TEN SIMPLE SPIRITUAL PRACTICES THAT YOU CAN USE TO TRANSFORM AND UPGRADE YOUR LIFE THIS YEAR
Every one of these simple, practical and easy to apply spiritual practices are powerful enough to completely shift your life to a more present, positive, grateful and loving level than ever before.
THE DAWNING LIGHT, Volume 8, # 706 Friday, January 12, 2024
SPIRITUAL SOUP KITCHEN Section # 109 Stories by Chinmayan about the challenges and tips for living your spiritual path in daily lifeā¦.
All images in this story courtesy of Pixabay
TEN SIMPLE SPIRITUAL PRACTICES THAT YOU CAN USE TO TRANSFORM AND UPGRADE YOUR LIFE THIS YEAR
Every one of these simple, practical and easy to apply spiritual practices are powerful enough to completely shift your life to higher and higher levels if you do them every day in this new year.
If you are serious about wanting to upgrade your life in every way this year, you need simple but powerful tools which you can use to bring about the transformation you desire.
One thing I have learned through my more than 60 years on the spiritual path, is how easy it is to flow along with the status quo, with the familiar environments and established habitual grooves of our life keeping us in a state of stuck inertia.
If you really want to create a great new life with the highest, best version of yourself, you need to work the process that brings about change or stay stuck in your old familiar life.
As the old saying goes āIt is foolish to believe you can keep on doing the same things over and over every day and expect to get different results.ā
If you genuinely want improvement, you must be wanting, willing and able to do the inner and outer work and have the courage and determination to make the changes which create your new life.
You canāt boldly move out to create your much desired new life, without being ready to make changes and let go of your old life.
The process of self transformation is by far the most challenging..and the most rewarding thing you will ever do.Ā
It cannot be done just by studying or thinking about it or even planning it.Ā It can be accomplished only through taking consistent and determined action.
You must have practices and tools that are highly effective at producing positive change.
As my teachers often pointed out, āIf you want to cut a tunnel through the mountain, you must begin by breaking rocks and removing small stones.ā
We will be presenting each of these practices in greater detail in a series of stories over the coming year, but for now, letās jump right in and present them in their simplest formā¦
Ten Simple Spiritual Practices You Can Use to Transform Your Life
1)Ā Ā Ā Practice gratitude and giving thanks all day every single day.Ā Create your own personal āGratitude Journalā, with pages for each day, and write down in it anything and everything in your life that you genuinely feel grateful for, from the smallest to the biggest things.Ā
It is a cosmic law that āThe more things you express gratitude for, the more grace and blessings and things to be grateful for will flow into your life in an us ending stream.ā
2)Ā Ā Ā Give up on complaining, finding fault about anything or anyone, especially yourself. Consciously refuse to make anyone wrong, to belittle them or put them down.Ā
Consciously choose to STOP blaming others, especially your beloveds, for being the cause of your unhappiness and suffering because you can only become free of it through telling the truth and accepting responsibility for being the source of your own experience.
Refuse to listen to any more negative self talk or criticism of yourself.Ā
Consciously stop allowing anyone to speak negatively to or about you.Ā
My teachers all called taking these stances and actions as āStopping the wheel of negativity that are the root causes of suffering.ā
3)Ā Ā Ā In order to have thriving relationships, be willing to set personal boundaries, make clear agreementsand give up unexpressed expectations with everyone in your life, especially with the circle of beloveds who are close to you and share your life.
This is vital to do with your life partner and your family, as not doing these three thingsā¦ which create clarity, mutual understanding and a powerful loving and harmonious paradigm in your close personal relationshipsā¦is the root cause of misunderstanding, disharmony and on going conflict with your beloveds.
4)Ā Ā Ā Embrace and make time to be alone with just yourself in purposeful solitude.Ā Every one of us needs to take some time daily to be alone in silence and solitude with just ourselves so we can recharge, get in touch with our feelings and deepest needs, do our spiritual practices such as prayer, meditation and mantra and most importantly learn to hear our own inner guidance.
Consciously choose to use and set aside periods of time every day, even as short as five minutes, to focus on attaining āActive God Contactā and communing with yourself and the Divine within.
5)Ā Ā Ā Consciously feed your own mind with meaningful input and focus on sources of inspiring, uplifting, energizing content which actually educates or helps you.Ā
Let go of getting absorbed by your phone, social media, news broadcasts, TV or streaming shows and any entertainment that exposes you to violence, crudeness or useless activities.
Many of us are addicted to these things, which for our culture, leads to depression, loneliness and despair. As the old saying goesā¦āGarbage in leads to garbage out.ā
Whatever you take into your mind will affect your consciousness, your perception and your experience, so choose to take in only the highest vibration input possible.
6)Ā Ā Ā Take care of your sweet bodily vehicle with plenty of exercise, rest, water and an excellent diet of nutritious unprocessed foods.Ā
Your body is the precious home for your spirit while you are living on this plane which is your responsibility to take care of.Ā
Your health is indeed your spiritual wealth, which must be protected by consciously choosing not to indulge in anything, however attractive or pleasurable it may be, that would harm itā¦such as smoking, alcohol, sugar, drugs or stimulants.
Instead, give it plenty of the things that nurture your bodily home, such as going for walks in nature, the best natural and wholesome food and drinks, getting enough sleep and recreation and most of all consciously treating your body as lovingly as if it were your own dearest child.
7)Ā Ā Ā Make doing random acts of kindness and caring, being appreciative and loving towards everyone your lifeās way of being.Ā
Kindness, caring and compassion is love in action and will always return to you multiplied.Ā
This is one of the greatest golden secrets on the spiritual pathāThe more unselfish you are, the more well being, happiness and joy you will feel as a result.Ā
āActs of kindness, caring and compassion, even the smallest, create an ever expanding circle of goodness and love which produces profoundly positive results which brighten and uplift the world.ā āKalu Rinpoche
8)Ā Ā Ā Give others compliments and sincere heartfelt communication instead of complaints and criticisms.Ā Everyone around you needs to feel loved and appreciated, yet rarely get any love and appreciation from anyone.
Consciously choose to be a force of love and vessel of light wherever you go, whoever you are with.Ā
Let your own open heart light shine out to the world which needs to be inspired and uplifted.
āYou may not be able to do great things that save the world, but you CAN ALWAYS do things with great Love that makes a positive difference for the people in your life.ā āKalu Rinpoche Ā
9)Ā Ā Ā Become laser focused on accomplishing the one most important thing you feel called to do in your work or life that you passionately want to achieve or attain in service to others and the world.Ā
It is time to use your unique talents and abilities in full expression of your awesome potential.Ā We are all sent here with a mission from the Divine, that is the work we are meant to do to help others.Ā
If you look into your own heart, this divine purpose, that is far greater than any selfish self centered pursuit, will become clear because it is a calling within your own soul.Ā Answering this call will bring positive changes as you move out to be who you really are and do the work you are meant to do.
10) Consciously choose to practice only positive thoughts, speech and actions with yourself and others at all timesā¦so that you live in the streams of positive results that will flow from training yourself to only be emanating 100% positivity.Ā
It is a cosmic law that āWhatever you emanate into the world, will return to you multiplied, whether it is positive or negative.ā
The wise person knows that focusing totally and only on the positive will always produce expanding positive results of greater awareness, well being, inner peace and happiness.
If you actually practice even one or better yet, all of these simple spiritual practices, you will be amazed at how much your life will be up leveled and upgraded in every way just by doing them day after day.
āHow does one become a butterfly? You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.ā āTrina Paulus
A BEAUTIFUL and PROFOUND SHORT VIDEO FOR YOUā¦
āThe Most Beautiful Peopleā by Topher Kearny
āWhen you rise from the ashes all that remains is Loveā¦:
āThe Most Beautiful Peopleā by Topher Kearny filmed and recited by Mandy Hunter
Calligraphy by Chinmayan
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āYour greatest service to humanity is to attain your own Self Realization!ā Ramana Maharshi
āWhen you change the way you think about things, and the things you think about changeā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā
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āI see my life as an unfolding set of opportunities to awaken.ā āRam Das