This lesson explores the power of spirituality and belief to fuel personal growth and resilience. You’ll learn to harness practices like meditation, prayer, and the Law of Attraction to strengthen your connection with a higher purpose and support your goals. By understanding the impact of positive thinking and spiritual alignment, you can create a life grounded in purpose, resilience, and fulfillment. Embrace these practices to elevate your mindset, shape your path, and draw on a deeper sense of strength and peace.
- Duration
- Workbook Pages
- Assements
- Exercises
- Video
INDENTIFY THE WHY
To achieve great things, it is essential to believe in oneself and to harness the power of a higher force. This force has motivated and inspired individuals, led to wars, and even resulted in miracles. Giving oneself over to a higher power through religion, belief, and faith can be a source of strength. Hardship can be transformed into the greatest gift of all by believing in oneself and having faith that the impossible is already true. Meditation, prayer, and the karma philosophy are all practices that can help in this pursuit.
The Power of Meditation, Prayer, And Karma
To achieve greatness and overcome life’s challenges, it’s essential to believe in oneself and a higher power. The power of meditation, prayer, and karma philosophy can help unlock this inner strength and guide us toward our goals.
Daily Meditation
Regular meditation can help reduce stress and anxiety, improve focus and concentration, and increase feelings of inner peace and well-being.
Practicing mindfulness meditation involves focusing on the present moment and accepting any thoughts or emotions that arise without judgment.
Daily Prayer
Prayer can provide a sense of comfort, strength, and guidance in times of need. Different religions and belief systems have various forms of prayer, including reciting specific prayers, expressing gratitude, and asking for guidance or blessings. Praying for others can help cultivate feelings of empathy and compassion.
Karma Philosophy
Karma philosophy is based on the idea that our actions have consequences and that we are responsible for our own happiness and well-being. The law of karma suggests that positive actions lead to positive outcomes, while negative actions lead to negative outcomes. Practicing kindness, generosity, and compassion can help attract positive energy and improve our lives.
Whether through meditation to calm the mind, prayer to seek guidance, or karma philosophy to cultivate positive energy, these practices can help us achieve greater peace, purpose, and fulfillment in life.
God, Spirituality, and Coaching
In my sessions, I ask clients if they believe in God. If they do, I quickly focus on the idea of “what God would want them to become” in terms of their character and career.
Examples of how this can be explored include:
– Discussing how their career goals align with their faith and values.
Identifying character traits they would like to develop that align with their beliefs.
– Exploring how their spirituality can guide them in making difficult decisions.
– Asking how their relationship with God can help them find purpose and meaning in their life and work.
By integrating the concept of God and spirituality into coaching sessions, clients can gain a deeper understanding of their values and motivations, and how these can guide their personal and professional development.
Faith and spirituality are much more than just comforting rituals to religious individuals. They impact your mood and mental health. Faith provides tangible reductions in stress, and it insulates you from future stress. Faith generates optimism, enriches interpersonal relationships, creates support systems, and enhances one’s quality of life.
Faith is a belief or trust in a higher power, while spirituality is an attachment to religious values. Faith and spirituality provide a sense of purpose and allow us to connect to something greater than ourselves. We can release control to a higher power, trusting that we have help from something stronger and wiser than ourselves as we work towards our goals.
These abstract gains translate into concrete ones: an expansion of healthy social networks and improved physical, mental, and emotional well-being. All of these points are essential to stress reduction.
To be vulnerable, you must be strong. What do I mean by strong? Strength is not simply rip-your-arm-off-like-a-gorilla strength; it’s the ability to forgive someone who has terribly wronged you. It is the ability to forgive yourself for letting goals, people, and things you love slip away. It is the ability to push yourself forward despite the adversity you have faced. That is true strength.
Athletes that I train will tell you that my rigorous fitness training program is secondary to the mental and emotional training that I provide. When you are strong in those areas of life, you will get through most anything, regardless of your physical abilities.
“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies," my grandfather said. "A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do," he said, "so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching," he said. "The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”
MAKING YOUR MARK
Did you make your mark on the Earth? The question is if a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound? If a life has nothing to show for it, did it happen? What place in history will you serve? Are you okay with it? For me, I want to help people and be so much better than I am as a father. I want to be the most successful wellness coach recognized for my work on this Earth. I have so much I feel in my heart I have to do to be okay so that I will not have regrets. I have always feared death, but even more, I fear not making my mark and earning my life. Being the person I was supposed to be. I don’t fear death; I fear not leaving my mark before I die.
“Eric, thank you for truly changing my life.” – Leanard Sherous
He gave me a framed picture of this quote that my kids and I touch, read, and have in our house, and I try to live up to it every day I am on this Earth. It sums up time so sweetly.
“This is the beginning of a new day. God has given me this day to use as I will. I can waste it or use it for good. What I do today is important because I’m exchanging a day of my life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something that I have traded for it. I want it to be gain, not loss; good, not evil; success, not failure, in order that I shall not regret the price I paid for it. May I have sufficient wisdom and courage that this shall be my record for this day.”
SUCCESS
The natural thing to do if you have 6 months to live is to ask yourself if you have done enough to measure your existence. Are you going to leave your family enough money? You are going to have to look at whether you had enough success in your life to feel comfortable leaving the Earth.
Money – How much money does my family need to live comfortably? I would not be able to just go anywhere. If I was given 6 months, I would have to work and figure out how my family will survive when I am gone. So, how are you going to have residual income when you leave this Earth? Don’t get depressed; remember how to turn the dark into the light.
So now you’ve got 6 months to live, and what are you going to do? How are you going to live it? Are you finally going to live your life your way starting today? What does our day look like today? So what I want you to do is make a six-month schedule.
SPIRITUALITY
There are many ideas and thoughts on spirituality, and many of us have deep feelings about spirituality, as often we grew up with thoughts and patterns and traditions that have been passed on from our parents and families.
You have a purpose in this life, and you were put on this Earth to live your true purpose, and it’s not my job to tell you what to believe in. To fulfill their individual destiny, life and hurdles get in the way of that. Why are we put on this Earth? Your belief system has to come from somewhere. Where does it come from?
My mom and dad were very different in regards to their spiritual and religious beliefs. My mom was a very spiritual person, whereas my dad was very religious. There is a very real distinction for me in saying this. My dad was a Catholic, who went to church religiously, and my mom believed that if you put things out into the universe, they will come back to you. She believed in the power of positivity and purpose and that if you believed in it, you could make it happen. There was no ceiling to what I could become. No mountain is too big to climb, etc.
With my kids, we do not go past a fountain of water without declaring our wishes outside. Our voices are on a frequency, and that frequency goes out into the universe, and that frequency then comes back to us. If you are constantly thinking and talking about what is important to you and why it’s important, it is like a boomerang that goes out into the universe and comes back to you.
SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATION
The theory that through regular meditation and positive, constructive thought, you can make your dreams and desires become reality. It holds that if you really want something and truly believe it’s possible, it will happen.
Manifestation is a verb and by itself, means to display, exhibit, or appear. That means that we can make something appear that is in our thoughts and dreams.
But is that really possible? The answer is yes. With the Law of Attraction, it is, and so often people interchange Spiritual Manifesting with the Law of Attraction.
THE LAW OF ATTRACTION
The Law of Attraction is a fundamental law of the universe, like the law of gravity, but this law is the law of vibration.
Every single thing, from the largest planet in space all the way down to the tiniest particle of dust, is in a constant state of vibration. All of the sounds that you hear, and every object that you see, is in a constant state of vibration. Your brain has taken every single one of these vibrations and translated it into your reality in a way that you can’t even recognize the vibration. In essence, it’s all in your head, or how your brain is perceiving the vibration.
You must believe that everything is a vibration to consciously create your reality.
The second part of this is understanding that similar vibrations are attracted to each other. Think about two droplets of water that are slowly moving towards each other. What happens as they get closer? They eventually get close enough that they attract each other and become one droplet of water instead of two separate ones. This occurs because they are like vibrations. Now, think about the same phenomenon with a droplet of water and a droplet of oil. No matter how close you put them together, they will not become one with each other. This is because their vibrations are too different from one another.
Ponder This
If 1) Everything is vibration and, 2) Vibrations of similar frequencies are drawn together and, 3) You have the ability to control your vibration, then you can most certainly control the conditions of your life!
The problem comes about whenever we attempt to control our reality without first adjusting our vibration. You cannot physically force the outcome that you desire. All of the work is done on the inside, in our minds first, and then the outcome follows. This means that no amount of action alone will produce the results that we desire. However, once we gain the ability to condition our minds to our desired frequencies of vibration, our physical reality quickly follows suit and reflects back to us our new vibration, like a boomerang effect.
This Law of Attraction works in every area of your life, with every single thing. In order for you to manifest what you truly want in your life, your thoughts, feelings, and words must be in a consistent vibration with the outcome that you want to achieve.
The thing is, you are already manifesting all the time. We all manifest every single day, but the power of harnessing what you truly want comes into play when you are consciously calling what you want forward and into your life.
When you combine the thought and the feeling and the action together in what you want to create for yourself, amazing things happen. When you put what you want out there in the universe, you’re going to get it back. Now, this may seem a bit woo-woo, but it really is based on science. It has worked for me and so many of my clients, and it can be embraced by all, no matter if you have a religious affiliation or not.
The first step is to figure out what you really want. What do you want to focus your energy on? What do you want to attract into your life?
Now, it’s very important that you understand the power of your thoughts, the power of your feelings, and the power of your words. All of these things combined can either work for you or against you. I get it, you might not be where you want to be, or in the place that you want to be in your life right now, but you will be if you pay attention to these things. Like signs or light, they start to illuminate your path. I had a client who could not change, and he said everything that happened to him was so negative, and everything he worried about manifested bigger and stronger. I had him meditate or, for him, just speak out loud and repeat his goals and purpose seven times a day. He started to talk differently. After some time, he even changed his job. He loved animals, no one more than his dog. He moved away and now runs an animal sanctuary. He had to retrain his brain and at one time even said he was dreaming of his ranch and started to talk differently. It was so positive that it was almost like I didn’t believe the power of manifestation and attraction, but the universe teaches me again and again.
The power of positivity is pervasive. We talked about Positive Internal Dialogue in a previous chapter, and how I counsel all of my clients to eliminate negative words and thoughts, and now we are going to take this a bit deeper. Whatever it is you are telling the universe is what you will get in return. The words that you use are powerful, and when you put them out into the universe, that is what will come back to you. There are specific words and phrases that I never use. For example, “I am good enough,” “I deserve abundance of wealth,” “It is okay to dream about wealth,” “I am strong enough,” “There is nothing I cannot do,” “Again…there is nothing I cannot do.” “I feel strong,” “I feel powerful,” “I have the power,” “Strength to make good happen,” “Amazing things happen,” “I am loved,” “I love with strength,” etc., etc.
Now, it’s also very important that you figure out where your thought patterns are around the outcome that you want to achieve. We have used weight loss in previous chapters, so let’s use money in this example. If your goal is to be wealthy, where are your thoughts, words, and actions leading you?
If, for example, you have always looked down on people who have money or put them in a separate category as you, then you will stay in that category, as the universe is going to give you what you are attracted to. Test yourself. When you say, “I am so grateful that I am wealthy,” how does that make you feel? If you feel uncomfortable saying and thinking it, then those are the beliefs that you have, and you will keep having the same outcome unless you change those beliefs.
Let’s talk about your family’s/parents’ beliefs around wealth and money, as how you grew up and how you were nurtured affects your thoughts and beliefs now about money. If you talked about owning a Ferrari, let’s say, would your parents think that is a pipe dream, or would they say, “Hey, that’s a great goal; you can have whatever you set your mind to” (or something like that)? It’s pretty easy to figure this out, as you might feel uncomfortable even thinking about it. Here’s the thing: it is super important that you identify where these thoughts are coming from in order to break them. And we must break them, as the universe doesn’t know any difference; the universe only knows what you believe to be true.
Fill in the blank to the three questions found on page 00 of your workbook.
Questions:
I am worthy of ____
I am so grateful for _____
I am so excited that _____
Recite this all throughout the day. “Abundance flows easily to me because I am open and ready to receive the money that is already on its way to me. I am so grateful for this financial freedom!”
Or if being healthy and fit is your goal, “I radiate health and happiness, as I am slim, athletic, and healthy, and I am loving the way that I look and feel. I am so grateful that I am free of excess weight and am living my dreams.”
Now, of course, you must recite these affirmations daily both in your mind and out loud and start looking for the things that are showing up in your life that are going to get you there. This means that you also must take action as well!
Act as if…
By focusing on positive thoughts and emotions, individuals can attract positive outcomes and experiences. Here’s how to use the law of attraction to get what you want:
Examples of how to use the law of attraction include:
“It’s not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something.”
“If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”
“Believe in your infinite potential. Your only limitations are those you set upon yourself.”
“It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered, or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters.”
GRATITUDE
Being grateful and sharing my gratitude with others is a huge part of my last six months to live. I not only want everyone to know how grateful I am for how they have affected me and my life, but my gratitude vibrations would boomerang back to me. My ultimate goal is to feel peaceful.
Spirituality and religiousness are two very different things; however, one can encompass the other. Are you a spiritual person? Do you believe in a higher power? How do these beliefs help you to push through the day and tackle what needs to be done? Do your beliefs help you to gain clarity on the possibilities of a life well-lived?
In order to achieve anything great, one has to believe they are capable of the impossible. Why can a person in desperate need to save their child find the strength to lift a car? What gives people the courage to punch a shark after they’ve been bitten with a mangled arm? How can an untrained human body run 30 miles to save a hurt child? Many would say that this drive and will is guided by an unseen force greater than ourselves and our own ego.
A person has to have a purpose. In order to achieve true success, a person has to figure out why they truly want to get to their goal. This system is designed for the person trying to figure out the deeper, truer meaning of self and goals. It shows you how to set an unrelenting pursuit of your goals. Teaching and improving on purpose and helping people find their purpose is my true purpose in life.
ACTIVITY | Find Your Best Self
Find your best self. What personality traits do you wish you embodied?
NOTE: As always, its vitaly important to be honest with yourself. It’s also of note to know that as far away as these traits might seem from your reach, YOU CAN mold yourself into the person you want to be.
NOTE | No need to download if workbook availble.
ACTIVITY | Learn to balancing your higher purpose in life.
SPIRITUALITY & MENTAL HEALTH
Recent studies show that religious beliefs and practices are supportive to cope with stresses in life and are beneficial to mental health.
Thomas Ashby Wills, Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, developed a scale that determines how important religion is to people. This was administered to 1,182 children in New York. It was found that religiosity kept children from smoking, drinking, and drug abuse by buffering the impact of life stresses.
Gene H. Brody, a research professor of child and family development at the University of Georgia, Athens, found that parents who were more involved in church activities were more likely to have harmonious marital relationships and better parenting skills. That, in turn, enhanced children’s competence, self-regulation, psychosocial adjustment, and school performance.
Miller et al. made a 10-year follow-up study on depressed mothers and their offspring and reported that maternal religiosity and mother-child concordance in religiosity were protective against depression in the offspring. They also reported that a low level of religiosity was associated with substance abuse in the offspring.
J. Scott Tonigan, a research professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico, followed up 226 patients with alcohol dependence and reported that spirituality predicts behavior such as honesty and responsibility, which in turn promoted alcohol abstinence.
Wagner and King conducted a study involving three groups—one group of patients who had a psychotic illness, one group of formal caregivers, and a third group of informal caregivers. The existential needs were the most important for the patient group, while the other groups considered material needs such as housing and work more important.
Neeleman and King surveyed the psychiatric practices of 231 psychiatrists in London. 73% had no religious affiliation, 28% had a belief in God, 61% believed that religion can protect against mental illness, and 48% asked patients about their religious practices.
Baetz et al. surveyed 1,204 psychiatrists and 157 psychiatric patients in Canada. 54% of psychiatrists believed in God, 47% asked patients regarding their religious beliefs, and 55% consulted clergy for the management of patients. Among the patients, 71% believed in God, and 24% preferred psychiatrists who were religious. In an Australian survey, a large majority of patients with psychiatric illness wanted their therapists to be aware of their spiritual beliefs and needs and believed that their spiritual practices helped them to cope better.
Mathai and North constructed a questionnaire, consisting of five questions, and gave it to 70 parents of children attending child and adolescent mental health clinics. They reported that the majority of the parents believed that spiritual concerns were important and that therapists should consider their spiritual beliefs in the management of the problems of the children.
In the USA, Curlin et al. conducted a study of psychiatrists and compared them with physicians from other specialties in their religious affiliations and found that psychiatrists showed fewer religious affiliations. Several empirical studies on psychiatrists’ religious characteristics have indicated that psychiatrists are significantly less religious than the general population, their patients, and other physicians.
In a 12-year follow-up of all articles appearing in the American Journal of Psychiatry and Archives of General Psychiatry, 72% of the religious commitment variables were beneficial to mental health; participation in religious services, social support, prayer, and relationship with God were beneficial in 92% of citations.
Similar findings were reported in a review of the Journal of Family Practice. In a British epidemiological study, church-going and active religion were found to be protective against vulnerability to depression by Brown and Prudo.
In a detailed study on suicide in the Netherlands, Kerkoff (quoted by Sims) reported that there was a decline in the suicidal rate, which was concurrent with a religious revival. A study on the factors in the course and outcome of schizophrenia was conducted in the Department of Psychiatry, Christian Medical College, Vellore. It was a collaborative study among three centers—Vellore, Madras, and Lucknow. A two-year and five-year follow-up showed that those patients who spent more time in religious activities tended to have a better prognosis.
The above reports strongly suggest that religious beliefs and practices of psychiatric patients should be given importance. The sense of hope and spiritual support that patients get by discussing religious matters help them to cope better. They also suggest that the importance of religion and spirituality is not sufficiently recognized by the psychiatric community. Mental health workers must take it seriously since psychiatry cannot afford to ignore the importance of spirituality and religion in psychiatry.
Sims gives two case histories that drive home this fact. One is the case of Jim who suffered from Korsakoff’s psychosis. He was so deteriorated that he mistook his wife for a hat. In the ward, others considered him a desolate individual. But his behavior in the chapel was normal. In absolute concentration and attention, he would partake in Holy Communion. He did not forget anything nor did he show any signs of Korsakoff’s psychosis. The other patient had chronic schizophrenia. He used to hear a voice commanding him to jump out of the window. His simple devout mother had taught him to resist the voice by praying to God. His mind was destroyed, but the capacity for spiritual life was present. Unfortunately, on the final occasion, he was too late to pray, and he lost his life. Sims makes a comment, “It is unfortunate that we as psychiatrists can be so crass as to neglect this area of life which is clearly important to many of our patients.”
Andresen, in an editorial, has pointed out that our civilization’s “loss of soul” may cause psychiatric symptoms such as depression, obsessions, addictions, and violence. She has suggested that it is the responsibility of psychiatrists to remind the medical fraternity of the necessity of putting back the soul in medical ethics and the fact that spirituality is of vital importance for the mental health of people.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
As pointed out earlier, spiritual values and religious practices are important in the lives of our patients. Many of their problems may center around existential preoccupations. It is, therefore, important that we incorporate spirituality and religious practices in our treatment protocol. We must propagate the Bio-psycho-socio-spiritual model in our approach in psychiatry. Harold Koening, in his paper “Religion and Mental Health: What Should Psychiatrists Do?” has made some suggestions in this area.
Psychiatric history should be catered to the patients’ spiritual orientation and religious practices.
When we take psychiatric history, we usually ask for the denomination the patient belongs to. We do not try to find out how the patient experiences religion. What does religion and spirituality mean to the patient? Psychiatric history should gather information about a patient’s religious background and experiences in the past and what role religion plays in coping with life stresses. Has the patient had any past negative religious experiences? Has he got spiritual and social support from the congregation which he attends? How active is he in the religious congregation? Some religious beliefs can be in conflict with the proposed treatment. Some religious groups are against any type of treatment. Some religious conflicts and frustrations may be contributing to the present psychiatric problem. Any such issue should be openly discussed with the patient and his family, and a way out should be found.
Psychiatric practice must be aware of the spiritual needs of the patients. We must assess the patient’s spiritual needs and try to cater to them. Sometimes our patients may ask us about the spiritual basis of their problems. We should be able to give satisfactory answers. If we do not know the answers, we should be humble enough to refer them to the appropriate persons or clergy who may be able to help them. Sometimes patients need help in resolving religious conflicts. Our therapy should encourage patients to find meaning in their lives, thereby giving them the motivation to cope with the stresses and strains of life. We must be aware that religious practices and rituals can provide mental peace and strength to cope with problems. The use of Yoga and meditation can help in building up spiritual strengths.
Training programs
For psychiatric residents should include a course on spirituality and religion. Psychiatrists should be familiar with the commonly held beliefs and practices of various religious groups. This will help us to understand our patients better and help us to be empathetic and supportive. We must make use of the help of clergy and religious workers wherever it is necessary. Sometimes we may need their help in resolving religious conflicts, and sometimes patients may need to go through religious rituals for obtaining mental peace. We must be ready to cooperate with religious workers and clergy whenever necessary. We should never ridicule or dismiss a patient’s religious beliefs and practices. We must respect them and, if necessary, try to incorporate them into the treatment plan. In conclusion, let me emphasize the importance of religious beliefs and spiritual practices in the management of psychiatric patients. The Bio-psycho-socio-spiritual approach can enrich our practice and help us to provide better care for our patients. We must take the spiritual needs of our patients seriously and incorporate them into our treatment plans wherever necessary.
Rituals
Rituals are a part of our daily life. They give us a sense of order and stability in our otherwise chaotic existence. They help us to make sense of the world and give us a framework for understanding our experiences. Rituals can be religious or secular, personal or communal. They can be as simple as brushing our teeth in the morning or as complex as a wedding ceremony. Rituals can be a source of comfort and strength, helping us to cope with the challenges of life.
In the context of spirituality, rituals are a way of connecting with the divine and expressing our faith. They provide a structure for our spiritual practice and help us to cultivate a sense of reverence and devotion. Rituals can be a way of expressing gratitude, seeking guidance, or asking for blessings. They can also be a way of marking important life events, such as births, deaths, and marriages.
Rituals can be deeply personal and unique to each individual. They can be a way of expressing our innermost thoughts and feelings, and connecting with our true selves. They can be a source of inspiration and motivation, helping us to stay focused on our goals and aspirations.
Creating Your Own Rituals
Creating your own rituals can be a powerful way of enhancing your spiritual practice and bringing more meaning and purpose into your life. Here are some steps to help you create your own rituals:
Examples of Personal Rituals
Here are some examples of personal rituals that you can incorporate into your spiritual practice:
By creating your own rituals, you can bring more meaning and purpose into your life and enhance your spiritual practice. Rituals can be a powerful way of connecting with the divine, expressing your faith, and cultivating a sense of reverence and devotion.
