Books | BLISS

33 Simple Ways to Awaken Your Spiritual Self

These thirty-three simple yet profound exercises reveal and develop your spiritual core. Try them. You will experience bliss–here, now. Your initial investment? Two minutes a day. That is all it takes to begin a lifetime of wonderment, awe and love–love you can keep forever.

Buy BLISS at Amazon.com or listen on 

Experiencing that bliss, that greater realization of God, can be achieved by developing the spiritual virtues. Take this journey and together, page by page, we will experience and develop 33 essential spiritual virtues. Think of these 33 virtues as representing essential musical notes of the spiritual scale. The term virtues is meant to be all-encompassing, including what could also be called strengths, qualities, faculties, feelings, attitudes, activities, orientations, and practices. Virtue comes from the Latin virtus, meaning strength. Its archaic definition is the supernatural power or influence exerted by the divine being. Thus, when we are demonstrating virtues, we are expressing the divine within us. The Supreme Being is without attributes, yet paradoxically it is the storehouse of all virtues and good qualities. The bottom line is that a person who is developing their spirituality will want to demonstrate these qualities in their everyday life.

That’s what spirituality is. It’s not taking off and cutting yourself off in a forest or desert or mountain hideaway, though these sojourns may certainly have their place. Spirituality is responsibly carrying out your duties to all those in your world. While developing a consciousness that is more and more of your Higher Power, your everyday behavior reflects the growing goodness, light, and love within you. The greater your realization of love—true, detached love—the greater your spirituality.

The spirituality offered here is universal. Its aim is not to convert you to any religion or group, but to facilitate your growing relationship with your Higher Power, based on what Saints, those fully realized humans, have taught through the ages. If you follow a religion, doing these simple exercises and activities will make you a better Catholic, Jew, Baptist, Baha’i, Muslim, Methodist, or other follower.

Contents

Part I

Opening to Spirituality

1. Take a Walk

2. Wonder about the Four Immortal Questions

3. Open Your Heart and Turn to God

Part II

Your Relationship with Your Higher Power

4. Decide to Develop Your Potential for God

5. Spend Two Minutes a Day with Your Higher Power

6. When You Brush Your Teeth, Come to Attention and Salute

7. Today, Be a Goodwill Ambassador

Part III

Using Your Creative Imagination for Your Self

8. Put on Your Own Class Reunion

9. Start Your Own Peanut Gallery

10. Take a Vacation

Part IV

Daily Disciplines for a Spiritual Foundation

11. Take a Vacation, Part Two

12. Adopt a Spiritual Practice and Follow It Faithfully

13. For Three Days, Make a List of Everything You Do

14. Review your Dealings in the Workplace for Honesty

Part V

Practicing Spirituality in Your World

15. Make an Agreement and Keep It

16. Choose Four Principles, Own Them, and Follow Them

17. Get a Daily Weather Report

18. Spend a Day in Slow Motion

Part VI

Family and Friends

19. Visit or Call Your Parents Once a Week

20. The Next Time You See Your Brother or Sister, Be Kind

21. Help a Friend Who is Ill

Part VII

Inner Work

22. Spend a Day Alone

23. Reframe a Recurring Negative Thought

24. Make an Accounting of Everything You Have

Part VIII

Spirituality Without Judgment

25. Welcome Red Lights

26. For a Week, Eliminate Expectations and Concentrate on What’s at Task

27. Clean Your Home Humbly and Lovingly

28. Squash a Bug

29. Give up Something You Don’t Like

30. Look at Something You Don’t Like as Being for Your Spiritual Growth and Benefit

Part IX

Forgiveness and Love

31. Forgive Someone Who Has Hurt You

32. Get Ready to Leave in Three Days

33. Next Time you Feel Unloved, Enter Your Temple

Onward

Acknowledgments

Guide to the 33 Spiritual Virtues

About the Author

Buy BLISS at Amazon.com