Last week I talked about how to do a spiritual health check-up. This week, let’s talk about how to go from spiritual health to spiritual wealth.
We all have spiritual wealth already, but it gets obscured by incessant thinking, traumatic events, and a chaotic and negative mind. So here is how we can expand our consciousness, raise our awareness, and prolong our presence.
It’s first important to realize that from awareness and focus, wisdom naturally emerges. A fool simply cannot focus and is oblivious to what is going on around them. Someone like Einstein on the other hand, who according to himself was not special in any way, could merely observe and focus on a problem longer than anyone else.
So this is what we need to practice and develop — focusing our attention on our mind, our body, and challenging situations. Usually, when we feel hurt or stressed, we turn to an escapist activity to take our mind off of things. But I want you to notice how this escapist tendency, whether it’s through phones, shows, work or intoxicants, only stuff down and mask our feelings. When we avoid something difficult, it persists and percolates. More on how to get through life’s difficult situations in this new podcast episode.
Instead of turning away, turn towards. Give yourself as much time as it takes to focus on what you’re thinking, feeling, and experiencing. Look at it from all angles, perspectives and interpretations. Don’t add stress to your stress through destructive and addictive behavior (More on that here.) It’s very hard at first to see our own situations from other people’s perspectives, but doing so can free us from our negative mental story we’ve told ourselves.
Look from as many angles as you can until you see reality emerge. Choose the mental story that best serves your interests and the interests of your loved ones. Choose the one that creates the most freedom, joy and peace.
Wherever you are, you belong as much as anyone else. No matter who you are, you deserve happiness as much as anyone else. You are as worthy as a president or a king. You’re allowed to be as confident as Robert Downey Jr. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, especially your own mind.
One more thing. I know there’s a lot of confusion about what it means that all suffering exists in the mind. This is such an important topic that I am giving away the chapter from the book, Aloneness to Oneness, titled, “Suffering Exists in the Mind.” You can get the free chapter here. This concept is very counterintuitive. We feel certain that negative experiences cause our suffering. But just by looking closer at the previous sentence we can see that negative is a subjective opinion created by the mind.
In this free chapter, I explain in detail how nothing can truly happen to us, they only happen in our presence. When we understand our true nature as the witnessing presence, we become the peaceful companion that is always there to support our mind and our body with love and nourishment.
Love,
Todd
P.S. Secondhand stress is very contagious. Before we know it, we become stressed and then we pass that stress onto others. This is how you can avoid internalizing other people’s stress.
