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The Importance of Rest in Spiritual Growth

8/26/2016

One of my coaching clients recently shared an amazing experience he had at a spiritual retreat. He uncovered insights and revelations, and released old ideas and pent-up emotions. He felt expanded, powerful and on-purpose.

When I pondered what he felt called to do in the time immediately after the retreat, he simply said, “ I need to rest.”

This is sage wisdom.

You may have experienced this need yourself. Have you ever gone on a vacation only to come back feeling like you needed a vacation from your vacation?

The reason why your body needs to rest is that anytime you go on a retreat or on a vacation, you step out of your usual routine of life. You’re introduced to new ways of looking at the world. This may include different living arrangements, different ways of eating, and different behaviors and perspectives from your day-to-day life.

Whether you realize it or not, every time you spend significant time away from your usual environment, you’re stretched to new ways of being.

Similarly, this is what happens when you are on the path for your own spiritual growth.

You grow in your understanding of who you are and your connection with the Universe around you. You grow in your awareness of what’s real and what’s meaningful to you. When you begin to engage in regular spiritual practices, you find yourself in a type of spiritual workout where you are exercising your ability to tune into the Infinite.

As with any kind of workout, rest is an important component. When you work out at a gym, your muscles need time to heal and repair themselves from all the activity. In this period of rest, the muscles actually grow.

When you engage in spiritual activity, rest is vitally important.

Rest provides the time for integration and embodiment. Rest allows you the time and space to realize the insights you’ve gained and to gently release beliefs and behaviors that no longer serve you. Rest allows you to settle into your expanded view of your life and all of Life itself.

Rest is a necessary ingredient in the growth process.

What does rest look like? Here are some different examples:

Allowing yourself the time to sleep where you wake up renewed.
Eating foods that provide nutrition and give you a feeling of vital energy.
Stepping away from a situation where you feel disconnected or overwhelmed.
Journaling your insights along your spiritual journey.
Spending time being with someone you trust.
Scheduling regular breaks in your schedule where you center yourself.
Taking a walk or sitting in the beauty of nature.
Unplugging from social media.
Sitting in silent meditation.

There are a number of ways to rest, and sometimes all it takes is simply a few moments.

Are you feeling the need for more rest in your life? Are you interested in being more deliberate about incorporating rest into your everyday life?

If your answer is yes, here is your coaching assignment for the week:

Looking at the list above, consider different ways that you could add more rest in your life.
Pick one thing that you could try out this week and schedule it in your calendar.
Let me know how this works out for you by leaving a comment below.

My offering to you here is to allow more breathing room in the go-go-go tendency of modern life. Being more deliberate in incorporating restful practices in your life is an expression of love and tenderness…for you.

Ultimately, taking time to rest is an act of loving-kindness.

Now breathe that in. Aaaahhhh. Yes, rest is available to you anytime, even in this moment.

Abundant Blessings and Namaste.

I’d love to hear how you incorporate rest in your life and if you have any challenges. Please leave a comment below. As always, I’d be happy to be of support to you in any way that I can.

And speaking of rest, I’ll be holding a half-day vision board retreat in a beautiful nature setting in the San Francisco Bay Area on October 1st. Imagine being in spaciousness as you allow the vision for your life to reveal itself. If you’d like to get notified of the details and early bird pricing, click here to find out more and let me know.

Joselito Laudencia helps people bridge the spiritual and practical path to career and financial freedom. He is the creator of "Re-Write Your Money Story" "Finding Your Right Work," and “Vision Your Best Life.” He is a spiritual life coach and Centers for Spiritual Living Practitioner. If you're feeling unfulfilled and stuck in the areas of career, money or life in general, you don't have to figure it out by yourself. You can schedule a 30-minute Free Clarity Session with Prayer and get clear on what's stopping you from living the life that you love. Click here to schedule your 30-minute Free Clarity Session with Prayer.

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Joy as a Spiritual Practice

8/18/2016

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A "Joy" filled time dancing salsa at the Gene Autry Museum.

During one of my recent Vision Board workshops, one participant asked me how to choose which images and words to paste onto her vision board.

In turn, I asked her, “Which ones bring you the most joy?”

Now, when was the last time someone asked you what brings you joy?

All too often, I hear people playing the “comparison” game, where the word “should” is used in everyday vocabulary.

Here’s what it sounds like:

“Look at her. She’s so successful in her career. After all these years, I should have made it by now.”
“How are they able to go on so many vacations? I wish I could do that. I should be farther ahead with my money but I’m always running behind.”
“He seems to always be grounded and centered. I should really be more disciplined with my spiritual practice.”

It’s not only you that may be using the “should” word, but you most likely have heard it from others who try to offer you helpful advice.

“Yes, I know you hate your job, but you should be grateful that you have a job at all.”
“You should be more careful with how you spend your money.”
“You should meditate more.”

The word “should” is filled with judgment. It’s a comparison game because it says that there’s a right way to doing something and you’re not doing it. You are being judged in comparison to your own or someone else’s ideal.

Joy takes you on your own unique path.

When you tune into what brings you joy, you tap into a knowingness that joy is unique and deeply personal for you. Joy lights you up from the inside out and enjoys expressing itself, whereas “shoulds” attempt to box you in.

It’s not common for people to be encouraged to tune into their joy. That’s why the participant in my Vision Board workshop and others like her sometimes feel disoriented in the first few moments of the workshop. They realize they’ve entered a space where they feel safe enough to explore what joy can look like in their lives.

In this sense, tuning into your inner joy and living from that place of joy can be a spiritual practice.

Why spiritual? Because you are a unique emanation of Life itself, and your Joy is an indicator that you are expressing Life in its creative fullness.

Why a practice? Because it takes effort to let go of the “shoulds” of life, and it takes practice to listen to the particular song of Joy that is your heart.

Are you open to cultivating more Joy in your life? If so, here is your coaching assignment for this week:

Make a list of at least 20 things that bring you Joy. By writing these down, you open to a greater awareness of the ways Joy already shows up in your life. You also step more fully into Joy and signal to the Universe that you are open to even more Joy.
Choose one thing to do this week that brings you Joy. Make it extra fun by doing something that you’ve never done or haven’t done in a long time.
Finally, journal your observation about what it feels like to live from a place of Joy. What insights are you taking away for your life?

I’d love to hear what some of the things are that bring you Joy, and what one thing you are choosing to do this week in a place of Joy. Please leave a comment below.

** Special Note **: For those of you who are interested in my Vision Board workshop, I will be hosting a workshop in Los Angeles and a vision board mini-retreat in the San Francisco Bay Area this fall. I’ll be sharing those details in the next couple of weeks. Click here to learn more and to sign up on the list if you’re interested in getting notified about either of these.

Here is to the ever-expanding Joy in your Life. Abundant Blessings, and Namaste.

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Living in Intention vs Living in Reaction

8/10/2016

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Lightning in the Puerto Vallarta nighttime sky

A little over a week ago, my partner Richard and I sat on a rooftop on our last night in Puerto Vallarta, watching the nighttime sky filled with thunder, lightning and heavy rains pouring over the city. Our response: pure delight.

“Wow, we hardly ever get to witness anything like this,” we said to one another. “What a blessing to be here in this moment.”

Now, throughout our trip we had talked about taking an evening beach walk to see the fireflies at Los Muertos Beach. I had never seen fireflies before, and this was our last night to catch them before we flew back home to Los Angeles.

But alas, nature had its own plans.

Yeah, I had wanted to catch my first sight of fireflies, but the fantastic show we witnessed in the raging sky more than made up for it.

There’s a lesson here to recognize.

In life, you get to choose how you respond to the unexpected. You can choose to live in reaction, or you can choose to live in intention.

When you live in reaction, it means that you see life as happening to you. You are powerless. You are at the whim of some outside governing force, entity, person or event. If something happens that messes up your idea of fun or good, then you easily place blame on the other.

On the other hand, when you live in intention, you embrace life as the creative energy that moves through you and as you. You stand in your power. Living in intention means that you own your choices and you get to decide how you respond to life’s surprises.

One of my intentions is to encounter surprise and delight each and every day.

On that last day in Puerto Vallarta, I experienced my moment of delight with Richard in that torrential outpouring of rain with the wind lashing all around us and with booming thunder making us jump in our seats.

Witnessing the awesome force of nature, I felt alive.

How can you apply this story to your life? Here are your coaching questions for the week that can help:

Where in your life have you experienced something unexpected?
Looking at that experience, notice how you responded. Did you live in reaction, or did you live in intention?
If you reacted, can you look back at that experience and open to another way of looking at it? Is there any good you can see in that experience?
Finally, what is one intention that you would like to embrace in your own life?

Living in intention inherently means that you are a change agent. You have the power to change your own thinking and your outlook of life.

Knowing that you have an infinite number of thoughts and ideas to choose about who you are and what you can do, which ones are you ready to embrace?

Love and Abundant Blessings to you. Namaste.

I’d love to hear what this blog brings up for you. Let me know by liking or leaving a comment below.

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abundant good blog

The Importance of Rest in Spiritual Growth

Joy as a Spiritual Practice

Living in Intention vs Living in Reaction

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