It is an association that would never have occurred to me until it cropped up in a conversation with a friend.
Over the years we had been chatting about the circumstances in which she most easily felt calm, at ease and aware of the magic of life. She had the idea that it ought to happen for her in meditation and had tried many different meditation strategies. She could stay comfortably silent in a group meditation, carried along by the communal dynamic, but on her own, she found meditation to be slow torture.
Her culture and her community of friends highly valued meditation, so for many years she kept exploring meditation, but sitting on her own, it was always uncomfortable and distressing. She was so sincere in her desire to meditate that she asked me to nudge and remind her to get into practice.
Then in a conversation, she casually mentioned some quiet spiritual experiences she was having. In those experiences, she was completely calm, felt the presence of a higher power — whatever you may wish to call it — and a heightened sense of intuition, which helped guide her important life decisions.
I asked in what circumstances she was having these encounters. There was a pause as she gathered her thoughts. With some embarrassment she finally responded that her spiritual awareness surfaced when she was at her computer deeply involved in Excel spreadsheets, and organising the complex arrangements for very large international conferences – speakers, rotas, tech, flights, breakout rooms, accommodation and more.
Her answer excited me for two reasons. The first reason for my excitement was very personal, because I experience a lowkey panic when I have to work with information that is tabulated inside spreadsheets. (I interpret this as a form of dyslexia.)
The second reason for my excitement was because this was a breakthrough moment for my friend as she realised, acknowledged and validated for the first time that her consciousness expanded into a state of spiritual connection when she was working on complex spreadsheets. She had never really acknowledged this to herself and never to her friends because it was not meditation.
We talked about her experiences. She said that her mind and body just felt incredibly content and peaceful when working on complex arrangements on a spreadsheet, and she went into a ‘flow’ state. In this experience of psychological harmony, another crucial part of her mind – of her psyche – was liberated to go into an altered state of consciousness. She was multitasking. Seen from the perspective of one psycho-spiritual model, her left brain was happily doing its mental thing, liberating her right brain to do its intuitive-spiritual work.
For decades I have been promoting the idea that people have very different ways of entering into spiritual awareness, and it is crucial for each individual to understand how they best do it. I find it really easy to meditate on my own and that is my preferred practice. But teaching spiritual practice and listening to students and colleagues, I have had to learn and value that there are many different gateways for entering a state of calm connection with the magic of life. I was astonished when I first heard people saying that mindful spiritual awareness happened for them while swimming. (I can’t do that. I can’t do spreadsheets.) There are huge variances between, for example, people who practise ecstatic drumming and those who prefer a gentle walk in the cloisters; or those who chant and those who sit quietly reading inspiring texts.
People have very different gateways and circumstances to spiritual awareness; and it is really helpful if people know what they are and value them.
Spreadsheet spiritual practice! Once I was over the mini-trauma to my established ideas, I reflected more calmly about it. I recalled that I had several other friends, who also love working with spreadsheets. I need to ask them whether they too can go into a spiritual state when engaged with them.
I also found myself thinking of all the people who relax doing jigsaws and the members of my family who love puzzles. I remembered too a headteacher I once supported and was helping into reflective practice. The only time that he could calm and think more expansively was when he was working on the engine of his classic motor car.
Spreadsheets. Puzzles. Mechanics. These might be surprising, but knitting, weaving, embroidery and crafts are already well recognised as spiritual practices, and they are in a similar zone. These are all circumstances that one hundred per cent work for some people and provide gateways into calm and altered states of awareness.
Over and over again we can also observe children going into magic-land with the tiniest of figures. A blade of grass can be anyone or anything as a child’s awareness goes through a gateway into the world of imagination, play and connection.
So, we come back to this core insight — that there are very many different gateways and circumstances that enable people into spiritual awareness. Meditation is only the best way for meditators. Just as movement, or dance, or reading, or nature, are the best ways for others. And now we can add to this list of spiritual practices – spreadsheets.
There is a wonderful cultural development happening in our world today. Historically, most religions and spiritual traditions have suggested specific ways of worship and spiritual practice. Today’s spiritual culture is expanding to a recognition of and respect for each individual’s best approach. Whatever path people take, though, they lead to a destination of greater compassion and service, expanded consciousness and deeper connection.
Let’s welcome spreadsheets into the wondrous toolbox of spiritual strategies.