You’ve got an important decision to make today Dear One.

To struggle, or not to.

What’s it going to be?

Taking care of yourself does not mean pushing yourself to extremes Dear One.  And it does not mean giving up, quitting, or walking away when things get tough either.

It means remembering to love yourself enough to choose balance, to choose the kinder,  gentler option that is always available to you.

How long does change take Dear One?

That depends.

• How long are you planning to continue to hold on to what is?
• How long are you planning to continue to remain stagnant, motivated by fear, insecurity, doubt, and uncertainty?
• How long are you planning to continue to think that experiencing well-being requires great effort?
• How long are you planning to continue to not trust?
• How long are you planning to continue to hold on to the idea that change is hard?

How long does change take Dear One?

You tell us.

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.