My Journey Towards Spiritual Happiness

This time 6 years ago I was in a pretty sorry state.

I had just arrived home after a 3-week stint in rehab. It wasn’t the first time I had tried to deal with my drink problem. I had battled with alcohol for a good few years prior to then. And even though I managed to stay off the booze between 2016 and 2018, I fell back into bad habits when life became just too hard for me to deal with without my trusted crutch.

In September 2018 my wife passed away. She had been diagnosed with cancer earlier that year and within a few short months the disease took her life. It was devastating for everyone. The whole family was crest fallen. And it impacted me hard. I was completely lost. I was paralysed with grief. I had no idea of how to deal with life as a single parent of four. I was worried about my ability to earn money. I was disappointed that my career as a freelance brand strategist was failing. I felt alone, isolated, and hard done to. So, amidst all this confusion, sadness, anger and anxiety, I decided to sooth the pain away by numbing it out with alcohol.

 It didn’t work out well.

After 7 months of struggling through as best I could, but failing miserably, I finally admitted that I couldn’t work things out on my own and I accepted the help that was on offer. I went to a treatment centre, accepted that alcohol was not the solution, and my recovery began.

That was in 2019. Since then, I’ve discovered a new solution. Another way of living. Another way of dealing with all the complexities and difficulties of life. Another way of finding answers to all the challenges I face. And another way of finding happiness. That way is a spiritual way.

If you told me 6 years ago that I could find peace of mind, contentment, and a deep sense of joy by adopting a spiritual mindset and embracing a few spiritual practices I would have laughed in your face. In fact, I was told that. And I did laugh in the face of the person that told me. Because to me, spirituality was just a load of woo woo nonsense. I didn’t believe in God. I hated organised religion. I shunned anything mystical. And I wasn’t prepared to do anything that wasn’t backed up by scientific proof. Then the person who told me that I could find happiness through spirituality asked me a very good question “Have you got a better idea?”

I didn’t. My best ideas all ended up with me feeling miserable, alone, isolated, angry and full of anxiety. My best ideas always ended up with me drinking to numb those feelings away. So, in May 2019 I begrudgingly took that person’s advice, and I embarked on a journey to bring spirituality into my life.

 I hated it.

 Everything about it felt at odds with my world. I thought of myself as a relatively astute businessperson. A person who looks at things objectively. Weighs up the facts. Looks at the data. I didn’t do things like meditate. Or pray. Or have faith in some magical super-human power. I didn’t see the point of looking deep into my character and delving into my subconscious mind. I wasn’t comfortable talking about my feelings or my relationships or thinking how my actions might affect others. And I certainly didn’t like being told that my thinking might be wrong. I had a first-class honours degree and an MBA for God’s sake. How can my thinking be wrong?

 But it soon became apparent that my thinking was wrong. Or to be more accurate, it soon became apparent that I wasn’t fully aware. It became clear that my view of life, a view that I had cultivated over 30 years in business and took great pride in, was limited. I had bought into a story of success that was so familiar that I had never even questioned it.

 Success to me was all about working hard, achieving great things, growing my business, being recognised as a good boss, and improving profitability. In my mind, if I did all these things, not only would I be seen as a successful person but I could earn more money to treat myself and my family. We could go out more. Enjoy nice holidays. Buy nice clothes. Get a bigger home even. It never occurred to me that, even though I had worked hard and achieved many of these things, even though I could be perceived as some sort of success based on these criteria, I still felt miserable. I still felt like I had to drink to make myself feel better. Despite my apparent ‘success’, I still wasn’t happy.

 As the months of 2019 rolled on, I was taken further and deeper down the spiritual path. Until one day, despite all my preconceived ideas and misgivings, something miraculous happened. I started to feel happy. I felt the anxiety lift. I felt the confusion slip away. I started to feel at peace with the world. I began to feel joyous. I felt free.

 I couldn’t believe it. The thing I hated and had absolutely no faith in actually worked. The spiritual solution to my problem of dealing with life gave me a life I had no idea existed.

 Since then my life has got better and better. I’m not earning more money than I was 6 years ago. My business hasn’t grown any bigger than it was 6 years ago. I’m not going out to nice restaurants more than I did 6 years ago. Or buying nicer clothes. Or going on more holidays. And I’ve not bought a bigger home. But I am 1000% happier. I feel like I’ve been given a second lease on life. Like I’ve been given a new pair of glasses to see the world anew. Like I’ve been given the secret instruction manual on how to feel the buzz of being alive.

 I still have challenges. I still have days where life doesn’t seem fair and things don’t go my way. But I now have the tools to deal with those difficulties. I don’t have to drink. I don’t have to feel miserable. I do get the opportunity to feel good about life despite the challenges.

 And now I want to share this solution with others.

 As we embark on a new quarter century, and progress into 2025, it seemed like a good time to start sharing my story and start spreading the news about spirituality and the benefits it can bring. It’s not a story I feel all that comfortable sharing. There’s a lot of shame and guilt associated with having a drink problem. Or any sort of addiction for that matter. And I’m only too aware of how divisive the word ‘spirituality’ can be. It’s not something we talk about much in our mostly secular society. And certainly not in business circles. So, I do worry that that the topic of spirituality will be ignored, rejected, or out-right ridiculed. And I suspect it will be. Mainly because I’m exactly the sort of person who would have done the ignoring, rejecting and ridiculing.

 But the potential benefits are just too big for me not to take action. I feel compelled to tell my story as I am convinced that it will resonate with somebody. And if it does, I want them to know that the spiritual solution could work for them as it worked for me. It could do so much good for so many people if only we were willing to talk more openly about it.

 It might not be the most comfortable of journeys for me to take but I know that it’s worth the risk of being ignored, rejected and ridiculed because I know this will help people. It will help people who are struggling with feelings of anxiety, sadness, discontentment and disillusionment. It will help people who are experiencing these feelings despite enjoying some element of business ‘success’. And it will help people who are dealing with these uncomfortable feelings by drinking or numbing them away with unhealthy habits.

That’s why I’m planning on writing regularly about spirituality and the benefits it can bring. Especially for businesspeople who are making a successes of their businesses but not necessarily of their lives. In the process I hope to break down a few barriers, rectify a few misconceptions and open more people up to the possibility of bringing spirituality into their lives. I know that it can help so many people. I’ve seen it in others, and I’ve experienced it myself.

 I’ve updated my LinkedIn profile and created a website to enable me to promote this idea and connect to people. With so much pain and suffering in the world, I am convinced that the spiritual solution could be a great help to those in need.

 No one deserves to needlessly suffer. We all deserve to be spiritually happy.

 Thanks for reading! Thanks for sharing!