Kindness includes so many wonderful things, like friendliness, pleasantness, generosity, and understanding.  Where kindness is practiced at work, there’s cooperation, not power tripping.  … Respectful teamwork, not bullying or harassment.  … Welcoming of differences, not hostility or favoritism.

All this makes for a workplace where people are more likely to be excited about going to work than dreading it.  At the end of the day, there’s a spring to their step and time for a rich life, not exhaustion or the urge to escape.

All this means that kindness also is a benefit to the financial bottom line.

As Jodi RR Smith, director of Mannersmith Etiquette Consulting in Marblehead, MA says, “People’s discomfort chills the workplace dynamic. When people feel respected, they are more likely to be fully present and engaged, ready to roll up their sleeves for effective work.”

Kindness is the Appropriate Form of “Love Your Neighbor” at Work

Khalil Gibran has called work, “love made visible.”  Jesus has said that the most important commandment after loving God is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves — with “neighbor” being expanded way beyond the traditional definition of a fellow tribesman or person who lives nearby.

The Golden Rule used to be touted as best way to love our neighbors.  Lately, there’s been talk of a higher standard, or the Platinum Rule.  Instead of doing unto others as we want them to do unto us, we do as they would wish to be done unto.  In other words, rather than assuming how someone wants to be treated, get to know him or her and discover their preferences.  (A great basic marketing practice!)

When we remember that others also want the blessing of being seen and honored as beings with unique viewpoints and preferences, the full Golden Rule works quite well.  Indeed, what employees want most from employers or fellow workers isn’t money or status.  It’s appreciation and acknowledgement — basic forms of kindness. Clients also want kindness in the form of honest, friendly, authentic service or products.

Legal Cases Show the Need for Kindness at Work

A few of the things I’ve seen while working part-time for employment lawyers over the years are very painful:

• Employees throwing a noose over an African-American employee’s head and calling it horseplay;
• Employers humiliating employees and retaliating against those who speak out against abuse at work;
• Insults based on employees’ sex, age, race, creed, or disability;
• Bullying, favoritism and sabotage at all levels of the corporate ladder.

When I entered the workforce in the 1960′s, many of these reprehensible activities were perfectly legal.  Over the years, employment law has slowly expanded to provide more freedom from harassment and a more equal job playing field.

Legal support for kindness — or at least protection against the worst unkindness — is moot if people don’t take the help that’s available to them.  Having summarized hundreds of depositions in employment law cases, I’m saddened by the number of people who don’t know how to set and maintain good boundaries.  Sometimes, they are motivated by their own misguided good intentions.

Witness an employee who thought if she simply pulled away every time her superior touched her inappropriately, he would get the message.  She didn’t want to humiliate him by speaking out, she said, and when he kept his hands to himself, she basically liked and respected him.

Like the neighbor in Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall,” we need good fences, or boundaries.  Sometimes, the greatest kindness one can do to a fellow employee or supervisor is say something like, “stop,” while a wrongdoing is small. That’s not easy for those of us who find it harder to be kind to ourselves than it is to be kind to others.

Kindness Goes Beyond Good Manners, Though That’s a Great Start.

A basic tenet of good manners is respect for self and others.  Ordinary good manners provide a great foundation for practicing kindness at work.

One of the most satisfying articles I ever wrote was for Workforce Management Magazine about a growing, informal etiquette for spirit and work, including an etiquette that which might be acceptable to atheists, spiritual eclectics, and devout believers of any faith. I hope you’ll check it out and add your own thoughts about kindness at work here..

Imagine:  a workplace filled with kindness.  It starts here, now.  It grows steadily, act of kindness by act of kindness.

As always, many blessings,

Pat McHenry Sullivan

Over the past 14 years, it’s been my great pleasure to interview hundreds of people about how their work and their spirituality support each other. The great world religions scholar Huston Smith,  graciously granted an interview of some basic tenets in each faith. Individuals have added their own rich insights, providing a marvelous, ever-growing picture of the many ways to put spiritual values to work everyday.

All Faiths Promote Right Livelihood

The term comes from Buddha’s instructions to his disciples not to cause harm through one’s work and to work ethically. Over the past thirty years there have been numerous discussions and writings from people of many faiths on what this might mean. Just a few:

• Finding work that suits talents and to which one feels deeply called. The Christian concept of vocation and the parable of the talents Matthew 25:14-30 are particularly relevant.
• Working with the same integrity and other values in the workplace that you honor in your place of worship. The Muslim concept of being the same person in the marketplace as you are in the mosque is a marvelous model.
• Engaging fully with the task at hand without forcing your will or ego on it. The Taoist concepts of Yin and Yang and the Hindu concept of surrendering the outcome of your work to God are wise guides.
• Weaving time for reflection and rest into times of work. The Jewish Sabbath and Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 (a time for everything in its season) are prime examples.
• Working in a way that respects the needs of others, including the earth and those not yet born. Prime examples are the environmental movements and the wisdom of native peoples, such as the Iroquois commandment to consider the impact of one’s actions to the seventh generation.

All Faiths Promote Paths to Wisdom

Whether you call it meditation, prayer, reflection or just a walk to clear your head, all faiths suggest that you get out of your ordinary mind, out of the limited view of your ego, and into a more timeless, universal way of seeing the world.

Because this blog often covers these topics, we won’t focus on them today. Except to say, whatever your faith, you already know some practices for slowing down, breathing, and opening up to guidance.

Indeed, one of the most spiritual persons I know is a lawyer who is an avowed atheist. He’s famously kind, compassionate, and ethical, but he doesn’t frame his thoughts about life and meaning in theological terms. He won’t use words like meditation or prayer, but obviously he gets into a state of deep reflection when he listens to country music and gets out of his over-worked left brain, into his heart.

I’d rather live in a world with one man who finds guidance without spiritual words than with than dozens who speak the spiritual words and don’t walk the spiritual walk — especially those who grow rich by promising spiritual “miracles” the easy way.

For More on the Wisdom of All Faiths for Work and Money, Come Back for Part II.

As a writer, long-time researcher and missionary for integrating spirituality, work and money, I could go on. And on. But I need to earn my living, and people don’t read much at one sitting any more. Therefore, we’ll take a break here.

Still to be explored in Part II (and maybe more parts as I really get going):

• All Faiths Promote Service
• All Faiths Promote Wise Use of Money
• All Faiths Promote Integrity
• All Faiths Promote Peace and Compassion

For a great collection of resources on right livelihood, see this article from Yes! Magazine.

How does the Wisdom of the World’s religions Enhance Your Relationship to Work and Money?

What do you already do to keep spirit alive at work? In your relationship to money?

What wisdom does your faith have for work and money?

What can you learn from other faiths?

As always, please share your thoughts and question.  Guest blogger ideas are welcome!

Many blessings,

Pat McHenry Sullivan

I spent 13 years in the Discalced Carmelite monastic order, which traces its origins to hermits living on Mt. Carmel in the 13th century. As is the case with most religious orders, the Discalced Carmelites prayed together at least six times a day on a regular schedule, using Latin names for the hours. These were also known as Canonical hours, because they have been used by all orders in the Roman Catholic Church for many centuries.

As our Muslim friends have so ably demonstrated, prayer can also provide the framework for secular life, including busy workdays. Inspired by what I learned in the monastery and from the example of Muslims, I adapted the canonical hours to my spiritual practices.

Here is the structure of ancient and universal canonical hours:

6:00 AM Lauds (Morning Prayer): The morning begins with praise.

9:00 AM Terce (The Third Hour):The community pauses in its work to remember God.

12:00 PM Sext (The Sixth Hour): The community prays before the noon meal.

3:00 PM None (The Ninth Hour): Mid afternoon prayer.

6:00 PM Vespers (Evening Prayer): Praise and thanksgiving as the day ends.

Bedtime Compline: The community prepares for sleep in peace.

Prayer Can Provide a Framework For Divine Order in Today’s Fast-Paced Secular Lives

Following the intent and inspiration of the canonical hours, here is my version of prayers for a contemporary workday:

As I rise I set my intention for the day. I will live fully in peace and with compassion.

As I begin my work, I bless my space and my tools. I pray that all my work today contribute to the good of all those I meet and brings me the resources I need for my life.

I pause for lunch and recall to mind the presence of the divine. I nurture myself with material and spiritual food.

During an afternoon break, I rededicate myself to doing well by doing good.

As I prepare for the evening, I give thanks for events of the day.

As I prepare for bed, I reflect on my actions of the day and their alignment with my true nature.

When I was in the religious order, I followed these prayers every day without fail. It’s not so easy to remember to stop for prayer in the contemporary day, but it’s definitely doable and rewarding. When I first adapted the hours, I wrote prayers and quotes on file cards that I could carry with me throughout the day. They helped me focus and get grounded at those times when I wished to pray and meditate.

I am now returning to this prayer practice, using as a mantra the Hebrew word for peace, which is “shalom.” This means to pause from work for a few minutes, breathe in on the first syllable, “shal” and breathe out on the “om.” I repeat the practice several times, then center into silence.

How Can You Build Your Workday Around Prayer ?

What are your thoughts?

How do you weave moments of prayer into your work day?

What can you learn from the prayer life of religious orders?

We welcome your thoughts and questions.

Many blessings to you,

John Sullivan

John Sullivan was resource director of the first major directory of spirituality and work resources, published by Spirit of Health! In 1995. With his wife Pat, he is the co-founder of the Spirit and Work Resource Center, www.spiritandworkresourcecenter.com.

Just What is Conscious Capitalism and Why Is It So Beneficial to Us All?

The conveners of last summer’s conference on conscious capitalism at Bentley University offered these three key elements of conscious capitalism:

• companies have a purpose that transcends profit maximization;
• companies are managed for the benefit of all stakeholders in their ecosystem, not just shareholders; and
• companies are led by spiritually evolved, self-effacing servant leaders.

Companies that practice conscious capitalism embody the idea that profit and prosperity go hand in hand with social justice and environmental stewardship. They operate with a systems view, recognizing and benefiting from the connectedness and interdependence of all stakeholders. They tap into deeper sources of positive energy and create greater value for all stakeholders. They utilize creative business models that are both transformational and inspirational, and can help solve the world’s many social and environmental problems.

Over Half the Fortune 500 Companies Are Already Profiting by Embracing At Least One Aspect of Conscious Capitalism

That’s the view of Patricia Aburdene, author of Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism (Hampton Roads 2005).  As she recently reported,  whereas the unconscious form of profit-worshiping, short-term profits mentality has led to economic meltdown, conscious capitalists are profiting now while creating a sustainable economy that “responsibly embraces all of its stakeholders- – investors, customers, communities, employees, and the environment.”

In her groundbreaking Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism, Aburdene reported seven powerful trends (backed up by statistics and compelling stories from many Fortune 500 companies) that are at the core of conscious capitalism:

• The Power of Spirituality – From Personal to Organizational;
• The Dawn of Conscious Capitalism;
• Leading from the Middle;
• Spirituality in Business;
• The Values-Driven Consumer;
• The Wave of Conscious Solutions;
• The Socially Responsible Investment Boom

Missed the Bentley Conference on Conscious Capitalism? See it Free and Online.

The conference featured a who’s who of leaders in the field of conscious business and spirituality in the workplace. Among the themes the conference covered are:

1.   The Need for a New Approach to Business
2.   Business and Higher Purpose
3.   Stakeholder Management and Alignment
4.   Feminization of the Culture
5.   Work as Calling
6.   Conscious Marketing
7.   Measures That Matter
8.   Contemplative Practices in Management
9.   Reforming Business Education

To view the various topics, click here, and scroll down the list of topics and presenters. Click on a program you’d like to view, and you’ll be privy to the wisdom of people like John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods, or Judith Neal, the founder of the Association for Spirit and Work and now director of the Tyson Center for Faith and Spirituality in the Workplace.

Needed: a Way To Better Way to Measure Value

One thing that’s holding the growth of conscious business back is the shyness of many prominent business leaders to speak openly about such matters as spirit and work, out of the fear that such thoughts will be considered flaky or unprofessional. Another is the lack of solid, respected ways to measure the impact of consciousness to the bottom line. This blog recently covered that topic and will cover it often in the future.

What are your thoughts on how conscious capitalism could benefit you and your world?

How do you measure what matters most to you?

As always, many blessings, Pat McHenry Sullivan

Never has it been more obvious that real life can’t be broken into categories such as work, life, money, children or fun. Everything important always happens right when we’re smack dab in the middle of seeming contradictory challenges. How to do the tasks that need to be done versus the work our soul calls us to? How to find time to mourn and reflect in the midst of work that needs to be done and life that needs to be lived right now? How to follow one calling, complete one task, when there are dozens or hundreds or thousands to be done?

Organized as Our Datebooks and Files May Be, Only Spirit Can Provide True Order

Guided by spirit, it becomes more clear what’s essential and what is not, what’s ours to do and what is not. Anchored in spirit while doing one task, we see more clearly how to handle another. Because spirit takes us into the essence where such realities as work, money and the rest of life organically interact, we find that working well on any task enhances the others.

This means that the same consciousness that helps us deal gracefully with a nasty boss can also help us end the workday with more time and energy for family. While working out the intricacies of a due diligence document, we’re in an orderly state that helps grief or old pains heal, that makes personal issues fit better together.

Sometimes Spirit Calls Us to Stay Focused and On Track …

Remember the Little Engine That Could? By focusing on her calling, she overcame obstacles that bigger, shinier engines avoided. Yes, a big part of her success was her internal motivation and her constant self talk, “I think I can,” but an equally big part of it was sticking on track.

I’m one of these people who always has a problem staying on track. I could, for instance, turn out 47 blog posts in a few weeks and none for months. Discipline for me requires not just getting past the resistant part that just won’t do what anyone tells me to do — even me. Worse, I’ve got to say no to those voices that say before I post again, I’ve got to create the perfect explanation for why I stopped so long, the perfect entrée back into the stream, the perfect apology, the perfect whatever.

… and Sometimes Spirit Calls Us to Create a New Track, or Return to Our Old Track with Renewed Insight.

My favorite people have always been people who have created new tracks, like attorney Kim Wright,  who was mentioned in the last post. Kim is so loaded with contagious excitement about the lawyers, judges and law students she knows who are recreating the field of law that I could listen to her all day. Fortunately, she doesn’t have time to just tell stories to one person all day. She’s such a great listener and her laugh is so hearty, that after a few minutes on the phone with her, my own dilemma soon became clearer.

Sometimes the answer to life’s challenges is kind of like the Nike slogan, “Just do it.” Just sit by the computer, and start without apology. Just pick up where you left off without feeling like you have to make it a big return of the prodigal son production. Just keep doing the ordinary, nitty gritty real work of every day and let the deeper wisdom flow as it goes.

In my case, a quick coda. My favorite people, I realize, include those who have never moved far away from the home where they were born, who live awesome lives in such ordinary titles as teacher or factory workers. My favorite views are not just the stunning sweep of the Shenandoah Valley from a foothill of the Massanutten mountain where longtime friends now live, but also the loquat tree outside my office window that I see every day. My favorite tasks include not just writing something new or creating something new, but also seeing old things in a new way.

It’s all rich, all blessed, including the ability to be with a friend as she lay dying.

I really want that right now, not just around the ever-present health care financing issue, but around everything else that’s dominating the news today, like how hard it is for many of us to make a living right now. Like how many people we know are stuck in painful jobs they hate but don’t dare leave. Or for those of us who are entrepreneurs, where the next clients are coming from in a time when so many are still cutting back.

Healthcare financing and all our other money or work issues could benefit from some individual and collective deep breaths.

Won’t you breathe with me right now? Just take one breath, then another, and feel your energy rising. As you breathe, listen to the silence. Trust that you’ve got something worth saying, starting with yourself, so make that commitment to hear yourself.

Listen more than speak to yourself. Listen past your own assumptions and beliefs and pet projects into the stillness of your own heart. And when you are ready, share what’s true for you with another.

One thing I know for sure is that whenever two or more of us come together long enough to really see each other, to really listen to each other, we are wiser. Confusion becomes clarity. Enmity becomes dialogue, then collaboration. Money wasted, lives harmed turned into money used well for the best of human and earthly life.

It’s not easy to find money or work wisdom in a noisy, divisive world.

Even in my quiet office with candles burning, it’s hard to put aside all sorts of ideas and assumptions so I can be present to a deeper Presence. Even with years of practice in hearing what really matters most to others and myself around spirit, work and money, it’s hard to hear the one thing I need to hear right here, right now.

The wisdom I find in the silence calls me down from my high horse and holds a mirror to truths I’d rather evade. It calls me to say or do things I’d not otherwise dream or dare, things that risk ridicule or failure or even scarier, a hope and awe that make me tremble

And so, being human, I often run from the silence, and I bet you do, too.That’s why it always helps to have companions on the journey of dealing with what matters, whether on the mundane or spiritual level.

The world is filled with tips and resources for finding wisdom for money, work and other spiritual or mundane issues.

As a kid, I loved watching my mother and her best friend share everything from recipes to laughs to prayers to tips on sewing and how to handle us kids. As a business plan writer and teacher, I love sharing resources and ideas for how to turn a dream into thriving reality. As a writer and speaker in the field of spirit and work, I’m passionate about sharing tips and resources from all the world’s faiths for all types of work.

Here are some favorites you may try:

Go to the place where you feel most attuned to your wisdom source. For most people that’s the bathroom (no.1 according to a survey of business executives, especially the shower), a place of worship (not necessarily your own religion) or nature. If you can’t actually go to your wisdom place, go there virtually. (www.workwithmeaningandjoy.com/ww_-_retreat.pdf)

If you are under time pressure or are uncomfortable with meditation, run or do whatever else that helps you get your body, mind and spirit into a non-competitive zone. Many lawyers I know find that answers that eluded them during hard thinking come easily on the run.

Work off your anger or frustration safely, like our grandparents did while chopping wood or beating rugs over the clothesline. Some friends and I one had a great time working off some political fury by smashing yard-sale chipped pottery against a concrete wall. By the time we had carefully swept up the shards, we had a lot more energy that we could focus positively.

Tomorrow, by request, some tips from writers and speakers about how to get your most meaningful points across in a noisy, crowded world.

As always, many blessings. And come back again real soon,
Pat McHenry Sullivan

“Tao” means the way, path or guiding principle for working with faith, integrity and meaning in a mysterious universe.

The concept of way, path or guiding principle is central to all religious faiths and secular philosophies — not just the ancient faith of Taoism. We may get lost in ethical fogs or illusion, but through prayer or other pathways, we can find our way back to what most matters. We can find wisdom through patience and by reconciling seeming opposites, like our need to earn money while also caring for others.

In any true tao, paradox is the norm. Example: sometimes the best way to deal with a time crunch is to take more time for prayer or meditation. In the timeless space of ultimate reality that is beyond words or even thought, we generate new insights for the challenge of the moment.

The “Dow” is a rapidly changing bunch of numbers that has been endowed with the perception that it offers great financial wisdom.

“The Dow” stands for a constantly changing index of stock prices selected by the editors of the Wall Street Journal, published by Dow Jones & Company. It’s supposed to measure the financial worth of “the market.” Stocks up, Dow up; stocks down, Dow down. Dow up, good; Dow down, bad.

The Dow is not an intelligent creature. It’s “subject to panics and irrational exuberance and sour moods and churlishness and massive misjudgments. To judge whether an economic plan is working or not requires time and wisdom – neither of which are found in the daily results of the Dow Jones Industrial Average,” writes Joe Campbell. http://2parse.com/?p=2307.

Stock prices make no accounting of environmental or human costs of production or benefits of goods and services. Often the higher the stock price, the lower the human or environmental benefit. And often, stock prices have little or no real relationship to the actual production of goods and services.

Yet many individuals, driven by many media, are obsessed with stock numbers. Jon Stewart satirized this by suggesting that Obama should wear a visor showing the latest stock prices whenever he speaks. http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=220253&title=The-Dow-Knows-All. That way even the laziest viewer could stay focused on “what matters” without having to move focus from Obama to the latest stock numbers.

The Dow is often a powerful catalyst for decisions that take us away from true prosperity.

Can you imagine having to run a business with your eye constantly on stock market prices, not on the true worth you are creating for customers? And knowing that by squeezing costs — no matter the harm to others or the earth or even your own company over the long run– you raise your perceived value and access to capital?

Well, that kind of consciousness has run rampant the past decade, and everyone has suffered from it.

The health care crisis is just one example of how harmful stock price obsession can be. As health insurance whistleblower Wendell Potter reports, “I knew that 47 million people were uninsured, but … in the financial medium, what you think about are the numbers … and whether or not you’re going to meet Wall Street’s expectations.” http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/transcript2.html?print

On June 24, 2009, Potter testified to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that as a senior executive at health insurance companies, “I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick – all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors.”

The impact of this is an awful truth: between us and our doctors are not just health insurance executives but also Wall Street investors, forcing the health insurance companies to force doctors to cut costs so investors can make higher profits.

We need a tao or way to deal with the realities of money that is more meaningful, conscious and beneficial.

Countering this trend of 24-hour Dow obsession are a number of movements that will be discussed in future posts, especially socially responsible investing and conscious capitalism. All mean that we don’t just buy based on price and momentary gain, but we invest longer term in products and services we care about, that provide real good to us and others. We invest more in smaller, local companies that we can know better.

Any tao of money management will require us to relax self-will and be more engaged in something bigger than ourselves, which is a lot more conscious and engaged process than the 60′s definition of tao as “go with the flow.”

When we’re open to it, guidance to find and follow our tao is everywhere. Some of my favorite gems come from Jon Stewart’s 2004 commencement address to our common alma mater, William and Mary:

• So how do you know what is the right path to choose to get the result that you desire? And the honest answer is this. You won’t. And accepting that greatly eases the anxiety of your life experience.
• [The] truly exciting thing about your life, is that there is no core curriculum. The entire place is an elective. The paths are infinite and the results uncertain.
• Success is defined in myriad ways. [It] will come from your own internal sense of decency .
• Love what you do. Get good at it. Competence is a rare commodity in this day and age. And let the chips fall where they may.

What wisdom guides you on your path?

As always, many blessings and come back real soon, Pat McHenry Sullivan

The original Prayer of St. Francis is posted in many cubicles and kept in many desk drawers.

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Hatred, love and every other element of the prayer of St. Francis shows up at work today.

Hatred shows up in not just in physical violence or screaming hatred, but also in all ways we can harm others through our work. Racial, sexual and other harassment or discrimination are definitely forms of hatred. So are rudeness and fraud. Theft. Lying about a product or service’s value. Any types of lies.

Hatred also extends to deliberate un-caring, which includes carelessness or indifference. Or helping others commit fraud, waste or abuse.

Obviously, we can’t give our love at work the way we would a child or spouse or close friend, but we can love through our work by doing a task carefully — as if we were doing it for our beloved. We can love by blessings our tasks and bringing all our consciousness to the work.

Being kind an compassionate to vendors, bosses and colleagues is a powerful way to love through work. So is confronting fraud, waste and abuse because we care more about the well-being of others than we fear retaliation for speaking truth to power.

In 2006, my husband John and I taught a class on spirituality and work, using the Prayer of St. Francis as a starting point or touchstone for making our work our prayer, our prayer our work.

Here’s our prayer for today’s workplace realities, based on the Prayer of St. Francis.

Make me an instrument of peace at work.

Where there are indifference or hatred, let me sow compassion and love.

Where there are fraud, waste, and abuse, let me sow accountability and help restore justice.

Where there are stress and burnout, help me sow purpose and divine calm.

Where there are darkness and confusion, help me find wisdom and clear sight.

Where there is sadness, help me promote healing and joy.

May all my tasks be done in harmony with all Creation.

May I always work in balance, true to myself and my purpose, on the level with others, giving to others, loving others, as I give to and love myself.

May my workplace be sacred space, where peaceful, divine order ripples out from each small act that I do, right here, right now, and always.

How does the prayer of St. Francis inspire your own workday prayer?

How can you put it What’s your prayer for your current realities around work?

As always, many blessing, Pat McHenry Sullivan.

Please add your comments by clicking on “comments” below and to the right.

Congratulations! You’ve just taken the first step to a spiritual makeover of any problem. By admitting the problem, your attention, at least for a few seconds, is diverted from any 24-hour stress/worry/whatever negative programming that is polluting your right mind, and you’re open for at least a few nanoseconds to the thought, “maybe things don’t have to be this way. Maybe they can be better.”

Hold that thought. Take a deep breath and inspirit yourself with new energy. As you let go that breath, imagine letting go any tension. Take another breath and consider how the word “spirit” comes from the Latin word for “breath.” Another time, you might want to research the connections between breath and spirit in all the world’s religions, but right now just focus on your breath and spirit. Test the possibility that with guidance from spirit, things really can be better.

Spirit: The Makeover Tool You Can Apply to Any Work or Money Issue, Any Time, Anywhere

Spirit is always with you, even when you ignore it or try to repress it. Spirit is much stronger and way more resourceful than any challenge we ever can face. With spirit we can see more clearly what’s essential and what’s not. We gain courage and allies to help us tackle whatever we can and want to change; we find grace to accept what we can’t change and the wisdom to grow from it.

Sometimes, a simple spiritual insight can lead to huge benefits. Compared to the material world’s beauty makeovers, this is the equivalent of washing and trimming dirty, ragged hair into a flattering cut or trading faded, ill-suited clothing for a fresh outfit in colors and design that enhance the wearer.

The results of a spiritual makeover, however, are deeper, broader, and longer lasting. Example: Sally used to wake up each morning exhausted. Reluctant to start another day at a job whose mission she loved but whose challenges she didn’t, she’d put off getting up. Then she’d grit her teeth and rush off to work. Every evening she’d come home exhausted, and she rarely slept well.

Sally’s dramatic spiritual make-over for her job began with setting her alarm five minutes earlier. That gave her time to re-orient herself from the world of sleep to the world of action. For a moment, she stretched luxuriously. Slowly and consciously, she moved to a sitting position. Then, she meditated just a bit on, “In the morning I set my good purpose.” Next, she took a moment to listen to the birds outside and to enjoy her garden.

Sally soon learned that taking time for herself in the morning made her more efficient. Affirming a purpose that included service to self and others helped her center herself in spirit rather than be fragmented by stress. The more she took time to re-connect to spirit throughout the day, the better she could deal with workplace hassles, including a nitpicking and demanding boss. After work, she had a richer and more relaxed life, including better sleep.

Any Job Can Be More Meaningful and Less Stressful, Even if You Now Dislike the Job

Don’t fall for the common myth that the only satisfying jobs are the ones that pay you well for doing tasks you love, among people who appreciate your skills, etc. How you approach any job (paid or unpaid) profoundly impacts your satisfaction and stress or energy level. With spirit, you always have the power to re-frame how you see the job from your equivalent of “I hate this and I dread doing it,” to your equivalent of “I gratefully accept the wisdom of spirit to help me do the best for myself and others right here, right now.”

The results of prayer can at first seem mystifying. Many years ago, I had to type a labor official’s letters on a typewriter that had no correcting function. Since he didn’t want me to correct what I — an English major graduate from one of the best colleges in the country, thank you! — knew were grammar errors, this required a lot of careful attention on my part.

You can imagine how easy it was to write a mental dissertation on the unfairness of a world where brilliant me had to work for an idiot like him. You may also appreciate how easy it was to heap on other feelings and assumptions, like how doomed and unappreciated I was, and how I couldn’t possibly ever develop the typing skills to do what he demanded, etc., etc., ad nauseum.

Then I heard that clear, quiet inner voice that has always told me the truth. “Thy will be done applies here, too, Pat.”

Of course I fought the voice. Big time and in ways that could make a long, amusing story. The sound bite version is that when I finally heeded this voice, I realized that even I didn’t like myself when I focused on thinking how much better I was than my boss. I saw that, even with poor grammar, he was doing a great job of communicating with his union constituency.

Instead of feeling doomed or frustrated, I felt grateful and hopeful. I rediscovered how much I wanted a job that better suited my talents and dreams, and I found a bit more clarity about my calling and more courage to go for it. Instead of turning off potential employers with arrogance or low self esteem, I became more attractive to them.

Even today, that job reminds me about the joy of service. As a writer, I’m still aware that when my typing skills go awry, it’s a good idea to re-pray, “Thy will be done applies here, too, Pat.” Usually, “Thy will” begins with a message to come off whatever high horse or delusion I’m riding at the moment and to meet current reality with humility, hope and the willingness to do the best I can with what I have.

What’s your story?

How can you make more time and receptivity to reconnect with spirit, as Sally did?

What’s your inner truth’s equivalent of “Thy will be done applies here, too?”

What happens when you hear your inner truth and heed its message?

As always, many blessings and please add your comments by clicking on the teeny word “comments” below. And come back real soon!

Pat McHenry Sullivan

Right now, far too many people “go naked” (industry terminology for people without health insurance). Congressman Zach Wamp of Tennessee would have us believe that ½ of all people who “go naked … just take the chance of getting sick. They end up in the emergency room costing you and me a whole lot more money.” The Congressman also believes that the attempt to extend health care to all is “almost a fast march to socialism.

There may be huge philosophical differences between those who believe access to health care is a right and those who think it is a privilege. There’s no way I see to settle that argument without getting past industry lies that are mouthed by politicians and reported extensively by “the news.”

Here’s one truth: the Amish and some other groups don’t buy insurance because they don’t believe in it. Instead, the Amish care well for each other through richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. A few people do gamble on health. But most people without health insurance simply can’t afford it and/or can’t get it because they have pre-existing conditions.

A huge insurance industry lie is that government-run programs (like Medicare) are the worst things that could happen to us.

Former insurance company executive Wendell Potter reports that the industry has used scare tactics for many years to get us to distrust government-run programs. “If there were a broader program like our Medicare program, it could potentially reduce the profits of these big companies. So that is their biggest concern.”

Michael Moore’s 2006 film “Sicko” hit the nail right on the head, says Potter. Yet the insurance industry warned Congressional members that if they talked about or endorsed the film, “we can make things tough for you … by running ads, commercials in your home district when you’re running for reelection, not contributing to your campaigns again, or contributing to your competitor.”

Personally, qualifying for Medicare by turning 65 is one of the best things that has happened to me and my husband. The only thing between us and high quality care (even for pre-existing conditions) is a telephone call or e-mail as needed among us, our doctors and other providers, like the labs or pharmacy. Cost of a recent visit, including 4 knee x-rays after a fall: $20 co-pay to the doctor; another $20 for x-rays. Waiting time: a few minutes. Approval or paperwork required: none.

Our experience is common for people with good Medicare choices and in England, Canada or other countries with government-run healthcare. That belies the insurance industry’s horrifying pictures of government interference, while glossing over the fact that for too many people, insurance company paperwork and denials of care are huge barriers between patient and doctor.

Business lies can be very difficult to unmask, because they are so rooted in unconsciousness and distortions.

As an insurance industry V.P., Potter was insulated. “I knew that 47 million people were uninsured, but … what you think about are the numbers … and whether or not you’re going to meet Wall Street’s expectations. …[you can only] stay there, if you don’t really think that you’re talking about and dealing with real human beings.”

Potter’s wakeup call came when he went home to Tennessee and visited an occasional offering of free medical care at the fair grounds in Wise, VA. He talked there to people who had come from at least 6 states as they waited in long lines for care in horse stalls and other improvised clinics. “They could have been people who grew up at the house down the road from me. It was like a lightning bolt had hit me.”

Potter returned to corporate headquarters, trying to process it all. One book that helped him get clarity and leave his job was President John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage.

On June 24, 2009, Potter testified to the U.S. Senate that as a senior executive at health insurance companies, “I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick – all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors.”

All of us are called to help create affordable health care.

Please join me in a movement to shoulder more personal responsibility for our own health care. Maybe you’re not so lucky as I am to have free access to a gym and buddies to help get past resistance to working out, but you can get your workout somehow, even if your workout weights are just cans filled with tomatoes. And you can certainly find some live or on-line buddies to help you eat better.

Whatever your political persuasion, please follow the links above to Potter’s interview by Moyers (including the links there to the insurance industry’s attempts to discredit “Sicko”), and to Potter’s Congressional testimony.

I don’t pretend to know the best health care financing strategy. But I know the best thing we can do to create divine care for ourselves and others is to begin with prayer. Then, as we hear the truth in our own hearts, it’s time to share the truth as we see it with others, including our legislators.

As always, many blessings, Pat McHenry Sullivan