For centuries, spiritual directors have served as guides and partners with those who undertake the interior journey. The interior journey is a process of prayer and discernment that leads a person into the inner recesses of life and unlocks the doors to buried wounds and buried treasure.
The interior journey is a reflective journey and can go into the deepest recesses of one’s being. M. Scott Peck describes the interior journey in his book The Road Less Traveled, and others have used various journey metaphors to bring out the same reality.
Many choose not to take an interior journey, because they are afraid of what they will find. I know someone who likes to climb 14,000 foot peaks, but, in session with this person, I made the point that in most cases it takes more courage to begin the interior journey than it does to climb a tall mountain. The interior journey helps us to make the connections with the wounds and joys that have accumulated in our lives and that have shaped us into the people that we are today.
I recently spent nine hours in formation through a process called bio-spiritual focusing. In bio-spiritual focusing, the Holy Spirit leads our interior reflection, and we begin to be able to make sacred connections of feelings, emotions, and events as they have built over the years. Bio-spiritual focusing helps us regain the ability to stop and listen carefully to what our body’s unique felt sense is trying to tell us.
I continue to work with this process as part of my own healing and formation, and also as a way to enhance my service as a spiritual director. This has become a part of my spiritual discernment process, as I work with people in spiritual direction. The Holy Spirit leads and guides to new places and new adventures.