Practical Advice for How Best to Start A Prayer Space in Your Own Home [Episode #676]

This week’s topic is: Practical Advice for How Best to Start A Prayer Space in Your Own Home

One of our cornerstones is spiritual growth, which I define as more self-connection to spirit, to the universe source, whatever word you want to use. Sometimes certain words resonate with us more than others. Try not to let the actual language get in the way as I believe many of us do.

There is a higher intelligence that runs through everything and everything is part of that oneness. And the more we connect into that, there is that joy piece intuition that grows in our lives. It’s a vital part of our overall well being and joy wellness is not just about food. It’s not about exercise or how much we weigh.

We are whole beings. And this holistic lifestyle that we can work to create is really going to give us the lives that we want, that feel deeply rich, fulfilling, and aligned. I’m very excited to give some practical tips and tools and my perspective about this throughout these beautiful questions that I’m seeing here today.

Have you been wondering about this very topic? If you want to know the answer to this question and 3 more sent in by Beauties just like you, listen now to find out!

Remember you can submit your questions at https://mysolluna.com/askkimberly/

[Questions Answered]

Kate – Idaho 

I’m not very religious, however I do enjoy praying to a Divine. Can you share some ideas on how to transition into a more in-depth spiritual practice?

Jodi – FL

Hi Kimberly – I’ve noticed you have a Hanuman necklace. Can you share how you use this in your rituals? I was raised to believe that you should avoid idol worship and am now curious on how to separate from this thinking.

Pam – Michigan 

Are mantras considered a form of prayer? I like the idea of positive chanting as opposed to praying to a specific god.

Erica – Massachusetts 

I’ve heard that a prayer room is believed to keep out negative energies and protects your house from harmful vibes. What do you think and would you suggest creating a space like this in your home?

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Inspirational Thought of the Week

“God sent you here for a purpose….Realize how tremendously important that is! Do not allow the narrow ego to obstruct your attainment of an infinite goal.” – Paramahansa Yogananda

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Transcript:

Note: The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate. This is due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.

Kimberly: 00:01 Hi, loves and welcome back to our Thursday, Q&A podcast. I’m so excited to be with you here today for this topic that is very close to my heart. Practical Advice for How Best to Start A Prayer Space in Your Own Home. One of our cornerstones is spiritual growth, which I define as more and more self connection to spirit to the universe source, whatever word you wanna use. God, sometimes certain words resonate with us more than others. So do not let the actual language get in the way I believe as many of us do that. There is a higher intelligence that runs through everything and everything is part of that oneness. And the more we connect into that, there is that BLIS joy piece intuition that grows in our lives. And it is a vital part of our overall wellbeing and joy wellness is not just about food.

Kimberly: 01:07 It’s not about exercise or how much we weigh. We are whole beings. And so this, this depth, this holistic lifestyle that we can work to create is really going to give us the lives that we want, that feel deeply rich, fulfilling, and aligned. So I’m gonna very excited to give some practical tips and tools and my perspective about this throughout these beautiful questions that I’m seeing here now in just a moment.

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Kimberly: But before we do just a little shout out to please remember to leave us a review on tunes, which is such a great way to support the show, to support the podcast, to help other Beauties like yourself, find the show and hopefully really benefit from it. Also, please be sure to subscribe to our show that way you don’t miss out on any of these podcasts, which are Thursdays and Mondays. And also please share the show with anyone that you think would benefit.

Kimberly: 02:06 One of my guiding mantras, all along the way has been to just share, share, share. We grow in love. When we do that, we expand our connection. We feel great. We feel good, the name of our podcast. And so sharing resources and information that help you or that you connect with is such a beautiful way to grow within yourself and within community. So if you can think of anyone that would benefit from the show, it could be a coworker, family member, so on and so forth. Please do pass the show along to them and thanking you so much to in advance for all of that. So I really love this topic today about prayer, and let’s just jump right into this and I will continue to give a lot more detail and thoughts.

Question #1 around the topic of: Practical Advice for How Best to Start A Prayer Space in Your Own Home: I’m not very religious, however I do enjoy praying to a Divine. Can you share some ideas on how to transition into a more in-depth spiritual practice? 

Kimberly: 03:04  The first question today comes from Kate, who is from Idaho. Hi, Kate, sending you so much love. I have so many friends and people. I feel like I’m coming across, moving to Idaho. So I’m sure it’s a beautiful place. I haven’t been there, but sending you big virtual hug out there and you, right. I’m not religious. How I, I do enjoy praying to a divine. Can you share some ideas of how to transition into a more in depth spiritual practice? So I do believe that there are many, many ways to connect to the divine. And when we talk about spirituality, to me, that is about the connection to the spiritual. For some people, it takes place that is funneled through a formal religion. For some of us, we are creating that connection at home and individually, and, and not necessarily through and organized, um, again, religion or, or organization, shall we say for me, I grew up Catholic. I grew up going to Sunday school and I went to mass every week and I always felt connected to spirit.

Kimberly: 04:18 I always felt really connected to Jesus and I love of the teachings about love and the stories. I didn’t personally feel that deep connection and expansion when I was in my own organized religion. And so I did feel disconnected. There was a period where I felt disconnected through college. I didn’t really go to church. I didn’t have any sort of practice. And then I started backpacking and I was definitely a seeker. I was looking for something. I was looking for fulfillment. And when I went to India, I found it. I first, I was confused if I was starting to meditate and learn about yoga. If I meant I was Hindu or it meant that I was turning into another religion. And then I found my guru, PMAA yo Nanda, the word guru means one that takes you from darkness to light. And I started to read his teachings, which, you know, on the altar, he had Jesus Christ and Krishna.

Kimberly: 05:22 And what he taught was the experience of God is, is this is the one truth, right? And there’s many ways up the mountain to that one truth. There’s many forms. There’s many religions, there’s many pathways. There’s many ways to, you know, to create devotion. It’s not a right or a wrong answer, as long as it feels good and connected to you. So for me, meditation has been my primary pathway. I meditate. And then I pray meditation for me, effective meditation is really about union with the divine. So it’s a space for sitting and letting go of all this worlds, the chaos of daily life, the thoughts, the, to do list the running around and coming into this place of eternal. The eternal part of us is the true self and the peace that is available inside of us stillness. And it is stillness that we can contact spirit, the universe, whatever word you wanna use, because it’s the noisiness of the thoughts that keep us in an agitated flux or the word in Sri is regs, overly active anxiety, right?

Kimberly: 06:39 So we need to create that stillness. And then we feel like we’re in a more clear channel. We can broadcast a spirit and broad and spirit can broadcast back to us through messages and our intuition, or just knowingness it knowingness that comes from much, a much deeper place then from our rational thoughts. So what I recommend if this resonates with you, Kate is checking out any of our practical enlightenment meditations, which are free they’re over on the app and taking that space, even if it’s five, 10 minutes in the morning to settle in with the intention of connecting to spirit. And then as yoga nada says in the language of your own heart, for me, personal prayer feels the most connected. You know, and if you connect more to saying like the hail Marys or, you know, the, the set prayers, that is a beautiful pathway as well for me, I just, I speak to God.

Kimberly: 07:38 I say, you know, what is really an my heart. I pray for deeper connection. I pray, you know, I offload my worries. It’s, it’s very personal. It’s very, um, spontaneous. It comes right from inside, which I think is, you know, we are the connection it truly is, is from inside of us. So some other practical things, Kate is I create a actual space. I have I’m looking at it right now. It’s in my office. It is a cushion where I always meditate. So it’s a space where I go for the specific purpose of connection to spirit. I meditate, I pray. And then I journal. And in the journaling, sometimes I write letters, disparate. Sometimes I’m writing about things that I need to process let go of, be grateful for. And I also meditate regularly in the morning and in the evening. So there’s a regularity to the time there’s a regularity to the space and energy builds over time.

Kimberly: 08:39 So all of these elements allow me to go deeper and deeper. So hope some of that resonated Kate, let me know how you do on your journey. Keep in touch with me and let me know how else I can support you love thank you so much for being here.

Question #2 around the topic of: Practical Advice for How Best to Start A Prayer Space in Your Own Home: Hi Kimberly – I’ve noticed you have a Hanuman necklace. Can you share how you use this in your rituals? I was raised to believe that you should avoid idol worship and am now curious on how to separate from this thinking.

Kimberly: 08:39 All right. And our next question now comes from Jodi, who lives in Florida. Hello, my Floridian love. I love Florida <laugh> I spent a lot of time there. So I feel connected to you also through that connection we have to state, we both love and you in and you write hi, Kimberly. I’ve noticed you have a H on necklace. Can you share how you use this in your rituals? I was raised that you should avoid idle worship. And I’m curious on how you separate from this thinking. Jodi, thank you so much for this question.

Kimberly: 09:34 So idle worship is also something I was and do believe we are to avoid, you know, in the 10 commandments says that shall not have any other gods before me. And what’s interesting about that is that could take on many forms. It could be an idol. It could be, you know, prioritizing things, relationships, you know, science, the limited what’s created with the limited tools of the mind over spirit, over the divine, as it connects to idols. When I, so first of all, um, whenever we have a symbol in, in, in, in Hinduism, in, in the YOIC traditions, it’s called a Murti, which is a, basically a, a symbol for spirit and in Yogi and Hindu philosophy, there are thousands maybe millions of these different aspects of the divine, but there are aspects of the one. So for instance, GNE, which is an elephant and look like, oh, we’re not praying to this God of this elephant, this Gade, it’s part of the one, right?

Kimberly: 10:42 The one God, the one Brahma. And he is, uh, the aspect of strength and perseverance and overcoming obstacles. The Honman necklace that you see me wearing, and I’m looking at a Honman statue sitting on my desk is not like I’m worshiping this or this monkey, this monkey, this, um, Honeyman represents the perfect servant to the Lord. So it is a representation of the energy. All of it is part of the one. So I work with it and it sits on my desk. As a reminder of the energy, the energy of I am here to serve. I am here to serve. I wear it to remind myself my primary purpose is to serve, to serve spirit, to serve the spirit in all beings. The spirit is equally present in all of us. We are all equal. So I am here to serve. And it, if we see, you know, I have statues of Jesus, I have crosses, it’s a symbol of this, you know, compassion, the, the triumph of love, the selflessness, the full trust and all the things that Christ symbolizes.

Kimberly: 11:56 And so it’s an aspect, you know, Ty bringing us back to the divine, bringing us back to spirit, but there is no idle worship going on here. And I think that’s also one of the common misconceptions. When we see these different statues, it could be Sheva the Sheva, not dage, we’re not worshiping a million different gods here or different things. It’s all the one, the one loving Omni mission, omnipresent spirit, the higher intelligence, the divine in all things. So I’m just using a physical symbol to connect to the less God is everything. Universe is everything it’s form less, but sometimes the form helps us to connect to a specific energy. That is again, part of the one. So again, this is personal. You may not relate to a specific imagery, so maybe you wanna wear a heart that represents love or, um, you know, have no symbolism at all, but just burn a candle, the light, which represents the light of spirit, you know, so it is, to me, whatever brings us closer to that very personal connection to the divine that we can all develop and that inside of us, right?

Kimberly: 13:09 So the true self is spirit inside of us beyond, you know, we, we tend to over-identify with what we look like, what we’re doing in the world, what our achievements are, what our job titles are. And ultimately I say this with love, but ultimately none of that matters. <laugh> what matters is this eternal part of us, the inside of us, the state, our internal state, our connection, the growing love, the wisdom growing inside of us, bringing us back to spirit. Spirit is not just, you know, this one distant thing. Spirit is in everything it’s running through us, it’s running through all people, it’s running through everything. So again, these symbols could be honeymoon. It could be a statue of Jesus or the Virgin mother, which I also have. I also have, you know, um, beautiful. It’s like a, I say, it’s a statue. It’s like this carving this long carving of the last supper and hubby.

Kimberly: 14:05 And I actually got engaged in the room of the last supper in Jerusalem. It was a very sacred experience. I’ll tell you that story another time, but I connect to all the religions in some way. I see it. I see the truth. I see the underlying yoga underlying unity because there is one God, there is one universe, one spirit running through everything, but there are many different ways that are that we can go about that connection. And there’s no one way there’s no right way, no wrong way. It is what resonate with us. So I hope that helps shed some light on my perspective here. Jodi, thank you so much for your question. And if you’re interested in learning more about the story of Honman, we have our beyond fear course, that was part of the book launch that I believe you can purchase, um, as a one off now, or we will be launching it at some point. So I do tell in my own words, the story of Haman and why he is so, or the symbolism is so inspiring to me in my daily life. Thank you so much love, and can’t wait to connect further.

Break

Kimberly: 15:13 All right. My loves. We’re gonna take a short break. I absolutely love this topic, which is very personal to me, very close to my heart. And when we come back, we will have two more questions for you on this important, deeply personal subject.

Question #3 around the topic of: Practical Advice for How Best to Start A Prayer Space in Your Own Home: Are mantras considered a form of prayer? I like the idea of positive chanting as opposed to praying to a specific god. 

All right, loves we’re back from our break. Two more questions on this topic, practical at the ice for how best to start a prayer space in your own home. And our first question back from the break comes from Pam, who lives in Michigan. Hello, my love out there. Thank you so much for being part of our community. Thank you so much for submitting your question, which is our mantra considered a form of prayer. I like the idea of positive chanting as opposed to praying to a specific God. So mantra means tool of the mind, and a mantra is a very powerful way to get this monkey mind under control.

Kimberly: 16:20 The monkey mind is of the world. The monkey mind is wrapped up into what’s going on. What did that person say? What should I say? What happened? Overthinking, protecting into the future ruminating on the past and really keeps us in the state of restlessness. And what we want to create in prayer and meditation is union. We wanna create that really deep connection. So in this way, mantra, which is helping to settle the mind to go deeper and deeper into this connection to the true self in inside of us is part of the spiritual practice. And so we can call that practice. We can call that prayer again. The words don’t really matter. I don’t think they really matter at all, but the idea is, you know, if something doesn’t resonate with you praying to a specific God, the idea of chanting and coming deeper and deeper into yourself, your true self, that is where spirit lives inside of you in the stillness.

Kimberly: 17:31 And then what happens as we create more stillness, what emerges is what Yogananda calls, the infallible voice, the infallible voice, the infallible in, in your voice. Um, sorry, I’m boggling a little bit here. I get very excited talking about this, the infallible counsel of the inner voice, your intuition spirit universe, speaking to you and guiding you through life things. Aren’t so chaotic things don’t have to be so confusing. It be starts to become more clear when we start to really connect to that inner voice, that inner her connection inside of us. So, as I mentioned to Kate, we have some really great practical enlightenment meditations, which I’d love for you to check out. Also, there’s a whole chapter in the new book. You are more than you think you are practical enlightenment for everyday life about how to work with mantras. And then I per provide some simple ones that you can get started with.

Kimberly: 18:32 There’s also some, um, uh, initial chapter speaking about, uh, a stillness tool and then three subsequent chapters on effective meditation. The chapters are very succinct, very, to the point. Some of them are only four pages, so it’s a very digestible book and the deep book about self connection and really creating that and raising your vitality. So I think you’ll like the book very much, Pam. I think it’ll be very useful for you. So please also check it out as well and sending you infinite gratitude so much love. I’m so grateful that you are here and we are part of the community.

Question #4 around the topic of: Practical Advice for How Best to Start A Prayer Space in Your Own Home: I’ve heard that a prayer room is believed to keep out negative energies and protects your house from harmful vibes. What do you think and would you suggest creating a space like this in your home? 

Kimberly: 19:29 So you so much my love and we have one final question for you guys from Erica who lives in Massachusetts. Hello, my love my beauty out there. My east coast beauty. I am a new Englander myself sending you big hug. I hope it’s getting warm now. And you are right. I’ve heard that a prayer room is to, is believed to keep out negative energies and protects your house from harmful vibes. What do you think and what would you suggest in creating a space like this in your home? Okay. So this is where belief systems are very personal and I’m just gonna share my personal belief system here. This may or may not, you know, resonate, but I think it’s great when we can share in this open non-judgmental space and all, you know, come together and just see how we feel about certain topics and certain things.

Kimberly: 20:09 When I started on the spiritual show path and you know, you know, we all dip in and out and, you know, up until recently, I will say that there was a lot more fear in my life. And I was a lot more tendency to try to control things. And you know, what all the, what ifs that could happen in the world, things from illness, accidents, diseases, whatever it is. I, I believe that the more we connect inside of us real safety, real security is inside of us. And so it’s not specific to a room it’s not specific to this one area, but it’s something that is within Yogananda discusses, the 26. So qualities which are mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita, which we could say here is sort of, you know, the Eastern Bible. It is, um, prescription for how to win the battle of life, which is allegorical is written about this great battle with horses and chariot tears.

Kimberly: 21:13 It’s really about the battle of the mind, the battle between the ego and the true self. So the first quality that’s mentioned is fearlessness. Meaning that when we start to connect more and more, or to God universe, spirit source inside of us, that is our anchor. That is our safety, and that is our security. And we start to feel more resilient and secure that in whatever arises in our life, whatever comes our way, we will be able to handle. We will be able to deal with it. And I believe that unshakeable fearlessness that builds in us that unshakeable connection to spirit is what is the real protection. Of course we can have intention. We can pray for our home and we can send light and love and, you know, do all of that. And I do that as well, but I don’t think it has to be specific to one room.

Kimberly: 22:19 I think the energy that’s coming out of us is always, you know, energy’s always there. Energy’s always shifting and, and changing. It’s not a static thing. It’s not like, okay, I built this one room and now I’m protecting it forever. To me, it’s more dynamic than that. It’s a living practice. It’s our living relationship with spirit moment to moment, day to day. Are we growing in faith and trust and connection to the true self? Or are we expanding in doubt and lack and you know, just more confusion and bewilderment. And so, yes, it is nice to create a space. Like I mentioned earlier, where you can go and you can pray and you can meditate and it’s set up for you and energy builds. And so it’s quiet. You know, I’ve got my cushion here. It’s very simple, but this is the space that, you know, feels really good to me.

Kimberly: 23:11 And I’ve meditated here, hundreds and hundreds of times. So it just feels very natural to drop into that space. But you know, it doesn’t have to be a, a full room and we’re not creating that based on fear. We’re BA we’re creating it based on this increasing the burning desire for more of the at connection. One of the other characteristics mentioned in the Gita is called radiance of character. And what this means is the fire starts to build inside of us, this pious fire, fire of inspiration fire that builds of the self connection with spirit. We realize God is right here. We can, we can, we are so connected already. We can just tap into that. And so that to me is the ultimate protection. That is the ultimate strength I am protected because cuz I’m connected to spirit inside of me. And that is where my security and safety comes from.

Kimberly: 24:11 So what that’s done in my life is it’s helped to diminish control aspects and you know, expectations from other people and myself and things having to be a certain way because we start to grow in trust. And once we grow in trust also like the fear is such a huge energy leak. So what happens is our vitality builds, clarity, builds, creativity builds, and it’s so powerful and powerful because it just, it keeps getting better and better. You know, the more we concentrate on this part of our lives. So a couple quick things as we end regularity consistency, whether it’s prayer, meditation or another form of worship, it’s the practices that we do regularly that really make a big difference in our life. So it’s really important that you do whatever you’re doing on a regular basis. I like to meditate in the morning and I like to meditate in the evening as well.

Kimberly: 25:07 So, uh, having a regular space set up is also great. You can just drop in. You don’t have to futs around, you don’t have to move things. You don’t have to wonder. You don’t have to think. You just go and you do your practice. Number three, you carry your practice with you. The real temple is inside of you. The real church is inside of your heart. It’s inside of you. So while we, you know, can create spaces and things, ultimately it is what we become from the practice. It will change. Your energy will change your relationships as your relationship with spirit strengthens more and more in your life. Number four, it’s very personal. We are not talking about a worship here or you’re not talking about right wrong, any religion, it’s, you know, again, different, you know, for me, it’s just symbols. That support my connection to divine, the energies of spirit of the one.

Kimberly: 26:00 It is the one, the one intelligence, the one Omni God universe, whatever word I use the word God, as you can tell <affirmative>, but if you don’t like that word, if you don’t like any of these words, just whatever word resonates with you. Again, we don’t want language to be a barrier to this deep, deep, all profound connection, which will truly benefit all areas of your life. So I hope that helped Erica, let me know how you do. Please check out the meditations, please check out the new book. You are more than you think you are. I think you’ll resonate with it very much.

Thought of the Week

Kimberly: Now, before we sign off, I would like to leave you with a quote of the week. And this one does come from page 33 of the new book, which is chapter three. You are a warrior. This is a quote from Paramahansa Yogananda, the great guru.

Kimberly: 26:49 Again, taking us from darkness to light, to higher wisdom, to higher understanding. “God sent you here for a purpose….Realize how tremendously important that is! Do not allow the narrow ego to obstruct your attainment of an infinite goal.” God sent you here for a purpose. It will become more clear. The more we connect in, we’re not gonna get it from the outside world and the craziness and the chaos and the duality and the more IA, which means delusion and illusion. We get it. We get everything we’re looking for. Actually joy, love peace from the inside. So please check out the show notes for other podcasts, articles, meditations. I think you would enjoy for deeper community connection. Please join our Solluna Circle, where I’m here or for you every day in the support group. And also we meet monthly for a call where we chat and meditate together.

Kimberly: 27:52 And again, the new book you are more than you think you are, has come through me, it’s flowed through. And it is, um, I think the most important thing I’ve channeled through is what’s helped me the most. It’s the teachings and the practices for that connection and the love and the bliss that we’re all looking for, which also as a happy Ash offshoot tends to make our external world a lot more harmonious, abundant, fulfilling as well. So check it out. Wherever books are sold, I’ll be back here Monday for our next interview podcast till then sending you so much love. I am so grateful that our souls have found each other so much. Love Nati peace and love.