PRACTICES

Practical Applications and Tools for Inner Work

The Institute offers a number of practices and applications that provide the opportunity to turn inward and begin the journey of actualizing the soul’s destiny.

All of our courses, teachings, and books include practical applications in inner work or shadow work. Some examples of these tools are:

When we genuinely do our inner work, denied parts of ourselves reveal themselves for purposes of integration
and purification.

• heart and will practices

• meditation
• centering and witnessing
• energy work
• medicine poetry
• other self-care applications

These practices are an integral part of our philosophy, which is based on these two principles of personal development:

 The participation in one’s own healing process (self-transformation) 

AND

 The willingness to extend unconditionally that healing to others (service)

Inner work is a moment-
to-moment, day-after-day,
year-after-year, lifelong commitment and process. 

CENTERING PRACTICES

A prerequisite to inner work is centering the body.  Centering practices expand our psychological space and enable us to connect with our inner strength. A sense of psychological spaciousness and stability can be experienced when we bring our attention to the center of the body.

Try this centering practice:

• Soul Alignment
  

INNER WORK APPLICATIONS

• The Universal Tributes
  The ten Tributes and their Tenets provide a psychological-spiritual tool that shows us how to shift our thoughts, actions, and words in order to look within rather than without for wholeness.

• A Relaxing Method for Calming Fear and Anxiety
  We sent this practice to the women of Ukraine and invite you to practice it for yourself as well as in service to all in the world who are suffering.
• Am I in My Right Place?
  The practice of finding and recognizing our right place is a spiritual matter of the heart.
  

In the later stages of soul development, we become willing to learn how to work with the obstacles, thereby using life as a classroom with unlimited opportunities to heal and be healed. It is this process that is referred to as 
inner work.

• Radiating Light to All That Is
  Learn about your Self-Light and a simple prayer that radiates Light to others with purity and integrity. 
• That Was Then ~ This Is Now
  A life experience inventory can help us identify our unique gifts of service. Through it, we can focus on using what we have learned from our lives to genuinely help others.
• Lincoln Answers Our Nation's Call for Help (Medicine Poetry)
  Writing "medicine poetry" requires that we abandon all thoughts and merge with feelings. The poem's intent is to allow the heart to express its authentic feelings, whether of pain or of glory.

• Waking Up: The Transformative Power of Momentous Life Events
  Most of us have many kabooms in our life. Our challenge is to welcome the potential transformation that can come with each one.

Visit Susan's Trout's Blog for more INNER WORK applications

LEADERSHIP and GROUP LIFE APPLICATIONS

• Inner Leader Alignment
  Align with the Inner Leader, the guiding light toward which the human soul is consciously or unconsciously evolving.

The greatest cause of low vitality and fatigue for leaders is emotional and mental dis-ease.

• Group Soul Alignment
  Align with and receive guidance from the soul of your group or organization, which protects, guides, teaches, and inspires group members.
  
• Group Communication Guidelines
  Group Communication Guidelines not only keep groups on purpose, they also create a sense of safety and trust within the group.
• The Michelangelo Metaphor ~ Leadership as Service
  Explore the nature of the leader-group partnership through the metaphor of the master sculptor (the leader) and the marble (the group): together they reveal each's perfected potential.

• The Seed of Leadership
  Through recollection and self-reflection we can look for the thread of leadership in our lives to see both the compelling forces and the stages of growth we have experienced. When we glean knowledge from our examination of the past, we bring new leadership insights and skills forward into the present.

Inner work applications apply to all aspects of our life, including our service, our leadership, and our work with groups. 

• Dangers and Beneficent Protection 
  This essay from The Awakened Leader explores the very real internal and external dangers of leadership, including negative projections, betrayal, and discouragement, and recognizes that beneficent support is always available from seen and unseen sources ~ in various forms.

• S.O.S. ~ Pray for Planet Earth
  How can we handle the uncertainty of our times? We can keep the sacred alive with a commitment to pray for our planet daily.  
• How to Pray for a Group
  This Buddhist prayer invites Divine Light to support and guide the group's highest possible evolution at this time in the group's existence.
• Exploring Mental Models of Leaders and Groups
  Examine the unhealthy assumptions about leaders and groups that impact the quality of your service.
• WAKE UP! Leading with an Open Heart
  Identify significant learnings you have gleaned from your soul's leadership classroom.

Visit Susan's Trout's Blog for more LEADERSHIP AND GROUP LIFE applications 

COURSES

All Institute courses, conducted by phone or video conferencing, integrate healing modalities and practices. Visit our Courses page for a full list and descriptions of the courses we offer.

A good place to begin with inner work is through our Universal Tributes Courses ~ ten four-week courses that can be taken independently of one another.

Based on the Universal Tributes, these courses support you as you learn to monitor your inner state and choose outer actions that serve the wellbeing of yourself and others.

Disclaimer: The Institute for the Advancement of Service does not provide medical or mental health care.  As such, practices, courses, and study programs are not intended to be psychotherapy, medical therapy, or a substitute for either one.  Participants are required to assume self-responsibility for their wellbeing by seeking, when appropriate, psychological and medical professional care.