Spirituality means something different to each and every person; it does not fit in a box and it does not conform to one person’s ideals. To live a spiritual life a person does not need to withdraw from the material world. However, some key components to living a spiritual life are learning to live in harmony with the world around us, finding balance, and living a financially stable life.

Each person’s understanding of balance and each person’s financial means is different, and no two people are similar. Some people find balance by having a strong social life full of activities, while others find balance by living quietly at home. Some find balance through physical activity, while others find balance through professional pursuits. We all have different needs, wants and desires. Balance is met when we spend time in areas of pursuit that bring us fulfillment. True balance is found when we have full work, life, and spiritual integration.

However, it is impossible to find balance and live a spiritually conscious life if we are continuously plagued by financial difficulties and stress. We live in a world of weapons of mass distraction. We are bombarded with advertising designed to convince us that we need the latest, the greatest, and the most expensive to be successful and happy. With all the pressure to have the latest and greatest, how do you live a more spiritual life in such a material world?

I am not a financial expert.

I could not explain to you how savings works, the effects of compounding, or the benefits of putting aside 20% of your income each month. I focus most of my energy on learning how to coach people on ways they can unlock their true potential, achieve their goals, and discover how to live their life on purpose. Nevertheless, I know that my life is easier, and I have more time for myself and my personal pursuits, when I live within my financial means, maintain a budget and actively save money each month. My life is better when I am financially responsible.

To live within your means and have a spiritual practice, a person should begin to spend less than or at least equal to the amount they earn each month. However, for most people, in the age of weapons of mass distraction, it’s a lot easier said than done. We constantly compare ourselves to others, and base success on the amount of possessions we own in relation to our neighbors. Yet when we begin to practice contentment with what we have accomplished in life we become less concerned with status in relations to others, and we begin to focus more of our energy on bettering ourselves and the world around us. We start to need less stuff and life becomes easier. Believing that the new object we buy will bring us happiness is based on a feeling of lack that all too often enters our minds. In this sense, lack is that sense of ‘I’m not good enough’ or ‘I’m not whole without that new thing’, when really we always were and always will be good enough no matter what. May all beings be happy and free, and may all our words, thoughts and actions contribute in some way to that happiness and freedom for all.

 

1. Count your blessings. With the attitude of gratitude in life, what we have becomes enough. When you find yourself unhappy with something, or with what you don’t have, take a moment to count all the good things in your life. Focus on what you do have rather than what you don’t.
2. Stop, and consider why you want something. When you feel the urge to buy something, think about whether it’s a need or a want. If it’s a want, take a pause. It’s good to wait 30 days — keep a 30-day list… when you want something, put it on the list with the date, and if you still want it in 30 days, you can buy it. Consider why you want something too. Are you not content with what you already have? Why not?
3. Show people you appreciate them. It’s good to appreciate people, but it’s even better to show them. Give them a hug, smile, spend time with them, thank them out loud, thank them publicly, breathe, and smile. Once again, advice from one of my favorite monks, but it works in this context. Sometimes when we take the time to breathe and smile, it can change our outlook on life.
4. Learn to enjoy the simple things. Instead of wanting to buy expensive things and spend money on doing things like eating out or entertainment, learn to enjoy stuff that’s free. Conversations and walks with other people. Spending time outdoors. Watching a DVD or playing board games. Going to the beach. Playing sports. Running. These things don’t cost much, and they are awesome.

Why do persons accept as truth the notion that living a disciplined life is monotonous, and why do individuals allow these beliefs to guide them to feel trapped in a mundane life? I believe that having self-control is NOT tedious, but more exactly the road to personal freedom. Discipline can lead you to what you are truly yearning for in life. Every day, the most successful people in life practice discipline. Boundaries lead to greater freedom when the discipline we establish allows for spaciousness in life. When we say yes to one thing, we are saying no to something else. Life is all about making choices. Discipline provides a person with the tools to control one’s urges, emotions, and behavior. Self-restraint allows a person to turn down instant gratification in favor of gaining the long-term satisfaction of achieving meaningful and lasting goals.

Discipline and personal self-restraint are fundamental principals for a healthy and functioning society and without them, communities around the world would be in complete disarray. As modern society continues to move faster and faster, people are increasingly susceptible to and unable or unwilling to look at the long-term effects of their actions. This further demonstrates why this is such a crucial skill to have in life. Next to having a life vision, self-discipline is the most critical component to achieving a goal. It provides you with the tools to overcome any obstacles that come your way on your path to achieving your life’s purpose.

Discipline as a key component to achieve happiness is a universal truth for all people and all beings. Spending money frivolously without financial self-control leads to uncontrollable debt and a life of scarceness. However, living on a budget and saving a portion of your income will eventually lead to feelings of abundance and freedom. Eating without limitations leads to health issues and excess weight, both of which will eventually limit your freedom. A daily schedule without any structure leads to idleness and inactivity.

A part of living life on purpose is developing self-discipline to achieve greatness. It takes hard work and determination to accomplish anything worthwhile. Deciding to be conscious of our habits, actions and behaviors leads to true lasting freedom. Creating unnecessary burdens by living life without care only leads to further hardship. Luck happens when hard work and self-discipline meet opportunity.

Mindful living, at times has the potential to be difficult and challenging, thus providing an individual with an easy excuse to point his or her finger towards other people and other social groups as the blame for their suffering. It is much simpler and quicker to look at external factors as the root cause to a person’s hardship, rather than the more difficult choice to gaze inward and examine a person’s own action and behaviors that lead to adversity. People can only control three things in life; how an individual thinks, how a person feels, and how he or she behaves. Every other event in life is an external factor that is out of his or her control.

What role does kindness and compassion play in bridging a world that is growing increasingly fragmented? At a pivotal point in a persons’ life, when hardship and difficultly causes feelings of despair and anger, in a reality that has less opportunity for comfort of living, it feels easier to be unkind; especially when a person feels that the universe is working against them. Being assertive or speaking an opinion does not have to equate to being mean; there are ways for an individual to standup for his or her beliefs while remaining polite, compassionate, and thoughtful towards other people and other beings.

Having money doesn’t equate to success. People who behave horribly for the pursuit of financial reward do so because they’re hurting and using money as a tool to heal their pain. However, Financial wealth does not ease suffering. Truly successful people, who live life without continuous suffering do so by being kind towards all beings, knowing how to give and receive love, live joyfully, and attract abundance through unselfishness. Kindness is a good habit that has a lasting effect that supports and reinforces the quest for the good life. Helping others bestows a sense of satisfaction, and over time people who do good deeds develop a friendly and joyful personality that attracts and magnetizes those they associate with and brings kindness their way.

Selfless acts of giving, be it a smile, a word of encouragement, or the offer of a helping hand, result in an emotional uplift not only for others, but also for the individual. When a person is healed and living a meaningful life filled with kindness, abundance flourishes and success manifests in all ways. It may be a bit less complicated than what think but to a happier life lies in a person innate power to be kind. People cannot afford to continue with the negative habit of being unkind toward other people and other beings. The easiest most real solution for supporting personal growth and healing the world is being kind towards others without exception. May all beings be happy and free may all peoples thoughts words and action contribute in someway to that happiness and to that freedom for all. Peace, Peace, Peace.

Although change is a natural state of life, coping with it can be difficult. When a person stops growing, they begin to die. Individuals need to constantly develop intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. A person grows and changes physically as they develop from infancy to adulthood and old age. They also grow and change emotionally with every experience, and grow intellectually as they respond to events and to the world. The challenge with change as a way to facilitate growth is learning to cope with transition.

Transition is a point in life when a person or individual changes from one state of consciousness or conditional understanding of the surrounding world to another state or condition. Every person goes through numerous transitions: graduating from high school, going off to college, entering the workforce, changing jobs, getting married, and having children. Change in a person’s life can be difficult. However, by developing the skills to navigate through periods of transition a person lives more mindfully and finds peace during difficult periods. Any transition that is permanent requires a person to alter their definition of the self, and a skilled person finds periods of transition to be rewarding and enjoyable. The ability to adapt during points of transition leads people to live more satisfying, enriched lives.

A person cannot control every facet of life and he or she cannot stop change from occurring. How a person responds to change will affect their overall life experience. We can only control three things in life:

1. How We think
2. How We feel
3. And How We Behave or React

 

Most people fear change. They prefer routine and stability, and with any kind of transition, this change disrupts self-confidence. Fear inhibits people from taking risks. When fear relates to a positive change, it is usually linked to a fear of not being able to achieve success. Some are overly concerned about not being capable enough or of being judged, as if dignity is only measured by their concept of success or winning.

 

Here are a few tips on how to deal with transition:

 

1. Acknowledge the change. The most important thing to do when change is happening in the workplace is to acknowledge it. Recognizing and accepting change is one of the first steps towards managing it.
2. Face your fears. When you fear change, take some time out for yourself. Writing down these fears in an objective form can stop you dwelling on them. Go through each fear and write down what you would do if that fear came to pass. Knowing you have a back-up plan can really help to defuse the emotional anxiety.
3. Break it down. Do a task analysis to break the transition into smaller steps so you can figure out where the problem is. Let’s take moving from computer time to another activity as a quick example:
4. Make the end obvious. Moving on to a new activity is difficult if you don’t realize that the old one is finished. Find ways to make it clear when a task is over – pull the picture from the schedule and put it in a ‘completed’ basket or have photos of what the finished task looks like.

Every person needs to express their feelings from time to time, and it is healthy for a person to have people in their life who will just listen and be supportive, even when a person is going through a hard period. However, there’s comes a point when an individual with good intentions can talk about their problems way too much, and even become addicted to negative experiences and emotions.

Every person sends out a conscious vibration, comprising of a person’s predominant thoughts and beliefs. As a result high vibration people have positive thoughts and feelings, and individuals who have negative thoughts and feelings emanate low vibrations. A person’s thoughts, words and actions become their reality, and every individual has periods of hardship. The process of living life on purpose and being a mindful individual occurs when a person no longer focuses on negative thoughts and beliefs, but rather consciously radiates high vibrations and understands that the current stresses of life are only obstacles on the path towards true happiness.

High vibrational consciousness establishes a healthy positive energy force that promotes healing and makes every person more beautiful on all levels. This vital healing energy supports a person’s physical, mental and emotional well-being and makes them stronger as well as happier. Low vibrational consciousness establishes harmful energy patterns that create stress and unhappiness, negatively affecting a person’s health and making them age more quickly.

The more you feel the need to share your problems with others, the more you are feeding into that negativity and pain.

• Towards yourself creating low self-esteem
• Towards your future prospects and relationships
• Towards current people in your life
• Towards events and activities
• Towards people’s actions
• Towards general groups and social circles
• Towards larger, more abstract organizations

All life is a pulsation of high points and low points. When a person’s vibration is low it will be evident and a simple solution is to bring awareness to this situation and then work on increasing a person’s vibration. Low vibrations are associated with darker qualities such as hatred, fear, greed and depression. Perhaps money no longer flows, a person’s health is poor, or negative people surround an individual. However, life is ever changing and with hard work and effort a person can shift their consciousness even in difficult situation and create a high vibrational life. When a person’s vibrations are high there is a beautiful sense of living in harmony and a person is generally associated with positive qualities and feelings, such as love, forgiveness, compassion and peace. Opportunities begin to flow freely into a person’s life, they surround themselves with high-quality people, and it becomes simpler to find happiness in life.

7 ways to raise your vibration.

1. Be mindful of your thoughts. Every thought, word or action becomes your reality. Change those negative thoughts for the positive, and your reality will likely become positive.
2. Appreciate the beauty in life. Beauty is all around us. Stop rushing from one moment to the next and take the time to stand in the sun, smell the roses and appreciate your surroundings.
3. Be conscious of the foods you eat. Some foods vibrate at high frequencies, and some lower. Foods covered in chemicals and pesticides, or foods found within plastic packaging will have you produce low vibrations. High-quality organic food will produce high vibrations
4. Drink water. Always ensure you drink plenty of water (filtered is best) to assist your body in flushing out toxicity day to day. Toxicity has a marked impact on our vibration, so we must do what we can to reduce its impact within us and around us.
5. Meditate. Meditation helps to calm your spirit down and put you in a peaceful state of mind. Just 10 minutes of meditation a day can change your life forever.
6. Be grateful. Making a gratitude list shifts your vibrations from focusing on what you don’t have to what is already abundant in your life. There is more to be grateful for than you could possibly imagine.
7. Practice acts of kindness. Giving to someone else (without expecting anything in return) shifts your thinking. Abundance is a high vibration. In the same vein, being kind puts you at a high vibration. Gossip or treat others badly and your vibration will suffer.