If you are already late Dear One, rushing, hurrying, being scattered and stressing out about it, is not going to fix it, undo it, or make it better in any way, shape or form.

But being calm, cool, collected and fully present when you arrive, just might.

We know that you are tough Dear One. We know that you are strong, and clever, and resourceful.  We know that you are extremely capable of coping with, adapting to, learning to live with, and working around obstacles, difficulties, and pain.

But the truth is that we don’t want you to be.

What we want Dear One, is that when you feel that splinter go in, when you feel that first little prick of pain, when that alarm sounds and you experience those first pangs of concern, distress, discomfort, hurting, or dis-ease, that you give your coping skills a rest for a change.

We don’t want to see you reach for your usual box of Band-Aids and show us, and the rest of the world, just how well you can adapt to it, cope with it, rationalize it, and keep on going.  What we want Dear One, is to see you reach for the tweezers instead.

We don’t want you getting better, and becoming more practiced, at learning to live with the little pricks in your life.  We want you getting better at removing them, while they are still small, before they have a chance to take root, evolve, spread, and grow and into bigger ones.

Fear is not a choice Dear One.

Anger is not a choice either.

Neither is resentment, guilt, hatred, doubt, insecurity, remorse, jealousy, lust, or despair.

They are all feelings.

And feelings do not dictate actions Dear One.

Your choices do.

Mastery is not about perfection Dear One, or doing, being or creating something that is the best or better than anyone else.

To achieve mastery is to achieve a state of being fully present, of being fully aware of what is happening around you and within you, and what is available to you in each and every unique moment of your life, acknowledging it, taking it in, allowing it to inspire, inform, motivate, shape, and influence your thoughts, actions and beliefs from moment to moment.

Masters are not superior beings Dear One, they are not better people than everyone else.  They are simply more practiced at living in the now and taking advantage of all of the gifts that are available to them in the present moment.

They don’t try to create exceptional, superior, or richer work, but being fully present, they have  a deeper, richer, more connected productive and fruitful experience of each moment, and that experience gets expressed, gets translated into all that they do.

If you want to achieve mastery Dear One, don’t try to be better at what you do, try to be more present while you are doing it, and you will be on  your way.

While you are the process of learning something new Dear One, it is not the right time to be hard on yourself.

It is the time to be kind, loving, patient, forgiving, encouraging, nurturing, compassionate, and generous with yourself.

And since you are pretty much in the process of learning something new all the time…..

The right time to be hard on yourself, is, well, never.

Do you want to know how to find to your center Dear One?  Do you want to know how to move towards a greater state of balance?

Look for, seek out, create, move towards, spread, allow yourself to experience joy, as much of it as you possibly can.

Love, laugher, happiness, compassion, contentment, joyful feelings, are all expressions of balance.

• The more joy you  experience, the better you will feel, the closer you will be to a balanced state.
• The more balanced you are, the more balance you will bring to the world.
• The more balance you bring to the world, the better off we all will be because of it.

You should know Dear One, that joy is at the center of balance for us all, and that your experience of it serves a far greater purpose than just making you feel good.

So just in case you were wondering if feeling better, if going in search of your center, in search of balance is really worth all of the effort, we want to reassure you, that it is.

Choosing to change can be hard enough Dear One, so why not choose to leave the judgment out of it.

Make change a judgment free zone.

What does that mean?

• It means no beating yourself up for wanting, needing or having to change in the first place, for not doing it sooner, perfectly, or as good as, or better than anyone else.
• It means no harsh or negative self-talk while you in the middle of it (or at any other time either for that matter).
• It means no could have’s, should have’s, or would have’s if only I had……
• It means not using someone’s else’s path, experience, or success as an opportunity to diminish your own.

It means being loving, kind and nurturing to yourself throughout the process.   It means reassuring yourself that you are worth it, that you will, figure it out, that it will get easier, that you will feel better, and that you are not in it alone.    It means celebrating, honoring and cheering yourself on for making the decision to change in the first place and for being on your way.

Think about how much more energy you will have available to you to dedicate to your work, to yourself, to the changes that you are trying to make Dear One, if you left the judgment out of it.

Trust us.  It’s a lot.