Diane Lauber is a certified as a spiritual director, a lover of the Earth who does her best to follow Christ and Buddha. In this feature Diane shares how spiritual guidance can help explore and nurture your spiritual journey.
When did your passion for helping others begin and what inspired you to help guide others in their life challenges?
This is an interesting question. I don’t “guide others” because I’ve got incredible wisdom. Rather, the draw to spiritual companionship came from experiencing for myself the powerful effect when sacred space was created – whether in ceremony, meditation, worship, or one-on-one dialogue.
I realized that helping to create more of such spaces, where people’s deeper questions were invited to the table, felt extremely valuable. “Life challenges” come not only from obvious external crises, but rather from the disconnect between our mainstream world, that is focused on a materialistic view of life, and our reality as spiritual beings. This disconnect can leave us feeling adrift, confused, pained, and as my mother used to say, discombobulated.
Connecting with others who also have the intention to find their way into the stream of Spirit can be exponentially helpful. I believe community is key for us. And that includes being deeply heard by another person.
How would you describe a Spiritual Director?
A spiritual director, or spiritual companion, is someone who creates sacred space with and for you, helping you to gain some clarity, meaning, or calling from what is at work in your life, holding a container to help you come home to yourself. Our job is to listen, to walk alongside, to reflect back the Light that is coming from within you, and to help you find the scent of your own trail forward. It is to help affirm your true nature as a unique, interdependent, sacred expression of life. When Spirit is invited to the get-together, more possibilities come in.
Is spiritual direction only for the religious?
Certainly not. It is for people who are intrigued with the sense that there IS a spiritual framework to life, even if that framework does not fall into any particular religion, or if religious frameworks are more problematic than helpful. There are certainly spiritual directors who work within a particular religion. In my own work, I draw on multiple traditions and practices that feel true to me. And I want to know what feels true to each person I work with – what are the questions at work, what are they wrestling with, what has been meaningful, and meaningless, and how can we listen together for the beat of the Life Force within their life? How can we invite and support love, and truth, and inner freedom?
Do you have any words of wisdom to share with our readers in overcoming obstacles in their lives?
I would say listen to your intuition about what can support you in this moment. Stay open to where help might come from, both internally and externally, and let it in. Think about the real nuggets inside what has served you in the past, and what felt, and feels, true. Be compassionate with yourself – if you might wonder what the &%$# that actually means, one thing it can mean is noticing your thoughts, and if there’s a critical judgment yourself. Take care of yourself as you would respond to a vulnerable child. Also do your best to nourish your body, mind, and spirit with as healthy an environment as you can, including people who are good medicine to you.
Where can we learn more about you or get in touch?
Take a look at my website: dianelauber.net and email me at [email protected]. People wanting to know more can set up an initial free conversation with me to see if we are a good fit. My rate is on a sliding scale, and I am committed to providing services without barriers to those whose communities have been negatively impacted by our society, in particular indigenous leaders.
