Have you ever noticed how we spend so much attention on feeding our bodies and our tastes? Rarely do we miss a meal. But it’s well beyond that. We pay a lot of attention to enjoying our food and getting the best dining experiences. Sometimes, food is the ultimate epitome of a celebration in our lives.

And there’s nothing wrong with it; great experiences and comfort, to a degree, are part of a wholesome and fulfilling life, no matter which aspect of our lives they are related to. But our attention is not proportionately spent in enriching our lives equally in all of its facets. Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs says that our attention is centered around what our body needs most of all and safety, i.e., the base of Maslow’s pyramid. After those needs are satisfied, it moves higher to fulfill our emotional and esteem-related needs. Finally, our spiritual needs or higher purpose sit at the peak of the pyramid. It’s not hard to see that the higher tiers of the pyramid require greater effort and energy, in part because they come much later in the hierarchy and are harder to get to. The other reason is that searching and seeking out the best and quickest ways to satisfy our spiritual needs are not easy to find.

The good news is that you’re in good hands now. In Sahaja, there’s a lot of experience and methods in giving equal, if not greater, emphasis on feeding our soul with rich experiences. In our busy lives and amidst all the challenges, nourishing our spiritual being requires careful planning and insights into how experienced meditators do it.

Drawing comparisons between how we feed our body and our soul can help us understand this in greater detail.

A mid-life crisis is a common phrase in Western countries that describes a period of confusion and insecurity when faced with difficult choices and questions in life. The path they take from here on could make or break their lives and, more importantly, achieving purpose and fulfillment. But not everyone has a mid-life crisis, nor is it very common as a concept in Eastern cultures.

A situation like a mid-life crisis can be a good thing. It can trigger some deep introspection within us about the direction of our lives and take actions to make the best of our remaining active and healthy years.

But for it to be meaningful, the level of questions we ask ourselves must be related to a higher purpose and not about mundane aspirations or ambitions. Nor should it be about just our own lives or those of our close family members. It should be about something that leaves a mark and impact on the world.

What might a mid-life crisis look like for a spiritual person? We throw some light on the types of questions and answers that matter.

From time to time, we stop to admire people who are strong personalities and seem to live in absolute clarity. They are clear about what they want, experts in their area, have great self-discipline and most important of all, seem to magnetically attract a lot of followers. And some of them seem to be extremely spiritual too.

There’s a path to this kind of self-mastery in our lives and it is achievable.

In our spiritual subtle energy system of chakras and energy channels, a circular region existing in the abdominal cavity is known as the Void region. Usually, everyone knows and talks about the seven chakras, but the Void region is an integral part of the subtle energy system and as important as any chakra.

With the elections in the US, it is a good time to introspect on our lives, the world around us and how we can make it a better place for everyone. Those practice spirituality have a somewhat different view and disposition towards events like elections.

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.