aura is akin to practising hygiene of the body – if you haven’t showered in a week, not only will you stink ultimately, but other people would be able to smell it from you and would not like your company! Keeping your aura pure from malice is really important when talking to strangers, friends, foreigners or loved ones; even people at work that we meet from day to day. So how do I practise hygiene of the aura? 1) Practise gratitude and holy forgiveness In one of the Holy books I have come across recently, God promises to people that He will increase you manifold if you practise gratitude. How do you actually practise gratitude? By seeking forgiveness. Now, you may have heard my words and may not understand what I’m actually saying. Gratitude is a frequency that we as human beings resonate at. It may often be confused as a fleeting feeling – but gratitude is a stable state of steady joy that radiates from the inside out. You have to feel it for it to become real. In reality, gratitude leads to asking for forgiveness and asking for forgiveness leads to gratitude. Much like the story of the chicken or the egg – which came first? But how do you seek forgiveness? The common understanding of seeking forgiveness is that it is assumed you’ve made a mistake and you’re asking a higher power to conceal it, correct it and not ask for retribution. But that is the common understanding. From what I am trying to communicate, seeking forgiveness is a feeling a complete surrender. Packing all your baggage in an invisible parcel and sending it over to God’s address, TRUSTING that the damaged goods will be sorted out and renewed into useful products and sent back to you telepathically, materially or at an expedited shipping rate with no cost. Seeking forgiveness means forgiving yourself first and foremost, which implies a lot of gratitude. Vibrationally, forgiveness and gratitude run on the same spectrum – you simply cannot practise one without the other. Again, these are not temporary feelings, these are long-term states of embodiment which take practise to achieve and maintain over the long run. Just like you bought a new pair of white sneakers – they have to be manicured daily and persistently to maintain their freshness, colour and versatility of use. 2) Receive gifts from nature In many Holy Scriptures, there is a mention of the Day of Judgement where mountains will crumble to dust, rivers will dry up, plantation will be wiped out and the earth will question its dwellers for how it was treated? Every spec of dust will testify to what was acted upon it and the unseen dimensions of the universe will become seen to the human eye – and there will be commotion, reckless commotion. It would be as if a meteor has hit the earth or a nuclear attack has taken place. These two are very common examples of what comes to mind when such a scenario is described. Now let’s chew this slowly. ‘Day of Judgement’ – judgement of what? Between right and wrong. Discernment maybe? I believe the Day of Judgement has already showed up metaphorically in many places yet we choose to ignore it. Where I live, close to me is a university, about 45 minutes from my house. On the outside of it, there is a river that flows right outside the gates of that university. But the river is polluted – it is highly unkempt. Some would even say that the stench would get so bad you can smell it from miles and miles away. Has the Day of Judgement already arrived there? It is so ironic that a place of educational attainment has been unable to uphold the very principle of environmental cleanliness in a metropolitan city. I am not trying to blame the institution, but simply trying to take account of what impact it might have on the state of education the university is trying to transfer to its students if they cannot realize the moral and ethical impact of its surroundings. It is true: People prosper better in cleaner, safer environments. People can concentrate better, people are inspired by nature, by poetry, by beauty. If I could petition and raise funds, they would go towards cleaning the environmental sanctity of the river that flows outside the university – because it matters. Receiving gifts from nature means indulging the sixth senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch and intuition in nature’s bounty through beautiful landscapes, fresh air, juicy flower growth; a beautiful sight to see, feel, touch, hear, smell and introspect. That is an ideal godly environment, where people are able to perceive God and discern beauty from ugliness. Of course, at this moment, I am speaking only in terms of what is visible to the eye. The university is one of the best performing in the country and internationally, but that gives it more responsibility to take account of the environment it nurtures its students in – but that’s a debate for another day, another time, another campaign! 3) Lean into your creativity My spiritual practise is extensive and yes – it helps me become more creative! Creativity is not about drawing magic, but sometimes it even shows up as a quiet nudge at work about what to post on LinkedIn about SAP. You are truly ever free to feel creative when you receive inspiration from the divine. For me, for example, the process of creativity looked like grooming my horse before the riding session began when I was in the equestrian team in college. It required meticulous dedication, and sensitivity to the needs of my then-horse, Bella. Because ultimately, creatively performing was about the connection between the both of us. I recently even took up painting as a creative outlet to express my feelings. Meanwhile, I wrote a creative journal about the psycho-analysis of guilt, as I learnt in one of my Literature classes. I would like to solemnly apologize to my readers if all of this sounded like a mouthful, but all I was doing was presenting some ideas on how to lean into your creativity and feel wholesome. For everyone, creativity looks different. For many, reading the Bible and taking notes feels creative. For others, narrating stories from the Book of Esther feels creative. You cannot judge what is truly creative and what isn’t. Another factor that I’ve observed when it comes to creativity that it looks different from men to women. In fact, men are often shamed for being creative. When I was in college, a roommate of mine loved baking so much that he baked every morning before our 8:00 a.m. Microeconomics class and I would eat his cookies on my way to class. But when I asked him about it, he disclosed to me that his male colleagues and friends found it ‘too feminine’ for him to do something as creative as baking, almost shaming him for it. So it can be safely deciphered that men have a significantly harder time being as creative as women. So we should provide gender-inclusive spaces to men, women and everyone else to express themselves functionally and creatively and show up meaningfully in this world. Hold back – if you ask me, how does doing all the above factor into your daily routine at work? You are what you repeatedly do. At my work, I make time to practise gratitude and forgiveness, I receive multiple gifts from nature and I lean into my creativity however it may manifest at the time, in order to feel sane at a job that seems mundane at times. If you would like to get to know more about me or how I embody different specs of spirituality into my daily life, please feel free to leave me an email at amnatariq1108@gmail.com. It is indeed a pleasure writing for you.
