As complex as spirituality could seem at first glance, it really is very simple. Spirituality is what you do in your everyday life in order to connect with your Inner Being, your true essence. To help break it down for you, here are my Top 3 Best Spiritual Practices.
Spirituality consists of empowering and self-reinforcing habits that keep you balanced and give you a sense of security in the midst of an uncertain, ever-changing world. It’s key that you carry out your practices regularly – preferably every day. The repetition of spiritual practices strengthens your character and increases your awareness. It leads to an improved relationship with yourself and in consequence, with everyone else too. This applies to both private and professional settings. I’d say that carrying out a spiritual practice on a regular basis is even more important for entrepreneurs who (oftentimes) “wear many different hats” and are in contact with many different people.
First up is GRATITUDE.
Gratitude
Gratitude has an amazing ability to raise your vibration and in consequence, your well-being. It helps untie any knots that might be blocking you in your current life situation. As the word implies, gratitude connects you with the Divine grace, and when you allow that grace to wash through you, what you used to perceive as “problems” tend to melt away.
Some readers may object that the first spiritual practice should be prayer, which is a powerful practice indeed. My understanding is that prayer is powerful precisely because it’s fueled with gratitude.
One of the many things I have learned from the teachings of Dr. Wayne Dyer, is that prayer must come from a place of gratitude in order to be effective. Dr. Wayne Dyer authored dozens of self-help books throughout his lifetime, so he should know!
Using the Law of Attraction-terminology, the logic could be explained as follows.
You get more of that which you focus on. Therefore, when you focus on feeling grateful for all the good things that are already present in your life experience, you open yourself up to receive more good things – including that which you ask for in prayer.
In contrast, when your prayer comes from a place of need or even despair, your focus is on those disempowering states. You end up creating more of the same, by means of your focus. The flow of energy becomes very restricted, thus you block yourself from receiving that which you ask for. You experience that your prayer has been ignored when in reality you have made yourself unreceptive.
Trapped emotions can deviate your focus
Now, it’s not always that easy to cultivate gratitude. Life has its ups and downs, and moreover, you might have accumulated trapped emotions from difficult experiences in the past. Even though the difficult experiences are long gone, you might still carry around energy imprints from them in your energy system.
Trapped emotions are, as the term suggests, emotions that got trapped in your body. They can, in fact, keep interfering with your energy and therefore with your results, for years to come – and you’re probably unaware that they even exist! As long as you’re unaware of them, it’ll be difficult to do something about them.
If you’ve had difficult experiences in the past – whether you dealt with them in another form or not (psychotherapy, coaching, etc.) – I strongly encourage you to learn more about trapped emotions and how they can affect your business and your life. In the video presentation “How Can Energy Work Help You Succeed in Business?” you’ll learn more about this. As you’ll find out, difficult experiences that you’ve had in the past, even though they might have had strictly nothing to do with your business, can still have a negative influence on your business today because of the energies that are still inside YOU. In the world of energy, everything truly is interconnected.
Speaking of which, let’s have a closer look at how your focus works.
Your focus is a magnifying glass
Understand this and EVERYTHING in life – and in business! – will become easier for you: Your focus is a magnifying glass. It’s up to you to train yourself to focus on things that serve you well. When you do, you will create well-being for yourself and the people you surround yourself with. In an article called “Expect the best and prepare yourself for the worst!” I even get to the conclusion that as you learn to master your focus, you learn to master your destiny.
Practicing gratitude on a regular basis is beneficial in any area of life that you could think of. For instance, its productivity-boosting effects are known in the business world, as illustrated in “The Buddha and the Badass” (2020). This is an international best-seller written by Mindvalley founder and CEO Vishen Lakhiani. In this book, Vishen demonstrates how a two-minute gratitude exercise every morning, at the very beginning of the workday, yields amazing results! So simple, yet so powerful. Do check it out.
Next is the practice of SURRENDER.
Surrender
To surrender means to give up all mental and emotional resistance. Some refer to it as “leaving it in the hands of God” or “handing it over to the Universe”. Others refer to it as the “path of least resistance”. As long as there is resistance within us there’s drainage of life energy. This means that our intentions weaken and our ability to take inspired action (or any action at all, in case of high levels of resistance) diminishes.
A beautiful description of surrender can be found in spiritual teacher and public speaker Gabrielle Bernstein’s “The Universe has your back”, (2016). In this book – a #1 New York Times best-seller – Bernstein compares having full trust in the Universe with a dance. I quote:
Being in union with the energy of the Universe is like an awesome dance where you trust your partner so much that you just surrender to the beat of the music. When you begin to dance with the energy of the Universe, your life flows naturally, incredible synchronicity presents itself, creative solutions abound, and you experience freedom.
Last but not least, number 3 of our spiritual practices is FORGIVENESS.
Forgiveness
Unforgiveness means seeing things from a (very) limited perspective. If you feel that you need to forgive another person, know that forgiveness has very little to do with “the other person” – and everything to do with you!
Here’s the thing. Everybody is right from their own perspective. Not surprisingly, if “everybody” clings to their own perspective and refuses to take in any other point of view, communication will be really complicated. This is a tendency that we can observe in different settings and on different scales all over the world. Not to feel discouraged though, because you only need to take care of your own inner state – nobody else’s
Many people cling to old hurts and resentments out of habit. Those disempowering emotions and beliefs have become an integrated part of their identity. Letting go of them, therefore, implies a change – maybe a major change. Change is merely the mental label we put on the natural flow of life energy. In fact, the nature of energy is to circulate; if it becomes stagnant, it starts causing trouble in one way or another.
The perspective of change can, however, provoke reactions of mental and emotional resistance in us. This is why gratitude and surrender are such good allies in our everyday life.
You know that you have forgiven when you come to the realization that there never really was anything to forgive in the first place. Just limited perspectives that needed to broaden and/or be updated. This is similar to technologies that need to be updated regularly to correct bugs and improve overall performance.
Be compassionate with yourself
Louise Hay, an iconic influencer in the personal development world and founder of the publishing firm Hay House, was known for teaching that forgiveness is key to freedom. She used to express compassionate attitudes along these lines, and encouraged her readers/ followers to do the same:
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Everybody does the best they can with the understanding, knowledge, and awareness they have at any given moment.
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We all live the very best way we know how.
Do apply these compassionate attitudes to yourself as well. If you are like most people, you have made some decisions in the past that didn’t bring about the outcome that you expected. That’s okay. It’s all part of the learning experience. With more knowledge and increased awareness, you will make wiser decisions.
Louise’s books were the first books of personal growth that I came in contact with. The wisdom they contain still serves me today. My personal growth journey would later lead me down the entrepreneurial path, and that’s the case for many entrepreneurs. You too?
As indicated at the top of this article, you need to be consistent with your spiritual practices in order to see results. Remember, things are not always what they seem to be. Oftentimes it’s the apparently small habits that bring about the big results over time!
About the author
Susanna is a Highly Sensitive Writer, Energy Worker, and Psychologist on a mission to help raise Human Consciousness. She offers 1:1 sessions as a certified Emotion Code and Body Code Practitioner, as well as group workshops about Conscious Manifestation.