There was a time when I would have been sceptical, even cynical, at the thought of connecting the concept of soul with business. After all, what does soul have to do with business? Soul is the spiritual, invisible aspect of human beings; business is the activity of buying and selling in the physical world. What could these two seemingly disparate things possibly have in common?



As a spiritual entrepreneur, I now recognize that soul and business are inextricably linked -- there is no duality. Soul is the kundalini, chi or vital force of business. It's the animating principle behind every business system, strategy and transaction. So, how do you activate the soul of your wellness business, and what does this have to do with your bottom line?

When you operate your business from a consciousness of faith and love, you're harnessing or activating the invisible power of your soul. This is the seventh step of inspired business planning. Not only will it increase your financial bottom line, but it will bring you more joy, opportunities, support and fulfillment than you could ever imagine.

Operating From Faith and Love

Faith and love are what spiritual teacher Leslie Temple-Thurston calls "ascended balance states". They're heart-centered emotions and states of mind and as Leslie says in her book, The Marriage of Spirit, "they reflect a rare level of balance, stability and maturity."

Operating your business from faith means that you trust you can create the prosperous business you desire and are supported. It means surrendering your worries about how you're going to meet this goal. It also means letting go of fearfully looking for the results (e.g. sales, new clients, etc.) and being anxious if they haven't shown up yet. Faith requires a firm belief without physical proof. It's one of the most significant internal shifts a spiritually-oriented entrepreneur can experience, and it will have a big impact on your business.

Another important shift is to align every aspect and action related to your business with the consciousness of love. Love is the highest vibrational energy that creates and manifests results that are truly joyful for all. As John Randolph Price says in The Abundance Book, "What is expressed in love must be returned in full measure."

Clearing your limiting and lack-oriented beliefs, thoughts and feelings will enable you to operate your business from faith and love more easily. Consciously invoking these heart-centered states using spiritual tools will support this process. Some of the more common tools are prayer, visualization and affirmations.

Prayer

Scientists, theologians and laypersons have been documenting the power of prayer for years. As we deepen our understanding of the different ways of praying, we're able to use it to produce specific results. Two modes I've found particularly powerful are meditative prayer and active prayer based in feeling.

Wayne Dyer speaks of meditative prayer in his book, There is a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem. He says, "I've used prayer as a way of residing in that one power and not asking God to do something, but rather to be in God consciousness where thoughts of scarcity simply dissolve and I feel directed to attract the missing pieces of my life like iron filings to a magnet."

In The Isaiah Effect: Decoding the Lost Science of Prayer, scientist Gregg Braden talks about an active form of prayer based in the technology of human feeling. He comments, "Rather than thinking 'please let this prayer be answered,' this type of prayer invites us to feel as if the prayer has already been answered."

How can you use these modes of prayer to anchor your business in a consciousness of faith and love?

Visualization

Visualization is the natural power of the imagination and the basic creative energy of the universe. Ninety per cent of the brain's sensory input is visual and about half of the stored memory. It's no wonder that visualizing is an inherent human ability!

You visualize constantly, whether you're conscious of this or not. You may think you can't visualize, but everyone can. For example, you may think you're "feeling" something rather than "seeing" it. However, if you feel that a colour is purple, then you're visualizing it. And like any other skill, you can develop your visualization abilities through practice.

Visualization is a faith and love-building technique that will help you create a prosperous and fulfilling business. In the book ThetaHealing, healer, intuitive and teacher Vianna Stibal remarks, "Expecting a vision to become reality is something more than just an act of visualization. It is an act of creation. Deciding upon something that we really want to happen, and visualizing it with concentration, faith and desire, sets great powers into action."

How can you incorporate visualization into your day-to-day business-building practices?

Affirmations

The words we speak provide the fuel to take our prayers and visualizations and propel them into reality. Author and Unity minister Catherine Ponder describes it this way in Open Your Mind to Prosperity: "By first listing your desires and then picturing them, you create your good on the invisible plane. You gather the substance of the universe together on the invisible plane. But it is through the spoken word of prosperity that your words then move on that invisible substance, form it as definite results, and give birth to it in the visible world."

To invoke a consciousness of faith and love, it helps to understand how to use affirmations effectively. The key to using affirmations is that they must be in harmony with what you truly believe. As Shakti Gawain says, "they fail miserably when you use them to suppress negative thoughts or feelings." You'll know that an affirmation matches your core beliefs if you feel good when you say it.

So, one way to work with affirmations is to use an approach author and minister Joan Gattuso developed called "progressive affirmations". Start with a statement such as "I would like to believe I can have a prosperous, fulfilling business." Repeat this affirmation until you reach a place where you feel good and have no resistance to it (this may take some time, depending on your level of resistance). Then repeat the same process with the following statements:

- "I am open to believing I can have a prosperous, fulfilling business."

- "I have faith that I can have a prosperous, fulfilling business."

- "I have a prosperous, fulfilling business."

Spiritual tools such as prayer, visualization and affirmations all become more effective when you simultaneously clear your limiting beliefs, thoughts and feelings. As you get into the habit of using these techniques, you'll begin to trust the results they can bring you, and they'll become an integral part of your business strategy. Using them will activate the soul of your business.

Copyright 2008 Mary C. Davis