Faith and spiritual ideas can provide ways of being connected to something bigger than yourself. Faith offers ways of coping with stress, being with, and connected to like-minded people and groups can provide a valuable support network. However there are many ways of considering faith and spiritual concepts, let’s explore different territories.
While we (LizianEvents) have chosen to be upbeat and within a 101% positive zone over the last months, it is now time to think about the future. No doubting the immense pool of ideas and thoughts may contain accurate and inaccurate concepts of the times ahead. However, there is a need to be clear-minded and honest with one’s inner-being if one is to adapt and survive in a world awash with intellectual and emotional conflicts.
It is all very well being a ‘stay at home’ until the 2020 crisis is over person: I understand the principals behind their reasoning. Unfortunately the reality is, there is a need to accept the present situation cannot continue indefinitely. And the confusing messages are causing great distress to thousands of people. Some feel they have the answer, and others think their opposite opinion is a better solution.
Confusions:
I read small shops are to reopen. And if a customer of a shop has virus symptoms after visiting the establishment s/he must report the possible infection to the shop owner and the shop must close for 14 days! So! Do this mean all supermarkets should be closed down today? I cannot believe a C-19 victim was not into a supermarket over last month: can you? Surely this is a confusing message? And we have hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants residing in the Uk: how many of these will conform to tracking apps and the possibility of health passports? The conflict of interest is too great to form a rock solid method of working a way out of the situation and this will increase fear and mistrust.
With confusion comes fear and the possibility of contracting the C-19 virus constrains millions of people: this is a perfectly normal reaction to the information available. It is natural to fear the possibility of early death. One cannot take this aspect of the crisis away from the equation. I am not a health care professional, and this is no place to write about percentages and statistics. All which has to be said is exhausted, recycled ideas and seeds of fear are set within many minds. And confusion cultures fear: is there a way out? My suggestion is to try to understand one’s inner-being and spiritual creativity in relation to the surrounding environment, and become strong both mentally and physically.
Aspects of Life Can Be Spiritual and Creative:
Over the last two decades, my life has enjoyed four cornerstones of happiness. In any order: material security, intellectual capacity, emotional stability, and creative/spiritual thought. I do my utmost to blend the four aspects of my inner being during my daily life. At some moments, I am materially focussed, and at others, I consider (think about) my connections to nature and the wonders of existence.
For example: if I were to consider my businesses purely as money-making machines, I would quickly increase profits, but would the companies be emotionally rewarding? I know they would not. And if I review the creative aspects of my material work, the feeling is reinvestment is more rewarding than taking profit from the business. Reinvestment is a creative act, and creativity is closely aligned to spiritual life. There will be some who will question this idea, and that is their choice, however, rather than condemning my suggestion, I would ask them to write or consider how THEY operate and work in their material world.
Creative Thinking is Spiritual Thinking:
Over the last six weeks, I have read fourteen books. I am not a speed reader: reading is a meditation, a place where I can enter calm and peace. Reading is a pathway to possibilities: whether fiction or textbook. Reading and writing are connected: reading seeds reader’s mind with diverse thoughts: Reading and writing are an exchange or flow of creativity. During a meditation there is a flow of thoughts which can become a garden of creativity, and books, to my mind contain hundreds of seeds of ideas. And the thinking process is beneficial to every aspect of one’s life, and the process requires fuel and new ideas to become cultured and interesting. Ultimately, we have to make the facets of information found in books and life observations our own and the way we construct our thoughts makes us happy or not.
When we read books, we open our minds to possibilities. Crime fiction has the outcome of good, overwhelming evil, the right correcting the wrong, individuals entering places of danger to find the truth. Fiction and drama which takes the protagonist from failure and adversity to successful outcomes is rewarding to read: and this indicates a primary requirement of the inner-being. When reading books focussed on success, we should meet with successful individuals who write of the ways they attained their fortunes. When ploughing through a biography, we meet with adversity, failings and toil and much insight is gained about the 101% determination required to become famous or top of the bill. A spiritual book is an opinion; one should never forget this aspect: the most successful of the genre have to be engaging and appeal to the mindset of the reader. The ideas discovered in biography, fiction, self help, life style, self help and spiritual/creative books can be used in daily life, either knowingly or unknowingly.
What do we choose: Our own formula of life or the ideas of others?
As we watch and/or interact with our intimate environment, we either take strength from the interaction or become weakened by the sentiments offered by strangers, friends and associates. The emotional turmoil can be disastrous when one becomes convinced that a friend’s opinion is the only truth. Many watch the flow of social media comments, engage in the drama and leave feeling weakened. In these closed groups, spiritual/creativity is stifled. Beneficial interactions should be varied and diverse as possible, enter into unknown territory, face one’s fears!
Faith:
The lessons of faith are significant. It is easy to immediately refer to religious ideas when the word faith is mentioned. By considering the many meanings and inferences of the word, there is a possibility of enriching one’s faith in one’s self. To my mind, when we explore and understand belief in oneself, all can change. For example, I do not think ‘If I contract a disease I’ll die’ – I think ‘I have faith in my body to see me through the crisis: I have faith in the health care professionals to assist my body to health: I am faithful to my body and keep as fit a possible’. And this faith overwhelms the fear which resides within my conscious mind. I see the seeds of fear in the conscious mind as weeds which requires removal: in the same way, a gardener clears his garden for healthy plants to grow.
‘Possible’ outcomes will always chase those who run from fear. Possibilities are seeds of fear and sometimes seeds of success. The trick is to cultivate success and weed-out negativity and failure. Those who have faith in the power of confronting their fears overcome the possibility of false expectations. How easy is this? It is as easy as cultivating a positive and realistic attitude; something which will take time and patience; but worth the effort. Where could one begin?
A Flame of Spirit within The Soul:
What is spirituality? It is an investigation into the unknown, and it is seeking and considering abstract possibilities. Some say the soul and spirit do not exist; others counter they are gateways to the purpose of existence. To this writers mind, the spirit is a flame which lights the soul: I consider the soul as the centre of emotional creativity (for example soulful music: soulful art). Spiritual thoughts offer the possibility of a more significant experience than the realities of life. We live every day within choices: creativity or destruction: spiritual or mundane: progressive or restrictive: we can chose to be spiritually connected or not.
A word of anger, venom or negativity is a seed of unhappiness.
A kind word or sentiment is spiritually creative and a seed of happiness.
Where are you taking your life today? How many choking weeds of destructive thought have you removed? Who is influencing your mindset? What seeds of progression are you planting in the garden of your mind? Are you true to your inner-being?
Ian Timothy
