Today we ask that you be at peace with your life, as it is.

This is the life you are supposed to have. This life, and no other.

There is no other life that you are meant to have.

The place you are in right now, at this moment — this is exactly where you are supposed to be.

There are no other earthly realities beside this one that you are experiencing right now.

There are no other “alternate timelines,” no other roads you might have gone down had you made other decisions earlier in your life.

There are no accidents, and no mistakes. This life, with all its joys and sorrows — this life is the life you are supposed to have.

Most people walk through life with a sense of dissatisfaction. Whatever your life is, it is not good enough. People believe that they are supposed to have other lives. Better lives.

Lives with more money. More recognition. Better relationships. Better health. 

If only they had x, y and z — then they would feel okay about life. But because they do not have x, y and z — life is not okay.

Yes, you do not have x, y and z. That is true.

But you do have a, b and c.

You do not have x, y and z right now because you are not meant to have x, y and z right now.

Right now, you have a, b and c.

What are a, b and c?

Anything in your life that brings you joy and meaning. Anything, no matter how seemingly small or insignificant.

Maybe you have a beloved pet. Maybe you ate or drank something delicious today. Maybe you went for a walk in the fresh air, and it felt good.

That is your a, b and c. That is what is yours, right now. That is what is meant to be yours.

And the more you focus your energy and attention on the gifts that are yours right now, the more you will enjoy this life that is yours — this life that is supposed to be yours.

Let go of x, y and z. Let go of what you think you are supposed to have, that you do not have.

People think that happiness is a complicated, unattainable thing.

But really, happiness is very simple.

A happy person loves and cherishes the life that he has been given. He desires no other life.

That does not mean happy people are unmotivated, do not have goals, and do not take action in the world.

It is false, this belief that action must always arise from a place of striving and dissatisfaction.

It is very possible to take action in the world from a place of fullness, and playful exploration.

All these miserable people on the world’s stage, all these unhappy little tyrants demanding this, attacking that…

The best way to counter and defeat such energy is not by getting dragged into the drama.

The best way to counter and defeat such energy is always by getting grounded in that which gives you joy and meaning.

If the world were populated by satisfied people, no despot would ever be able to seize power.

You do not become a satisfied person by getting all these things you think you want. Just look at the little tyrants. They may possess wealth and fame, but do they seem satisfied?

You become a satisfied person by becoming satisfied, right now, with the life that is yours.

Even one truly satisfied person can change the world, and make it a more joyful and meaningful place for everyone else.


Today we ask that you release your fixation on what other people are doing.

Let go of being so preoccupied with what other people are doing, or not doing.

Let go of fixating on politicians.

Let go of fixating on bosses and coworkers.

Let go of fixating on clients.

Let go of fixating on your mother.

Let go of fixating on your father.

Let go of fixating on your sister.

Let go of fixating on your brother.

Let go of fixating on your wife.

Let go of fixating on your husband.

Let go of fixating on your son.

Let go of fixating on your daughter.

Let go of fixating on your girlfriend or boyfriend.

Let go of fixating on your ex.

Let go of fixating on your neighbors.

Let go of fixating on your friends.

Let go of fixating on your enemies.

Let go, let go, let go.

Consider how much time in a day you spend thinking about other people, and what they are doing, and not doing.

Consider how much energy you spend feeling frustrated about other people.

If you are like most people, you are using up a lot of time and energy fixating on what other people are doing, and not doing.

And most of that time and energy is wasted, and thrown down the drain. You cannot control or change other people.

Very often the people you obsess over aren’t thinking about you all that much anyway. Celebrities and politicians aren’t thinking about you at all.

Really, if you sit with it, it is easy to see that all this time and energy spent ruminating over what other people are doing and not doing is a great waste.

If you are someone who always wishes for more time and energy, here is a place to look. You might do a lot with all the time and energy you spend ruminating over other people.

Consider how, as a child or teenager, you ruminated over this girl or that boy — someone who means very little to you now, but was a big deal back then.

People who are a big deal now will diminish for you later in life. If you are a healthy person, you will look back and see that all the fuss and drama was over nothing all that important.

Of course there are significant relationships: parents and children, siblings, spouses.

But here, too, so much of the daily drama and suffering is over nothing all that important. You are upset over this, you are upset over that.

If you go to a cemetery, you will see many graves. The names you read are the names of people who all argued and had big dramas with their fellow men. They all suffered over what people were doing, and not doing.

And then they passed out of their bodies, and the drama ended. Very often, if you heard about those old dramas, they would mostly seem rather small and foolish to you.

If people are behaving destructively, the best thing to do is to minimize engagement with them as best you can, take steps not to add fuel to the drama — and observe their behavior so that you can work on the destructive parts within yourself.

Observe people. Learn from them. Work on yourself, so that you can practice non-reactivity and compassion. Love your loved ones. Cherish your friends. Cultivate equanimity for the difficult and disturbed ones.

Let the rest go.

If you are fixating on what someone else is doing or not doing, use that valuable energy to work on yourself.


Today we ask you to release your shame.

Release your shame.

Whatever causes you to feel a sense of shame – let go of it.

Let go of your shame about your physical appearance.

Let go of your shame about where you are in life, how you are not measuring up to where you think you are supposed to be.

Let go of your shame about the mistakes you have made in the past.

Let go of your shame about the clutter in your home or office.

Let go of your shame about not being good enough at what you do.

Let go of your shame about not meeting other people’s expectations.

Let go of your shame about not meeting your own expectations.

Let go of your shame over your failures.

Let go of your shame about how you have not been a good person.

Let go of your shame about not being more evolved than you are.

Let go of your shame about your physical health issues.

Let go of your shame, let go of your shame, let go of your shame.

It is one thing to make amends to someone if you truly feel that you knowingly or unknowingly wronged them.

But being ashamed about your body, your bank account, how you are just not good enough — this doesn’t do anyone any good. This kind of shame is purely harmful.

When you feel this kind of self-negating shame, you will inevitably lash out at the people around you, even the ones you love most. Especially them.

If you are ashamed of your body, then you will shame your loved ones about their bodies — whether or not you intend to.

 If you are ashamed because you are not good enough, you will shame your loved ones for not being good enough — whether or not you intend to.

That is how toxic shame is passed down through the generations, and that is how you came to feel so ashamed in the first place.

But it can stop.

Babies are not born feeling existential shame. Babies are not born hating their bodies and feeling like they can never be good enough. These are learned behaviors.

And anything that is a learned behavior can be unlearned. All that is required is conscious awareness.

Also you must examine any beliefs you hold about shame being good and valuable — for example, that feelings of shame and worthlessness goad you into action.

You will not work unless you shame yourself for being so lazy. You will not maintain your physical appearance unless you shame yourself for being fat and ugly. You will not clean your house unless you shame yourself for being such a slob. You will not be a good, moral person unless you shame yourself for having sinful thoughts.

This is all complete nonsense. Beliefs like these are the cause of no end of human suffering, disease, and violent behavior. Truly, these thoughts, which may sound quite normal to you, are utterly insane.

If people dropped these insane beliefs, they would be vastly more productive, far healthier and more well-ordered in their lives, and much kinder and more compassionate to all humans.

In other words, people aren’t the problem. Toxic shame is the problem.

Without your shame, you would be healthier, more productive, and kinder to yourself and those around you.

Your shame blocks all of those things.

Without toxic shame, you will naturally be moved to make amends and apologize, should that situation arise.

Without toxic shame, that situation will arise much less frequently.

So you might want to ask yourself: why am I holding on to my shame? What does it do for me? 

It does not make you a better person.

Once this begins to sink in, notice how often you feel shame in any given day. Just notice how often feelings of shame come up for you. You might be surprised. 

After observing the pattern for a while, gently question it. Is the shame you are feeling really valid here?

Can you imagine living a life without shame as your motivator to do things? Can you imagine how much the people around you would benefit if you weren’t consciously or unconsciously shaming them for being the way they are?

It is totally possible for a child to grow up without a toxic sense of shame. And such a child would be highly productive, healthy, and compassionate toward others.

So just look at the ways to reduce the level of shame in your daily life.

You will find that all of your life issues — health, relationships, work, prosperity — all of those things will benefit if you simply release your shame around them.

Releasing shame is one of the simplest and most powerful things you can do to bring healing and positive change to your life.

Why not try it? You have nothing to lose but your self-loathing.

And just because everyone else feels shame about everything doesn’t mean you have to, as well. You are not betraying your parents and families if you release your shame.

Far from it. One human free of shame is a gift to the world, a blessing to whomever she touches.


Today we ask that you release your fears around the future.

Release your fears around the future.

What does this mean?

It means recognizing and accepting the truth that it is absolutely impossible for you predict the future with accuracy. All predictions are, at best, an educated guess. In reality, you cannot know your future.

Yet most people spend a great deal of time agonizing over the future, as if they know what’s going to happen.

If you look back on your life to date, you will find that generally things did not go exactly according to your plans. Unexpected events occurred. Many of your schemes and fantasies about your future never came to pass. Many of your fears about your future also never came to pass.

If you take an honest look at things, you will see that you probably wasted a great deal of time and energy locked up in mental projections of situations that never came to pass.

 The things you hoped for and feared as a child, as a young adult. How many of things came to pass as you imagined them?

This is not to say that none of your wishes came true, or that none of your fears were realized. Of course some of what you imagine in the future does come to pass, although often not exactly in the way you expected.

The point of this exercise is to be realistic about how often this actually occurs. What percentage of the time does the future unfold as you imagine it? Looking at yourself in the past, how accurate was your imagination, when you envisioned your future — for good and ill?

So just sit with that.

Because however accurate or inaccurate you were in the past regarding your predictions of the future, you are equally inaccurate now.

Some things can be predicted. It is safe to say that winter will be followed by spring. It is safe to say that if you live long enough, your physical body will age and pass away. Certain things are fairly predictable — although nothing in this reality is ever absolute (just ask the dinosaurs).

Obviously in life it is necessary to make plans for future events. If you intend to travel somewhere, you must make arrangements. And that requires a certain amount of thinking about the future.

A certain amount of planning for the future is useful and necessary.

In general, however, humans spend far more time thinking about the future than is useful. And all this time spent in worried projections is not useful. Just the opposite: it is destructive.

Worrying about the future, especially about events that are completely beyond your control, is not useful. This negative use of the imagination poisons the present moment. It drains you of vital energy needed to attend to what is right in front of you today. It causes depression, anxiety, impairs decision making, causes impulsive behavior, and places intolerable stress on the body, triggering disease.

Worrying about the future is, quite simply, bad for your health. It is also bad for the people around you, the loved ones that you worry about.

That is why it is helpful to reflect back in your life, and consider the accuracy of your future predictions.

How often did you guess correctly? Five percent of the time? Ten percent? Perhaps you have led an unusually predictable life, and you were right twenty-five percent of the time. A number this high would be quite rare.

Whatever the realistic number is for you, sit with this. It is safe to say that this number applies to all of your future predictions, right now. Right now, you are five percent or ten percent correct about what will happen. The rest, you have wrong.

The truth is, you don’t know what is going to happen. Even if you are correct about some of the big things, you have no idea how those things will unfold, what twists and turns your life will take.

Therefore the path of wisdom is to let go of trying to predict the future, let alone control it. There will be ups and downs, joys and sorrows, pleasures and challenges. The things you worry and fret over today will seem trivial tomorrow.

At the moment of your death, you will not wish that you had worried more. You will wish that you had lived more, been present more, enjoyed life as it as unfolding.

So do this now. Get out of your head, and the dark cloud of fear of the future. Those things are not happening now. Most of those things will never happen, not the way you think. Come fully into this moment. Deal with things as they arise. There is plenty for you to do in any day without worrying and brooding. Just do that, and all the rest will fall into place.



Today we ask that you find quiet.

Find quiet.

You live in a world that is increasingly noisy. It used to be that only busy cities were full of constant noise. But in the modern world, even country homes are filled with blaring televisions, and pinging smartphones. It is harder and harder to escape the fizz and buzz of human activity and noise.

And there is nothing wrong with this: the buzz of the human hive, all this interconnectedness and communication. This is an exciting and vibrant time.

However, all things must be balanced in order to maintain health.

Activity must be followed by rest. Noise must be followed by quiet.

Everything in your reality follows this rhythm: day, night; waking, sleeping. The inhale is always followed by the exhale.

Noise and stimulation must be followed by quiet and restoration. It is a simple law of your physical universe.

Violating this law leads to burnout, exhaustion, and illness.

This is true for all humans. Even someone who constitutionally thrives in noise and activity will burn out if not given periods of rest.

And this is doubly true for those who are predisposed toward thriving in a peaceful, quiet environment.

In earlier times, there were niches for quiet people: they became priests, monks, scholars, and scribes. They lived on farms, they lived in the woods. They followed the rhythms of the seasons. The nights were long, and they slept deeply.

But now everyone is expected to be lively and sociable, to network and sell themselves. To be plugged in, available, and “on” at all hours, late into the night. This is especially hard on the sensitive souls, the ones with the quiet dispositions.

If you are such a person, it is absolutely necessary that you carve out space in your life for quiet, peace, and true downtime away from the noise and the buzz.

The most practical place to start is by turning off and spending time away from one’s electronic devices: the phone, the computer, the TV. This alone is an enormous step for most modern people.

Notice the resistance you may feel around stepping away from electronic devices, the stories that come up. For example: your work requires that you are always available. Or: after a long work day, all you want to do is unwind with your favorite TV show. Or: what if you miss an important text?

But really, if you sit with this, you may see that the world is not going to end if you spend a little bit of time away from your electronic devices.

You might resolve to have one TV-free night per week. Just one night a week in which you sit quietly, perhaps reading a book, listening to music, cuddling your pets, or taking a bath.

Or you might designate time on the weekend during which you will not write emails or texts, or check social media. If you do not think you can make it a whole day without doing this, perhaps you can give yourself an electronic device free morning on a weekend.  From waking until lunchtime, you will not email, text, or check social media. Try to commit to the practice for a set period of time: you will do this for a month, let’s say.

What many people will find, after initial resistance and “withdrawal,” is that they come to deeply enjoy and relish such quiet mornings or evenings. And that even a small amount of regular, scheduled quiet time can be enormously restorative for the body, mind, and nervous system.

Many people know that eating sugary, processed food isn’t good for the body. It takes some effort, but cutting these foods out of one’s diet has an enormously positive impact on one’s overall well-being.

It is the same here. A constant diet of sensory stimulation via one’s phone, computer and TV is easily as destructive to one’s health as a poor diet.

Overstimulation is particularly destructive for children — as much, if not far more so, then sugary food.

There is no reason to feel bad or guilty about the habit of being continually plugged into electronic devices. It is the cultural norm in this time period. Most people in developed countries do it.

Of course, in the recent past, it was the cultural norm for most people to smoke cigarettes, or subsist on a diet of processed food because it was quick and convenient.

Therefore it is always wise to question the prevailing cultural norms of whatever time period you happen to be living in.

So: just gently question the practice of “always being plugged in.”

Particularly do so if you consider yourself a sensitive person who does not generally do well with a lot of noise and activity.

Play with creating quiet niches in your life: a TV-free-evening here, a text/social media free morning there. Make it fun and enjoyable. Imagine what you will do in that open, quiet time. Maybe you will go for a walk and really be present with the sights, sounds and smells of the world outside. Maybe you will curl up with a book. Maybe you will take a lovely, guilt-free nap.

Just decide. Say that Thursday night will be your dedicated TV-free night. Or that Saturday, from waking until lunch — that will be your quiet morning. You will try it for two weeks. Make it a small, easy thing to commit to. So you can see that the world is not going to end if you are unplugged for a brief period of time.

Don’t make a big deal out of it. Just play with it. See how it feels.

If you are someone who in any way feels burned out — just a little bit of quiet time will go a very long way toward restoring a healthy balance.


Today we ask that you take baby steps.

Take baby steps.

What does this mean?




So what is the remedy for this?





So this is what is going on.























With all that relief, things might get accomplished magically.


Today we ask you to be true to yourself.

Be true to yourself.

Do what feels good, right, and harmonious to you.

This sounds like it shouldn’t be so hard, but for many people, this is harder than competing in an Olympic sport or climbing Mount Everest.

Why is it so difficult to be true to yourself?  To be true to your unique, individual nature?

There are many reasons for this.  Humans are social animals, interdependent on one another.  Children naturally seek out the approval of parents, teachers, and peers.  If parents, teacher, and peers continually tell them that they must be different from who they are and suppress their natures, they will generally do so.  It is a simple survival tactic.  Humans do what they must to survive.

But of course this particular survival tactic leads to no end of misery.  Suppressing your true self is like going through life with your dominant arm tied behind your back.  You are cut off from your strength.  You feel chronically frustrated.  Something is wrong here.  You lose feeling in the tied-up arm, but it still aches.  You sense it is there.

So it has ever been for homosexuals who felt shame around their natures and tried to live as heterosexuals.  So it has ever been for women who lived out traditional mother/wife roles when it was not their nature to do so.  So it is for people who spend their days doing things they have no real interest in, to please their families and fit into society.  

Historically, and in modern suppressive societies, people did these things because they wanted to physically survive and not be punished.  In modern, more tolerant societies, it is not so cut and dry — but people often still believe that they have no choice, that they must live inauthentically if they want to survive.

There is no judgment around any of this.  If you are a woman living in society dominated by a fundamentalist religion that requires you to cover your body and face in order to physically survive, you must do so — even if it goes against your nature.

However, many people living in modern, basically tolerant societies live in constricted ways, in jobs and relationships that are not harmonious for them.  Generally physical survival is not on the line in these situations.  But people believe it is — such as when people remain in disharmonious marriages for the sake of the children, or make major life choices to please their families.

This is not to say that you are a victim if your day-to-day work is not a “dream job,” or if you have not found your “soul mate,” and so on.  It is completely possible to engage in very mundane, humble work in a way that honors your True Self.  For example, if a mundane, humble job gives you the space and freedom to engage in creative expression that brings you joy, then that is in alignment.

However, if you are in a profession with a large salary and all the trappings that come with it, yet feel hopeless and suffocated — that is not in alignment.

So the question is: how can you be true to yourself?

First of all, you cannot be true to yourself if you don’t know who you are.  Once you know who you are, it is much easier.

Consider the case of the woman living in a religious society, who must cover her body and face.

Perhaps she is a true believer in the religion.  In that case, there is no conflict, because her actions are in alignment with her beliefs. 

On the other hand, she may believe that the religious law is suppressive.  She does not like dressing in this way.  However, she knows she must engage in the practice because she wishes to physically survive.  Here there is discomfort, but no conflict.  She knows who she is.  She knows that if she lived in a different place, she would not dress this way.  So she does what she must, for the time being.

The problem arises when the woman is conflicted.  She has been indoctrinated into the religious culture, and thinks she should believe in what she is doing, but something feels wrong.  She feels guilt and shame over having these doubts.  Covering her body and face makes her unhappy, but she doesn’t know why, and feels like a bad person because of it.  She does not know who she really is.  Her True Self is calling her to reject the religious doctrine, but this is frightening.

When you know who you are and what you are about, you do not suffer in this way.  You may be uncomfortable living in a society that is hostile to your self-expression.  But you do what you must.  You are like a spy for the Resistance working against the Nazis in World War II.  You do not believe in the dominant culture.  You wear a disguise in order to protect yourself, but you know what your mission is, you know where you come from.  You then may work in subtle ways to bring about change.  

In this way you are always seeking greater harmony, always moving toward greater freedom, even living in a suppressive environment.  If you make compromises along the way, it is always with the understanding that you are working toward that which is more harmonious with your True Self.

So that is what it means to be alignment with the True Self.  It means you feel no shame about who you are.  Perhaps you are a woman required by religious law to cover your body.  You do so without the belief that there is anything shameful about your body.  Perhaps you are a homosexual living in a culture that treats homosexuals with violence.  Of course you must hide who you are — but without any shame.  You are like a spy for the Resistance among the Nazis.  You are integrated, and acting from a place of power, even if to someone else’s eyes you do not appear powerful.

Therefore it is possible to be true to yourself even when living within a suppressive society.

It thus follows that it is possible to be true to yourself in a more open, tolerant society.

This simply means rejecting things that you have been taught by your families, peers, and cultures that make you feel ashamed about who you are and what feels good to you.  It does not mean that you need to have a violent confrontation with your family and culture. It just means deeply knowing, without shame, that their way is not your way.

Of course, that is a very challenging thing to do.

But it is much harder in the long term to live in out of alignment with your True Self, feeling shame about your nature, in a state of chronic misery.

So if you feel unhappy and constricted in your life, look to ways you might be out of alignment with your true self.  

In particular, look at beliefs that you may have picked up from your family, peers, and culture that make you feel ashamed about who you are, and ashamed of doing what feels right and good to you.

People in open, tolerant societies like to think they are progressive.  But in many ways they are just as intolerant as obviously suppressive societies.

Sometimes it is easier for a woman in a burka to feel more in alignment with herself than a woman in a business suit.  It all depends on knowing what you really are about in life.

Be true to yourself.  Do what is harmonious with your nature.  Even if you must make compromises, know what you do and why, and always work toward the greater good.