Inner Work for Outer Results

INTRODUCTION You can live in happiness. You can love yourself. You can become your own best friend. You can have joy and contentment in your life. It is possible. It takes work and practice, but it is worth it. I’ll tell you how. That’s what this book is about. Ancient spiritual practices teach that inner thoughts, feelings, and emotional patterns impact our outer lives. Those who believe in God may call it the power of prayer, guardian angels, or miracles. Regardless of the particular words you use, the experience is real and powerful. It is possible to change the outer world through inner work. And when you experience it, it will feel divine. We have access to unlimited energy, to unconditional love, to the energy that created the universe. The same energy that created the stars and the trees created us, each of us. We are made of the same stuff. We have stardust in our atoms. We have the energy of the big bang within us. But most of the time we don’t believe it. Or we forget. We remember hurt, pain, or disappointment instead. We think about limitation. Or we don’t think we’re worthy. And those things make us close our hearts and not allow that unlimited energy to flow through us. But we can let go of our pain, we can feel that we are worthy, and we can allow the energy of the big bang to flow through us. Learning to open to this energy is spiritual practice. We all have conscious behaviors and subconscious ones. To live a happy, healthy life, and to open to unconditional love, you have to work with both your conscious and subconscious mind. You will have to observe both your conscious thoughts and your deeply held subconscious patterns. And then you will have to commit to changing unhealthy thoughts and behaviors to healthy thoughts and behaviors. It will require practice, discipline, commitment, and some patience. You must decide that you want to love yourself and be happy. And you must believe you can. The results are worth the effort. If you’re interested, keep reading. What to expect in this book This book tells my journey from a spontaneous, lifesaving experience of the divine to a practice of cultivating a steady experience of the divine while living a normal, practical life. My goal is to share real world methods to help you come into deeper contact with the divine. I’ve tried to distill esoteric knowledge and practices into simple instruction for daily living. Given that we live in a diverse, multi-cultural and connected world, I share my thoughts on the unity of spiritual experience as well. My perspective is as a fellow student and spiritual traveler. This book is not meant to be an academic treatise on philosophy or psychology or an esoteric discussion of Sanskrit. I am simply sharing my experience as testimony to the unconditional love and healing that has occurred in my life. By sharing, I hope my story may be of service to others. This book describes the basics of meditation: how to begin to observe your inner dialogue, evaluate if you want to make changes to your inner dialogue, and how to change your inner dialogue if change is warranted. You will find a pointed description of how you can engage, change, and align the mind to produce real, lasting transformation. You have that power within you. The techniques in this book will help you harness that power and change your life so that you can live in happiness and contentment. It really is possible. If you are willing to engage in that deep, inner work, it will have lasting and real effects on your outer life experience. The inner work you do with your thoughts and emotions will have positive effects on all of those around you. You will be happier, and your life will show it.