Challenges in life are inevitable. How we respond to them is the key to happiness or misery. If we respond from our soul, the love and light of Spirit expresses and uplifts the situation. Responding in an egoic way, however, is very destructive and leads to pain and stress.

Self-mastery is the key to knowing and expressing Spirit. In true self-mastery your soul reigns and the ego does not dominate. How can you develop self-mastery? Explore the attitudes and principles Sri Aurobindo taught that can free you and allow your soul to express.

If you days aren’t filled with peace, and you aren’t experiencing Spirit regularly, the culprit is likely your mind which is always chasing sense objects. The key to living in peace — an untroubled state of mind — and experiencing Spirit is having a transformed mind. A simple yoga practice can help you develop a settled, transformed mind.

If you want peace rather than conflict in your life, it’s important to look at people and appreciate them rather than being a self-appointed critic. The act of judging others leads to separateness, conflict and blocks you from higher consciousness, harmony and love.

It is challenging to stay connected to soul and Spirit while busy with daily activities. Learn yoga practices which lead to sahaj, a natural, continuous attunement with Spirit.

If you’d like to experience or ultimately live in bliss, then you need to let go of the bliss blockers — ongoing states of need, fear, anger or ego dominance. By practicing humility, you can become free of the ego states that block you from enjoying bliss.

You can’t make harmony, bliss, love, joy or samadhi happen. But what you can do is move from living at a creature level to opening your life to a higher power. The secret to enjoying the great bliss and joy of yoga is contacting and receiving the higher prakriti, the higher expression of life force.

What’s your reaction when people and situations don’t align with your expectations? Your subjective life, the stew of thoughts and feelings constantly moving within you, prompt most of your actions. If you’re like most people, addictive demands — automatic emotional states that come when you don’t get what you want — can run your subjective life and block your happiness.

Does the idea of developing spiritual awareness seem challenging? If it does, no worries, you’ve got help from the monks and nuns of the middle ages. They went through four stages in preparation for the awakening and development of spiritual awareness.