Why Do I Care About The Spirit?

Why do many stars kill themselves with all the fame they have?

Why does the majority feel depressed with millions in their bank account?

Why does the poor remain grateful even for his bitter days?

Most people confuse religion with spirituality, and myself was not excluded until a few years ago.

This letter doesn't debate them, but brings clarity of how being spiritual will skyrocket your life in any way.

In the last letter I spoke about how I shifted to money mindset, but that was not the end.

There are infinite ways of making tons of money. The problem is when you don't know why do you want money in the first place.

Let me tell you why this is important. You can make millions by:

• drugs
• stealing
• pimping

These are not ethical and harm a lot of people to get you some money. Of course you won't feel deeply fulfilled no matter how much money you made.

Look at former mafia bosses for example, many of them took a completely different path when something clicked for them. They didn't stop making money, but the way of doing that has changed.

The first time I felt I had enough money not to care about prices was when I worked in the gambling industry. At that time, all I cared about was the number in my bank account.

Until one day, when a thought stroke me: the money I enjoy is the money addicted people had lost.

No surprise I started to feel uncomfortable spending and even enjoying them. I felt like a drug dealer or a thief.

Ask authentically, and opportunities will come.

The shaky ground

That was the moment when things got the most interesting in my life.

I had a good mindset, inclined towards success, but I lacked a future vision, peace and understanding of life.

Everything I knew was coding. To stop harming people, I decided to apply to other companies, but things didn't go as expected. The offers were mostly from either the same industry, or porn and outsourcing.

Working as an employee means working for someone else's dream. Be 101% sure that your dream is aligned with his.

I was overwhelmed by negative and anxious thoughts:

• Couldn't see a bright future ahead
• Started to believe I cannot get out of my job
• Viewed life as it has no logic due to its unfairness
• Saw myself not good enough for a reputable company

Eventually I surrendered to seek a new job. The noise and fear produced by my mind were too powerful. Basically, I was giving up on my fulfillment.

If your mind cannot be controlled, the exterior has more power over it. Shut it down.

Meditation

The more time passed, the worse my vision about the world became.

Not to forget I was still making good money. That was the proof that in most cases the money isn't what we want, but what society wants us to want.

In my desperate looking for purpose, calm and meaning, I stumbled upon something called meditation.

Since the first time I tried, it felt.. weird.

Instead of peace, nature and universe, as I saw on YouTube, lots of negative thoughts and harmful persons were leading my imagination.

I got aware of something deeply profound: although they were in front of me, I realised they couldn't actually hurt me.

It was like time stopped and I had plenty of it to observe, analyse and decide how can I solve every pain.

If you're curious to learn why you actually cannot be hurt by anybody, you may want to read this letter: Who Are You.

One year later, I had the opportunity to move and live alone. An experience that brought solitude as a bonus I didn't ask for.

My life changed immensely:

• The phone barely rang
• Living in a not-so-safe district
• My girlfriend was living abroad
• The new manager lied regarding a big promotion
• For the first time, I took care of every second of my life

I was 2 months in and everything seemed terrible. It felt like a year. Many times I wanted to move back home, although I was the one who decided the change.

The loneliness and the absolute quiet were driving me crazy. I cried many times without a clear reason. I simply felt too depressed and abandoned.

If the circumstances hurt, you are in a great position to grow.

Solitude, the shortcut to self-discovery

Deep inside I was sold to the idea that I needed the struggle, the pain.

There were simply two options:

• Go back to live with my parents
• Learn how to help myself when facing the unknown

Suffering is inevitable in our life. What we can do is choose the type of suffering we want to face.

If I went back to my parents, I'd feel better because of the comfort, but probably just for a few weeks. Then, the old suffering would come.

Fortunately, I picked the second option, to go through the feeling and reality that my life is dependent on me, not on somebody else.

When I started to see results following my practices in solitude, my life felt amazing:

• I changed the job
• My fears were gone
• I started to laugh again
• I moved abroad with my girlfriend

When shaping your world view, you should have no influencers around.

To keep this letter focused, more details about solitude are written in this letter: My Experience In Solitude.

Bring meaning to your life

When you realise the scope of being spiritual, it becomes so obvious why the core of our life is missing.

Think about how did your life begin:

• You were given a religion
• You were given a person to become like
• You were given the path of school, job, family, retire

That way of thinking became the foundation of who you are: a person seeking validationand commands from someone.

This explains the compulsive eating, the crave for experiencing what you see on social media, and the moments when you get upset for not being able to achieve what your idols could.

Listen, you have to be open to face reality just once. I can give all these examples and many more because I went through them. Sometimes I stumble upon similar situations even nowadays.

If you are over 15 and don't find a clear reason how your life ended up where it is, follow through.

1. Become Present-Oriented.

Depression comes from the past. You crave something you don't have anymore.

Anxiety comes from the future. You crave something you wish to happen.

One thing about spirituality is surrendering control and trusting the flow of life. You cannot control the past, nor your future, and the mind does its best to prove the contrary.

Your future is dictated by your present, not the other way around.

Sure, you can make future plans, but don't get absorbed by them. If you're not aware of every action you take, that future will certainly don't match the expectations.

In the spiritual case, success is defined by:

• Inner peace
• Enlightenment
• Harmony with the universe.

Even the motivation achieving success changes, as you will be internally motivated:

• Connection
• Self-discovery

2. Understand The Scope.

If it doesn't make any sense, I have to remind you to take your mind back to open to understand something new.

Until you take control over it, it tends to shut down everything new. Because the unknown is scary for it.

The mind demands control. No matter how impossible that is.

One scope of being spiritual is to put the control where it should be - over yourself.

Take these examples where you say "tomorrow I will":

• Eat clean
• Quit gaming
• Stop smoking
• Stop watching porn
• Work on my side project
• Quit mindless social media

And nothing happens. Day, after day.

Because you just give some orders to someone who doesn't respects them: you.

Being spiritual puts the control over yourself, making the mind just a tool towards real-world success.

The last thing you want to do is to give yourself commands for a better life. I assure you that it will never work long-term.

What do you do to the people giving you commands like your boss, manager, angry parent or government? F*ck them in your mind, then do the bare minimum not to be fired.

So why do you expect this approach to work with you, when you have daily examples proving it wrong?

Humans are not born to listen to commands, although this is how society evolved.

3. Practice.

As I explained how do I keep my health perfect in this letter, the path towards self-control has its own practics.

Meditation is the most powerful and common. Within meditation, you will get answers to many questions or problems:

• How can I get more confidence?
• What do I need so I can quit something?
• Why am I afraid to attend that future event?
• Why does my mind return to that past experiences?
• What is that that keeps me distracted from the present?

You can dive deeper reading this letter: Dissecting Meditation and Its Power.

Mindfulness is often confused with meditation, while it can be a part of it. As you saw, meditating solves timeless problems, while being mindfulness is about being present.

You can be mindful in everyday activities:

• Eating
• Walking
• Reading
• Even working
• Listening to music
• Training in the gym

That simply means you are 100% there and are fully aware of every second. This will bring the feeling of being alive and actually doing something throughout the day.

Its aim is to dissolve your depression and anxiety. As we discussed, those feeling exist as long as you are stuck either in the past or the future.

Not being present signals death to your mind. Life is only about the present moment, which never stops.

Challenges are lessons for spiritual evolution and deeper understanding. Contemplation addresses existential challenges like:

• Mortality
• The suffering
• The meaning of life

This is something to discuss in future letters, as these subjects require a detailed explanation. As a teaser, if you understand those existential challenges, you will never lose your meaning.

Putting Everything Together

This is the last letter of the Why do I care series, and I can now summarize the whole concept.

From what I've been through in this life, these are the 3 keys that allowed me to become free, no matter how big the hell is outside:

• Health - live a long, good life
• Spirituality - define your genuine path
• Mindset - simply take action towards your path

Something I didn't mention is that you cannot do anything if you hate people. Even if you're a one-person-business, you need an audience. You need to learn how to resonate with people.

I wanted to say that because I often see comments like "spirituality is ego-centric". It's self-first, yes, otherwise how can you expect to understand other people if you don't understand yourself?

Lastly, you may ask how spiritual success is measured, as in the real world we have money, status, public achievements.

As you imagined, they are in a direct correlation with your quality of daily life, which has these markers:

• Inner peace
• Inner feelings
• Sense of fulfillment
• Personal experiences

I wish you curiosity and success in combining those 3 keys.

— Gab