The three principles for the Spirit which reflect our relationship with life are:  

Principle 7: The importance of becoming true to ourselves 
 

Principle 8: The need for high vitality 
 

Principle 9: Our need for connection to Source or the Divine, developing inner strength, and finding spiritual uplift and soul food 
 

Your relationship with life and your spirit  

Another profound difference that you can make to your health is by attending to the underlying state of your spirit. Good care for our spirit greatly affects our vitality as this is where we find our meaning and purpose as well as our connection to the source of life of life and life energy. Often, we see that people have become ‘dis-spirited’ or even that their spirit has been broken, by grief, disappointment, or through domination by others in relationship, socially or politically. Our spirit can also be bowed by by frustration, boredom and lack of self-expression, or through financial stress, isolation, loneliness or lack of fulfilment.  

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As this happens, life becomes progressively more meaningless and people then either become alienated, angry and anarchic, or alternatively saddened and depressed, falling into apathy. This can result in a deep-seated ambivalence to life and even loss of the will to live. In this state the mind and body weakens and we are very vulnerable to illness, addiction and subordination to the will of others (‘known as coercive control’).  

In this state the immune system flounders, its function also becoming depressed. Our tissues heal less well, we age faster, and have lowered resistance to infection or cancer. If we do get ill, we are likely to die more quickly than those who do have a strong will to live and the fighting spirit that goes with it. Just as important as this effect on our health is the fact that we do not reach our potential or become the people we can be; we do not feel fulfilled or that we are living out our life’s purpose, nor do we get to experience all the great joy, passion, excitement and fun in life that is our birth right. So, our work here is to unburden our spirit and move towards a lifestyle that fully expresses and nourishes us, allowing our spirit to soar and shine. To do this we must become clear about our own underlying values in life; what matters for us and what gives us a sense of purpose and passion. So, here the key questions are whether we are in the right place at the right time doing the right thing for ourselves? This begins the process of becoming true to ourselves and leading an authentic life based on knowing and expressing ourselves. This is not a process of becoming ‘selfish’, but rather of balancing our focus on others with healthy, self-focus.  

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In these principles the aim is to revive our spirit first by learning to become true to ourselves and to express our true nature. This causes our energy to leap up and our soul or spirit to engage fully in the life we lead. This uplift continues as we find focus and meaning in our lives, becoming. what we call being ‘in truth and on purpose’.  As we then look at our vitality, we will explore ways to lift it directly with energy therapies and self-help practices such as yoga and qigong designed specifically to unblock and lift our energy. We identify where we are losing our precious life energy and put a stop to it, seeing our vitality and enthusiasm lift and stay high, keeping us well and radiant. We go deeply into the exploration of our spiritual nature, identifying what nourishes our soul or spirit, giving us the uplift and inner strength to meet life’s demands and find the deep inner peace that our hearts desire. Through these processes we develop our spiritual intelligence, building the inner strength and peace of mind to embrace our living and dying in the most gracious way.  

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Principle 7 - Being True to Yourself  

Now come the profound questions: What is right about you? What are your strengths and passions? What nourishes your soul and lifts your spirit? What is it that really brings you alive? Perhaps it is music, nature, art, dancing, cooking, sexual intimacy, gardening, poetry, helping others, creativity, sports, or visiting your special sacred places? Perhaps it is climbing mountains, enjoying rugby or riding a motorbike on the open road. Whatever it is for you, make sure that you get plenty of this soul food to satisfy your deepest needs and bring you joy.  

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As we become true to ourselves, our life energy and consciousness rise, as does our sense of purpose and joy in living. In this clean, clear and vital state our bodies work optimally, healing from the inside out and we can experience the ‘quantum healing’ that has been described by Deepak Chopra, where we leap into a greatly enhanced ability to self-heal. 

 

So in this principle we explore: 

1. Are you true to yourself?  

2. What makes us untrue to ourselves?  

3. What roles and personas do we express?  

4. Exploring our sub-personalities  

5. Are there dominant people or forces affecting your life?  

6. Are there other influences dominating your life?  

7. Understanding influences from the spiritual dimension  

8. Finding help to become free of dominating influences  

9. Becoming true to yourself (with a linked audio exercise)  

10. Creativity and self-expression  

  

Principle 8 - Vitality  

Vitality is simply the life energy that we have available for work, play and 
relationships. In physics energy is defined as ‘the capacity of a physical system to perform work and exert power’. In life the definition of energy is ‘the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity’. Life energy is what we use to fuel our passions, fire our vision, unleash our potential, release our creativity and drive our performance. This makes life energy the most important resource we have. When our energy is high we feel wonderful, we radiate health and wellbeing, we inspire and energise others. At high energy levels we reach our full potential in life, we excel at work and we still have high energy left to bring to our relationships and to achieve our aspirational goals. This is what makes it so precious, and understanding and raising it the most important thing for us to do to be well and happy.  

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Our ability to succeed in life is directly proportional to the energy available to us, but high-pressure jobs and Western lifestyle deplete our life energy, putting our performance, work capacity, health and fulfilment at risk. Once we understand how to build and hold onto our vitality we can function at full power, bringing our best physical, emotional and spiritual intelligence into play. As our energy levels rise so does our mood, our capacity and our intuition. With heightened awareness we have increase consciousness. We make better decisions and we arrive at the point where we do less but achieve more. So here, we address how we raise, balance and restore our energy for maximum health and wellbeing.  

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In this principle we will look at:  

1. What do we mean by life energy and vitality? 

2. Energy models of health, illness and therapy 

3. The Western ‘TATT’ epidemic – why are we ‘Tired All The Time’? 

4. The Rosy Daniel Energy Graph 

5. Phasing of therapy and self-help to recover our vitality 

6. Working with the Energy Equation 

7. Illness and energy – recognising the ‘energy thieves’ 

8. Losing vitality through excess expenditure of energy and money 

9. Energy awareness and Life Energy Management 

10. Energy psychology  

  

Principle 9 – Spiritual Connection 

Being able to connect to Source or go into communion with the Divine takes us out of our sense of separateness as individuals. It is this sense of separation which the Buddhists say is the source of all suffering. Re-Sourcing ourselves in this way boost our energy levels greatly and help us to develop inner strength and the spiritual resilience to remain calm and purposeful in uncertain and challenging times. Mankind has achieved this finding of our still centre or access to the ‘kingdom of heaven within’ over millennia through spiritual practices which cultivate inner peace and the equanimity, and this helps us to cope no matter what life throws at us. Here we all need to find our own way, be it with the practice of meditation, prayer, contemplation or communion or by finding our spiritual connection in nature, creativity, art or music. Whatever our path may be, the essence is to find and cultivate a spiritual practice which brings us the peace and joy at the very heart of our soul and our sense of oneness with life. The key here is in the word ‘practice’! As with all skills, results are directly proportional to the time and focus given.  

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The calmer and more able we become to detach from the hurly-burly of life, the more likely we are to awaken to our spiritual nature and our place as a divine spark in what Greg Braden calls the Divine Matrix of life. Those who experience this kind of spiritual awakening or home-coming to their true spiritual nature often seem to lose their fear of dying, becoming more likely to see death as a transition than an ending. And we see that those who have fully lived as their authentic self, even if briefly, can find it easier to let go of life when their dying time comes.  

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Spiritual health may be seen as:  

• having a loving relationship with ourselves, others and with life  

• being at peace with ourselves and others  

• developing a still centre to which we can return when life gets difficult  

• living a life that authentically expresses our true nature  

• being fully engaged with life, with meaning and purpose  

• living our potential  

• raising our energy and consciousness and ultimately  

• accepting our mortality and consciously embracing death.  

 

In this principle we will look at:  

1. What do we mean by spirit? 

2. What do we mean by spiritual health? 

3. How can we nourish and uplift our spirit? 

4. How do we develop spiritual inner strength to cope with the challenges of life? 

5. Developing a spiritual practice which opens our hearts and makes us peaceful and joyful 

6. Prayer, healing and spiritual guidance 

7. What do we mean by spiritual growth? 

8. Bringing spirituality into our lives 

9. Creative manifestation 

10. Preparing ourselves for dying