The seemingly incompatible ideas of being both successful and spiritual is something that a lot of people grapple with. Spirituality is often synonymous with being “above” physical needs.
In most religions there is a common thread of giving up your possessions in favour of serving some higher purpose. The problem with this is that the churches abused this and enriched themselves in the process.
Being humble, placing others needs above your own and being at service to the world are often the spiritual ideas that cause people to have this inner conflict between being successful and being spiritual.
Most people find it hard to utter the words money and spirituality in the same sentence. This is the reason why so many people never make it financially and it is also the reason why so many people never “make it” spiritually.
The truth is that money and spirituality is not only compatible but is in fact natural.
It is our cultural and religious beliefs that has been handed down for decades that is the real problem.
Our minds are closed of to the reality of life and how abundance and spirituality is meant to serve us.
The Secrets Of Success And Inner Peace
In his book, The 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace Dr. Wayne Dyer explores these ideas in a very intriguing way.
He explores a vastly new attitude towards money, success and spirituality. This attitude goes against the grain of much of what we’ve come to believe about living an abundant life and it calls on us to adopt a new way of perceiving ourselves and the world at large.
In a world that seems to be obsessed with having more and being the best, it’s hard for many people to comprehend success as a spiritual idea.
In this book Wayne Dyer lays down a series of timeless principles that each and every one of us can follow and practice in our everyday lives to create for ourselves the kind of life that we ultimately desire.
This new spirituality is not one which you can keep neatly wrapped up until next Sunday morning.
It is not a spirituality that is grounded in the traditional stigma of fear and dogma.
Instead, it is a very practical and personal spirituality – one where God is personal and part of ALL of your life.
The ultimate purpose of spirituality is for it to serve you and not frighten or judge you.
The challenge is that we get born into a life and with this comes a set of beliefs that we cannot help but to adopt. This is the very thing that often keeps us from making the kind of progress that will free us.
A very important aspect of your personal and spiritual growth is to be willing to be wrong and to have your belief system turned upside down. Your ideas and beliefs around money, success and spirituality are most likely not your own.
They are ideas and beliefs that were handed down to you as you grew up. A big part of “waking up” spiritually is to consciously start making your own decisions about what you believe.
One of Wayne Dyer’s secrets for success and inner peace is to have a mind that is open to everything and attached to nothing.
Having an open mind is a very hard thing for most of us to have simply because we’ve all been conditioned in so many different ways.
Most of what we think is right or wrong is nothing but a function of the environment that we grew up in.
When you close your mind, you close yourself off from what’s possible for you.
When you open your mind to everything, you open the doors to the creative genius within you.
Click here to read the complete book summary of Dr. Wayne Dyer’s 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace
The Power of Being Open Minded
What you are capable of is a function of your mind and what you believe as being possible and not your physical capabilities or resources.
Scientists have found proof that until and unless you can see something happening in your mind, you won’t take the action necessary to make it happen.
With an open mind, you are open to new suggestions and along with this you are able to see the entire world in a new way.
Throughout history, all progress depended on people to have an open mind and people who were able to consider and conceive of the ‘impossible’ where those responsible for advancing humanity.
A mind that is closed, especially to the obvious, is a mind that will only continue to move along the same lines. Open minds can break their bounds and see things afresh.
Your own inner genius relies on you to allow it to blossom and it starts by opening your mind.
Creativity is a force that requires a fresh look at things and a mind that is open is a mind that allows the creative force of the universe to work through it.
Even though most people claim to be open minded, very few are truly open to new points of view. Very few people are willing to be wrong or to have their own beliefs challenged.
When it comes to matter spiritual people tend to tighten up. We’ve been so conditioned into slotting spiritual approaches into categories – especially when it comes to religion.
People are incredibly sensitive when it comes to spiritual beliefs, and some will even defend it with their lives. Throw in money and you can really get people worked up.
“There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.”
George Bernard Shaw
Sometimes we just can’t help but to ‘slot’ people and to be judgmental, BUT being open minded calls on us to let go of this and to really explore the possibilities. Life’s treasures are usually found in the most unlikely places!
Living a more spiritually conscious life requires you to be more open minded.
The fact remains that we know very little about the true nature of the world we live in. There are just so many dimensions to life and so many unanswered questions that after more than 2020 years we are only starting to get a glimpse at the vastness of it all.
How can anyone be a pessimist in a world that is so rich in unexplored ideas and unanswered questions?
How do we really know things are what they are?
Embracing Success, Money and Spirituality
With an open mind you can start to embrace more of life and in the process you will start to develop a greater sense of appreciation and gratitude for life.
This is the foundation of having an abundant life. Abundance can mean different things for different people but it all boils down to the idea of having all your needs met; of having more than enough and to never feel like you are lacking anything.
Is having a lot of money part of this idea of abundance? Yes, for most it is. Is there something wrong with having a lot of money? With having a lot of material success?
How could there be!?
Is money not the currency of the world we live in?
All the negative thoughts around spirituality and money is nothing other than antiquated beliefs. Yes, there are so-called spiritual leaders that abuse their position to enrich themselves but they are dishonest crooks just like any other dishonest crook.
Success, money and spirituality are absolutely compatible. It is important to make one distinction though. Someone who has a lot of money is not necessarily wealthy.
Money is like love; it kills slowly and painfully the one who withholds it, and enlivens the other who turns it on his fellow man.
Khalil Gibran
Many super rich people are very poor. They are always worried about losing money – always being frugal, never sharing and into hoarding “stuff”.
That is not wealth.
Wealth and abundance is about sharing, expanding and letting abundance flow through your life. It is about gratitude and giving.
The real irony is that once you reach that point of having true financial abundance you realize that you don’t need the money at all to feel abundant.
You Don’t Have To Choose Between Success or Spirituality
Spirituality is at the centre of our exploration into the world we live in and ultimately understanding more about ourselves is a thirst that we all have to quench.
Spirituality has always been at the centre of humankind’s quest to know itself – to discover and explore life’s most profound questions..
Life is not so much an ‘either or’ as it is an ‘as well as’ but our conditioning keeps us locked up in our own limiting beliefs. The idea of being successful or spiritual has long been the accepted reality.
The idea of being successful AND spiritual was just too much for most to even comprehend.
Open your mind and free yourself from the limitations that keep you locked up in your own limitations.
If you have the desire for wealth and success but at some level your spiritual beliefs hold you back, then you need a reality check.
You need to get rid of those beliefs because they are just that – ideas that were handed down to you. There is no absolute truth to them.
Being rich or poor does not make you good or bad.
An open mind will free that creative force that lies dormant within you. An open mind will help you to create a greater sense of harmony in your life and embrace more of life with a sense of wonder and awe.
Free your mind and your spirit will follow. It is Lao Tzu who said that “If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place”.