How can embracing poverty, chastity, and obedience (outside of the structure of a religious order) help one to lead a more fulfilled life?

Poverty - Are you controlled by possessions, those that you have and those that you desire? Can you imagine a state of freedom that super-cedes possessions? Is your stuff interfering with your ability to follow God in an authentic way? St. Ignatius claimed that there is a strong connection between detachment and freedom. Not that one must divest themselves from all things (think of the comparison between Jesus' interactions with the Rich Young Man and Zacchaeus) but is what you have at God's disposal?

What does Fr. Martin's phrase "a healthy poverty" mean for you in your own life?
Poverty for St. Ignatius allowed one: to identify with the poor Christ, to free oneself to follow God more easily, to identify with the poor whom Jesus loved. In these three ways Fr. Martin proposes that simple living allows one to become more apostolic.

In the Meditation on the Two Standards - what do you think about the notion that the desire for riches leads to honors which leads to pride which leads to sin?

Do our material possessions interfere with what should be a natural trust in God? Do they fool us into trusting "things" or even worse "ourselves" in the place of God?

Fr. Martin's four step approach to simple living: Divest, distinguish, downsize, dialogue.

What do you think about the three degrees of humility? Morality, Detachment, Humility in Christ

Poverty of Spirit = Reliance on God. When Jesus says "Blessed are the Poor in Spirit" he is maintaining that those who rely on God can move through life in a more fulfilled/authentic way than those who rely upon other things. Poverty of Spirit removes obstacles and allows for an optimal "human alignment."