“The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed.”
–J. Krishnamurti

Introduction from Ego-Free Living

Are you interested in a simple and effective way of becoming more spiritual in your daily life? Are you ready to finally be more content and less stressed about life? Do you want to gain a better understanding of spiritual and religious philosophy?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this book is for you. There are thousands of books and teachings on spiritual self-help topics out there. There are churches and new age classes, meditation groups and yoga poses. I know because I’ve done a lot of it—plus go to church every Sunday.

So with all this religious and spiritual theory being consumed, does the average person ever feel any happier, less stressed or more at peace? Are we ever going to simply learn to get along better with each other? How can we build more authentic and loving relationships with our spouses, partners, and co-workers? Why is it so hard?

I work as a plain-language writing expert helping companies communicate information that is easy for people to understand. With that same approach in mind, I’ve written this guidebook that takes spiritual theory and simplifies it into the most essential practice at the heart of spiritual living: dissolving the destructive power of the ego … or, to put it simply, ego-free living.

Just about every so-called problem we have in life can be attributed to the effects of the ego. So to become more ego-free, this book describes the 4 most important mental habits—or ways of thinking—that must take place in your mind in order to live, act, and reap the rewards of being a spiritual person.

This book is about walking-the-talk of spirituality. If you learn to act and think like a more spiritual person, over time you will transform yourself into a true spiritual person. But first, you need to know what to practice.

Becoming a more spiritual person is easier than you think. It involves understanding your bad, non-spiritual mental habits and embracing better habits until real spiritual habits develop naturally to take their place.

Ego-Free Living is like an owner’s manual for the mind. At the core of most religious and spiritual teachings is a psycho-spiritual process of retraining the mind, usually a very lengthy and tedious route. Our bad habits are ingrained in us from years of negativity, judgment, and fearfulness. Much of this is a result of deep-seated insecurities—something we all suffer from in varying degrees. If you think you don’t have any insecurities, think again, because you do. The trick is to experience what it feels like to be ego-free, and over time your corrected behaviors will lead to a reduction in your insecurities and self-esteem issues. Ego-free living is more effective than years spent in psychotherapy.

By learning these 4 simple mental habits you will build stronger mental muscle, and your perspective on life will be miraculously transformed. You will find yourself feeling more harmonious about the world around you. Your relationships will be more loving and life will be much less stressful for you.

Nothing else is needed but to practice these 4 mental habits. Nothing else brings about a faster or more direct path to spiritual living. This book demystifies the deeply buried metaphors of religion and spirituality. Ego-Free Living spells out in plain and simple language, the shortest and fastest route to long-term, positive, permanent change.

The book can easily be read or re-read at a single sitting. Each chapter is easy to follow and understand without any jargon or complex concepts that might be unfamiliar or frustrating to grasp. The book concludes with three simple meditation practices that reinforce the 4 mental habits. These practices are based on well known—but often exclusive and secretive—spiritual teachings. Here, they are simplified for easy and effective daily use.

One of the essential teachings of the 4 mental habits is to understand how powerful your mind is. This is the place where spirituality or non-spirituality starts. The second place is in your heart, which listens faithfully to your mind. The trick is to make a conscious effort to learn how to break free of the bad habits and clutter of your thinking mind. Then your heart will follow. This is what prayer and meditation is all about. It’s what religious and spiritual ritual is for. Unfortunately, so many people do not understand this and only experience religion at the most superficial level.

By making the choice to live a spiritual life, you have made a conscious choice to be happier, more at peace, and less stressed. Someone once said, when compassion becomes your knee-jerk reaction to most everything that happens around you and in your life, you’ll know you’ve truly become a more spiritual person. I’m going to show you how to achieve that.

Carol Austin