🌟 How to Be in the World and Not Make an Idol Out of It - Where I Find Myself in My Spiritual Progress 🌟
In this deeply personal episode, I share my 18-year journey of balancing spiritual growth with living in the world as a normal person. As an interior designer, food brand entrepreneur, and someone working with the Foundation for Inner Peace, I explore how I remain engaged in the world while keeping awakening as my top priority. Key Insights:
- 🎯 Understanding our Attachment: Learn how relationships, like my marriage, become vehicles for experiencing love itself rather than sources of attachment
- 🌱 Business with Purpose: Using interior design skills to engage with clients' on a deeper level
- 💫 Body & Success: How material success and body image can be transformed from sources of attachment into tools for connection
- 🧘♀️ Practical Spirituality: The importance of letting spirit walk ahead of us; watching ego patterns and letting go of layers of guilt
“There is a way of living in the world that is not here, although it seems to be. You do not change appearance, though you smile more frequently. Your forehead is serene; your eyes are quiet.” ACIM W-155. Remaining true to our spiritual path doesn't require sacrificing worldly engagement—rather, it means finding deeper purpose in everything we do while keeping forgiveness top of mind.
I hope my path aids yours ❤️
Love, V.
Quotes:
Are Changes Required in the Life Situation of God’s Teachers?
Changes are required in the minds of God’s teachers. ²This may or may not involve changes in the external situation.³Remember that no one is where he is by accident, and chance plays no part in God’s plan. ⁴It is most unlikely that changes in attitudes would not be the first step in the newly made teacher of God’s training… ACIM, M-9.1:1-9
The Middle Path
If truth demanded they give up the world, it would appear to them as if it asked the sacrifice of something that is real.²Many have chosen to renounce the world while still believing its reality. ³And they have suffered from a sense of loss, and have not been released accordingly. ⁴Others have chosen nothing but the world, and they have suffered from a sense of loss still deeper, which they did not understand. Between these paths there is another road… (ACIM, W-155.4:1–5:4)
Living in the World Without Being of It
There is a way of living in the world that is not here, although it seems to be. ²You do not change appearance, though you smile more frequently. ³Your forehead is serene; your eyes are quiet. ⁴And the ones who walk the world as you do recognize their own. ⁵Yet those who have not yet perceived the way will recognize you also, and believe that you are like them, as you were before. (ACIM, W-155.1:1-5)
Understanding the World's Illusion
The world is an illusion. ²Those who choose to come to it are seeking for a place where they can be illusions, and avoid their own reality. ³Yet when they find their own reality is even here, then they step back and let it lead the way. ⁴What other choice is really theirs to make? ⁵To let illusions walk ahead of truth is madness. ⁶But to let illusion sink behind the truth and let the truth stand forth as what it is, is merely sanity. (ACIM, W-155.1:1–2:6)
Divine Guidance
Dreams are not a worthy guide for you who are God's Son. ⁴Forget not He has placed His Hand in yours, and given you your brothers in His trust that you are worthy of His trust in you. ⁵He cannot be deceived. ⁶His trust has made your pathway certain and your goal secure. ⁷You will not fail your brothers nor your Self. (ACIM, W-155.13:3-7)
The Purpose of the World
The real world is the state of mind in which the only purpose of the world is seen to be forgiveness. ²Fear is not its goal, for the escape from guilt becomes its aim. ³The value of forgiveness is perceived and takes the place of idols, which are sought no longer, for their "gifts" are not held dear. (ACIM, T-30.V.1:1-3)
Moving Beyond Illusions
Look back no longer, for what lies ahead is all you ever wanted in your heart. ⁴Give up the world! ⁵But not to sacrifice.⁶You never wanted it. ⁷What happiness have you sought here that did not bring you pain? ⁸What moment of content has not been bought at fearful price in coins of suffering? ⁹Joy has no cost. ¹⁰It is your sacred right, and what you pay for is not happiness... (ACIM, T-30.V.9:3-12;10:1-4)
📑 Chapters:
00:00 👋 Introduction & Life Updates
04:00 💼 Balancing Business Success with Spiritual Growth - Interior Design & Food Brand Journey
12:00 🦋 Breaking Free from Spiritual Stereotypes
21:59 🧘♀️ Finding Peace in a Busy World
24:00 ❤️ Seeing Beyond Business - Meaningful Client Connections
30:00 💑 Love & Marriage - Personal Growth Journey
38:00 💪 Using Success to Help Others - Fitness & Material Achievement
50:00 🌱 Message to Young People - Spirituality Enhances Success
56:30 🎯 Divine Guidance in Business Decisions
01:06:00 🙏 Trusting in a Higher Power
01:11:00 💝 Finding Joy in Relationships Over Things
01:14:00 ✨ True Happiness Beyond Material Success
01:16:00 🌟 Understanding Our True Self
01:19:00 🌅 Closing Thoughts
