The Power of Spiritual Intelligence: 10 ways to tap into your spiritual genius. Tony Buzan

events, traumas, pains and failures. Realize that every one of these is something that is strengthening your Spirit. Do everything you can to help that experience accelerate your growing strength – seek out the positive aspects, the silver linings, and all the possible lessons you can learn.

      4 Learn to Appreciate the Natural World

      Spend some time appreciating the multi-sensory beauty that surrounds you. Go for walks in the countryside as often as you can, or in parkland or some beautiful botanical garden (if you are lucky enough to live near one). Drink in the fresh air, the different scents and sounds, and the peace. Try doing this alone, as well as with your family or friends.

      5 Play the ‘Uniqueness Game’

      Consider how many thoughts you have had in your life so far. Now think how many other people could have thought exactly the same thought, at exactly the same time, in exactly the same place?

      You are unique amongst all the human beings who have ever lived, who do live and who will ever live. You are alone in this vast universe. But by being alone, you become like the six billion other human beings on the planet who are also alone. You are together in being alone! Think about it, and marvel at your simultaneous individuality and community.

      6 Star Gaze!

      Look up at the stars at night and try and get to know the different constellations – better still, invest in a basic telescope and really begin to explore the heavens. It is an amazing fact, but the entire universe you are seeing, you are recreating in your head! Just think – the tiny, microcosmic you can take in, hold and recreate the universe!

      7 Ask Yourself Questions

      Asking yourself questions such as:

      

Does the universe end? If so, how and where? And if not, how not?

      

Could our entire universe be simply an atom in a much bigger universe?

      

Is there a unifying force that makes all this work? And if so, what is it?

      Let your imagination roam – better still, ask your friends and colleagues too, and see what sort of creative, imaginative answers you can come up with. Read books by cosmologists and scientists who are exploring the frontiers of knowledge about the universe and its inhabitants.

      8 The Weather

      Whenever you are encouraged by the media, friends or your own personal thoughts to moan about the weather, think of the other options!

      

Mercury: 1000 degrees centigrade on its sunny side, airless, more radiated than a microwave, and near absolute zero centigrade on its dark side!

      

Venus: 450 degrees centigrade average temperature, battered by over 400-mile-an-hour sulphuric acid winds, with never any sight of the night-time sky.

      

Mars: often minus 100 degrees centigrade. Hardly any atmosphere and no oxygen. Sun just visible as a big star. Inhospitable to life.

      

Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune: all giant planets with gravity so strong you would be crushed the minute you set foot on them, which you couldn’t do anyway, as their surfaces are liquid gasses. Average winds of 1000 miles per hour that never cease. No oxygen.

      

Pluto: a tiny, airless planet less than the size of our moon with no sunlight, no atmosphere and a temperature near absolute zero.

      In contrast, Planet Earth: Paradise! So delicately balanced to guarantee your survival that changes of less than 1 per cent in the ‘formula’ that created it would have made it inhospitable to life and therefore to you.