In anxious times the focus on fear seems constant and yet extremely unhelpful. Neither the body nor the mind can adapt to fear for long stretches of time without causing bad effects. If you feel fearful and you want to feel differently, what path should you take? 

People tend to be unsuccessful at finding a way out of anxiety.  That’s because the two most common responses to anxiety are denial and distraction. By ignoring your anxiety or doing something that takes your mind off it, you might find temporary relief. But is there something more permanent and effective? 

In most people’s minds abundance and lack are opposites—it is obvious which countries are rich and poor. But even in a wealthy society, abundance meets troubling obstacles of economic and social inequality. The path to success is rocky for nearly everyone, and making more money doesn’t save you from feeling insecure inside. When you combine these factors with the prevailing belief that success depends on hard work, struggle, and fiercely competitive drive, the whole picture is gloomy and at best filled with risks.

I think that the picture is distorted. The secret to abundance lies within, and there is a path to it without struggle achievable by everyone. This is the path laid out in detail in my new book, Abundance: The Inner Path to Wealth . It proposes an inner path that is completely compatible with spiritual growth and personal evolution. Let’s clear away at once the notion that spirituality is the opposite of material success.

Religion can be defined as a set of belief systems. The belief usually concerns one or more powers that guide the path of people throughout existence, explain how the world itself came into being, and lay out the proper "way" of living.

I have always loved the statement “The most involved are the most evolved.” I have experienced this as truth so many times in meeting people throughout the country and learning how valuable their spiritual path is to them and the energy they put into it.

Stephen Covey says, “It is easy to say ‘no’ when deep within there is a burning desire to say ‘Yes.’” A number of years ago, I realized that I longed to have my spiritual path be a priority to me and yet I always had reasons to be BUSY and put it off. I lived in the them / me world. Let me get everything else in order and then I will create this special time for myself. Let me help them and then I can help myself.

Who knew anger could be so good for you? The Enlightened Rebel, of course.

This path is infused with fire and whenever you walk it, you travel to the beat of a different drum. You are a rebel with a cause paving the way for others. And when you get to where this part of the journey leads you, understand intuitively the door will open for you. (No need to break it down).

The Enlightened Rebel travels South in the direction of summer. Along this path we learn how to live from a full, clear, strong, and open heart that is filled with compassion and fused with fire.

In a recent blog, I talked about a powerful technique I learned while studying in England. My tutors taught me how to move away from feeling down and low during challenging times and to “think up” so I could get back on the path of clarity and purpose. If you're feeling anything like me, then as we move through this particularly challenging time with Covid, it's so important to deal with any fears and anxieties, and to start to get back on your path of purpose. So, what better time than right now!

Here's an exercise to help you connect with your higher consciousness. You will even be able to ask questions for a little extra guidance. Let’s begin:

Sit in a comfortable chair. Close your eyes and relax. Now I want you to bring your awareness to the bottom of your feet. Let your breath assist you in transferring the relaxing energy up through the bottom of your feet. Slowly work your way up your calves, your thighs, your abdomen, your chest, your fingers, your hands, your arms, your shoulders, your neck, your face … right to the top of your head.

Now imagine that there’s a big funnel starting to form on top of your head, reaching out into the universe. Think of it as a vortex of energy reaching upward. Let your awareness constantly flow up and out of your head and into this funnel above you. All the information you want can be brought to you.

Each of us has a dominant theme in this incarnation.

Some of us are primarily head-tripping. Most of us lead with our hearts. We have these incredibly intricate mosaics for describing our individual differences. These differences have an interesting place in the scheme of things; are they real or false?

Part of how we define our inner work is that we learn to listen to all these individual differences. Then we can determine what our particular path is.

For each individual, there is a unique karmic predicament, and for each individual, there is a unique dharmic possibility. It’s called ‘dharma,’ meaning ‘practice’ or ‘path.’ Very rarely, you know it beforehand. Most of the time, you don’t even know of it when you are doing it. It sort of sneaks up on you, because nothing else works. By the time you understand your dharma, you’re practically finished using it, but it’s not terribly important that you know everything about where you’re at.

The path of awakening is not one where we are eternally feeling good. Along it, it is inevitable that we move through moments and periods of not feeling good at all. As unsettling and disconcerting as this may be ultimately, as the spiritual beings that we are, we have not come here to feel eternally good but to get eternally free.

The spiritual path is all about releasing and letting go of that which no longer serves us

Awakening is not about adding anything onto us. It is not really about learning anything new either. But it is about releasing, letting go and unlearning. Inherently, we already are all that we will ever be. We already are as awakened as we will ever be. We already are as spiritual as we will ever be. The Divine is already inherently within us, and nothing can ever be added onto it to make it more or bigger.

However as we incarnate onto this planet we learn to create stories and fantasies about reality. Some are of our own making. Some we have inherited from the world. From our parents, relatives, guardians, society, culture. These oftentimes are stories that keep us small and limited.

The ego's mantra is: I am not enough and there is not enough. And so, most of the stories we buy into, arise from that perception. It is a limited perception keeping the inherent Divine Light from shining brightly.

More people than ever have undertaken a spiritual path of their own, independently of organized religion. “I’m not religious, but I’m spiritual” has become a common expression, and I count myself among those who struck out on their own as a seeker. My search has covered a lot of ground over the years, from mind-body medicine to quantum physics, higher consciousness, the future of God, and personal transformation.

What all of these disparate topics have in common is reality, in the sense that everyday reality is hiding from view the “real” reality that needs to be unveiled. (Readers might want to look at last week’s post, “Unveiling Reality,” which details what it means to unveil reality.) There’s no question that the five senses detect the world in a very limited way, since they give no clue that molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles exist, not to mention genes and DNA. But unveiling a deeper physical reality is far from the whole story.

We all have moments when we feel lost and unsure of what is going on, where we are going or what to do next.

What if in your greatest darkness when you felt lost, you were actually much closer to where you needed to be?

It’s scary to sit in the unknown. It’s often easier to go back to the familiar comforts of your old life. But this only leads to more of the same.