Inspirational Living: Life Lessons for Success, Happiness, Motivation, Spiritual Growth, Self-Help & Positive Thinking

Listen to episode 106 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Is There Life After Death? Edited and adapted from “Does the Soul Exist After Death?” by Swami Abhedananda. Spiritual Podcast Excerpt: From ancient times there have been thinkers in India who denied the existence of the soul after the death of the body. They are known as Charvákas. They believe that the body is the soul, and that the soul does not exist outside of the body, and that when the body dies, the soul is also dead and gone. They believe in nothing that cannot be perceived by the senses. The followers of such thinkers are spreading very rapidly, and their number is increasing every day. They are now known as atheists, materialists, etc. According to this class of thinkers, those who believe in the existence of the soul as separate from the body, or in a life after death, are ignorant and superstitious fools, while those who follow their ideas are clever and intelligent beings. Most of them hold that there is no such thing as a soul. No argument can convince them or change their views, because they will not admit the existence of anything which lies beyond the reach of their senses, or which cannot be perceived by the limited powers of the senses. They have written volumes after volumes against the existence of the soul, and have tried to stop such useless questions of the mind; but in spite of their efforts, have they succeeded in stopping that innate question, "What remains after death?" — which rises spontaneously in almost every human heart? No... Related Spirituality Podcasts: How to Overcome Fear of Death Karma Yoga & The Goal of Life

Listen to episode 105 of the Inspirational Living podcast: An Untethered Philosophy of Life (Soul Wisdom). Edited and adapted from “The Message of New Thought” by Abel Allen. New Thought Podcast Excerpt: The kind and quality of your thought determines the kind and quality of life. Thought is expressed in the personality and molds the outward circumstances of life. It is manifested in life’s results. We receive that which is our due; nothing more, nothing less. We pay the price; we do not get something for nothing. We take out of life only what we put in. Only as we take to life a full soul, do we live a full life. If we carry into life an empty soul, our reward is a desolate and barren life. Life yields only what it receives. These truths should sink deep into your understanding, as they light the pathway that leads to the art of living. It follows as a natural sequence that the violation of these laws brings its own swift and relentless punishment. If we break them, Nature sets up her impediments, we are frustrated in our efforts, we fail to reach the real in life. The converse is also true. If we keep them, Nature smiles her approval and we reach out toward the constructive and essential in life. Related New Thought Podcasts: The Power of Words How Thoughts Shape Our Destiny

Listen to episode 104 of the Inspirational Living podcast: New Success Mindset: The Psychology of Business & Life. Edited and adapted from “The Power of Concentration” by William Walker Atkinson. Success Podcast Excerpt: Everyone has two natures. One wants us to advance and the other wants to pull us back. The one that we cultivate and concentrate on decides what we are at the end. Both natures are trying to gain control. This will alone decide the issue. A person by one supreme effort of the will may change their whole career and almost accomplish miracles. You may be that person. You can be, if you Will to be — for Will can find a way or make one. I could easily fill a book of cases where people who were plodding along in a matter-of-fact way, all at once were aroused and, as if awakening from a slumber, developed the possibilities within them, and from that time on were different persons. You alone can decide when the turning point will come. It is a matter of choice whether we allow our higher self to control us, or whether we will be controlled by the brute within us. No one has to do anything that they do not want to do. You are therefore the director of your life, if you WILL to be..... Related Success Podcasts: The Secret of Financial Success The Secret of My Success

Listen to episode 103 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Seeing God in Nature: Wild Love. Edited and adapted from Thoughts are Things by Prentice Mulford. Spirituality Podcast Excerpt: You are fortunate if you love trees, especially the wild ones growing where the Great Creative Force has placed them, independent of human care. For all things we call "wild" or "natural" are nearer the Infinite Mind — and being nearer the Infinite, they have in them the more perfect Infinite Force and Thought. That is why when you are in the midst of what is wild and natural (in the forest or mountains, where every trace of human works are left behind), you feel an indescribable exhilaration and freedom that you do not feel elsewhere. You breathe the elements ever being thrown off by the trees, the rocks, the birds, and animals, and by every expression of the Infinite Mind about you. It is healthfully exhilarating. It is something more than air. It is the Infinite Mind, as expressed by all these natural things, which is acting on you. You cannot get this force in a city, nor even in a carefully cultivated garden — for there the plants and trees have too much of our lesser mind in them, the human mind which believes that it can improve the universe. Related Spirituality Podcasts: Thoughts on Nature & Beauty The Science of Eternal Life

Listen to episode 102 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Greatest Life Lesson of the East (Vedanta Talks). Edited and adapted from a lecture by Swami Vivekananda. Self-Help Podcast Excerpt: We must work, constantly work, with all our power — to put our whole mind in the work, whatever it be, that we are doing. At the same time, we must not be attached. That is to say, we must not be drawn away from the work by anything else. But still we must be able to quit the work whenever we like. If we examine our own lives, we find that the greatest cause of sorrow is this: we take up something and put our whole energy on it — perhaps it is a failure, and yet we cannot give it up. We know that it is hurting us, that any further clinging to it is simply bringing misery on us. Still, we cannot tear ourselves away from it. The bee came to sip the honey, but its feet stuck to the honey-pot and it could not get away. Again and again, we are finding ourselves in that state. That is the whole secret of existence. Why are we here? We came here to sip the honey, and we find our hands and feet sticking to it. We are caught, though we came to catch. We came to rule; we are being ruled. We came to work; we are being worked. All the time, we find that. And this comes into every detail of our life. We are being worked upon by other minds, and we are always struggling to work on other minds....

Listen to episode 101 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Being Happy & Successful in Any Career. Edited and adapted from How to Get On by Bernard Feeney. Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Suppose that you have already decided and entered on a career, profession, or calling of any kind, which for some reason you cannot give up, I advise you strongly, if you value your peace of mind and wish to save your life from failure, to seek out all possible reasons for loving that career and becoming attached to it. Drive away all craving for what may not be. Turn your mind from it, as from a deadly temptation. Every beginning is hard. You will, no doubt, chafe and fume for a little at the thought that you are bound for life to something sickening and hateful. But we soon adapt ourselves to the inevitable, no matter how disagreeable it be. Habit reconciles us to it, and companionship after a time disposes us in its favor. There is good in everything, even in a career unwisely chosen. But this good has to be found out; it does not always present itself at first view. A piece of quartz is a dull, heavy, unshapen lump of earth. Yet when people came to know its value, they dug deep into the earth, and cut their way through rocks, and endangered their lives to obtain it. So, too, with a career. It may be humble, ill-paid, and laborious; it may seem to have no future before it; it may be commonplace and unromantic, as the realities of life generally are. But it is, at least, honest and independent. It does us well to develop steadiness, love of duty, trustworthiness — all of which helps us to keep our homes bright and cheerful....

Listen to episode 100 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Nothing Happens By Chance (The Kybalion & Hermetism). Edited and adapted from The Kybalion. Philosophy Podcast Excerpt: Stop to think a moment. If a certain man had not met a certain lady, way back in the dim period of the Stone Age — you who are now reading these lines would not now be here. And if, perhaps, the same couple had failed to meet, we who now write these lines would not now be here. And the very act of writing, on our part, and the act of reading, on yours, will affect not only the respective lives of yourself and ourselves, but will also have a direct, or indirect, affect upon many other people now living and who will live in the ages to come. Every thought we think, every act we perform, has its direct and indirect results which fit into the great chain of Cause and Effect. I don’t not wish to enter into a discussion of Free-Will, or Determinism, in today’s talk, for various reasons — the principal one being that neither side of the controversy is entirely right — in fact, both sides are partially right, according to ancient Hermetic philosophy....

Listen to episode 99 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Inspirational Quotes & Meditations On Life. Edited and adapted from The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Self-Help Podcast Excerpt: What can shake your belief in the goodness of humankind? The cruelty of others? Remember that we have come here for each other, and that people act out of ignorance. Have mercy on them. Have faith. Everything happens within a larger Order. You will find this to be true if you watch the world carefully. Don’t look at things the way wrong-doers do. Don’t look at things as wrong-doers want you too, either. Instead, strive to see things in truth, as they really are. Never value the things that will force you to lie, lose self-respect, hate, or deceive. Whoever values peace of mind and the health of the soul will live the best of all possible lives. Oh, how peaceful it is to stop looking at what our neighbors say and do and think, and simply strive to bring our own lives into alignment with truth and kindness. Let us live simply and modestly – and if anyone says that we do not live a simple, modest life, let us not be angry with them, nor change our direction. If we hold to our ideals, we will move through life with purity and peace of mind.

Listen to episode 98 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Psychology of Business: Success for Entrepreneurs & Startups. Edited and adapted from The Mental Highway by Thomas Parker Boyd. Motivational Podcast Excerpt: It does not matter whether you are selling the products of your own hands and imagination, or those of others, or whether you are selling knowledge and expertise, your business must eventually be an expression of you — for you are really selling yourself when you are selling your goods or service. You must believe in your business as you believe in yourself. Your business will flow through certain channels. It will follow the plan you have laid out, much as a house follows its foundation and plan. Having made your plan, you then turn to the materials, and all the materials in the psychology of business are within yourself. Success, when you achieve it, is your own — whether it comes in the form of position, honor, power, happiness, or money. To succeed, you must be able to inspire others to help you by cooperating with you and by purchasing from you. In its final analysis, all success comes to us through others. This is the key. People band together, not only for protection, but for cooperation. You must realize that they must be motivated and inspired in their desire to cooperate with you and further your success.

Listen to episode 97 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Inspirational Book of Business (Success Principles). Edited and adapted from The Book of Business by Elbert Hubbard. Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: The Spirit of the Times — the Zeitgeist, to borrow a word from our German friends — is a constantly progressing entity. The present Spirit of the Times is of a kind unequaled in history. We have thousands upon thousands of men and women who are thinking great and noble thoughts and doing great and splendid work. Increasing numbers of entrepreneurs regard themselves as public servants. Our Zeitgeist is sensitive, restless, alert, impressionable, progressive, and is making for a better future. The entrepreneur who can imagine a better future than now exists is able to throw their vision on computer screens around the world, and the individual who can formulate a better government than we now have is not hanged for their pains, but is allowed to express their dreams. Public opinion rules. No law that is contrary to the Zeitgeist can be enforced. Judges construe, translate, and interpret the laws to suit the Spirit of the Times. Every person who speaks out loud and clear is impacting the Zeitgeist. Every person who expresses what they honestly think is true is changing the Spirit of the Time.

Listen to episode 96 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Dare to Love (How to Follow the Path of Love). Edited and adapted from Love’s Way by Orison Swett Marden. Motivational Podcast Excerpt: Try love's way, it holds the great secret of happiness. Life without love is valueless. I once read a story of a sunbeam that had heard there were places on the earth so horrible, so dark, dismal and gloomy that it was impossible to describe them. The sunbeam resolved to find these places, and started on its journey with lightning speed. It visited the caverns of the earth. It glided into sunless homes, into dark alleys, into underground cellars; it wandered everywhere in its quest to see what the darkness was like, but the sunbeam never found the darkness because wherever it went it carried its own light with it. Every spot it visited, no matter how dark and dismal before its entry, was brightened and cheered by its presence. The sun is a beautiful symbol of love. It sends its cheering, life-giving ray into the wretched hovel, into the prison cell, as impartially as into the palace. It gives itself as generously, as joyously, to the worst criminal, to the poorest soul who walks the earth, as to the monarch on their throne....

Listen to episode 95 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Ideal Made Real: The Transformation Mindset. Edited and adapted from The Ideal Made Real by Christian D. Larson. New Thought Podcast Excerpt: To understand the scientific relationship that exists between the real and the ideal, the mind must have both the power of interior insight and the power of scientific analysis, as well as the power of practical application; but we do not find, as a rule, the prophet and the scientist in the same mind. The person who has visions and the person who can do things do not usually dwell in the same personality; nevertheless, this is necessary. And every person can develop both the prophet and the scientist in themselves. They can develop the power to see the ideal and also the power to make the ideal real. The large mind, the broad mind, the deep mind, the lofty mind, the properly developed mind can see both the outer and the inner side of things. Such a mind can see the ideal on high, and at the same time understand how to make real, tangible, and practical what he has seen....

Listen to episode 94 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Be Self-Confident (Overcoming the Confidence Gap). Edited and adapted from Psychology & Higher Life by William McKeever, published in 1905. Self-Development Podcast Excerpt: The self-confident person, of necessity, believes in other people. Old as I am, it stirs me up to put forth greater effort to have people believe in me. The ordinary little child will do their utmost to come up to the standard fixed for them by the expressed opinions of their elders. The self-reliant person, therefore, is a benefactor of his or her associates. It is such an easy matter to drift down to the level of a gossip, and later to that of a defamer of character, and finally to that of the chronic misanthrope. If one goes about looking for the meanness in other people's character, you can surely find it. But so can you find the good — more of it than you can enumerate in a lifetime. Happy indeed is the individual who has formed the habit of looking for the good. And so in every clime, we find the stalwart, self-reliant character, who, in the language of the statesman might say: "Master of human destinies am I: Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait." Another of the great promoters of self-confidence, as well as of long life and happiness, is love. Everyone should by all means fall in love with something or somebody, or, better yet, with everybody...

Listen to episode 93 of the Inspirational Living podcast: How to Be Successful & Influence Others to Succeed. Edited and adapted from The Majesty of Calmness by William George Jordan. Inspirational Podcast Excerpt: In every moment of life, we are changing to a degree the life of the whole world. Every person has an atmosphere which is affecting every other. So silent and unconsciously is this influence working, that we may forget that it exists. All the forces of Nature — heat, light, electricity, and gravitation — are silent and invisible. We never see them; we only know that they exist by seeing the effects they produce. In all Nature, the wonders of the "seen" are dwarfed into insignificance, when compared with the majesty and glory of the "unseen". In a thousand ways, Nature constantly seeks to lead us to a keener and deeper realization of the power and the wonder of the invisible. Into the hands of every individual is given a marvelous power for good or for evil — the silent, unconscious, unseen influence of our lives. This is simply the constant radiation of what we really are, not what we pretend to be. Every individual, by their mere living, is radiating sympathy, or sorrow, or morbidness, or cynicism, or happiness, or hope, or any of a hundred other qualities. Life is a state of constant radiation and absorption; to exist is to radiate; to exist is to be the recipient of radiations. There are men and women whose presence seems to radiate sunshine, cheer, and optimism. You feel calmed and rested and restored to a new and stronger faith in humanity.

Listen to episode 92 of the Inspirational Living podcast: Mental & Physical Fitness: Get Fit, Motivated & Inspired. Edited and adapted from Assuming Responsibilities by Douglas Fairbanks. Motivational Podcast Excerpt: The person who rises in the morning from a healthy slumber and plunges into the bath after some vigorous exercise is prepared to undertake anything. Their world seems fair, and though the sun may not be shining literally, it is to all intents and purposes. Thus, they go swinging along with a cheery smile, carrying the message of hope and joy to all those with whom they come in contact. Of course, mental fitness is equally important to physical fitness. And the character of a man and woman expresses itself by the books they read. Every well-informed person since the invention of the printing press has been a close reader of a few books that stand out from among the many. We read of Lincoln devouring the few books he had over and over again and studying from cover to cover and word for word the Webster's dictionary of his day. As the poet Robert Heath once wrote, "A few good books, digested well, do feed the mind." Feed the mind! That's the idea — but how shall we feed it? The answer is easy — with something worthwhile — something that will inform and inspire. We can cram our minds to the point of indigestion with useless, frivolous information, just as easily as we may cram our stomachs with certain foods that tear down rather than build up.