Do you invest more time and money taking care of your car than you do for yourself?
Every year your car minimally requires:
- Oil change every 5,000-7,000 miles
- Rotate your tires every 7,500 miles
- Break pads changed every 25,000 miles
These are just a few things responsible adults do to keep their car running smoothly. Can you imagine if you made even half this investment into your personal well-being?
Honestly, is it time for some spiritual maintenance? Here are some ideas for stepping up to the challenge of spiritual adulting.
Maintenance means upkeep, preservation, and care. The opposite of this means neglect. We’ve all ignored the warning signs until we reach that point where we don’t sleep well, feel out of sorts, live with physical aches and pains and get impatient with those around us. Just like the system of warning lights in our cars, advising us to pay attention, our spiritual warning system can send out alarms as well.
Remember, just like we don’t want to run out of gas on the road or blow a head gasket, we shouldn’t let our bodies wear down or our minds wear out either.
All we have to do is notice. Pay attention. Or better yet, before something happens, schedule time for yourself to recharge so you don’t slip backwards, which is one of the nine kinds of obstacles encountered on the Spiritual path of happiness according to Pantanjali’s Yoga Sutra Chapter 1 Verse 30.
Slipping Backwards is known as “anavasthitatva.”
Often after we have worked hard to attain a goal, like losing 10 pounds, getting stronger, sleeping longer, working less, being less distracted, eating healthy, it is often our inability to maintain the progress we’ve achieved that becomes our bigger obstacle. When we stop making time for regular maintenance we can slip backwards into unhealthy patterns like not getting enough sleep, eating unhealthy, or working all weekend.
Other ways to describe this include: Slipping down, backsliding, regressing, relapsing.
It is not enough to achieve our intentions through diligent self-work. Spiritual adulting means to continue to remain focused and maintain progress once achieved. In other words, to keep it going because it is important to our personal development and core integrity. No excuses.
No one can do this for us. It’s up to us to keep our commitment to living our best lives. Even at times when we might “slip backwards” we can renew our commitment and again promise to stay the course to keep going for our good and the good of our contributions to the world.
Game on. Today is an opportunity to make deposits into your health and happiness. What are you going to do to destress, unplug, get strong, quiet your mind, and get your emotions, thoughts, and body back in alignment? What does your ultimate tune-up look like? Am you ready for spiritual adulting? You bet you are.
Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia
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Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Silvia Mordini, CEO, Transformation Leader, and Author. With contagious enthusiasm Silvia encourages everyone she meets to love their life! Her expert passion connects people to their own joyful potential. She has been teaching happiness, global awareness, & mindfulness for 20 years. Silvia, born in Ecuador, proud of her Italian heritage and raised as a world traveler, is a well-loved internationally recognized Motivational Speaker, Love Alchemist, and Mindfulness Teacher at conferences worldwide. Her classes holistically integrate various styles of yoga, primarily Vinyasa, Kundalini, and Anusara. You can’t help but leave her workshops, RYT200 Alchemy of Yoga teacher trainings & Alchemy Tours retreats spiritually uplifted!
Before becoming a serial Entrepreneur, Silvia had a thirteen-year Human Resource career including as Director for an international Fortune 100 professional services company. She founded and owned Total Body Yoga Studio with over 9,000 clients for ten years. In young adulthood she was run over by a car—a life changing accident that led her to discover the “Alchemy” of Yoga and Meditation to heal and transcend. She is the Founder of the fifteen year old world renowned Alchemy of Yoga Teacher Training School with over 29 graduating classes of Alchemist Alumni. In 2009 she founded Alchemy Tours, an International Retreat company specializing in Personal Development. With over 12,000 hours of yoga teaching experience she makes yoga approachable, fun, and inspiring for everyone. She has been inspiring happiness, global awareness, and joyful living in students for more than fifteen years.
Tune into her motivational “Loving Your Day” Podcast. Read her popular blog “Happiness Prescriptions”, and learn to love yourself, love your day, love your life along with enjoying her “Loving Your Day” YouTube channel.
She has written hundreds of lifestyle, travel & wellness articles for publications such as MindBodyGreen (USA), Elephant Journal, DOYOU (Hong Kong), Wanderlust (USA), Mantra Wellness Magazine, Gaia, Yogi Times, Daily Cup of Yoga (USA), and is a wellness expert as seen in HuffPost and Medium.
Most importantly through personal experience she knows it’s possible to transform your trauma to dharma and transmute your drama to dreams.
You can reach her by email at silvia@silviamordini.com
Inspired Yoga, Love, and Travel for a LIFE Inspired
Personal: https://www.silviamordini.com/ Twitter/Instagram @inspiredyogagal
Yoga: https://alchemyofyoga.com Twitter/Instagram @alchemyofyoga
Travel https://alchemytours.com Twitter/Instagram @alchemytours
Love: http://lovingyourday.com Twitter/Instagram @lovingyourday
Daily Cup of Yoga 
This was such an interesting read!
I definitely agree that we could all benefit from scheduling time for ourselves to do something that helps us recharge 🙂
Hugs,
Camilla
http://northernfairytales.dk/en/
It seems to me most people burn out! They believe the more work they do the better…the harder they work the more their dreams will come to fruition. It really could be or should have been taught to us as children that the maintenance of our mind, body and spirit are the core elements to keep us moving without sending us to illness and exhaustion…taken our sovereignty. I should know, I am one of those persons who just didn’t know better for many years… I was taught hard work would always be the very thing to that culminates success. Even the meaning of success is obscure and my success does not equal my families same ideas.
TY
From childhood, we’ve been taught about the rat race. Agreed worldly possessions can give you comfort but over care about them can take us to “fear-of-losing.” It leads to a worried mind inviting many problems. On your part, I appreciate you started this by correlating it with the car. This practical example made things easier to understand. Thanks!