OUR JOURNEY TO THE FREEDOM OF SIMPLE LIVING and FOCUSING ON THE TRULY IMPORTANT THINGS IN LIFE
We took bold and decisive action to stop doing work just to make a living and created a new life of simple living freedom focused on the truly important things on our hearts and work we love.
THE DAWNING LIGHT,Volume 8, # 693 Friday, January 5, 2023
SPIRITUAL SOUP KITCHEN Section # 105 Stories by Chinmayan about the challenges and tips for living your spiritual path in daily life
All images in this story courtesy of Pixabay
OUR JOURNEY TO THE FREEDOM OF SIMPLE LIVING
“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent
and not enough time on what is important”
—Stephen Covey
“We took bold steps to let go of our old, familiar life in order to create space for a new life that our minds, hearts and spirits were calling out for….”
This is a momentous time for us.
Over a two years ago we realized that it was time to close the business that had sustained us for many years.
Though it produced a good income, it was also costly to our mental, physical and emotional well being.
We could no longer ignore or accept the consequences which followed every day of doing work which was not ultimately in alignment with our divine purpose and the inner calling of our souls.
We stayed in the old business for a years longer than we really wanted to because it was familiar, it had a well established groove and flow and clients who loved and appreciated our services.
We created the old business many years ago to be a bridge towards a new life centered around doing the real work we knew we were born to do.
Yet, as we did it day after day, investing our most precious resources of time, energy and attention into the work, it took over our lives and self identity completely.
The three most precious resources we have in our lives are—our time, our energy and our attention which the wise use very consciously.
The old business dominated our days and nights with the demands of communicating with and serving our clients.
Everything else, including the real work we have always aspired to do, faded into the background to gather dust in the basement of our minds.
What was intended to be a short term bridge to a greater life became a freeway to nowhere which we traveled on every day.
One of the most painful things we can do to ourselves is to get trapped into ignoring our own inner calling to our destined work and pour our precious life energy into just making a living.
One of the most tragic situations for most of us is to believe we must focus on whatever we can do to make money rather than on the work which our hearts and souls call us to be doing.
In our case, the time finally came when we realized it was taking days to recover from the stress and strain of each day we worked in the old business.
However much money we were making was no longer worth the cost to ourselves of giving it priority over everything else. It simply became too painful to even consider continuing in the old, familiar grooves.
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
—Anais Nin
Fortunately, we have been consciously and intentionally on the path of simplifying our lives and the persuit of simple living freedom for years.
We had been identifying and letting go of anything and everything which we didn’t really want or need in a step by step progression.
We had been been letting go of the financial, physical, relationship and emotional clutter gradually.
We discovered that there was far more stuff demanding our attention and care than we really needed…and experiencing more and more freedom and sense of personal well being as we released ourselves from extraneous things.
When the day finally came when we realized we could no longer bear the cost and consequences of continuing running the old business, we had already downsized every other area of our lives.
When we took an objective perspective, we saw that servicing the debts, insurance and fees of the old business more than doubled the net monthly income that we had to produce just to break even.
We realized that if we closed the business and sold the new equipment, we would immediately be free from the strain of having to work longer and harder just to keep the business alive.
This realization crystallized into courageous resolve to move out to claim our freedom.
We pulled all advertising, sold off all the new equipment for enough to pay off the debts, and started saying no to any new invitations to bid on jobs.
This process required courage to boldly move out, but once we did, we haven’t regretted our choice for a moment. We now are experiencing the freedom which comes from consciously choosing to live simply and sustainably.
THE THREE PILLARS OF A MEANINGFUL LIFE
We are now completely free to focus on the truly most important aspects of life which I call the Three Pillars of a Meaningful Life.
The First Pillar is focusing on developing our own deep and personal relationship with God through our spiritual practices of prayer, meditation, kirtan, mantra yoga and service to others and the world.
The Second Pillar is focusing on our relationship with our own selves and each other to constantly communicate, heal from past wounds and develop our ability to truly love, care and serve each other in all the ways we really need.
The Third Pillar is focusing solely on the work we are born to do, that we are called to do, that truly is our “mission from God” which involves fully actualizing and using all of our talents and abilities to make a difference in the lives of others and the world.
As my god devoted Grandfather used to say…
“Your talents and abilities are God’s gift to you, but what you choose to do with them is your gift back to God!”
“We are all born to Love and serve each other.”
“We were all sent here with our own important mission from God which it is our destiny to fulfill.”
—Yeshe Gyamtso
For me, ever since I had a major spiritual awakening as a teenager, I have always known that my purpose for being born during this time of change, trial and tribulation for humanity was to serve others and the world through transformational writing and publishing.
This mission has always been crystal clear to me as I have written prolifically every day for the past 59 years, ever focused on mastering the craft of writing as vessell of divine love and light, filling hundreds of journals with clear radiant writing which few even knew existed.
I have felt the call to create and start publishing this “The Dawning Light Newsletter” for many years, and this intense inner calling was one of the main forces driving our decision to close the old business and seek the freedoms with can only be attained through consciously living simply.
But now, after a year long struggle to build this platform, we launched “The Dawning Light” on 12/22/2022 at 2:22 pm!
Life gets more and more amazing when we choose to align with the Divine’s will and higher plan through answering the calls on our heart.
It has been an amazing journey ever since!
Life is so much better when you are answering the calls of your heart and building a life you love, that you believe in and that is all about using your talents and abilities to be of serve to others.
“When you are inspired by some great purpose, Some extraordinary project, All your thoughts break their bonds. Your mind transcends limitations, Your consciousness expands in every direction, And you find yourself in a New, great and wonderful world.”
—Patanjali
Some may say that its a tragedy that I was blinded and side tracked for so many years running the old business…and that only now, when I am in my 70’s, am just beginning to publish in the declining years of my life.
Some may say that it’s too late to fulfill my God given mission…and that I should have started to focus on publishing much earlier in life…and in some ways, I would tearfully agree.
NOW IS ALWAYS THE BEST TIME TO LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE
But I also know NOW IS ALWAYS THE BEST TIME and
that every new day is a fresh opportunity to step up and step out to fulfill the dreams on your heart and the callings of your soul…
and I invite you to join me on this journey of making a difference and serving our world of people facing suffering during this time of so much challenge and change.
I believe that this is a time for as many of us as possible to step forward now and shine our light and take a stand for love…however humble it may be.
“We all may not be able to do great things to serve the world, but we can all do whatever we can, from where ever we are, in our own way with great Love….”
—Kalu Rinpoche
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“Your greatest service to humanity is to attain your own Self Realization!” Ramana Maharshi