Spiritual-one: Blog on Spiritual Growth & Development

Simplicity as a Spiritual Practice

By Hugh Russell

Keeping life simple, many philosophers say, is one of the keys to happiness. But done the 'right' way, simplicity can be good for more than just food for philosophical thought. When you integrate simplicity into your spiritual growth activities, you do more than just remove the clutter from your life. This spiritual practice could help clear the path that you have to take to reach your spiritual goals.

The Clutter Curse

Nowadays, one problem that people commonly face is a life that's too complicated, full of too many concerns and details. And while there's nothing wrong with this per-se, it tends to get in the way of your achieving a deeper communion with God. With so many other things to fuss over, it's so easy to lose your focus on what's really important.

Your spiritual life coach might suggest a practice of simplicity to solve just that. When used as a spiritual practice, simplicity gives you the chance to think about what's real and important, and then to put your mind and heart back on those. A simpler and less complicated life gives you more time and energy to spend with your friends, your family and - most importantly - God.

Change from Chaos

One thing you have to know about simplicity is that it isn't some one-time activity; it's a habit, a way of living that you adopt for the course of your spiritual life coaching and maybe even beyond. You have to be able to incorporate simplicity into your life from the very start and keep on living it all the way to the end. It's not something that you just pick up and then drop when you get tired of it.

For some people, living the ideals of simplicity might require some major changes, especially if you live the kind of hectic lifestyle that's typical in urban areas. All those changes, however, are worth it when you consider that you get new views on life, faith, God - all of it - with a less cluttered view.

Keep It Simple, Silly

A complicated, troublesome lifestyle distracts you from signs and messages that might just be the things you need to hear to deepen your relationship with your God. Living a simple, fuss-free life gives you more opportunities to view all the ways through which God works. His ways, they say, tend to be mysterious, but they're often very simple.

What you have to realize is that His works are all around you - you just have to slow down enough to be able to see all of them properly. A simple enough lifestyle can be a very effective (not to mention cost-free) tool for spiritual life coaching because it's conducive for that new view of spirituality that coaching aims to give.

Inquire with your spiritual life coach about what other measures you could take to simplify and de-clutter your life. Sometimes all it takes to revive flagging faith is to slow down and smell the roses. After all, they were God's work too.

Project-Transform has a team of highly qualified spiritual life coaches who can provide more details on spiritual practices and disciplines. Should you ever have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact a Project - Transform coach by sending an email to coaching@project-transform.com or visiting the spiritual life coaching website.

Being At Peace With Where You Are

By Linda Binns 

It seems that there is so much stress around these days. People are losing their jobs or afraid they are going to lose their job. People are struggling financially. People are in debt, losing their homes. Relationships are suffering. There's no getting away from the fact that there is a lot of anxiety and fear around. What's the answer?

Well, of course there IS no one answer that's going to fix everything. But one thing I do know, after 11 years of coaching and consulting with people who are going through one kind of crisis or significant change or another, it's that before things can change you have to become okay with where you are right now.

I know that sounds counter-intuitive. The very fact that we want things to change would indicate that we are not okay with where things are now - right? When you think about it though, really it's the only thing that makes sense. Let me explain.

It seems that no matter what our situation is, we want things to be different. Those who have straight hair want curly hair. We want to be thinner, our nose to be different, a different house, a better car, a bigger flat screen TV. We're either bored in our job or overworked and frustrated. We want our partner to be different, to treat us better, we wish our family would treat us differently, and so on. Most people spend most of their time wanting something other than what they have. Is it just possible that we can be at peace with who we are, where we are, what we're doing and what we have and yet still have goals that we want to achieve?

When I say be at peace with where you are, people often think that means settling for what they don't want. They think it means they shouldn't have goals or strive to be better. It doesn't mean that at all. What it means is that constant wanting, needing, and desperation for things to be different is exhausting. It wastes our energy and the only thing it ultimately does is to give us more of what we don't want.

I'm sure you've heard of people who had it tough and then made it big. Perhaps they were bankrupt, had nowhere to live and now they're multi-millionaires and telling us how we can achieve the same thing. You think "it's alright for them, they can do it but it never seems to happen for me." But what happens when you're bankrupt and you have nowhere to live? You have to accept the situation. You have no choice. This is it, you can't pretend any more, things can't get any worse than they are so you have to accept it. That's why I think these people then go on to create great success. Because they finally had to accept - and be at peace - with where they were. They had no choice.

What if you could do that now? You don't have to wait until everything completely falls apart to get to that place of acceptance. You can start right now. Be honest about yourself and your life, don't try to pretend. You're in debt? Okay, you're in debt - accept it, be at peace with it. It makes you worried, scared about what might happen, you feel sick in your stomach at the thought of it - okay, you feel worried and scared and sick in your stomach. Admit that, accept that's how you feel. Do you see the difference? There's a difference in the energy here - rather than fighting against it "I don't want this, I want something else, I don't want to be in debt" which creates resistance and stress and achieves nothing, you accept that this is how it is - it's a much more peaceful feeling. No more fighting.

When you can do this, some interesting things happen. First of all, it takes away the stress, you stop fighting against your situation and against life. Secondly, you start to feel calm, and then - answers, resources, solutions start to come to you. Life starts to flow in a more positive way for you. Why? Because you're not fighting against it.

Eckhart Tolle explains this really well in his books "The Power of Now" and "A New Earth". Rather than reading the books, however, I recommend that you listen to them. Get the books on audio CD and listen. I think you'll understand far more this way.

Whatever it is that you don't like about yourself, your life, your life situation - accept it, be at peace with it. Accept that this is how it is, rather than resisting it and desperately wanting things to be different. Accept that you don't like it, but this is how it is. Denying it will get you nowhere.

There is nothing to lose and everything to gain. Not only will you feel better, I think you'll find that life will flow a lot more smoothly for you and you might actually reach your goals after all - without the struggle.

Linda Binns shows you how to be more successful in all areas of your life by working with your environment. Sign up for her free 9-step E-course at http://www.HarmoniousLifeChoices.com

Linda Binns is author of Feng Shui for Your Relationships: Changing Your Environment to Create Better Relationships. She has been a Feng Shui Practitioner, Author, Speaker and teacher for over 10 years. She has appeared internationally on television and radio and in local publications. Linda is also the founder of The Feng Shui Success Institute - which teaches in-depth Feng Shui training and practitioner certification.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_Binns

Spiritual Peace Begins With You

Conquering spiritual peace does not come with the accumulation of wealth, nor does it occur with extravagant spending. The goal to having spiritual peace requires an honest commitment to take care of your inner self.

 

The challenge for many people is finding their center and remaining focused on what brings them joy. This can become convoluted with all of the external voices that will fiercely war against what you want for your life.

 

Nobody is perfect. We all struggle with feelings of inadequacies at certain junctures in our lives, the beginning of a romantic relationship, a recent promotion or raising our children. The only way to avoid those feelings is to react opposite of the way we have become accustomed to responding.

Often, people are challenged with spiritual peace because they do not feel in control of their lives. One way to conquer this is to control your own conduct and responses to situations that are beyond your control. Position yourself to be active, not reactive. Never allow the opinion of others to dictate how you feel about yourself.

 

Begin each day in meditation, giving space to settle your mind before attempting to tackle the day’s tasks. Then, before you go to bed at night, reflect and be grateful for everything that occurred throughout the day, the good, the bad and the ugly.

 

Anthony Girouard

 

 

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