We Associates have been talking about “Spiritual Practices” a lot in our weekly vocation meetings with our advisers, and it has really forced me to think about my spiritual practices as an artist. Over the years, I have employed a variety of tactics to bring myself closer to the divine in my daily life, among them praying the rosary, meditating, and mindfully cleaning the dishes. All of them have been lovely additions to my daily routines, but I have not delved deep enough into any of them, thus they fall by the wayside when my schedule gets hectic (which it inevitably will). One of my (many) goals this semester is to create for myself a “sustainable” spiritual practice, which does not (just) mean good for the environment. I need a practice that I can do every day, a repeatable physical action, that I can do when I am tired, when I don’t have time, and most importantly, when my mind is in another place.
This brings me to the theatre (doesn’t everything?). My classes are the most regular and repeatable things in my life, and one of those classes relies heavily on mental presence and an openness and willingness to take a journey (much like theological reflection). Through that class, I have been able to delve deeper into my theological life, and it is where I got the concept of a “repeatable physical action” that I mentioned above. The more specific a physical action is, the clearer the story will be to the audience. In terms of my spiritual practices, that means that even if I don’t “get something out of” a spiritual practice, as long as I am specific about doing it, my body will start to process the results even if my mind is lagging behind. And the regularity will soon make it a part of my schedule, which is my biggest downfall; I always put my spiritual, mental, and physical health a step lower on my priority list than whatever work I have to do for class.
One spiritual practice that has arisen out of my theatre training that is repeatable and sustaining for me is the idea of a “warm-up”. A warm-up in the theatre is much more than stretching my muscles and relaxing my singing voice; a warm-up does all those things by bringing me more fully into the space. In one of my classes, we ritualistically clean the floor together, and in addition to serving a practical purpose, it allows my mind to slow down and focus on one activity. There are many other warm-ups that we do, and all of them are more than just stretching and arpeggios.
I think there is mileage in looking at a “spiritual practice” as either a warm-up or cool-down to my day. If it is something easily repeatable, that I do not have to put a lot of preparation into it, I think I will be inclined to keep it up more regularly. And with that being said, I think I am going to try to go back to meditation, which is funny because for a while I was actually very consciously rejecting it. I do not like how it has come into prominence in a very pop-fad, new-age theology-but-not-really sort of way, but I would like to reclaim it back for myself. And the only way to make something repeatable is to do it a first time, so just give me ten minutes and I’ll be back.