All of us want it and yet most of us are bowed down because of the lack of it. Living abundantly, for those who found it, does not take much. All it takes are simple measures that would not cost anything aside from a change in attitude. Honesty and goodwill does it while for the most times, fear of poverty hinders it. Here are proven practical steps:

Give. It is so ironic that people who give are those who have more. It is not true that those who are able to give can because they live on excess, as most people believe. On the contrary, people who give attracts powers in the universe (unbelievable though it may sound) to have more for them to give more. When giving is practiced, without expecting any in return, the person ultimately lives abundantly. Attracting the power of receiving is done through the practice of giving.

This is not easy, because if it is, everyone would have been living abundant lives by now. People who refuse the gift of being able to give have closed fists if you will and are miserable. This is why they are called misers. People who give are raised several notches more, they are happy. They also get the cooperation of everyone around, they get the reputation of being trusted, of being good hearted, and so the opportunity keeps pouring in.

Be Honest. Being honest goes beyond telling the truth. Being honest, is freeing the mind of encumbrances that slows people down. Dishonesty severs relationships and builds the image of untrustworthiness putting other people off. When that happens, opportunities get less, cooperation with other people is not achieved, loneliness sets in, more than that, there is confusion in the mind that affects even the simplest of better judgment further eroding the persons capabilities. In today’s world where everything is measured in cents and dimes, honesty is rare. Because it is, honesty is a very valuable asset. Honest people have clearer minds, better dispositions and could spot opportunities, not traps, whenever there is one.

Believe that there is enough for everyone. Scientists agree that the resources of the world could sufficiently provide even when the current world population is tripled. That is more than enough. The most successful people are people who recognized this and came up with ideas to harness the world’s resources to work for them. Everyone can.

Be Grateful. Gratefulness is recognizing that you have what you have and pleased to have it. It breeds contentment that enables you to move forward. When you are not pulled back by resentment, you move faster onward. Focusing on the good things in your life is focusing on the achievements that you otherwise would not have made. Focusing on positive things also relieves the mind of anger that have always resulted to having less or not being contented that results to greed which is more deadly. Gratefulness relaxes the mind.

When the mind is relaxed there is peace. If there is peace the person is better prepared to think of better ideas. Positive thoughts are energies. Energies attract the same energy. Positivity attracts the positive. Then you live more abundantly.

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We live in an abundant world. The purpose of the abundance is so that we live happy, contented lives. Everyone has the right to it. That is how life is meant to be. It has often been suggested that every day, fourteen trillion dollars exchange hands and yet many of us suffer the lack, bowed down by life in fact. Basically, it all boils down to how we perceive money.

Money is a neutral energy. It has a value attributed by society that is a vehicle for us to exchange for materials needed to live. Spirituality that neglects money matters is ignorant spirituality. Mention spirituality that neglects money matters to people bent already from working all day without getting enough to pay for the basic necessities in life and chances are good for being scorned for hypocrisy.

On the other hand, people who have enough money have greater options to pursue better things to enrich the soul. It is the acquisition of it, whatever the cost like trampling other people down in the process and disregarding everything else is what makes it not spiritually edifying. Money and the meaning it brings are directly proportional to how well you are able to tap into the spiritual energy for creating wealth. This does not mean though that people who are very wealthy are spiritual, far from it. In the same manner, it also does not mean that people who have less money are always less happy. There are general principles, though, that improves the chances of tapping into the spiritual energy that prepares us to acquire wealth.

To Have or Not To Have
This is self-image. Whatever we want happens. All of us have the potential to have or not to have, to be or not to be. We could be a vegetarian, a football fan, a family man, a priest, a star or a eunuch. The choices are endless. No matter, it still boils down to how we perceive things and how we react to them. If we believe in our hearts that we could be a millionaire without the self-doubt, we can. Faith and belief that is certain and with conviction, without inner conflicts ultimately prepares all of us to achieve things that other people could only call luck. Believing in who you are and what you are capable of doing starts the ball of opportunity rolling to your direction. All that is left is your ability to recognize it and act on it.

Thoughts
Everything starts with thoughts. Where you are now, how you have become, your house, your job, your wife, your choices are results of thought processes that you entertained years ago. The freedom to choose is not really freedom if the thought process has limited your choices to only those that you think are impossible. If you think you are the victim, you will act like one. If you think you are the innovator, you will one day find the opportunity to be one. Thinking is power. It directs life to how we should become. It also limits it when we choose to. The first freedom is to choose to free the thoughts from limitations. Then other processes set in. Rene Descartes would not have said it any better “I think therefore I am”.

Speech
Words are very powerful. Speech follows whatever we think. When we say something, we declare to ourselves what we want to become and we believe it. Believing is one of the greatest of motivators and so speak something, declare it, be convinced by it. When doubt is not entertained in the mind, actions will follow.

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Man’s natural inclination is to believe in something higher than the self. This is true across all cultures, a center of the formation of most traditions, where human interactions and laws are based, and where the core of morality is founded on.

True there are people who deny belief in someone higher than the self, in someone who is far more powerful and far more magnificent. It is ironic that people who do not believe in powers higher than they are go to lengths at proving something that they do not believe in. To fight, to struggle, and argue over something that do not exist without offering compelling truths is madness. After all cultures and nations that believe less in spirits and spiritual aids are nations that has the highest suicide rates.

We have the right to be happy. Our constitution assures that, our elders protected us because of that, all our strengths direct us to achieve that. The “hole” that we sink into as we journey through life is the notion that happiness is promoted by acquiring much more than we require. The higher the tag price, the happier we are supposed to be. A shiny automobile, winning the lottery, a big house in the best location, fame, name it, everything has been tried. Yet even when these have been proven time and again to be the downfall of us, the effort is still to acquire and bank happiness on that which is temporal. As the song goes, ‘when will we ever learn’? To some readers, this is a load of crap. But look deep and this is true.

The contention of people who do not believe in spirituality, higher spirits, and us as eternal beings is that wars, sadness, grief, pathos were due to religious and spiritual conflicts. This is bull. The cause of sadness and wars is greed, not religion, not spirituality. It is the desire to outdo the other to get the upper hand, to dominate, to enforce the will that causes grief and conflicts. More than anything else, it is the love of the self while everything else is secondary, if not dispensable.

Are leaders of wars supposed to be above this? They are, supposedly. Overtime, greed and acquisition creeps in and then the cycle goes if not, it is because conflicts were started on the premise of having more, and of righting a perceived wrong that was done imaginary or not, true or not.

Man’s only purpose is to be. Always, without exemption, to be is to be creative. We are the only creation that is creative and thereby are co-creators. We are not fully alive unless we create positively. To create positively is to go outside of the self. Notice those who served a lot and gave a lot achieved a lot and is remembered best. They are the guideposts of everything that is good and everything we secretly aspire for. The truth is we are created out of good and will never be happy if we do not aspire for what is good.

The best thing is that the same Creator that made you and I, who keeps on providing for you and I, the source of happiness, wants nothing back.

This same God, whether denied or not, believed or not, keeps on loving even while being blasphemed.

Tags: bank happiness, Big House, Contention, Downfall, Elders, Eternal Beings, Greed, Grief, Happiness, Higher Spirits, Holding Nothing, Human Interactions, Morality, Natural Inclination, Pathos, Religious Conflicts, Sadness, Spiritual Aids, Suicide Rates, Tag Price, Winning The Lottery —

Spiritual growth has always been integral to an individual’s sense of well being, even before mankind has conceptualized the term and digested it in a multitude of ways that it eventually sprung up different methodologies on how one can build upon it. You name it – yoga, karma, or maybe reincarnation. There are so many that they range from the most mystical to the most practical. But whether you are already treading your own “spiritual path”, or in deep need of spiritual fulfillment, a deep understanding of what spirituality is can be very helpful in more ways than one.

In order for us to fully comprehend what spirituality means, perhaps it is essential that we discuss the meaning of the root word itself, which is spirit. Spirit is an intangible property, one that alludes to something incorporeal, something mysterious and not bound by the material world. The most hailed scholar and physicist, Albert Einstein, alluded to spirituality through these words: “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious – the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.” This brings us to the two things that he mentioned – art and science. These two indulgences have dominated human’s consciousness in the process of achieving answers to the mysteries that have confounded us about the universe. These two distinct establishments, polar opposites they may be, have paved the way to advancement in the realm of technology and human awareness.

The search for answers is deeply rooted to our innate need to gain knowledge about ourselves, and how we are connected to everything around us. Mundane activities like fixing a car engine or observing an ant farm are unconscious manifestations of that need, and in consequence, related to spirituality. You only have to read Robert M. Pirsig’s magnum opus, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, to understand what I’m talking about. While this contradicts the idea of spirituality as something not bound in the material world, these physical avenues are helpful channels that allow us to achieve that transcendence, and in turn present to us a peek into the mysterious.

Some individuals achieve spiritual sustenance through the means of meditation. Meditation is a process of serious contemplation, or turning inward to reach a profound state of peacefulness, focus and awareness. The practice of meditation has originated from the Eastern cultures, and has been adapted by the West in the form of prayer. Buddhist monks are astute in their belief that meditation is the way to Enlightenment, which explains the sanguine temperament by which they deal with other people.

A common misconception most individuals make is having the notion that spirituality is exclusive to religion. While it’s true that religion has helped a lot of people to lead spiritual lives, it only represents a few facets that constitute the full meaning of spirituality. Spirituality is a confluence, a heightened understanding of what we are and how we are connected to the whole spectrum of existence, and the discernment that every little thing is equally essential and dependent on each other.

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