Tools for Personal and Spiritual Development

Posted on zo 12 januari 2025 in blog

I have done and tried a lot of different things.

The list below is probably not complete. I will try to give a brief overview of the tool and what it aims to achieve, based on my (limited) understanding and how it has helped me.

  • Lindyhop Dancing

    I call it Meditation in Motion. I have been dancing for over ten years. It gets me in a flow state and a joy without cause arises. It anchors me to the present: connected to the music, my partner, other dancers surrounding me.

  • Non-violent Communication (NVC) by Marshall Rosenberg

    Connect with what is alive in you and others by a process of direct observation (without judgement), finding and naming the emotion(s) that comes up from the observation, finding and naming the need that is or is not met and coming up with a request (not a demand) for an action to get the need met.

    The important parts for me were

    • learning to identify and name my emotions
    • learning the difference between judgments and observations
    • learning the universal (human) needs that live in all of us
    • learning the difference between a demand and a request
    • learning to apply this in written and oral conversations

  • The Octagon Society

    Using journaling to excavate past experiences and to transform them through acceptance, forgiveness and love.

    The important parts for me were

    • learning a process to accept my past experiences and myself
    • learning a process to forgive others and myself
    • learning a process to love others and myself
    • realizing all the different stories I tell myself about myself and the world are only half-truths at best

  • Feeding Your Demons by Lama Tsultrim Allione

    A guided meditation to transform an inner demon into an ally.

    I had a profound experience during the only time I did this meditation. The demon I had visualized from something I feared turned out to be a scared 7-year old self that I helped to transform into an ally.

  • A breath workshop by Karin Oudshoorn

    • the first workshop released a lot of grief without a direct connection to my experiences or my life and I saw an intense field of light
    • the second workshop again released more grief, this time connected to an older brother of mine who died shortly after birth.

  • The Headless Way by Richard Lang

    By doing a few simple experiments, I gained a new perspective on myself and the way I relate to the world. The exercises emphasize direct experience: what is my personal perception of myself and of the world.

    I am upside down to everyone else. I have no head. Where others have a head, I have the whole world.

  • The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa

    An extremely detailed meditation guide for beginning and advanced meditators.

    It explained to me how to [do] (concentration) meditation. The exercise is not to clear the mind, it is to notice when the mind is no longer on the meditation object and to bring it back to it.

  • Other books on meditation and jhanas

    • A Guide to Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation by Bhante Vimalaramsi
    • I Am That by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

  • The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

    A self-directed study book with 12 chapters for 12 weeks of weekly reading and a set of exercises per week intended to unblock your creativity and start you moving again.

    I thank the daily morning pages for getting in touch with myself. It also showed me that the most important aspect of creativity is to just do the work. Three morning pages a day make quite the book at the end of 12 weeks.

    The second time around I appreciated the weekly artist's dates to kindle a more creative outlook on life.

  • Deconstructing Yourself Podcast by Michael Taft

    Interviews with meditation teachers on meditation and non-dual understanding

  • International Vedanta Society NL

  • Yoga Vidya retreats

    • I had an experience while trying to do the Frog in a Mantra Yoga class. I was both laughing and crying at the ridiculousness of my attempts to attain this particular position and at the same time being in awe of the whole experience.

  • Integral Eye Movement Therapy (IEMT)

    Connect with an emotional experience in the past and with the help of a therapist disconnect the emotion from the memory to let the emotion dissolve.

    This therapy helped me to detach the emotion of despair from an early childhood memory. I have not had this emotion come up again since then (3 years and counting).

  • Walking the Camino Portugues

    I learned on the Camino in a direct, viceral way that nothing is permanent, everything changes.

  • Trauma Release Exercises (TRE)

    This is a regular practice I use to release tension from my body. It involves letting the body shake without trying to steer or control it.

    I have found that it is way harder to get the mind settled into any kind of meditation if the body is not relaxed.

  • Myo-fascial Energetic Release (MER) massage

    This is massage that targets the fascia and the muscles. Habitual patterns get locked into the fascia. Trauma responses also get locked into fascia. When this massage loosens the fascia, the energy locked in them gets released.

    The responses I experienced with this type of massage were similar to TRE: the body shaking and tremoring to get rid of the excess energy.

    The day after the first massage I felt like a large truck had run me over. In subsequent massages, my fascia had loosened up considerably and there was way less energy needing to be released.

    For years my posture had been hunchbacked. I noticed, now, it was easier for me to stand up straight and look forward.

  • Darkness Retreat with Spirit Balance

    A profound experience with me spending over 5 days in complete darkness.

    I have had a number of experiences that I can only describe as mindblowing. I have worked through a traumatic memory from when I was born. I had a unitive experience with the birds singing outside of my window. I have found a whole new appreciation for the world of light and form. I have experienced an inner silence and inner peace like I have never experienced before in this life.

  • Teachers

    I would like to acknowledge the following teachers in addition to everyone I already mentioned.

    • Rupert Spira
    • Eckhart Tolle
    • Mooji
    • Biet Simkin
    • Anjali Ma
    • Prabha Ma