Now, more than ever, we face one of the most challenging periods in our lives. Many people are having or fear facing a period when many things can go wrong quite quickly and easily.

Unfortunately, these are also when spiritual self-improvement can take a back seat as we can get overwhelmed with too many things. Sure, some of us will use this opportunity to go deeper spiritually, but the chaos and challenging times usually take too much of a toll on our attention.

And so, more often than not, things begin to deteriorate on many fronts. We start getting into a downward spiral, a vicious cycle where things start getting worse progressively.

Not all downward spirals need to be severe or earth-shattering. Some or even most can be the slow degradation variety and can also be in a particular facet or aspect of our lives. 

The problem is that we don’t realize we’re in a downward spiral until things have gotten terrible. We are unlikely to take corrective action until we see severe outcomes.

For instance….we may find we’ve been eating unhealthy and skipping exercise over many months. Our relationships may be strained for a long time and at the point of breaking. Our finances may be slowly deteriorating as the savings begin to go down. Our jobs may feel stale and not motivating enough. None of these have to necessarily happen simultaneously, but they certainly can in isolation.

Or, the most popular one for those pursuing self-improvement – our interest, motivation and progress on spirituality and higher pursuits is waning continuously, and we’re hitting new lows every now and then.

So, how do we break out of such periods of downward spirals in our lives?

A healthy and special dose of spirituality is the only real way to motivate our physical, mental and emotional selves to get out of the rut.

By Shankar Ramani, Editor and Instructor, Sahaja Online

Thanks to the weather, I’ve been able to venture outdoors to do some of my meditation. In the process, I stumbled upon the sheer power of a meditation technique we’ve always recommended. Yet it took some concerted focus and effort to realize how effective it can be.

It cleared my attention, made me feel energetic, light and agile all day. More than that, it seems to be unclogging my spiritual energy system at the deepest of levels.

This method also works directly on the foundation of our spiritual system and on the chakra that is the foundation of our spiritual growth.

All types of outdoor meditation are not created equal, so let’s examine the specifics of the most effective form of outdoor meditation.

In one of my recent online meditation sessions, I decided to choose the topic of love and its spiritual significance. Love is an ages-old feeling and phenomenon that is perhaps most widely and loosely used in our lives. To confirm this, I started looking up the dictionary meaning of the word and was hardly surprised at how the world understands it.

In fact, the meanings got more and more ridiculous and plainly wrong as I went down the list of various definitions of love.

A profoundly tender and passionate affection for another person? That’s way too shallow.

A feeling of warm personal attachment as for a parent, child or friend? I’d argue that it’s quite the opposite – those who love do so without any attachments.

Sexual passion and desire? Now, it clearly was time to toss the dictionary as useless for understanding what love really is.

So, let’s try and understand what love really means at a very evolved level of existence – in a spiritual person’s life.

As people who meditate and pursue spirituality in our lives, it is also important to be smart about managing our money. Yet, “smart” here isn’t just the conventional definition associated with wealth management. What if the ways we spend or save our money greatly improve our lives spiritually?

We discuss such tactics, especially when finances matter so much during this upcoming economic recession.

The current crisis is bringing out the best and worst in people. We’re seeing many acts of kindness by those stepping up to help. And on the other hand, scrambling to hoard supplies at any cost and fights for the last roll of toilet paper on the grocery shelf.

How does the typical meditator view and manage a crisis? Very differently, it turns out.

The best meditators are Self-Transcendent, which means that they can think and go beyond the personal self. It’s interesting to see how their behaviors are radically different from most people.