The path of spiritual life is not without struggle. Struggle is a part and parcel of human existence. Without it there would be no life. When a babe comes into the world they struggle to take their first breath. And life is a struggle, a struggle against stagnancy, inertia, a struggle against all of the forces that would diminish the life force within you. And then it is a struggle to pull yourself out of your material existence and to connect with your spirit, with your innate spiritual being. It is very easy to become complacent, to become indifferent, to get so absorbed in your daily life that you forget your spiritual nature. That you forget to take the time to connect with that divinity within you. It is very easy to forget, to become complacent, to become absorbed in all of the activities of your life.
This is a natural tendency of human beings and it takes effort and often struggle against these forces which pull you away from your spiritual essence, to bring you to your own spiritual light, and to feel the divinity all around you and within you. So when you go on retreat, when you gather with friends to meditate, it assists you to feel this divinity, this divine presence within you and within all beings. And this allows you to support your spiritual life, to support the spirit within you.
Also reading spiritual scriptures can be of assistance - inspiring books, listening to divine music, kiirtan, chanting of different types which brings a spiritual energy into the room. And even simply taking time to sing the names of God to yourself, to chant the names of God, to do yoga with meditative thoughts, to work in nature keeping the sense of service and mantra in your mind while you work. All of these things can be helpful to your spiritual life. Fasting can be helpful to your spiritual life. Doing yoga, doing meditation. All these things benefit you. And even contemplation, contemplating the nature of the sublime.
All of these things assist you but it is your own attraction to the great which brings you from darkness to light, from death to immortality. That attraction to the great is the fire within you that must be fed to burn away the inertias of your life. That love for the divine, when that is fed, when that fire of love is fed then it burns away all of the resistances within you, so that you can develop your relationship to the Supreme, and you can dissolve your sense of individuality into the whole.