Emotional Well-Being

CURIOUS SELF: "I feel just fine and I don't think anything is wrong with me. So, Why is it important to on-goingly work on my Emotional Well-being? How to improve my Emotional Well-being? Are there any benefits to this and how to know if I am making progress?" 

Our emotional life comprises of our feelings, experiences, relationships, friendships, family, community, sense of belongingess, ability to create intimate relationships, emotional stability, passion in life, ability to influence people, ability to relate to different groups of people, ability to let go of negative feelings, ability to trust ourselves, feel confident, ability to let go of past Love Relationships, ability to surrender to the uncertain future, ability to forgive those who hurt our feelings, setting expectations with others, maintaining healthy boundaries with others, focusing on being present to our feelings, controlling our emotions, expressing our feelings authentically and being aware of our thoughts and feelings in the present moment. Being able to gently flow with our feelings and emotions, holding on to all our good feelings and letting go of any negative feelings is critical to our Emotional Well-being. It is always a joy to be around someone who is glowing and full of energy. Achieving Emotional Well-being allows us to live our lives fulfillingly. 

Before we start to create our plan on how to work on our Emotional Well-being, it is very critical to know what Emotional Well-being is NOT. Understanding this is very important because if we are misinformed or have misconceptions then it becomes tough to take effective actions. Emotional Well-being is not feeling good all the time, it is not being safe and avoid taking risks, it is not being quite and avoiding being assertive, it is not avoiding confrontation to maintain peace, it is not being passive when someone is abusing us or others, it is not being in a relationship that has no future just for the fear of being alone, it is not allowing someone to control us, it is not taking on more responsibility than we can handle, it is not being a YES person with an inability to set healthy boundaries, it is not having a false sense of happiness by ignoring others who need our support, it is not being impulsive and thinking it is being spontaneous, it is not achieving success or our goals without understanding the bigger picutre and it is not fulfilling our need for pleasure. 

Now let us understand why working on our Emotional Well-being is critical for us to living a fulfilling life. No matter how much success and wealth we have, no matter how much wisdom and knowledge we gain, no matter how healthy we are, we need to learn to connect with other human beings on a deep emotional level to feel and understand them better. Also, we need to learn to be in tune with our own feelings and emotions and to be able to control them and handle them. Suppressing feelings will only cause trouble in the future, we have to learn how to release negative feelings and harness its energy to propel us forwards, we have to learn now to align our thoughts and feelings with our goals and desires and focus on the best possible outcome without the emotional attachment, we have to learn how to feel positive and enthusiastic in order to visualize our dreams and manifest our desires, we have to learn how to lower our stress levels and spread positive happy energy to everyone we meet, we have to learn how to be emotionally stable in the most chaotic situation. Hence, working on our Emotional Well-being is very important towards living our lives fulfillingly.

Just like we created our list of Quit items for our Spiritual Well-being, we will list what are the negative things we must eliminate from our lives to ensure our Emotional Well-being and how to go about removing these things permanently from our lives. There are several emotional healing and strengthening processes that we have at our disposal to learn and practice for enhancing our Emotional Well-being.

We expand our daily practice with Top 3 Emotional Milestones along with Top 3 Spiritual Milestones and increase our practice time from 30 min to 1 hour.

Let’s pick our Top 3 Emotional Well-being items:
(1) 10 min Start Letting Go of the Past
(2) 10 min Quit Resentment
(3) 10 min Start Expressing Gratitude

There are more to choose from as we make progress:
(4) 10 min Quit Complaining
(5) 10 min Quit Blaming Others
(6) 10 min Quit Gossiping
(7) 10 min Quit Being Needy
(8) 10 min Start Expressing Happiness
(9) 10 min Start Expressing Intimacy
(10) 10 min Start Expressing Compassion

We may start to wonder how to start letting go of the past or how to stop resenting someone we dislike. The key is to use the 10 min to figure out what works for us and continue to apply our intuitive ideas. For some of us forgiveness is easy and for some of us it is difficult, either way we have to learn to forgive and move on. For some of us making new friends is easy and for some of us it is difficult, either way we have to learn to make new friends to keep our emotions balanced. For some of us letting go of the past is easy and for some of us it is difficult, either way we have to quit holding on to our old memories in order to live fully in the present moment.

HIGHER SELF: "Now it is clear why working on our Emotional Well-being is so important and necessary. Meditation helps with clearing the mind and releasing suppressed emotions. Along with meditation we have to focus on different Emotional Milestones to improve our Emotional Well-being by dedicating 30 min daily towards it and continuously learning different processes and techniques to handle emotions and creating a life of abundance and fulfillment. We Love Meditation."

We Love Meditation.

Q/A on Emotional Well-being

https://www.quora.com/My-friends-mother-recently-passed-away-and-I-abandoned-her-I-dont-feel-bad-about-it-Why

Spiritual Intimacy

We all know how emotional intimacy operates, when we spend time together, we share our life experiences, we talk, we listen, we share our success, we share our sorrow, we have fun get-togethers, we eat together, we fight, we argue, we break-up, then we make-up, we go on road trips, we go for movies, we express ourselves, we depend on our loved ones, we care for our family, we support them, we want the best for those in our lives, we simply adore, admire and respect everyone, all of this generates emotional intimacy.

Let us explore how spiritual intimacy operates, when we go to a holy place of worship, like the church, temple, mosque, monastery, chapel, gurdwara, synagogue, daoguan, derasar, fire temple, mandir, we automatically start to feel good inside, the gentle breeze, the flowers, the silence, the serenity, the incense, the candles, the music, the songs, the prayers, the chanting, the mantras, the holy water, the smiling people, the priests, the monks, the nuns, the aroma, the prasad, the communion, the fruits, the offerings, the peace, the magic, all of it comes together, time simply stops, we feel one with the divine, we feel connected with infinity, we feel amazingly awesome, this gives us a feeling of being spiritually grounded. When we volunteer for not-for-profits, donate our time, money and skills towards the betterment of society, participate in social transformation initiatives, assist our friends, colleagues, neighbors, family members, share ourselves with others, contribute wisely in times of needs and natural disasters, make a difference in someone’s life, perform random acts of kindness, we automatically start to feel good inside, we feel that we are connected with everyone, we feel that we are part of the whole, we feel the divine inspiration inside our heart. When we work on developing ourselves, take courses on business, finance, real-estate, sales, technology, professional skills, sports, dance, golf, sky-diving, public speaking, communication, healthcare, fitness, mediation, yoga, aerobics, we automatically start to feel good inside, we feel a sense of accomplishment, a healthy way to release stress, make new friends, pursue our ambitions, learn new skills, discover something fun, secure our future, work towards a promotion, we feel we are doing the right thing, we feel we are growing, building a life for ourselves, we start to care for our overall well-being.

This is the beginning of spiritual intimacy, as we keep working on our Spiritual Well-being, releasing the past, making peace with the world, seeing the divine in others, letting go of unrealistic expectations, forgiving others, forgiving ourselves, meditating regularly, honoring our bodies, resting well, regularly exercising, maintaining a balanced diet, handling temptations effectively, accepting our boundaries, communicating our feelings, developing ourselves, observing other’s behaviors, mastering our lives, being patient, finding the keys, being romantic, developing faith, going with the flow, releasing our doubts, making friends, avoiding people with unhealthy behavior tendencies, keeping our promises, our spiritual intimacy increases. We then feel a permanent connection with the divine, infinite, Universe, our Higher Self.

Sunshine

Yay, I did my workout, I did 1 hr of stretching, that felt really great, then 45 min of exercise covering 2 sets of bug crawls, 2 set of 10 knee push-ups, 2 set of 5 superman hold, 2 set of 10 lunges with 8 lbs weights and 2 set of 12 squats, the exercise was tough on me, but thinking of you I managed to get it done, I also did 30 min of meditation :) (16th Oct 2012)

Good morning sunshine, your isolation therapy is working wonders in my life, unknowingly you just solved my most significant life issue that was persistently annoying me for several years, I have been able to compartmentalize almost everything like emotions, experiences, projects, feelings, thoughts, events, future goals, yesterday my whole day was automatically blissful and I was able to easily and effortlessly neutralize any negative thoughts and feelings that arose almost instantly, yay, seems like I have hit the jackpot :) (26th Oct 2012)

Good morning sunshine, I feel emotionally very good, top of the world, ready to take on what we discussed yesterday, I will put all my practices into full action, no more resistance or holding  back, u r so cool, somehow u find a way to get me to do what is best for me, I totally love u for that :) (30th Oct 2012)

Good morning sunshine, Happy Halloween :) by the way, I am looking for health insurance, my kaiser has increased their rates and I am not even sure how this works, do u know of some good health insurance coverage? or know a good health insurance agent? (31st Oct 2012)

Good morning sunshine, I feel good, we can meet anytime in the eve, my other meeting got moved, let me know time and place, stomach and knees are good too, your isolation therapy and life charts are so effective, it makes my focus so sharp, I totally love u for being so brilliant and smart... (2nd Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, I feel emotionally and spiritually so so very good, like a permanent state of blissfulness, today I will do some cooking and mindful gobble gobble,  the sea salt meditation in the afternoon, Spanish class in the evening, I am also starting to design a wellness-spiritual program with two my friends who are into spiritual growth to bring spiritual knowledge to mass audience, staying in my safety zone protecting my feelings and emotions, isolating things and focusing on one thing at a time, also will be doing my stretching, I love you for inspiring me to self-express myself at the highest possible state of mind and happiness :) (3rd Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, feels so good, body soreness is reducing, feels more happy and connected to god, letting go more each day, being safe and blissful, I love you for bringing me closer to god and encouraging me to pray (5th Nov 2102)

Good morning sunshine, the carrot-raisin with original humus is soooo yummy, the apricot jelly is so-so though it's color and viscosity makes me happy, today I will continue mindful gobble gobble with small portions, more chewing and relaxing on the outcomes of my efforts, also praying to god for strength, being in my safe zone, isolating things one at a time, I love you for setting me free from my past… (6th Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, I feel I am so fortunate for the gifts life has bestowed upon me, today I will continue being mindful, safe and calm with food and emotions, focusing on here and now, creating a beautiful future full of happiness, I love you for being so supportive and caring to me. (7th Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, my body feels so good, the tender soreness puts me directly into my zen bliss, my emotions are very bubbly, I feel so connected with the Universe, will be going for sea salt meditation, doing light stretching, staying in my highest spiritual safety zone, surrendering the outcomes to god, creating a future of dynamic possibilities, I love you for being so kind and sweet to me. (8th Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, my body soreness has reduced, today I have my massage at 11, then my food coaching with the best fitness guru on the planet at 2, practicing portion control, slow eating, chewing the food more, finding ways to distract the mind when food is being used to fill emotions, being happy with what life gives me, not focusing on the outcome rather enjoying the journey, using isolation to be present here and now to the fullest, being open to receiving healing energy, I love you for being a positive source of wellbeing in my life. (9^th Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, body feels good so does my emotional state, today's focus is on slow eating, chewing food a lot, smaller portions, small stretch breaks at work, smiling a lot, being stress-free, expressing gratitude, being in safety zone, isolating things for bring more present, sea salt meditation, softening my heart, praying for surrender, I love you for anchoring me in divine presence of abundance and joy. (11^th Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, yesterday later during the day my back was sore, I enjoyed it a lot, my portion control is getting much better, my slowing down is also improving, I am giving more attention to flavor, texture and taste, chewing is getting better, your isolation therapy is continuing to work it's magic on me, I am totally able to be present to my thoughts, feelings, surroundings, goals, emotions, my body soreness too, it's a magical experience, my emotions are stable, no more anxiety or stress, no more anger or resentment, total freedom, I love you for bringing me inner-fulfillment. (12^th Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, I feel so excited about life, my food mastery is going to higher levels each day, I feel like a king eating small portions all day, enjoying my royal entrees and palace kitchen gourmet, our army of ideas are winning the battles, the enemy fear, anger, anxiety and over-eating have been defeated, the kingdom is happy and celebrating success, I love you for being my wellness center discussion partner. (13^th Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, today I feel so grateful for the things in my life, I feel so happy with the progress I have made, I feel so content with my life, as life unfolds each day is god's gift full of precious moments of joy, I see our wellness center thriving, giving hope and well-being to those who need it most, I see peace in our world where all care for each other, I see tranquility as an everyday experience for everyone, I see love blossom and take over the planet, I love you for being open to all my reflections. (15^th Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, I still feel the energy of the gym, it's like a divine palace of wellness, body is a little sore as expected, spiritually I feel so uplifted and connected to god, emotionally I feel so exuberant and connected to love, physically I feel so transformed and connected to my body, by the way, last night u arrived in my dream and saved me from the evil demons, some of my nightmares are quite scary so thanks for protecting me, I love you for enrolling me in 24hr fitness and opening a new world in my life. (16th Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, reached at chrio a few min early, being mindful of the run in the rain, my left calf is little sore from Thu workout, I am excited and surrendering to the divine, I love you for organizing the 5k. (17th Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, my left knee, calf and heel are all hurting, I feel like a little puppy while limping around, today I will do stretching, plenty of mindfulness, planning for our wellness center, giving gratitude, praying for creating peace on earth, learning more about life, finding inner-fulfillment and joy, making each day of my life special, spreading healing loving energy, I hope u had a great thanksgiving party and your race today is full of excitement and pleasure, I love you for contributing in the community farming project and being so compassionate towards others, u have a golden heart :) (18th Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, we have to do food discussion tonight, my left leg is still being stubborn and sore, yesterday was very relaxing, I watched two Korean movies, they are very emotional and touching, made me cry, today I want to be free from all my worries so I will practice the love and kindness meditation, my daddy turned 63 this week and loved my poem on parenthood from church, my old business partners left me voice-mail but I am still annoyed at them, I love you for listening my stories without judging me. (19th Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, today I am going to be super mindful and eat three fruits, infact from this day on I will eat fruits daily, I will budget more time planning for food so that I have more control, I will come up with creative ideas to make the fruits more yummy, like eating them with McDonalds French fries and hot chocolate, haha, just kidding, I will make one trip to the cafe just for fruits, since I love water melons I will eat more of that as well, I love you for making me eat more fruits. (20^th Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, today evening after work I will go check-out the 24hr gym in Sunnyvale and do my workout, I will eat fruits during the day, sorry about annoying you yesterday, did not mean to hurt your feelings, I was just being my silly-self, I will continue practicing mindfulness and be present in the here and now, I love you for sending me valuable information that will help in building our wellness center. (21^st Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, thanks a lot for your encouraging words, it means a lot to me, I am back to my super-zen-calm self again, we can meet at 137 n santa Cruz, LG, Tandoori Oven at 2 pm, I have drafted the outline of our wellness center that I will bring along, I also shared it online with you, I love you for being so kind to me. (23^rd Nov)

Good morning sunshine, life is good, I feel more at peace, surrendering to God, I will continue working on our Wellness center, being mindful of food, making the most of what life has to offer, setting strong intentions for our future, experiencing divine love, letting go of past, developing a soft heart, I love you for being wonderful. (24^th Nov)

Good morning sunshine, body is sore, loved the lower back exercise, we gotta do that more often, let's meet at the starbucks next to wholefood after adjustment and you can take me food shopping, still in my Zen mode, life is beautiful, I love you for taking me farming, it was so much fun. (26^th Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, lower back soreness has reduced, yesterday dinner I ate too fast, I was very mindful yet I did not feel like slowing down, I need to focus more on slowing down when I want to gobble down the food, during the day I was super slow so very happy about that, I watched a movie at sea salt meditation yesterday, Angela was telling me how hard it was for them to build the center and all the troubles that they had to go through to finally start the therapy, I love you, you are the inspiration for our wellness center. (28^th Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, I feel so so so good, life has suddenly turned into paradise, the tiny rain drops, the mischievous squirrels, the awesome people, the divine presence, the yummy food, all so perfect, I just wish this stays the same forever, I feel so happy lazy for workout, would not mind skipping and just being in my bliss, nevertheless let me know what time to meet, wish I could run away from you, haha, I love you, it's amazing you show me new exercises every time. (29^th Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, I give my gratitude to all the fitness professionals that make our lives healthy and joyful, in today's fast life of processed foods and sugar treats, it is the dedication and wisdom of our fitness gurus to keep us eating organic and mindful, life is much beautiful when lived as God planned in a healthy and pure way, I love you, you are my guide sent by God to protect me from all evil. (30^th Nov 2012)

Good morning sunshine, today is a new beginning filled with mindfulness and bliss, I will be relaxed and enjoy each moment with great gratitude and excitement, as I explore more about food I learnt that lemon juice fights cancer 10000 times more powerfully than kimo therapy and no side effects, we are so lucky mother nature has provided us with natural cures for everything, all we have to do is trust in God that we are safe, I love you, you are like my lemon juice fighting for me each step of the way. (1^st Dec 2012)

Good morning sunshine, body is sore as expected, wish I could lay in bed all day, this feels so good, am I in paradise? I think I am, heaven on earth, I loved the slow push-ups, that was really cool, the stabilization was fun too, and the ab crunches on the round thingy was amazing, we are meeting at 8:30 pm at starbucks near whole foods, I love you, your energy and aura is divine. (3^rd Dec 2012)

Good morning sunshine, you looked really beautiful yesterday, just like a true princess, though we still need to get your finger-nails more princess like, body is still sore, mind is still in Zen mode, emotions are still a roller coaster ride, time is still frozen, life is still blissful, peace is still within, love is still abundant, spirit is still pure, I love you, food shopping with you is great fun. (4^th Dec 2012)

Good morning sunshine, hope you are feeling better now and you reached safely to Reno, may you focus well on the project and learn a ton of good stuff, life gives us many choices, may you choose wisely the products, services and seminars you select to attend, I love you Kira, you make me so happy :) (5^th Dec 2012)

Good morning sunshine, hope your trip was a great learning experience and we reach the heights of wellness services together making our wellness center the world's largest and most effective organization the mission of which is to empower all to reach peak wellness, I love you Kira, you are very precious to me. (6^th Dec 2012)

Good morning sunshine, our conversation on choice was so beautiful, as I start to let go of the future too I feel more and more liberated, I have started to choose smaller that makes me more happier, I have started to focus on feeling more than thinking, I have started to be more relaxed than anxious, I love you Kira, you are my kale chips, full of nutrition, tasty, crunchy, healthy, yummy, delicious, the more I be with you the more I want to be with you. (7^th Dec 2012)

Good morning sunshine, I feel like a brand new Ferrari, totally free and emotionally super-stable, like a space rocket ready for take-off to explore new worlds, like God heard my prayers and in one simple blessing transformed my whole being, now I know who I am, now I know how to live, now I know what to do, now I know how to be happy, now I know how to trust, now I  know how to smile again, I love you Kira, you are my rainbow, beautiful, colorful, magnificent, divine, elegant, you show up on the rainy days and make me happy, you fill my life with joy, you are God's rare and special creation, you fill up the whole sky. (8^th Dec 2012)

My 10 year long blind spot was a simple principle that I was unable to comprehend for years, ironically you have mentioned to me many many times before, when we were running the 5K you said we should be grateful for opportunity to be experiencing such a great race, we should look for the good in others, we should not look for perfection, we should find happiness in small things, we should accept ourselves the way we are, we should focus on one thing deeply rather than many things randomly, yesterday I read a quote by Sam Keen on how we should learn to look for perfection even though everything around us is imperfect, that totally did it for me, the exact quote is: “We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.” by Sam Keen. I know I am now totally free, phew, all the money and time I spent healing myself, it finally gave me the freedom I deeply desired, now I can totally focus all my energy on the wellness center and make my contribution to the human race :) (8^th Dec 2012)

You have made your choice of not wanting to be my girlfriend and future wife, I respect your decision as I am sure you have good reasons for making this choice, now it's time for me to move on and continue my soulmate search elsewhere, if you ever want to explore your feelings with me in future, feel free to get in touch with me and if at that time I am available and if it works for me to participate then I will be happy to oblige, please let me know how many sessions we did in early Dec and a postal address to mail your check, I wish you the best in life. One final poem for you, I love you Kira, you are one of the best things that happened to me, too bad it was too short lived and we could not get God's blessings to be together, keep smiling, running and praying, God will bring great happiness, success and joy into your life, until life crosses our paths again, take care and God Bless. (13th Dec 2012)

I worked with Kira on a 6 month wellness building program during which time I successfully was able to lose 10 lbs and increase my endurance for workouts from 15 min to 60 min. Kira taught me about different exercise plans that were engaging and challenging at my fitness level. We used a combination of Cardio and Strength Building exercises to keep different muscle groups working hard and strong. My favorite exercises are the bear crawls, kettlebells and squats. Along with an exercise plan we also worked on transforming my food eating habits, the results I achieved were slowing down while eating, quit sugar completely, control over late night snacking, daily eating of fruits and/or vegetables, food portion control, eating 5 to 6 small meals every 3 hrs during the day, eating breakfast daily, eating more home cooked food, creating a safety zone for myself during eating, mindful eating while focusing on flavors, texture, color, taste and aroma, enjoying flavored water, allowing to let food leftovers go to waste, trying new types foods on regular basis, etc. I also participated in my first 5K race with Kira and clocked about 36 min. She inspired me to sign-up for the 5K, participated along with me and matched my running pace to keep me encouraged. With Kira's help I was able to achieve my fitness goals with ease and confidence while transforming many of my old unhealthy habits to sustainable new healthier life-long habits. For any of your food plan designs, exercise plans designs and overall fitness goals to achieve peak wellness I highly recommend working with Kira for support, guidance and inspiration. All the best. (21^st Feb 2013)

We Love Meditation... :-)

Spiritual Well-being

WEAKER SELF: “I am too young to think about spiritual things. I am too busy and there is no value in learning about spirituality. I don’t like to mediate. I am very successful and I don’t think there is any higher power or divine energy. Life is too short and I want to enjoy it. If I become spiritual then I will have to give away all my money. Spiritual people are boring and they are from a cult. Spiritual people take drugs and are not responsible towards society. Why do I have to care about the whole world? I have money problems so I cannot go to any of these spiritual courses. I don’t have time for this. Most spiritual leaders and so-called gurus are fake. Spiritual Well-being? What does that mean?”

Our spiritual life comprises of our deep inner core values, our belief systems, our views of life, our inner knowingness, our connection with others, our inner contentment, our willingness to let go and surrender, our awareness of our states of being, our compassion towards others, our desire to create peace and harmony, our willingness to accept things as they are, our ability to be at peace, our ability to forgive others, our time we spend in meditation and prayer, our dedication to our inner calling, our ability to listen to our inner voice, our commitment towards the survival of the human race, our ability to grow and learn new philosophies about life, our desire to contribute to the great good of humanity, our desire to spend time with mother nature, our innate nature to be carefree and relaxed and our connection with divine energy. In order to live a fulfilling life, our spiritual life must be balanced and we must work on our Spiritual Well-being. So what does it mean to work on our Spiritual Well-being and how to create a practical routine that is easy to follow, that is fun to do, that is inspiring and that does not involve hours of pains taking effort and complicated steps and processes?

HIGHER SELF: “I strive to continuously eliminate all my spiritual weakness and focus on my Spiritual Well-being. I mediate regularly and feel a deep connection with everyone around me. Each day is a new beginning and I embrace all that life offers me with an open heart.”

There are six steps towards creating our Spiritual Well-being:

  (1) To figure out what Spiritual Well-being is NOT

  (2) To understand why we must work on our Spiritual Well-being everyday 

  (3) To eliminate negative habits from our lives

  (4) To figuring out what spiritual processes works for us

  (5) To create a daily spiritual practice routine specifically for ourselves

  (6) To implement our spiritual routine, it into our lives seamlessly

These six steps done on a regular basis will ensure our Spiritual Well-being and take us one step closer towards living a fulfilling life. Before we start to create our plan on how to work on our Spiritual Well-being, it is very critical to know what Spiritual Well-being is NOT. Understanding this is very important because if we are misinformed or have misconceptions then it is very difficult and next to impossible to take effective actions because of confusion and misguidance. 

• It is not visiting places of worship

• It is not practicing religious rituals

• It is not having blind faith

• It is not believing in old doctrines or old philosophies

• It is not feeling superior to others because we help them

• It is not feeling significant

• It is not reading books of faith

• It is not remotely adopting a child from an underdeveloped nation and feeling good about it

• It is not merely listening to the word of god and being entertained by the religious speaker

• It is not hoping that god will solve all our problems for us

• It is not wishful thinking

• It is not being part of a religious group

• It is not being part of a consciousness movement

• It is not trying to coach others

• It is not trying to fix things

• It is not attending a spiritual retreat

• It is not joining a study group

• It is not creating concepts and theories in our minds

• It is not being isolated and unaccommodating

• It is not being closed minded

Basically, anything that demands too much out of us, or has too many rules and restrictions, or tries to control us, or expects us to control others, or does not create inner bliss, or is not real and present in front of us, or seems too difficult or complicated is NOT spiritual in nature.

The next step is to understand why working on our Spiritual Well-being is critical for us to living a fulfilling life. This is very important because unless we have not 100% realized that Spiritual Well-being is super important for us to living a fulfilling life, even if we have all the steps and daily practice routine available to us, we will simply not follow it and procrastinate or be lazy. So, let’s try to figure out why our Spiritual Well-being is so important, why just not focus on our Financial Well-being, make sure we have plenty of wealth and simply enjoy our life, why just not only focus on being healthy and physically fit and be done with it, why not just get married and live out a blissful life.

The reason we need to focus on our Spiritual Well-being is because no matter how much we achieve our goals, no matter how healthy we are, no matter how secure we feel in our family, all that is external to us, focusing on our inner self is the essence of our Spiritual Well-being and only when our inner selves are strong and balanced it is then that our outer reality becomes stable and protected.

Basically, our lives are a reflection of our deep inner core beliefs. If we ever wondered why something in our life was not working, then it is not because of any outer circumstances or events, it is because our inner self in that area of life was misfiring and misaligned. Feeding the inner self with the right and positive information and protecting it from the wrong and negative energy is very critical for maintaining our Spiritual Well-being. Along with figuring out what Spiritual Well-being is NOT let us continue to keep focusing on WHY we must continue working on our Spiritual Well-being everyday of our lives.

Let us recap our steps...

  (1) To figure out what Spiritual Well-being is NOT

  (2) To understand WHY we must work on our Spiritual Well-being everyday

  (3) To eliminate negative things from our lives

  (4) To figuring out what spiritual processes works for us

  (5) To create a daily spiritual practice routine specifically for our self

  (6) To implement our spiritual routine, it into our lives seamlessly

These six steps done on a regular basis will ensure our Spiritual Well-being and take us one step closer towards living a fulfilling life. There are several spiritual processes that we have at our disposal to learn and practice. Next what are the negative habits we must eliminate from our lives to ensure our Spiritual Well-being and how to go about removing these habits permanently from our lives.

During the third step we have to always be very cautious as to what we are consuming and how to evaluate if the process is working for us or not. The best way is to take a few minutes and focus on how we feel about a specific process and only if we really enjoy it we must continue. If we have any doubts or we feel uneasy then we move on and find something new and different. As we explore different spiritual processes we must keep a log or maintain a way to track our progress. Sometimes we may like something very much but since we have not yet developed our strong habits we may let it slip by. It’s fine at this stage, however, if we have all the information handy then it will make things easier as we go to the next phase. Even after we have developed and implemented our spiritual practice we must on-goingly keep experimenting with new techniques, we never know we might find something truly amazing, something we had not even imagined was possible. Once we have sufficient experiences with different spiritual processes we must select those we want to be committed to by developing a plan of action to make it into a daily regular habit for ourselves.

For step five, now we need all the help we can get here, we must ask our friends, family members and whoever is willing to support us to keep us on track. Set 30 min every day to focus on our Spiritual Well-being by doing the Top 3 Spiritual Milestones that we choose to be committed to for the month.

Let’s say our Top 3 items we chose are

  (1) 10 min Start Meditation

  (2) Quit Coffee

  (3) 10 min Start Spiritual Reading.

Let’s pick a time, Every day at 7 pm. So, we must now clear out our calendar for 7 pm for 30 min till 7:30 pm for the next one month. At this point if we feel overwhelmed that we cannot set-up our time in our calendar, then we should not attempt to start training for our daily spiritual practice because most likely it will be ineffective and demotivate us. We have to first address time management. Making time is easy if we plan in advance. First call up all our friends and family members and tell them that for next two-three months 7 pm are scheduled for our spiritual practice. Then set-up our daily alarms for 7 pm. Then avoid making plans for 7 pm. After a few days automatically 7 pm will be available for us. This way we are guaranteed not to miss our daily practice. At this point once we feel that we can confidently do our daily practice without interruption we can start with our Top 3 Spiritual Milestones.

So being with 10 min Start Meditation and then 10 min Start Spiritual Reading. Then for the next 10 min think of ways to Quit Coffee. Do this every day for the next one month. The first week will be tough, the second week will get easier, the third week will get much easier. Now, you will find that some items are easy and some items are difficult. In the beginning simply focus on just the easy items. Park the difficult items for later. Once we feel that out of the Top 3 Spiritual Milestones we are comfortable with 2 then we can replace the 2 items with new 2 items and focus on the 1 difficult item now.

Let’s say 10 min Start Spiritual Reading and Quit Coffee was easy, but 10 min Start Meditation was difficult. After a month we now have a new set of Top 3 Spiritual Milestones

  (1) 10 min Start Meditation

  (2) Quit TV

  (3) 10 min Start Yoga

Now everyday practice these Top 3 Spiritual Milestones. Step five is the foundation of taking action and getting the results, we want. We have to be very patient and have small milestones in the beginning. Pick Top 3 Spiritual Milestones that we like the most and make it into a habit. Each month adjust the Top 3 Spiritual Milestones accordingly. During a given month only focus on the Top 3 Spiritual Milestones. This way we are conserving our energy and making steady progress in our Spiritual Well-being. Whenever we hit a wall or results are not as expected we simply change the Top 3 Spiritual Milestones to easier ones and continue to build our Spiritual Skills. Remember the key to success is to make things simple. If something is complicated then break it down into simple steps and smaller milestones. As long as we are doing our daily practice we are making progress. This is the beginning of step six where we are integrating our daily habits into our lifestyle. As we do this regularly we are working on our Spiritual Well-being and learning how to live a fulfilling life. Similarly, we will create the list of Quit items and Start items for the other areas of our live namely Physical Well-being, Emotional Well-being and Financial Well-being and slowly incorporate them into our daily practice. Remember, slow change is permanent change and creating a balanced harmonious healthy lifestyle will take time, effort and practice. We have to find what works for our individual needs, we have to find what techniques are effective for us, we have to find what is easy for us to do and then we have to keep doing things that work and stop doing things that don’t work.

We Love Meditation... :-)