by Dan Schawbel: Marianne Williamson is an internationally acclaimed author and lecturer. Six of her ten published books have been New York Times bestsellers.

Her books include A Return to Love, The Law of Divine Compensation,The Age of Miracles, A Course in Weight Loss, Everyday Grace, A Woman’s Worth, Illuminata, and The Gift of Change. Marianne has been a popular guest on television programs such as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, and Charlie Rose.

Her latest book is called A Year of Miracles: Daily Devotions and Reflections, which offers advice on how to live your best self in order to bring miracles into your life. In the following interview, Williamson talks about how to tap into your spiritual self, one of her favorite spiritual readings, why everyone is on a spiritual path already and her best career advice.

How do people tap into their spiritual self especially at a time of major economic uncertainties and struggles?

Spirituality is the quest of the heart, the transformation of our mindset from that of constriction and fear to openness and love. At a time of economic uncertainty and struggle, the last thing that serves us in turning our circumstances around is negativity, fear, victimization and hopelessness.

Most people fall down at some point in life — the issue is, who rises back up? Those who rise up embody three main factors: 1) faith that nature has a propensity toward repair, and that we can align our attitudes with it as a way of fostering its expression; 2) willingness to forgive those who might have caused us problems, so we don’t stay stuck in the past and can more easily move onto the next possibility; and 3) willingness to own and to forgive ourselves for any part we played in creating our problems, so we can freely get about the work of creating a new condition.

Nature is infinitely creative. It is always producing the possibility of new beginnings. Any encounter, any relationship, any circumstance carries with it the seed of some new opportunity if we meet it with positivity, excellence and love. The key to abundance is meeting limited circumstances with unlimited thoughts.

My book THE LAW OF DIVINE COMPENSATION: On Work Money and Miracles is all about this.

You offer 365 spiritual readings in your new book. Which one is your favorite and what can people learn from it?

I don’t know about favorite, but one that always speaks to me is, “Love alone is the meaning of my life.” We have so much clutter around us today — not only in our physical environments, but in our minds. And it’s as important sometimes to simplify internally as well as externally. Nothing is more powerful than saying in any situation, “I’m not here to get anything, or to meet any goal, other than to give love.” That doesn’t disempower a person or make them invisible; it automatically empowers us because it throws us into our excellence, our wisdom and our attractiveness. Love is the key to our power because it’s the truth of who we are.

What would you say to those who don’t believe in religion and spirituality?

Everyone has the right to their own thoughts about religion; I would never try to change anybody’s.

As far as spirituality is concerned, I believe everyone’s on a spiritual path; most people just don’t know it. The spiritual path is simply the movement of the heart from fear to love, and everyone learns to walk that path whether they learn it through pain or through joy. One way or the other, life has a way of teaching us what we’re here for. The spiritual path is simply a way of learning it consciously.

How did you come up for the idea for Sister Giant and how did it influence you to run for California’s 33rd congressional district?

The SISTER GIANT conferences existed to help women reconnect to our history, our power and our capacity for influence. At the second conference, SISTER GIANT: Women, Non-Violence and Birthing a New American Politics, urged two thousand women to consider running for political office. There was such an enthusiastic response, and I had to think long and hard about how I could best serve that energy moving forward. Ultimately, I decided it would be by running for office myself. marianneforcongress.com.