1. Write down one thing that has made you feel grateful to be alive today. You will discover that this reminds you of how blessed you are just by being alive in a world full of ordinary wonders.

2. Write down—just off the top of your heart—10 things that are sacred to you. In the act of writing, you will start to be inspired by your deepest values, beliefs and sources of emboldening joy.

3. Think of someone who has hurt or betrayed you, and make a commitment to work on forgiving him or her. Imagine this person in front of you, surrounded by light, happy and well. Pray for this person to realize his or her life’s purpose.

4. Read a short text from any of the world’s spiritual traditions that inspires you with the love-wisdom of the prophets and mystics who know God directly.

5. When the text you have chosen starts to light up your spirit, pray a short prayer that aligns you with the pure deep love that is longing to use you as its instrument in the world.

6. Make a real commitment to a spiritual practice. If you do not yet have a practice,  start now with a simple meditation. Over time, this meditation will awaken  you to your own deepest sacred desire to see all beings consciously living in harmony, and to your sacred courage to express this desire in action.

7. Strengthened by prayer, practice and inspiration, turn now to your life and the people in it. Everyone, especially in a time like ours, has friends who are grieving or ill or looking for a job or in financial difficulty. Commit now to ringing one of them up and asking him or her what you could do to make the burden easier.

8. Make a commitment to skip one meal in the coming 24 hours and send a check for the money you would have spent on it to a reputable organization dealing with world hunger.

9. Make a commitment to keep small change in a pocket so that you can always give something to one of the thousands of homeless on America’s streets.

10. There are people around you who are suffering. Make a commitment to find out who they are and what they need, and invite six of your friends to make a commitment with you to begin supplying it. In acting like this, you will be helping to animate the heart of your community.

11. Make a commitment today, even if you are experiencing financial difficulties, to tithe between five and 10 percent of what you earn to a cause of your choice. Over time, tithing will give you a great and healing sense of being useful. The cause you are helping will become increasingly precious and personal to you until you will wish, naturally and simply, to do more.

Source: The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism by Andrew Harvey

Related Articles: A Conversation with Andrew Harvey,  Inspiring Change