SPIRITUALITY: 2011

Controlling Your Emotions - Tips on Taming an Over Excited Inner Spirit

Controlling our emotions is a problem for most of us, especially in the present time. There are so many factors which tend to disturb our emotions. A spouse does not seem to respond positively to us and we get irritated. A child wants to do his thing and we get upset. A neighbor throws her garbage in our yard and we want to throw it back to her yard.

What most of us do not realize is that emotions have a deeper root than just our hormones, our physical or psychological make-up. There is an inner spirit who can disturb our emotional equilibrium without us realizing it. This spirit makes our inner spirit excited and leads us to forget things or do things which we may regret later on.

Here then are tips on taming an over excited inner spirit who creates imbalance in our emotional response to the things, words or actions around us.

1. Be Convinced that Emotions Are Controllable

If you want to control your emotions you have to be convinced first that emotions are controllable. You can control and tame them. The taming of an emotion may not happen instantly but it can be done with the cultivation of the proper attitude in life.

The conviction that emotions can be controlled is essential to their management.

Some people think that there are emotions which cannot be controlled. They give the example of the emotion of grief or sadness. When a person dear to us dies, according to them, we cannot help but be sad, grief stricken, cry, weep or wail. But I have seen cases upon cases of persons who do not exhibit the emotion of sadness or grief at the death of a loved one. In these cases therefore people do control their emotion of grief. Or maybe this emotion is absent.

I have attended Muslim funerals where not a tear is shed. The people attending the funeral and burial rites, young and old, do not sport a sad face. They behave in a normal, solemn way, respecting the rituals used.

I have participated in the funeral rites of Baptist and Adventist Christians. These did not cry, as we see most often in Catholic funerals and burials.

People are able to control their emotions. You too can control your emotions.

The spirit who is our enemy insinuates that we cannot control our emotions. And many of us believe him. We get excited over the death of a loved one. Just tell this spirit that you can control your emotions, whether they are of grief, fear, hate or other negative emotions.

2. Cultivate the Spirit of Equanimity in All Areas of Your Life

How do you develop equanimity, that spirit of calmness and being even-tempered on all occasions? By getting into the habit of having the attitude that the material or physical things we see around us are only passing our way. They are temporary. They never endure. They do not last forever.

Human beings grow old and pass away into the grave or some other receptacle and soon are forgotten. Our pets and other animals also go their way. The cities around us may sooner or later become heaps of stones and steel, as happened already with the famous cities in the past. The trees around us can be seared by acid rain, burned by wild fire, or washed to the seas by erosion.

Nothing except the Absolute Spirit and our spirits are permanent.

When I am praying for the dying, the emotion of sadness as we bid final farewell to a dying person is stirred within me. But I say to myself, this also will pass away. And the emotion of grief is cast away. When I am afraid in the dark, I say to myself, this will also pass away.

But you have to make this a habit. When you are confronted with a strong emotion or even an irrational reaction, like an ensuing burst of anger, just say to yourself, "This too will pass away". When you get excited over winning in a lottery, just say, "This too will pass away". When you are watching a boxing bout and you feel excited because your favored boxer is about to knock down his opponent, just say with attention on the meaning of the words, "This too will pass away."

Cultivating this habit will overpower that overexcited spirit who wants to disturb you and possibly cause your heart failure or a stroke.

3. Be Thankful for the Spirit of Calmness and Inner Joy

In the final reckoning emotional control is a gift of the Absolute Spirit. He wants you to be happy and joyful, not to be over excited and emotionally imbalanced. Therefore he gives you of his own spirit of calmness and equanimity. Constant fellowship with him infuses inner joy into your psyche and you live with strength to ward off all control of the unruly spirit over you.

When I am in a worship service where people are shouting, jumping, clapping and dancing all over, with manifestations of uncontrolled emotions, I wonder whether the Spirit of God is still there. Some ministers think that these emotional outbursts are signs of the real presence of the Spirit. For me they are rather signs of an over excited inner spirit who needs to be tamed.

To tame an over excited inner spirit, we only need to be convinced that emotions can be controlled, get into the habit of saying "This will also pass away", and thank the Absolute Spirit for his gift of calmness and inner joy.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/devspirit

for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alternativehealth

for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends

for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline

for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Astral Projection - What It Is and How to Do It

There is a way of traveling which does not entail any cost, either in money or in time. You get to your destination by an act of your will, not by riding any transportation. This way of traveling is called astral projection.

The strange thing about this way of traveling is that all human beings have used it although they may not be aware of it.

In the late 1860s a song spread across the United States which originated with the Negroes. Later this song entered into the mainline churches and today is sung even in Catholic churches. This song is part of the group of songs called the Spirituals. The title of this song is "Where You There When They Crucified My Lord?"

If you were asked today whether you were there when the Roman soldiers crucified Jesus some 2000 years ago, you would most probably answer, "No, of course, I was not there. I was not even born yet."

And yet that Negro Spiritual song expresses a reality most of us are not aware of. This reality is that yes, you and I were there when they crucified Jesus. We can be there again today by astral projection. We can travel to that time and place when they drove nails into the hands of Jesus.

I like this song as an illustration of astral projection because it has a line which describes what happens when you go on this kind of trip. That line says, "Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble." Our bodies do vibrate or tremble when we go on astral projection. How did the composer of this song know that the body trembles? Because that was their experience, that as they thought about the crucifixion their bodies did indeed tremble.

What Astral Projection Is Not

Astral projection is not imagining you are on a trip to some place. It is not thinking you are in an airplane on the way to Europe or some other destination. You may be daydreaming but not astrally projecting.

Astral projection is not visioning or seeing things from a distance without the aid of your five senses. This is clairvoyance, not astral projection.

What Astral Projection Is

It is simply separating your astral body from your physical body and projecting or putting it in a place or condition that you want.

Now you ask, What is this thing called astral body? It is a body which we all have but it is invisible. It is called astral because it is likened to the star. The word "astral" comes from the Latin word "astrum" which means "star". It is likened to the star because like the star it is heavenly. In other words it is our heavenly body.

How do we know we have this astral body? We know it by our experience of dreaming, specifically the dreaming which occurs just before we wake up. When we dream during this part of our sleep it is our astral body that sees and feels things around. Our physical body is not involved in this because it is still lying in bed. It is still sleeping.

And that is why I said in the beginning of this article that all of us have experienced astral projection but are not aware that we are experiencing this already. All of us dream just before we wake up. And in such a dreaming state we are out of our physical body and are performing astral projection.

How To Do It?

As stated already all of us perform astral projection but we are not aware of it or we do not recognize it as astral projection, traveling at will to a certain destination or situation. When we do this during sleep we are not conscious of it and we do not control it. It is our subconscious which operates.

The question I want to answer now is: How can I do it consciously?

There are many methods of doing it consciously. I have found five different methods which produce good results. But I will discuss here only two methods which I use. The rest you can find in books and articles written on this. The authors I like are Jerry Gross and the team of Divina Ciencia.

The first method is making a conscious control of astral projection during our sleep. As I noted already we astrally project during our sleep but usually we do not control this. We just go to sleep without thinking that towards the end of our sleep we would perform astral projection. But we can consciously control this. We can go through certain steps before we sleep which will ensure that towards the end of our sleep or just before we wake up we astrally project.

In this method the first step to do before sleeping, as we are already lying down, is to relax, completely relax. The method I use to relax is something that I discovered when I was only 15 years old through an article in the magazine Catholic Digest. I think of massaging my body beginning with my toes going upward. First with the right toes, then with the left ones. Then I proceed upward. Before I reach my neck I would usually fall asleep already. That was how I was cured of insomnia. You may have other methods of relaxing. But do not use drugs or alcohol in order to do this.

The second step is to concentrate. When you feel you are about to sleep think of one thing, only one thing, and focus you whole attention on this. I usually pick up one item that I encounter during the day. It may be an idea, like how to write the next article or an object, like a paper, a pencil, the keyboard, etc. Thinking on this one and only one item helps in making our brain tired.

The third step is to let go. Just fall asleep. You will notice, if all things go well and if you are in normal health, that before you wake up you will have a lucid dream.

The fourth step is to write down your dream. Just a brief description of it will do. Write it on your notebook, not in your computer. For example last February 23, 2011 I wrote this in my notebook: This morning on waking up, these words came to me: "That was the turning point."

The reason why you are advised to write down your lucid dreams is because after a while you will see a pattern in these dreams. This pattern can point to a definite direction in your life for your benefit.

The second method is something I accidentally discovered in 1992 during a break in a seminar-workshop. During that break I went out of the room, stood outside facing the mountain, and I was surprised to realize I was already on top of that mountain. I could feel the cool temperature on that mountain, could smell the freshness of the leaves and some wild flowers, I could hear the chirping of the birds. To my greater surprise I repeated this experience with other places.

So, I reflected what did I do to trigger on this process of astral projection. The steps are very simple but I found out that they entail a lot of preparation. To do this you need to be spiritually prepared. In other words you are normally proceeding in your spiritual development. Once this is true, all you have to do is again 1) relax; 2) concentrate; 3) join yourself to that idea, place or person you want to go to by just an act of your will. An example may make this clear.

Last Arpil 1, 2011 I was sitting in front of the seashore. I enjoyed looking at the waves of the sea. Without physically leaving the place where I sat, I wanted to go to the waves and enjoy playing with them. This I did by simply relaxing and then concentrating on the waves. Immediately my astral body was transported to the ocean where I played with the waves.

There are other methods. Some take just a day to consciously achieve astral projection during a well guided workshop. Others take days, months or even years. This is because we have different levels in our spiritual life. Others are just beginning to be serious with the spiritual dimension of their existence. Others are already far ahead and are experiencing contemplation in their prayer life. So it depends also on the spiritual level of persons.

Benefits of Astral Projection

This process is not for the mere curious. If you are just curious whether you can astrally project, you may not be able to consciously perform this. But for those who are serious with this process there are great benefits they can get.

The first benefit is that your life becomes relaxed and you begin to have greater strength to do your work.

The second benefit is that you can enjoy places and events you are not physically able to do. When I am invited to an event that is impossible for me to attend physically I would reply, Yes , I will be there but in spirit. And that is what happens, I attend the occasion in my astral body.

The third benefit is that by astral projection you can communicate with your loved ones even if they have departed already from this earth physically. I communicate with some of the wisest men and women who have existed by astral projection. In this way I am safely guided through life. I meet them on the astral plane.

There are other benefits. But even with only these three astral projection is an experience that is worth consciously going into.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

The Power of Faith - How to Lead a More Fulfilling Life

"Faith is a quality endowed with a most potent creative power", said Helen P. Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy.

You can read the eleventh chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews to see what faith can do: it can show us the origin of this world we live in, it can put us on a harmonious relationship with God, it made Enoch escape death, man's most dreadful enemy, it saved Noah and a remnant of humanity from complete extinction, it gave Abraham a child through a barren woman, from whom innumerable descendants sprang, it saved Joseph and his brothers and their families from famine, it enabled Moses to form a new nation from the descendants of 12 brothers, it gave the Israelites courage to successfully invade Canaan, the land promised to them, it raised the dead to life, etc.

Faith is indeed powerful. It was by faith that we came into this world. Our parents believed that by their sexual union we would be born and they were right. We too produce our children by faith.

Faith is most necessary in leading a more fulfilling life. How is this done, how does the power of faith help us to lead a more fulfilling life?

Everyone Has Faith

There is no human being who has no faith. Atheists and agnostics are not exempted from this statement. They too have faith.

Faith is simply sure and certain knowledge of realities that are not visible to our physical eyes and reason, like knowledge of our worth, our talents, and our capacities. And everybody has this knowledge. The little child did not see itself coming out from the womb of its mother but it has faith that this or that woman is its mother. The atheist has faith that his ideas are correct though nobody can see these ideas in his head. So also with the agnostics, they too have faith in their learning.

I remember a famous correspondence between Fr. John Catoir and avowed agnostic Carl Sagan which lasted for more than 2 years. In this exchange of letters Fr. Catoir was insisting that Carl had no faith. In his explanation Fr. Catoir said that this man was unable to make the leap of faith. This is not true. Carl had faith. He had faith that the letter he wrote would reach Fr. Catoir, even if he did not see the priest opening his letter. Perhaps it is more true to say that Carl had no faith in the God portrayed by the priest, because the image of this God was foreign to the expectations of Carl of what God should be.

Faith Is Powerful

Faith enables us to live normal lives. By faith we know that tomorrow there is another day, although we never see the turning of the earth on its axis. It is by faith that we recognize our parents, our older brothers and sisters, our nationality, our community. It is by faith that we go to school believing that there we will learn reading, writing, arithmetic and the complexities of these three basic skills. It is by faith that we choose our work, our partner in life, our residences, our travels, our recreations.

Faith Leads Us to Lead a More Fulfilling Life

By a more fulfilling life is meant a life that is free of disturbing stress, that is more and more productive, in harmony with family members, relatives, and others. It is a life that enriches others and you know that this is so. It is one that feels and displays compassion for others, a source of encouragement for others, provides meaning to one's life and the lives of others, encouraging them to go on with life.

A more fulfilling life is one where a healthy ego or self-image is being developed, balanced in diet and exercise with self-discipline and self-control, productive, a life that makes you inventive and creative, bringing joy to others, and taking more and more control of your life.

A more fulfilling life is one where failures are looked upon not as a reflection of our incapacity but as reflection of our creativity to know the right way of doing things, as experiences for learning and growth.

It is a life of humility in success because you know by faith that it is not you who has accomplished the success but the Spirit in you.

Such is a more fulfilling life. And it is the power of faith that leads us to this kind of life.

It is faith in a being who is the origin of all that we see, one who loves us so much as to bring us to this existence or series of life, one who sustains us everyday with all the things around us. It is basically this faith which leads us to a more fulfilling life because by this we know where we came from, we know where we are going to and we know the way how to get there.

Maybe an example of such a more fulfilling life produced by the power of faith will bring home my point.

The example I refer to is George Washington Carver (1864-1943) who was born a slave and later exchanged for a racehorse as an infant. He met many difficulties in life, even getting out of slavery, going into school, teaching and doing research. But he enriched our lives by providing crops as alternative to the production of cotton which depleted the soil, inventing 145 products made from the lowly peanuts, and more than a 100 more from sweet potato, uplifting the Negro race. He achieved fame and was given many awards even many years after his death.

At the end of it all Carver said that God guided his research. He was criticized for making this statement. But it was his faith in himself and God which make his life more fulfilling both for himself and others. He said on many occasions that his faith in Jesus was the only way by which he could effectively do his research in science.

I want to end this article by quoting a passage written by an anonymous author which encapsulates what I have written here:
"Believe in yourself and in your plan, Say not - I cannot - I can, The prizes of life we fail to win, Because we doubt the power within...". Never doubt the power within. It is that which leads you to a more fulfilling life.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

How to Find the Beauty of Life in Nature

"We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts", said William Hazlitt. And so to find the beauty of life in nature we need another pair of eyes, one that is better than our pair of physical eyes.

The Eyes of Poetry

Poets have better eyes than us when it comes to seeing beauty of life in nature. They see more than most of us can see. We see a flower, they see a whole world unfolding before their eyes. We see a pile of garbage the poets see lush vegetation. We see a tree, the poets see a person praying all day. We see daffodils, the poets see stars.

We need to borrow their eyes to see beauty in nature. We do this by reading their poems. We read Joyce Kilmer's "Tree", Wordsworth's "Daffodils", John Keats' "Endymion", etc. As we read these poems a whole new world opens before our eyes, the world as seen by these seers of nature. They lead us to the hidden beauty of nature.

The Eyes of Science

Science is another key to discovering the beauty of life in nature. In science we realize the immensity, the diversity of nature. We discover plants and other organisms that never die by themselves. They continue to live unless destroyed by man or by a major disaster. Bamboos, banyan trees, water spinach are immortal plants. We discover plants that continue to have green leaves until they die like some species of pepper.

Science tells us that the ground teems with life and everywhere life is being multiplied in countless ways. Life is just superabundant when we look at nature.

One time as I was traveling I was struck by the fact that vegetation abounds everywhere and life is taking on different forms in all places.

If we have a microscope we can peer into the beautiful symmetry of the cells and their different parts, beauty that is not seen by our naked eyes.

We use the eyes of science in finding the beauty of life in nature by reading articles on nature such as we find in magazines like National Geographic Magazine.

The Eyes of Faith

These eyes of faith refer to those eyes which are given to us by the Owner of nature. We have been endowed with these eyes though we may not be aware of it because of the culture around us, a culture which pushes us to acknowledge only what is visible to our physical eyes. There is more to life than can be seen by our bodily eyes or reason. Reality that is hidden to our bodily eyes may be fully revealed to us through the eyes of faith. Faith is the sure or certain knowledge of invisible reality. Those of us who have faith know for certain that God is real. How do we cultivate the eyes of faith to find the beauty of life in nature?

1. Live with nature. Live in a rural area if this is possible. If you cannot live in a field but have been forced by circumstances to live in the upper floor of a condominium, bring at least a pot of plant into your room.

2. Listen to nature. Listen to the noise or music of the crickets, of the frogs, of the wind, of the typhoon, of the rain, of the thunder, of the swaying of leaves, etc.

3. Talk with nature. Experiments have shown that plants grow better when a human person speaks with them regularly. Nature has a way of conversing with you if you carry on a conversation with it. Most of us think that plants and animals cannot understand what we say to them. They may not be able to understand the words but they certainly understand the attitude with which those words are spoken.

4. Cultivate nature. Plant a vegetable. When I was young I planted eggplants. I observed them. I talked with them. I knew what happens from the seed of an eggplant to an old eggplant tree. Today I am fascinated by the banyan tree whose seeds I find almost anywhere I go. I notice that these seeds have intelligence all their own. When I put two seeds on the branch of a tree one of them would fall down. No matter how carefully I put the two seeds, only one would remain on the branch of a tree to grow there.

5. Rest with nature. If possible take a vacation with nature. Bring a tent and simple provisions to last for a few days and rest in a secluded forested area. I like to rest in our farm where I can commune once again with my old time friends, the trees, the fish, the birds, the plants. Nature is restorative, reinvigorating. If you cannot do this go to a park planted with trees. Or have some days in a beach.

6. Walk with nature. Go out in the woods and walk some distance into a forest. There you will find life in all its richness. When I did this I was surprised by the size of the trees in the forest. I never thought such huge trees existed.

7. Read the book LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS: SAVING OUR CHILDREN FROM NATURE-DEFICIT DISORDER by Richard Louv. You will learn here the necessity of being connected with nature. Nature is as necessary to our health and well-being as the food we eat.

8. Pray with nature. Follow the example of Jesus who prayed in a garden, in a desert, in a mountain. Faith grows best with prayer because in prayer we talk to the Invisible One. This Invisible source of all that is visible makes our faith grow. As our faith grows we see more of the beauty of life in nature.

The eyes of poetry, the eyes of science, and the eyes of faith enable us to discover the beauty of life in nature. Let us use these eyes in addition to the physical eyes we have.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

How to Fill the Void You Feel Within

You have come to a point in your life when you feel that deep inside you there is something lacking that should be there. You feel there is a void within you that needs to be filled with something you do not have any idea about. So what do you do?

Many Paths, Same Destination

You are not alone. Millions of people around the world feel the way you do. All of you have come to a point where you think there is something lacking in your life and you cannot define it. But you come to this point from different backgrounds and through different paths.

Some of you may be successful professionals: doctors, nurses, lawyers, government officials, etc. Others may be failures in their line of work. Some of you may be respected in your society: clergymen and bible women, evangelists, actors, actresses, role models in one way or another. Others may be just plain farmers or housewives.

Some get this feeling after succeeding in their chosen careers. Despite their success they feel empty deep inside. Others fall into this depressing state while trying to succeed and failing in their attempt.

Many Pastimes, Many Advices, None of Any Avail

Some of you might have tried to fill this void with drugs, with alcohol, with sexual excesses and chain smoking. But the void has not gone away. Others might have tried clubbing and pubbing, getting to know more people in a socializing atmosphere and drinking to your heart's content with your friends. But the void keeps on tugging at your heart.

If you have contacted some religious people they might have advised you to pray, to practice meditation, to put God into your heart, because they say there is a God-shaped vacuum in your heart which only God can fill in. A Christian might have told you to accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord. A Muslim might have told you to read the Qur'an and follow the will of Allah. A Buddhist might have advised you to look deeper into your self and see what is lacking there and contemplate nothingness. But all these advices have left you empty deep inside yourself.

You might have gone to a psychiatrist, and she has prescribed some medicines for you to take and mind exercises for you to undergo after patiently listening to your stories and complaints. But still the emptiness is there in your heart.

So what can you do to fill this void you feel within?

The Cause of this Void

Most do not realize what the cause of this void or feeling of emptiness is. And because they do not know the cause, they do not know the cure or answer to this problem. They indiscriminately fill this void with things which really do not satisfy.

The cause of this void is in our being, the way we are. We are beings who experience and long for, the infinite.

While everyday we experience finiteness or limitations, we also experience the infinite. Given any number, we can always add another number, even if the length of that number has gone around the earth many times. Given any information we always long for more information. We are always on the lookout for something new. And there is no end to this. This is the indication that we long for something beyond ourselves, something infinitely greater than ourselves.

Because we experience and long for the infinite we are always searching for this and unless this longing for the infinite is satisfied we can never fill that void in our heart. That void needs to be filled with something infinite. It cannot be filled with money, things, sexual enjoyment, gadgets, think what you may.

Fill the Void with the Infinite

If you want to escape this feeling of emptiness deep within you, then fill your life with the Infinite. Notice that I did not say God, because again for most people their God is someone who is just greater than themselves in some ways. In fact for many people God is a concept only. They have not experienced him.

You ask then, How can I fill my life with the Infinite?

The Infinite is in you and around you. You can experience him or her now. If you have gone to a field consider the infinite variety of plants and other organisms there. Within you there is an infinite power which drives you to move on and on. If you are in your office consider the infinite data pouring in and passing through your office, through your computers and mobile phones.

Acknowledge the presence of this Infinite and surrender yourself to him or her. Is doesn't matter what gender you put the Infinite under, masculine, feminine or in-between. In a sense he is genderless, in another sense he is gender-full.

Why do you need to surrender to this Infinite? Because he or she loves you with an infinite love. He/she wants you to live with you forever. He fills you with all the things you need in life. And until you surrender to his/her love you will never be satisfied in life.

If you are a Christian, you believe that this Infinite has manifested himself completely in Jesus. If you are a Muslim you believe that Allah is your infinite destination. If you are a Buddhist you know that Enlightenment about this Infinite is your goal in life.

The void you feel within can only be filled by the Infinite who is inside you, around you, over you, under you, and you fill this void with the Infinite by surrendering your life to him, accepting his total unconditional love of you.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Acknowledging Your Ego - How the Ego Is Connected to Spirituality

There are many factors which have built up your ego or self-image, who or what you think you are in relation to others who live around you. Some of these factors you are not even explicitly aware of, but they are there.

Factors Making up Your Ego

To begin with your parents have the first determining factor in the process of forming your ego. The color of your skin, the contour of your face, the blood in your veins, and a host of other physical characteristics come from your parents and you formed your self-image according to these data about you.

If you are born of black parents your skin by the genes transmitted from them is also black. And you see your self as a black guy or gal. On the other hand if your parents were white you inherit their white complexion and so you think of your self as a white guy or gal.

But the image of your self goes beyond your skin. Your parents also influenced your image of your self in the society where you live. If they are well to do, then your tendency is to consider your self as well off. If your parents are poor then you think of your self as a poor member of society.

Teachers, especially religion or values education teachers, your peers, your neighbors, your friends, your enemies, the animals around you, the plants that give you oxygen, the total environment around you influenced the making of your self-image.

Redefining Your Ego

As you grow up you redefine or remake your ego. Your poor parents won in the lotto and suddenly you think of your self as a rich person. You got the highest score in an exam in your class and you think of your self as not so dull. A handsome man falls in love with you and you think you are a beauty queen in your community. Your ego or self-image does change.

Sometimes the image in your ego hardens and becomes difficult to change. You think you are the underdog and you fight anybody who comes to oppose you. I know of an old man, he is a senior citizen now, who has maintained this image of being an underdog from the time he was in the elementary school and he has no friends.

Acknowledging Your Ego

Most do not reflect upon their ego, who or what they think they are. They just go through life acting without reflecting on their identity.

But a crisis may come which forces them to reflect on who they really are. A courtship break-up occurs and the man reflects what in him caused his girl friend to leave him. He begins to ask who or what he is to himself and to his girl friend.

A valedictorian in a law school fails in a bar exam and she asks, Why? Is there something in her personality which disqualifies her from passing that exam?

The ideal and proper thing to do is not to wait for a crisis to change or redefine our ego for the better. If a person is perceptive of herself and asks the great questions of life (Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?) then she can begin to investigate her ego and acknowledge it for what it is.

You do not have to wait for a critical moment in your life. Right now you can take stock of your ego or self-image, acknowledge it and if you are not satisfied with it, then change it.

The Ego’s Connection to Spirituality

Spirituality is the life of the real you, the spirit in you. As the Christian existentialist philosophers keep on saying, you are an embodied spirit, a spirit enclosed in a body of flesh, blood and bones. And the task of spirituality is to discover your real self, who you really are. Once you discover your real self, or as some have expressed it, once you have reached self-realization, then you can function as a full human being.

To reach self-realization you have to cut your way through the ego, because in a sense this ego has blocked your view of your real self. You have an image of yourself as defined by others, your parents, teachers, peers, friends, and even enemies.

The first steps then in living the spiritual life consist of knowing your ego, acknowledging it and then discovering or realizing our true self. Once you discover this true self you redefine or remodel your ego to conform to this real self so that you can function as a full human being.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

What Is the Purpose of Your Ego?

"How was the exam?" Somebody might have asked you before. And you probably answered, "I thought I did well." That image of yourself doing well in your exam was your ego. When the teacher informed you of your score and grade in that exam that image of yourself which was your ego was either built up (if your expectation was fulfilled or more than fulfilled), shattered (if you got a low score or one you did not expect), or just disregarded (if it didn't matter to you either way).

What Your Ego Is

If you look at the dictionary you will find that the word "ego" has many meanings, from the simple translation of the Latin ego as an emphatic "I" in English to the more complicated understanding of this word in psychoanalysis. But the meaning which is apropos to our discussion here is that it is the image we have of our self, or self-image. This is one of the meanings we find in the dictionary and it is one which we can use with consistency.

Your ego is what you think of yourself in relation to others around you, whether persons, animals, plants or simply things. It is your identity as you see it. Thus it may be different from what you really are. It is only your estimate of yourself. That is why some understand the ego as self-esteem. This image of yourself, if it is positive, gives you self-confidence. If the image of yourself is negative then your ego gives you the feeling of dejection and even depression.

Tendency to Identify Your Ego and Your Self

There is a tendency in you, as with the rest of mankind, to identify your ego with your real self. Most people think that what they think of themselves is what they are. For example, in underdeveloped and developing countries most people think of themselves as poor, as poverty ridden and unable to get out of the curse of poverty. There is even a joke circulated in one developing country that God so loved the poor that he made so many of them.

The truth, as so well pointed out by Bob Proctor, is that all of us were born rich. Our real self is rich, not poor, as those living in poverty tend to think of themselves. It is only in our self-image, in our estimation that we are poor. In reality our self is rich.

There are times when a person is hurt because he was despised for something that he did. Maybe he was not able to answer an oral question in class and the rest of the class laughed at him. He may not realize that what they despised was only their image of him as a dull student, not his real self. This is because we tend to identify our real self with our ego. He may in reality be a brilliant student although nobody knows about this.

The Purpose of Your Ego

The purpose of your ego is to influence the way you think, talk and act. Your ego is as it were the natural, built-in pre-conscious rudder in your life. It is pre-conscious because normally you do not think about this ego as guiding your life. If you think of your self as someone with potential for music, you are going to think of learning more about music and engaging in musical activities. If you think of your self as someone with a broken, out of tune voice, then you are likely to decide to overcome this musical disability or keep out of singing in the presence of other people.

In school our teachers helped to form our ego or self-image. If a teacher told us that we would not amount to anything in life and we believed her then indeed we would go through life not amounting to anything because that is what we think of our selves. On the other hand if we believed otherwise we would go on proving to ourselves and our teachers that we would amount to something in life later on.

We might have teachers also who praised us for our work and told us we would succeed in life and so we did. This was because we believed the image of ourselves as presented by those encouraging teachers. Belief led to actions which helped us to succeed.

So it is very important that you build up your ego in the right way, if possible nearer to the reality that you are. You are a champion, a rich person, endowed with so many abilities by your Creator.

If you do not have the correct self-image it is better that you abandon this and learn more about your real self. Then you form your ego or self-image according to your real self.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

How to Keep Faith When Unsure of What the Future Holds

May 21, 2011 is fast coming up. Some people say that this date is Judgment Day and October 21, 2011 is the end of the world. Some are sure that this is indeed the date of the end of the world. They have put up a website to inform people about this. Others are sure that this is not yet the end of the world. They just go on living expecting that this is not true. Still others are unsure of what the truth is, whether the world will end this October 21 or not.

Nothing Is Sure

The truth is that we are unsure of what the future holds. The high school graduate is not sure whether she is able to go into college. The college student is not sure whether she can finish her studies. The college graduate is not sure whether she can get a good job. The worker is not sure whether she will stay in her job, be promoted, or be dismissed from employment.

The father is not use of what will happen to his children. The doctor is not sure whether his patient will get well. The lawyer is not sure whether he will win his case in court.

We are never absolutely sure that tomorrow we will still be living. Those who were buried in the landslide these past months in different areas of the world never thought that that was their last night on earth.

Some of us have seen the video circulated in the Internet of a man who was walking and was suddenly overrun by a car. That man never thought that that was his end.

So we can never be absolutely sure of what will happen to us. That is why we have so many fortune tellers and they are getting a fortune by telling or pretending to tell us the future.

Maybe someone you love very much in your family is suffering intense pain due to cancer and its treatment and you do not know what her future is, whether she will recover, or get worse, or slip into eternity. And you are really worried. How do you keep faith in this situation?

Or maybe you have left your work because you felt that God called you to a distinct work in his ministry. Now you are unsure whether that was a wise decision or was it imprudent of you to leave a stable job to follow God's call. How do you keep faith?

How To Keep Faith When Unsure of the Future

Our question now is: How to keep faith when unsure of what the future holds?

And the answer can be: We keep faith by keeping close to him who knows the future. I like that sentence we learned in our Sunday School: I do not know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.

You see, for God there is no past, present or future. This is difficult for us to understand but it is absolutely true. Past, present and future are indications of time. What happened is past. What is happening is present. What will happen is future. But for God the past, present and future are all present, because he does not live in time but in eternity, outside of our time frame. Maybe an illustration can help to clarify this.

Consider a line as a progress in time. To your left is the past, the center of the line represents the present, and the segment of the line to your right is the future. Now put a dot four inches or so above the center of this line. This dot represents God's view of the past, present, and future. He looks at all this at the same time, the present time. To him all these segments of time are present at once.

Since this is true, then we know that God is sure of everything that happens in our life, whether it is in our past, our present or our future. He knows it from beginning to end and beyond.

Ask God What the Future Holds

If we keep close to him and ask him he will tell us what our future holds. And by faith we know that this is always for our best and for the best of those we love. Many of us Christians remember Romans 8:28, that all things work together for good for them who love God. There are similar passages in other religions, comforting us to trust always in God.

It is easy to say this but I realize that it is most difficult to accept or behave with this acceptance. What the form of that best will be we do not really know. Maybe it is best that our beloved member in the family go, so that she does not have to prolong her suffering. Maybe it is best for you to suffer financial difficulties as you obey the Lord's calling so that you put your complete trust in him and in nothing or no one else. Whatever it is, God knows what is best for you. He is totally sure of it.

You keep faith in this situation of uncertainty by keeping close to the Creator and sustainer of all life, the Lord of all that is happening on earth and everywhere else. Since he surely knows what will happen, you can ask him what the future holds for you. But do not expect an explicit answer as you would from a telephone conversation. God answers in many ways. Many times he will answer by leading you one step at a time. He will not tell you everything that will happen in your life or in the life of your loved one. But he will surely show you every step you need to take.

This is because he is a God who is passionately in love with us, so passionately that he gave up his life for us through inconceivable suffering. And he wants to have constant fellowship and communication with us.

The problem is that most do not realize this. Many call on God only when they think they need God's help. In the meantime they go on living thinking that they can manage on their own or that God wants them to behave this way, to manage things on their own.

Be Always in a Conversational Mode with God

But if we are always in a conversational mode with God, he will always be in conversational mode with us until the time comes when we can hear him constantly in our hearts. When this happens we no longer need to ask, How do we keep faith? because he himself will keep us in his faith.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

How to React If Told You Are Praying the Wrong Way

There are a hundred and one reasons why you can be told by somebody that you are praying the wrong way.

Some Wrong Ways of Praying

These wrong ways of praying include: you do not perform the required ablutions or washing of your body parts before praying; you are not facing the west when you pray; you are not using the proper prayer mat; you are merely repeating a prayer formula over and over again; you are not in the proper posture or proper clothes; your mind is not on what you pray; and so on and so forth.

So, how do you react if you are told that you are praying the wrong way?

Steps to Take to Give the Proper Reaction

First, thank the one who told you that you were praying the wrong way. This is because you can always learn something from someone who criticizes your way of praying. There is always something to learn, to improve the way you pray. And so you thank her for the benefit of learning something new to improve the way you pray.

Secondly, ask her why she thinks that you are praying the wrong way. And reflect on her answer, whatever it is. You may be praying spontaneously and she thinks that you should use an approved formula of prayer. If this is the case, ask her why she thinks that spontaneous prayer is a wrong way to pray.

I have heard spontaneous prayer whose every sentence contain the word "God", like "God, we thank you for giving us this day, God. God, we ask you to bless us, God, as we proceed in our work today, God."

Some object to this kind of spontaneous prayer as too insistent on God, as presuming that God is not ready to listen to our prayer that he has to be addressed to many times, again and again.

Thirdly, ask her what is the right way to pray. And listen to her answer because you can always profit from this answer. For example, Christians normally do not perform ritual ablutions before formal prayer. For them knowing that people of other faiths perform ablutions before prayer can impress upon them the need to be clean in body, mind and spirit when they converse with God.

Fourthly, you pray for the one who criticizes your way of praying. You pray that she too improves on her way of praying, especially that she puts her concentration on what and to whom she is praying.

Fifthly, aspire for the perfectly correct way of praying. There is such a way, the perfectly correct way of praying. This is the way of God praying in and through you. Agree with what the Bible says that we do not know what to pray and how to pray. Only God knows the perfectly right way to pray and when he prays in and through you, he prays the right way always.

Only God’s Way Is the Perfectly Correct Way

You may be surprised to read here that I say God prays in and through us. But this is because left to ourselves we really do not know how to pray. This is the reason why some holy men and women admonish us to use the formula of prayers in the sacred books like the Psalms and Sura Al-Fatiha because the words there were written by God himself. We can never go wrong if we use what he wrote.

The best way to pray is still the way God wants us to pray. You can continue to learn what this way is.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

The Effect of Saying Your Early Morning Prayers

There is a kind of water that appears only until early morning. It is formed at night when the temperature of a field drops and it disappears when the sun begins to raise the temperature in the morning.

This water is called dew. It is described as water droplets produced by condensation from the air on cool surfaces near the ground.

Early Morning Prayers Are Like the Dew

The effect of saying your early morning prayers—an hour or so before the sun appears on the horizon—is like the dew. You can get this beneficial effect only during the early hours of the morning. After this, like the dew, it vanishes into the atmosphere.

That is why if you do not pray in the early morning you will not get this dewy effect of prayer.

The Effect of Early Morning Prayers

The first benefit you get from the dew is refreshing water. It is water at its purest and coolest in the natural environment.

So also in early morning prayers the first benefit you get is a refreshing of your spirit, soul and body. Your body is rested and prepares itself for the work of the day. Your mind is also refreshed from the cares, worries and problems of the previous day. Your spirit is refreshed by the Spirit of God as he communes with you.

Water invigorates you. It gives you strength and vitality to do your work.

In the same way early morning prayers invigorate your body, soul and spirit to continue doing the mission that God has given you in life.

Great Religions Prescribe Early Morning Prayers

Almost all religions advocate early morning prayers. In Islam early morning prayer is prescribed. Early morning prayers are also performed in Hindu temples and in Buddhist monasteries. In Christian religious groups there are also early morning prayers. Some recite the Matins or the First Hour of the Christian Prayer. Unfortunately in the Catholic Church this has been renamed Office of the Readings and can be prayed anytime of the day. But the best time for it is still early morning. Of course we still have the Office of the Morning Prayer which can be said in the early morning, that is, before the sun rises.

The Example of George Whitefield

Great men and women of God who have made a lasting impact on our world have been persons who prayed very early in the morning, some of them for a long time before daybreak. It was related of George Whitefield, the great revival preacher of the 18th century, that he would frequently devote whole nights to meditation and prayer. No wonder England and the United States greatly benefited from the revival he led.

Make It a Habit

Early morning prayers refresh your whole person and give you the strength and energy to do your work during the day. Make it a habit until you say it in the land which knows no setting of the sun.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

How to Raise Your Spiritual Vibrations and Share Them With Others

It is now accepted that the higher the vibration of an object the higher is the level of its existence and the greater is its impact on the surrounding.

Take the case of the guitar. If you pluck its string softly it produces a sound but the sound is also a soft one. If you pluck hard its string it produces a louder sound and more can hear the note that is produced. The more strings you pluck the more notes are produced. And the listeners hear more sound.

Spirit beings are like guitar strings. The more they vibrate the higher levels they reach and the more influence they exert on others, spirits or non-spirits.

The question now I want to answer is: How to raise your spiritual vibrations and share them with others?

From Analogies of the Body and Mind

The accomplished ballet dancer makes her body vibrate, sometimes very rapidly, always gracefully. An interesting speaker makes her mind vibrate and so moves the minds of her audience. These two examples give us a picture of bodily and mental vibrations respectively. What is common to both is that there is an activity. The activity becomes more intense as the vibration is raised. And the audience catches, as it were, these vibrations, one through the eyes, the other through the ears. They share in these vibrations. And they are moved to wonder or to admire.

So also in the sphere of the spirit, the more activity he has the more vibrations he produces and these vibrations are shared automatically with others. (Notice I use the personal pronoun “he” to refer to the spirit, because the spirit is a person, not a thing, as is supposed by many. “She” can also be used.)

To raise therefore your spiritual vibrations you simply raise your spiritual activity.

Ways of Raising Spiritual Activity

There are many ways of raising your spiritual vibrations. They are all activities of the spirit. Some of these are enumerated by spiritual writers: meditation is a favorite one, and there are several techniques of meditating; singing and listening to music; dancing or jogging around the neighborhood; laughing and sharing jokes with others; walking through the woods; forgiving our enemies; doing works of charity, etc.

The Best Way to Raise Your Spiritual Vibrations

But I consider prayer as the best way to raise your spiritual vibrations. It is strange that this activity is not listed by many spiritual writers as a way to raise spiritual vibration. Perhaps the reason for this is because our usual concept of prayer is that it is an activity connected with the church or some formal gathering.

But prayer defined simply as communication with the Spirit who is the source of all spirits or with the spirits who come from him is the most effective way of raising your spiritual vibration.

You can begin with a casual conversation with the spirits. Then you can progress through more intimate sharing with them. Finally you can unite yourself with the Spirit or you can accept the invitation of the Spirit to unite yourself with him. This is the highest form of activity, union with the Spirit, just as among human beings the highest form of activity is the union of the male and female, producing a new human being.

When we are united with the Supreme Spirit we get his vibration which is infinite. This is vibration at its highest level.

Sharing Our Vibrations With Others

The ballet dancer shares her vibrating body with the onlookers. The speaker shares her vibrating mind with the listeners. The audience is delighted and moved to wonder, admire or follow the ideas of the performer or speaker.

The same happens when we pray. We share automatically the vibrations of the Spirit with others. The good that flows to us is immediately shared with others. The person who genuinely prays or converses with the Spirit or spirits wishes for the good of those around him. And this good is shared with them. No wonder Alfred, Lord Tennyson put these words into the lips of King Arthur, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

3 Ways to Develop a Greater Spiritual Connection to a Higher Power

I remember 1975 as the year when the subject Communications was first offered in the university where I was studying. This subject was offered in order to deal with the dynamic flow of information within and among organizations. But it did not deal directly with communications of spirits among individuals and groups. It did not teach us how to connect with a higher power. Connecting with a higher power involves more than just the principles taught in the subject Communications.

Silence

The very first step to develop a greater spiritual connection to a higher power is silence. This is strange because in the ordinary affairs of life if you want to connect with somebody you have to speak to him or her. But in spirituality if you want to connect with a higher power, a spirit or your guardian angel or your God, your first step is silence.

By silence I do not just mean that you keep your mouth shut. You also keep your mind closed to the ideas around your head. You listen to the silence within you. This is because the realm of the spirit is beyond words and beyond ideas. And the higher power is in the realm of the spirit. Unless you are silent you cannot connect with the higher power.

Physical silence is easy to understand. You simply do not talk or make any noise. But mental silence is quite a difficult concept for most people because our brain keeps on working even during sleep. During sessions of meditation people often complain of distractions. They ask how they can focus their mind on what they are meditating when swarms of ideas just come to their mind.

The way to mental silence is like the way to physical silence. After a lot of talking you are tired and you want to stop talking. Then you stop talking. You are physically silent. The same happens in mental silence. Just keep on thinking. Distractions will come but soon you will be tired and either you fall asleep or you go into a state when you do not think of anything explicit. Then you enter into mental silence.

How long do you put yourself in silence? You can start with 5 minutes. Or you can do this for an extended period of time when you are at home or in some retreat. But the important point is that you make this as an attitude in your life. When you have leisure you go into this mode of silence.

In silence you will feel the stirrings of the spirit or the higher power. You see, the higher power is more interested in connecting with you than you are with him. But he cannot connect with you while you are busy physically or mentally with other things. He needs your undivided attention and you can give this to him only if you are silent both physically and mentally.

Childlikeness

Look at children as they play. Observe them. If you have an opportunity, go to an orphanage and mix with the children there, embracing some of them. Look at their eyes. You will find a higher power among them.

Children do not care about the problem of adults. They keep on asking questions. They are still fresh from being influenced by the spirits. The spirits are still moving around them.

And be a child again. Play with them. Entertain them. Tell them stories. You will feel being a child again.

It is on occasions like these when the higher power will also play with you. Our human bodies grow old, but spirits grow younger with time. When Charles Hard Townes, the inventor of the maser, the precursor of the laser, was 94 years old, he was asked how he could still work at that age. His answer implied that he was still like a child playing with the electronic gadgets that he was tinkering with.

Inventions are revealed to us by higher powers who connect with us if we behave like simple children, receptive to their impulses and suggestions.

Surrender

The third way to develop a greater spiritual connection to a higher power is simply surrendering to him. Once we are acquainted with a higher power and we know that this higher power is a good one, not an evil one, we simply surrender to him.

In surrendering to this higher power we begin to obtain his own powers, we become like him. This is because by surrendering we are taken to his own level.

Silence, behaving like a child, and surrendering are 3 ways to develop a greater spiritual connection to a higher power.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Ways of Achieving Your Goals in Spirituality

Life is not what it seems to be. This is the impression we grow with. When we were children we thought life was a time of games and play. Then when we became adolescents we were worried more about our achievements in school. Then as we grow into young adults we were interested in what course to take up in college.

Many Goals, Many Ways

Life’s goals seem to be changing all the time. When I ask my students what their goal in life is, they usually answer: To finish college. So I ask them, “Do you mean to say that when you shall have finished your college course you are going to sit down, relax, and enjoy life and say to yourself, Rest for you have reached your life’s goal?” This convinces them that finishing college is not really their goal in life.

As in life, so also in spirituality. Our goals change. There may have been a time when our goal in spirituality was not to commit sins. But as we grow in spirit we realize that spirituality is not only about avoiding sins. It is more than this. It is living an abundant life, free from debilitating tensions. In spirituality there are many goals or rather, spirituality can be applied to reaching many goals in life: freedom from addiction of alcohol and smoking, a more satisfying love life, a more stable and profitable business, a more healthy mind and body, a more harmonious family relationship, a more confident self-image, a more intimate relationship with God.

And you ask: What are the ways of achieving these goals in spirituality? There are many ways. We can explore some of them here.

Some Ways of Achieving Your Goals in Spirituality

One way is by writing a journal about your goals in spirituality and the ways you use to achieving these goals. It is not a mere diary. It is a journal with a specific purpose: to periodically reflect upon your goals in the spiritual life and the means you use to attain these goals. You will notice after a year or two that your goals are changing.

Another way is by taking time out from your work and go into a retreat. You can begin with a retreat of one or two days. It does not matter where you spend this retreat. It can be in a hotel room, or in a religious house or a specific retreat house. The important thing is that you stop your work and reflect on your spiritual life, what spiritual goals you want to achieve and how you can do this. Later you can lengthen the time of your retreat. If you have the luxury of time you can imitate the members of the Society of Jesus who make a month long retreat.

An improvement on this method is by having a life coach around or a retreat master who can guide you in your spiritual journey. You can consult him or her during this time of retreat or even outside of retreat time.

Another way which worked for many in the past is called the Examination of Conscience Exercise. Every night before you retire you reflect on the day that has passed and ask how successful you have achieved your spiritual goal for the day, like keeping silence for 10 minutes during the day. Then if you have achieved your goal you set another goal and strive to achieve that in the following day.

Of course, meditation is a very popular way of achieving spiritual goals. There are many ways of meditating. It will be beneficial for you to learn more about this way of achieving your goals in spirituality.

Another way is reflective reading of a book on spirituality. More and more books on spirituality are published daily. You can choose one which fits in with your religious background.

There are other ways. There are even bodily exercises which can help you in achieving those goals, like the tai chi, the yoga postures and others. Some have tried drugs to achieve their goals. I do not advice this.

Choose what suits you and you will certainly progress in achieving your goals in spirituality.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

3 Ways to Experience a Spiritual Awakening Within You

When I say that most people are spiritually asleep I mean that they are not using their spiritual abilities or powers as they should. They are like people who are indeed alive but do not move around the house, do not perform any work because they are still in bed sleeping and still dreaming. Here are 3 ways whereby you can experience a spiritual awakening within you so that you can wake up spiritually and do the works of the spirit.

Notice Everything Around You and Their Interconnectedness

This advice is quite simple but most of us do not do it. We go through life not even noticing one half of the material things around us, much less the spiritual things. We do not notice the varied shapes of the trees around us, the beautiful formation of the clouds above us, the tiny creatures that crawl on the ground and a thousand other things before us. If we are not aware of the things which we can see, how shall we be aware of those things which we cannot see, the spiritual things?

As you really begin to take notice of the things around you and their interconnectedness a world of super abundance is going to be revealed to your consciousness, a world teeming with the endless procession of life. You will notice the smallest bacteria that spoil your food to the largest stars above you and realize that these two groups of creatures are interrelated.

Unfortunately reason cannot discover this relationship. How can the bacteria be related to the stars? They are too far apart to be related in some meaningful way. Thus we reason. But if we begin to see relationships in the things around us, we will certainly discover the relationship of things even farther from the stars our human eyes can see.

We know that plants are related to the soil where they grow. Uproot them from the soil and they die. We know also that fish are related to the water they swim in. Take out the fish from the water and sooner or later they die. We know that human beings are related to this earth. Take out human beings from the earth without any support systems and they simply die. The relationship of these things is obvious. But when we realize that these things are related not only as material objects but as objects that have meanings, then we shall discover that any object is related to any other object precisely because both possess meaning.

Bacteria are related to the stars because both are beings with meanings. Bacteria serve to clean up our environment, transforming matter into fertilizer. And the stars no matter how far away supply the heat needed by the bacteria to survive and multiply.

When we realize the interconnectedness of all things we begin to see the spiritual element of these things, because this interconnectedness is invisible to our physical eyes and even invisible also to our mind. It can only be perceived by the spirit in us.

Perceiving this interconnectedness of all things we begin to wake up from our spiritual slumber and start to experience spiritual awakening.

Meditate on Your Relationship with the Persons Who Passed This Earth

Your great grandparents are most probably gone but they were here once on this planet Earth. Their bodies are laid to rest in some cemeteries but their spirits are still here. Probably no people have preserved this sense of the presence of the departed than the Chinese. You look at the picture of those who have left this planet Earth by death and they seem to be alive and still able to communicate ideas with you. Why is this? It is because their spirits are still with you. Their spirits live in the things they made, be it a chair or a book or some other thing.

As you begin to feel the presence of their spirits in the things they have left you, communicate with them. You will be surprised to discover that they can still communicate with you. You do not have to go to a séance in order to communicate with the spirits of those who have gone ahead. Just talk to them in your spirit. The famous Napoleon Hill used to call periodic conferences with dead persons whom he admired, like George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, and others. At first he was afraid to reveal to the public that he was engaging in these conferences with the spirits of the dead. But later he was convinced that this was not an abnormal activity and its benefits could be shared with others.

If you maintain a healthy relationship and communication with the spirits of the departed, one day you will spiritually wake up with the realization that you are surrounded by a host of spirits who long to communicate with you.

Pray Always

Those two words are not observed by most people. They only pray when they are in trouble or when they need something that they think they cannot accomplish by their own power. They forget that they cannot accomplish anything by their own power.

Probably when you were a child you were taught some prayers but you think you have outgrown your prayers. You think you are now mature and are on your own. Nothing can be farther from the truth. As you grow older you need to pray more, not just about more things but more often. And you need to learn how to pray always, even when you are in a most intense activity.

I once discovered a group of men who pray more than the priests or the Religious in monasteries. They are the linemen who work with the electrical power cables. The priests or the Religious go to their Masses and their scheduled prayer time. But after that they usually devote their time to their work. But the linemen have to pray as they go to their work of installing or repairing electrical wires. As they hung on to the poles they keep praying that they be preserved from sudden death. They know that they can lose their lives with one minor mistake. And after their work they keep on praying with thanksgiving for being preserved from electrocution. These linemen tell me that they pray 24 hours a day because they do not know when they will be called to repair an electrical line. Emergencies cannot be predicted.

When you are able to pray always, conversing with the Spirit of all spirits about anything that matters to you, you shall be on the road to full spiritual awakening within you.

These are the three ways to experience a spiritual awakening within you: 1) Notice everything around you and their interconnectedness; 2) Meditate on your relationship with the persons who passed this earth; 3) Learn to pray always.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritdev for your spiritual growth

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

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