Devotion
What if consistency is overrated?
How does the word “consistency” sit in your body? How does it feel? What about discipline? Non-negotiable? Prayer? Commitment? Requirement? How about devotion?
Consistency feeds the ego.
Devotion feeds the soul.
What a gift, giving ourselves space for nuance. We are multi-faceted, complex and ever changing. Reframing consistency with devotion has helped me integrate more structure into my life, because the word alone sits differently in my nervous system. In my body, consistency feels like an exercise in stamina for my mind, devotion feels like a full-bodied commitment.
Devotion invites us to shift our perspective, suddenly our view is oriented from our intuitive depths, rather than centred in the mind. Are we doing that thing because it’s on our list? To maintain an image of what someone else thinks is “wellness” or “self care”? Is it connected to an outdated or unrealistic idea of ourselves? Can it fill us up in the same way, when it feels more like ticking a box? Do you meet life differently if you frame it as something you “get to do”?
It was an absolute joy to hear from my mentor Delphine on the subject. She shared these reflections with me via a voice note, which I’ve transcribed and woven through together with my own thoughts…
Devotion is a frequency and a quality of the soul - an expression of the soul that comes through the heart.
It's a whole body presence, a quality of presence, that centers around the heart and is drawn towards something… pulling me towards something - following through into an action, into rituals, into particular relationships or ways of being with others, practices... But really at its core, for me, it's this quality and this frequency that I'm imbued with, that underlies the different actions or activities that are manifest.
Devotion is transformational. It makes daily life sacred. It ritualises the mundane.
Devotion is the bridge to magic. Connecting one world to the next. The inner and the outer. Our reality and the divine. Our needs with our higher self.
Devotion isn’t just a giving, it’s a receiving. A devotion to the present moment. A feast for the senses, moments of unexpected abundance - the saturating smoke of incense in a moment of stillness, the dripping of honey into a mug of tea while we linger to steep, the ribboning steam from a hot bath, the crisp shadows cast from a low evening sun on that walk we dragged our tired bones out of the house for…
Little reminders that I am so grateful to be here, now, fully in this body with these senses, to soak in this magic.
My relationship with devotion has changed a lot. In the past, I wasn't really accessing the pure, essential frequency of devotion in a conscious way. It was more a sense of feeling like I had to do things, feeling like a compulsion or a sense of duty. And so there was this sense of being beholden to something, or obligated to something, and that there would be negative consequences if I didn't follow through in my devotions. There was a an element of fear in it. Whereas now, I feel more in contact with devotion freely, it is inherent to my soul, something that is freely chosen and that is more nourishing.
There was also a sense in the past that devotion would maybe entail some kind of power dynamic between me and others; if I was devoted to something, there was a pressure to show up, or that somebody else was requiring me to do something. So I think that was more of a distorted expression of devotion, and was not really pure devotion.
When it comes from obligation, it feels different. It's often harder to sustain, whereas, when there's devotion - devotion to knowing oneself deeply, devotion to knowing the truth, or to finding harmony with ourselves and with others - there is a through line across your life. You can tell the difference because it's a constant… maybe requiring some nurturing and development, but you'll feel it because you'll constantly return to it.
photo by Flávia
Devotion carries momentum.
Structure helps guide the defiant inner child toward growth, but when it comes from a place of force or rigidity, the routine turns into another unforgiving tool we use to measure ourselves with, and in that game, we will always come up short.
When we come to a place where we feel more deeply resourced, we will no longer want to snooze those reminders on our phone, scheduled by a past self with the best of intentions. Nor will we feel the weight of the crushing overwhelm that comes with them - we will long for structure with compassion. Not consistency.
There is sustainability in a devotional practice because it changes our definition of what consistency looks like. The quality of it. How it feels in our body. It changes as we do, with the seasons, with cycles, moment to moment: the few quiet moments in the car to breathe mindfully before going into work become just as nourishing as an hour long yoga practice.
“In the past, it’s been devotion to another or something outside of myself. And I think what has surprised me most about devotion, or my relationship to it, as it’s become more conscious, it has brought me more into an intimacy with myself, and with my soul as it expresses in me and through me and out into the world, into my life. It’s actually brought me into more of a coming home.”
Reverence with action is devotion. I realise I have longed for a deeply rooted faith, but a dogma of any kind has never appealed to me. Instead, I fully embrace the truth in interconnectedness, different expressions of the same energy. Maybe you see it in astrological bodies, or in the trees, or in a church - we all have different words for it, but the feeling is what should be the focus. Anything else creates otherness and more separation, a “them”. If we are in service, in devotion, to our higher selves, we grow beyond limitations. We are not beholden to an “other”.
Devotion feels so much like letting go - I have found I am less concerned with the “what” I am devoted to, as if it is something outside of myself, always out of reach. I am more focused on the “how”, and how many different ways can it show itself in a day.
Devotion as discipline makes every moment sacred.
In this life, as we live it, and we express and we expand, and we give and receive, then we are coming home into our wholeness. So my experience of devotion is that it has brought me much more into a much greater intimacy with my own depths and my own soul and my own connection to the divine, to the kind of invisible, mystical realms, as well as bringing me more into my human life, my material, the material plane, my practical human life of showing up in devotion to certain practices and rituals and commitments to people. So commitment is a different frequency, but can be nourished by devotion.
So in a sense, it's actually cultivating intimacy with self. There's a paradox, because it's devotion that can help you develop this intimacy. And being devoted to being more intimate with yourself, closer to your soul, to your desires, your heart's desires, your bodily desires, your needs and wants, your hopes and dreams, and be more in contact with your deeper values, what feels really true to you in your heart and soul and your depths, when you are still in present with yourself, when you're in intimate communication and contact with yourself… to really kind of know yourself more deeply, and that, in turn, helps to cultivate the quality of devotion and brings it through much more powerfully. So it's this beautiful kind of dance of getting closer and closer to your essence.
Delphine is a Psychotherapist and Soul Oracle, Somatic Coach and Intuitive guide, melding various approaches and modalities with multidimensional guidance. She helps guide women to know, trust and value themselves more deeply, and alchemise self-doubt into sovereignty and self-belief. She offers one-to-one psycho-spiritual mentoring, intimate group immersions, and women’s circles, online or in-person. Find her at: Embodymytruth.com and on instagram.
