A strong religious background does not mean true connection to yourself and your purpose in life. The contrary is also right. Up until you decide to stop and listen to your inner self, what others say or experience is more important than what you think and feel. You can mistake that when following a religion, however, you can not error once you find your inner voice and a deep root to your own truth. I learned that the hard way.
Going back to the experiences that changed me forever, I understand today my worst decisions were the ones which impacted me the most. They made me feel so bad about myself, in order to forgive me and let go, I had to pause and reflect and that is exactly when the most profound turns happened. Thus, I chose this topic as an important step I took towards my thriving self in a series of articles I am writing following the feedback of my biweekly readers (accompany my writing agenda by clicking here).
The wheel of life and a wholesome approach to the human experience
Being overly focused on one or few areas of existence – work, finance and fitness for example – is most people’s definition of success. However this is not what I want for me today. I’ve developed that over the years and it all started when I first heard about the “wheel of life” concept. More specifically, after listening to a podcast from Michael Hyatt I followed this approach in his free life score assessment.
Understanding what areas I attended well and what needed my attention, spirituality, social and avocational where the ones I scored the least. I chose to focus on one, so I decided to start with my spirituality.
My first Michael Hyatt Life Score Assessment results
(click here to do yours)
Religion or spirituality, is there a difference?
Spirituality, nonetheless, is a free journey of self discovery in pursue of peace and meaning. In search of it, one dives in self reflection and understands their own connection to life and others. Therefore, this is an individual and personal path.
Although very related, a person can seek being spiritual, without being religious, both, or vise versa.
Walking the self discovery journey
Once you take the decision to be your best in all areas of life, taking a look inside becomes a first natural thing to do. This brings some important questions, for instance you will start asking yourself:
- Who am I?
- What is my inspiration?
- How do I want to be remembered?
- What is my deepest intention?
- Do I listen to my soul attentively?
- Where does my happiness come from?
- How deeply am I connected with my heart?
- What is my deepest fear?
- Do I seek social approval?
- How much power do daily circumstances have over me?
After starting with this kind of investigation, learning methods to go deeper is the next step. In my case, I looked for ways of learning mindfulness and meditation (choose the third tab of this google sheet for a list of resources I used).
Had being a very religious person since my early childhood, I understood what I was looking for was not a truth separate from, but within myself. Inner guidance, inner connection, inner peace, inner intent. I finally discovered what I was meant to be: a person in constant search for knowledge, someone who loved to evolve herself and see others do the same.
This is what made me choose the path of a leader and today I am one at my paid work and a volunteer project I created in 2011. I feel I could die at any time with no regrets, as I have committed years to doing what is right for me and this is my legacy. No matter how small it could seem, it is my singular contribution to the world. This is the kind of feeling you will also experience if you engage yourself in such adventure.
Slow progress is still progress
If you have been following my writing in this platform, it is important you know I’ve established a more spaced agenda because the changes I am sharing took me years to promote. I strongly suggest you try and go deep in each article. Take your time to reflect and try out the steps I advise and do not try it all at once. Create your own schedule, go through it with much care and love for yourself. This was for me a decade course, not an easy and fast one. Do not expect yours to be much different. Go slow, steady and always.
Take action right away.
Send me a direct message if you feel I can be of help, I will respond. #Let’sGrow