The Spiritual Side of Life. Part . The Exercises.

I'm not allowed to talk about most of the spiritual exercises that I've experimented with (*shhh*) but I don't have to talk about my own experiences to talk about the theory and benefits of certain practices.

Spirituality can be divided into two categories: the internal and the external.

The internal deals with concepts like the ego, concentration, emotional control, mental health, etc.

The external deals with situations like relationships, control of environment, right interaction based on proper perception of reality, and so on.

The former is generally labeled "Yoga", and the latter is generally labeled "Magick".

Let me take a moment here to address something that the weaker of the brethren might not have considered since they were children: Magick Is Real!
So are "miracles", super powers, demons, angels, gods, and fairies. They may not all be as real as we imagined when we were kids, or at least not in the same way, but there are forces in nature that the ancients labeled as demons, gods, angels, etc. which we can understand and interact with in a predictable way to effect change in ourselves and our environment.
Modern science is even beginning to support a lot of these things as being not only possible but essential aspects of the natural order.

Lotsa fun to be had all round.

So how do we go about causing these changes?

For environmental change we have to first make a connection between us and the thing we want to change. Most of the time this can be done with the scin laeca (the body of light. AKA the astral body). Sometimes things like talismans can make the connection or we can even employ certain beings to do what we need (this theory is based on the fact that humans are co-creators alongside gods and therefore we have divine authority to command and control every lesser being) . Such beings are usually demons or elementals, but can even be discarnate beings (dead people or animals) or created beings (egregors). I won't go into to much detail about these things, I really don't have enough experience with any of them to say much else without making an ass of myself. If you're curious (and you should be) check out Liber ABA and Transcendental Magic.

For internal change we have to develop concentration. I bet you can imagine what this entails. Lots of starring at blank walls, visualizing simple shapes, avoiding distracting noises etc. It's all good fun and the benefits are almost instantly apparent.
A couple things you might not have realized is the fact that your breath plays a very important role in facilitating concentration, and so does a very specific faculty of mind that has to be trained in a particular way.
The breath is your link between the automatic faculties of your mind and body, and the volitional faculties. Physiologically speaking your breath is the only function in your body that you can do both consciously and unconsciously. This gives you a great key to your unconscious processes, your control of the autonomic nervous system and consequently a whole host of lovely benefits.
(NB. Notice that during a flight or flight response your immune system shuts down as well as the parts of your brain responsible for rational decision making and creativity. Bummer for people under stress. They're sick and stupid.)

The particularly useful part of the mind is the inhibitory faculty. This aspect of mind is curiously useful. It's responsible for the inhibition of thoughts and actions. Now I know it doesn't seem like it's that important to be able to prevent yourself from thinking or acting in certain ways but I honestly couldn't recommend a more useful, simple and foolproof exercise than this: Liber Jugorum. If you were to spend a mere 6 months (a drop in the bucket and not unreasonable when you consider how long most personal trainers say it takes to "get in shape". Six months is nothing) doing the exercises as recommended (no fudging or wussing out on the cuts) you'd be a completely different person. A lot of your neuroses and fixations would naturally come to the surface so you could examine them (and therefore destroy them), you'd be able to think more clearly, more elaborately, you'd be able to follow longer and more complex trains of thought, your mental stamina would be outrageous, and you'd probably end up with a whole heap of really cool scars. You'd also most likely develop a moving grace that comes with perfect awareness.

Prizes all around.