We are all familiar with the general laws that govern our physical well-being: eat healthy foods, exercise both mind and body, and avoid toxic people and places whenever possible. Adhere to these simple laws and be relatively free from suffering; break them, and you place yourself under another set of laws that pretty much guarantee you won’t be happy with how you feel.

Much in the same way, there are spiritual laws that govern what we will or won’t discover about ourselves in this lifetime. And when we understand that self-knowledge is to our spiritual growth what a spring rain is to the wildflower seeds that await it, then we also realize how vital it is to not just embrace these higher laws but embrace them mind, body, and soul.

Following are three laws to help you awaken and realize your highest spiritual possibilities:

If It Doesn’t Flow, There’s More to Know

Learn to recognize all forms of strain—whether at work, in your creative efforts, or in your relationships—as being unnecessary. The mounting friction you feel when busy at some labor is never caused by the task at hand but by what you don’t yet know about it. This means the only real reason for your strain is that you’ve got hold of a wrong idea you don’t yet see as wrong. This new insight allows you to release yourself by showing you what you need to know. Flowing follows your new knowing.

Refuse to Take the Easy Way

There’s no getting away from what you don’t know, which is why anytime you feel compelled to go around a problem by taking the easy way, i.e., pretending it doesn’t exist, blaming others for your pain, or meeting it with half-measures, that problem always comes back around again. And isn’t that what makes life seem so hard? Learn to see the “easy way” as a lying thought that keeps you tied up and doing hard time. Getting through something is not the same as having it completed. And as this insight grows, so will your understanding that the whole idea of the “hard way” has always been just a lying thought as well. Now you know: the complete way is the easy way. So volunteer to make the “hard way” your way, and learn what it means to live the effortless way.

Watch for the Opportunity to Learn Something New

Everything is changing all the time. That means life is an endless occasion for learning something new—but this means more than meets the eye. Just as you’re a part of everything, everything is a part of you. The whole of life is connected. And your ability to learn is part of the wonder of this complete but ever-changing whole. Learning serves as a window into the complex world you see around you, and through it you may also look into the “you” that’s busy looking into the world. And when you’ve learned there’s no end to what you can see about the amazing worlds spinning both around and within you, you’ll also know there’s no end to you. So stay awake, and learn something new every day. You’ll love how that makes you feel about yourself.