Cultivating a daily devotional practice
Cultivating a daily devotional practice and making space to honour yourself
Hello and thanks for being here. If you’re new here I’m Laura, a counsellor, nature therapist, somatic therapist and space holder. I’m also a Pagan Priestess. My offerings are all about supporting you to connect with yourself and the world around you.
Today I wanted to share some reflections on cultivating a daily devotional practice, something that’s become a quiet but powerful anchor in my life. At the start of each year, I choose an intention word to guide me, and this year’s word is devotion. 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 spiritual work with an unspoken expectation: that they would “fix” me, make me feel better, or provide some tangible result. In this post I reflect more deeply about what it might mean to accept that we’ll never be healed.
But devotion asks something different. It invites me to show up not to achieve, but to meet myself exactly as I am, in the moment. My intention with this devotional practice is to give without expectation of receiving, to love without fear, to be in service without ego, to connect with gratitude, and to honour my own needs with tenderness and care. It might sound like a lot, but in truth, it’s very simple. It’s about presence and intention.
My daily devotion doesn’t follow a strict formula. It’s 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 simply resting when my body asks for it. It might be time spent in nature, moments of stillness, prayer, or even showing up for someone in my community. It includes the small, ordinary acts that nourish my body, mind, and spirit.
My daily devotion practice means a daily commitment to do one thing with intention
Having a daily devotional practice over the past two months has really deepened my relationship with my 'self'. It feels like something tangible that I can come back to over and over again. These are practices I often engage with anyway but framing them as 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.
Daily devotional practice as a tool for enrichment, rather than 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 devotional 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 devotional 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 devotion practices. Maybe you meditate each morning, 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.
Once you have your list, you can use that as a basis for daily devotion. I'm also offering some suggestions below for practices that you can add to your list.
Meditation as a daily devotion practice
Meditation is one of the most powerful tools for cultivating a daily devotional 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.
You'll find free, guided meditation practices on my blog, including this Loving Kindness meditation.
A daily check in as a devotion 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 devotion 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 breathwork here.
Slowing down and honouring nature's cycles as a devotion 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 living in flow with nature to find calm and connection 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.
