Embracing daily devotion: cultivating a sacred practice
Cultivating a daily devotion practice and making space to honour yourself
Today I wanted to share some reflections on cultivating a daily devotion practice, something that’s become a quiet but powerful anchor in my life. At the start of each year, I spend some time reviewing my past year and setting intentions for the year ahead. As part of this, I choose an intention word to guide me, and at the time of writing this post, my word is devotion.
If this is your first time finding me, I’m Laura, a holsitic counsellor, nature therapist, somatic therapist and space holder. I’m also a Pagan Priestess.
Devotion, for me, isn’t about rigid discipline or performing acts of self-care for the sake of productivity. It’s about committing to something deeper. In the past, I’ve approached practices like meditation, counselling or my spiritual practice with an unspoken expectation: that they would “fix” me, make me feel better or provide some tangible result. I reflect more in the following post, about what it might mean to accept that we’ll never be healed. I think it can be really useful to ask ourselves what it might mean if that’s true? And how does that reframe our approaches to self care?
Devotion, in this context, feeds into this beautifully. If we devote ourselves to something, we step into a space where we can meet ourselves in the moment, give without expectation of receiving and be in service without ego. We can also connect with gratitude. This doesn’t have to be complicated, all we need to do is show up with presence and intention. My devotional practices don’t follow a strict formula. They’re fluid, intuitive and responsive to what I need on any given day. Some days it looks like meditation or yoga. Other days, it might be going to therapy, journaling to process my experiences or resting when my body needs to rest. It might be time spent in nature, moments of stillness, prayer or even showing up for someone in my community.
What is devotion and what are we devoting ourselves to?
Let’s start with devotion, meaning a strong commitment, loyalty and affection, going beyond a casual feeling. It is an act of bringing our dedication and intention to what we value most. We often think of devotion in religious contexts and it can be a beautiful part of spiritual practice, but it can also be about doing one thing each day with intention.
The first step might be to think about what you’re devoting yourself to. What exactly is it that you want to honour? Maybe it’s an intention for self devotion through daily self care practices, or perhaps you could honour the natural world or your community through a simple daily act of support. Your devotion might also be a connection to your spiritual or religious beliefs. My personal intention with my devotion practices is rooted in my spiritual beliefs and, for me, self care, community and my relationship with the land are all connected.
How to show devotion
My practice is about doing one thing each day with a deeply held intention. This has really deepened my relationship with my 'self'. It feels like something tangible that I can come back to over and over again and it anchors me when things feel uncertain or unstable. These are practices I often engage with anyway but offering them as an act of devotion changes the energy behind them. It becomes less about “doing the thing” and more about how I show up to the thing. It’s a commitment to return to myself, again and again, with intention, with care and with reverence for the sacredness of everyday life.
Devotion doesn’t need to be performative or perfect. It doesn’t require rituals that look a certain way or fit a particular aesthetic. It just asks us to listen. To show up. To honour the life that’s unfolding within and around us, one moment at a time. Being intentional about the way I show up each day, for at least one part of my day, brings peace, spaciousness and grounding.
This is not a 'should' that makes you feel like you're not doing enough
The first thing to say is that setting an intention to have a daily practice is about enriching your life, rather than giving you more to do. This is especially important if you already feel overwhelmed. This is about creating space for you to be with yourself, not adding more items to your to do list. If you're tired or burned out your practices might focus on rest and that is absolutely legitimate. Devotion to your physical needs is really important.
A great place to start is making a list of the ways you already have regular practices that you could bring a little more intention to. Maybe you meditate, maybe you do work in the community, maybe you do a daily walk? Perhaps you check in with yourself each day to see how you're feeling physically or emotionally? Maybe you go to an exercise class or yoga or make space once a week for a really lovely nap. All of these things, to me, are devotional. If you don’t have any practices that could be devotional, you could use my post ‘embrace simple rituals for daily grounding’ as a starting point.
Once you have your list, you can use that as a basis to explore a devotional practice. I'm also offering some suggestions below for practices that you can add to your list.
Meditation as a devotion practice
Meditation is one of the most powerful tools for cultivating a daily practice. It's also something that can be used in other aspects of your life, whether you're trying to work through an issue or just want to relax after a long day. I’ve shared some reflections on what meditation is and what it isn’t here.
Meditation has been shown to have many positive effects on our minds and bodies: it reduces stress and anxiety; improves focus; boosts our immune systems; slows down aging by reducing inflammation in the body; helps us sleep better at night. From an emotional and spiritual perspective, meditation helps us to cultivate self-awareness, understand our thoughts, emotions, and inner experiences, and develop more compassion and empathy for ourselves and others.
A daily check in as a practice
Checking in with yourself regularly is a great way of slowing down and connecting with where you are.
How to check in:
Take a mindful breath. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Ask yourself “what can I feel in my body in this moment?”
Ask yourself “what emotions can I feel in this moment?”
Ask yourself “what do I need in this moment?”
You could also do a daily check in with a friend and share your experiences with each other.
Breath work or other breathing exercises as a daily practice
Working with the breath is an amazing way to calm your nervous system, which can help to manage stress and anxiety. A simple breathing excercise that has a powerful effect on your nervous system and activates your 'rest and digest' response, which is the counterpoint to the 'fight or flight' response, is simply making your out-breath longer than your in-breath. You might breathe in for 4 and out for 6, for example.
It's worth mentioning that some people who have experienced trauma find working with the breath difficult. If you feel uncomfortable at any time during breathing exercises, you can stop at any time. Get up, exit the room, and give yourself whatever you feel you need.
Read more about how to practice other forms of breath work here.
Slowing down and honouring nature's cycles as a devotional practice
Changing the pace of the activities we do can really change our experience. You might set an intention to drink your morning coffee slowly and intentionally, while looking out of a window. You might undertake to eat one meal per day slowly and in silence. You might choose to do some slow walking, out in nature. Slow down intentionally and see what happens.
Connecting with the cycles of nature can really help us to slow down and to feel more grounded. Our ancestors understood this and their lives probably revolved around seasonal cycles; their survival depended on knowledge of nature. If we look to nature as our guide, it may help us find a sense of balance between yang and yin, outward and inward, active and passive--creating while resting as we move through the seasons.
Read more about cyclical living here and the celtic-pagan wheel of the year here
Making your daily devotion practice your own
As you begin to cultivate your daily devotional practice, it's important to remember that there is no one right way. You can set your own intentions and define what devotion means to you. Devotion to self, devotion to others, devotion to the Earth and devotion to a higher power (if you connect with that idea) are all places to start. You get to choose practices that feel natural or appropriate for you at any given moment in time. Most importantly, a daily devotional practice is about honouring yourself.
