As hard as it might be to believe, Dear One, pain is not a punishment.  It is a teacher, a guide, a friend to you.  Its purpose in your life is not to hurt you, harm you, discourage you, frighten you, or weaken you. Quite the contrary actually.

Pain, Dear One, is a call for love, is a call for attention, it is a call for healing, growth, and expansion.  Pain is a teacher with a valuable message for you and it is not something to be avoided.  It is something to be acknowledged and embraced.

Run from pain and you will spend an eternity pressed up against an all too familiar wall that you are quite capable of walking around, climbing over, or breaking through.

Before you take even one more step forward, Dear One, forgive yourself; for whatever it is that you did yesterday that you regret, that you wish you had not done, that you wish you had done better, that you wish you could take back, change, erase or undo.

Forgive yourself – no questions asked, without judgment, without condition, without threat of punishment or fear of condemnation.

Just forgive yourself.

Give yourself this gift today.

You deserve it.

And those around you deserve it too.

All of your thoughts, words, actions, and connections will be all the more powerful, genuine, authentic and meaningful when you are fully present in the here and now, when you are no longer holding yourself hostage in your past.

When it comes to your relationships, Dear One, which do you want more?

• To keep yourself protected
• To experience deeper, richer, stronger, and more meaningful connections than you have ever had before

It’s not possible for you to do both at once.

You’re going to have to choose.

Run, don’t walk, towards any preferences that you discover for yourself today, Dear One.
Embrace them fully, enjoy them totally and completely, with full abandon.

Why?

Because there is absolutely no reason for you not to.

And because life is meant to enjoyed.

That’s why.

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• Do you like hiking, gardening, and being outdoors?
• Do you like movies, theatre, and literature?
• Does your life have value, meaning and significance?
• Are you smart enough, strong enough, clever enough, and brave enough?
• Are you special?  Are you worthy? Do you matter?

What do all of these questions have in common, Dear One?

The answers that you give to them are the only answers that matter.

Why?
Figuring out the answer to this question is not always going to serve you in a useful and positive way, Dear One.

What now?
But figuring out the answer to this question, will always be useful to you.

If what you are in need of is useful answers, remember that the only way that you are ever going to find them, is to start by asking useful questions.

Why are we always encouraging you to speak your truth, Dear One?

Contrary to popular belief, it is not simply because it is “the right thing to do”.

The real reason that we want you to tell the truth, Dear One, is that consequences of doing so will shift the people, events, circumstances and outcomes around you in such a way so as to lead you to precisely the right spot where you need to be to start living it.

That’s why.

Tell the truth and don’t fear that things will change as result of doing so.

Tell the truth and get excited about the changes that will unfold as a result.

Don’t compartmentalize your life, Dear One. Don’t compartmentalize who you are, or where you think you belong, based on your strengths and weaknesses today.

ALL of you belongs everywhere.

There is no shame in slowing down to accommodate the parts of you that that need more help, that need more nurturing, that need more guidance, that need more attention.  That is where your attention belongs. That is where your attention should be.

You, Dear One, are a whole person.  There is absolutely no benefit to you to choose to sacrifice one part of yourself to support another, to sacrifice a weaker part of yourself to support a stronger part. To press on with your strengths and leave your weaknesses in the dust.

The truth is that it is the reverse of that that will ultimately be to your greatest benefit.
You want to allow the strongest parts of you to protect the weakest. Not the other way around.

Why?  Because those parts of you that are weak now, that are in most need of healing, hold for you the greatest potential for wisdom, for learning, for growth. Hold the greatest potential for adding value to the whole.

You don’t want to banish them in their infancy, Dear One.  You want to nurture them to their full capacity. And then watch, as the tables turn.

Those lessons, those values acquired through learning, through healing, once strengthened, will one day lead the charge by bring up the rear, by healing other parts of you that may fall behind.

In short, take the time to mend the weakest links, Dear One, don’t cut them loose, because in time, doing so, will serve to greatly strengthen and lengthen your chain.

^

Take one step forward at a time, Dear One, joyfully, intentionally, mindfully, feel good about where you are going, and you will be traveling faster towards your desired destination then if you ran full steam ahead towards it motivated by frustration, sadness, anger, fear or insecurity.

Mindful choices guided by good feelings are infinitely more powerful than those guided by loss, lack, obligation, fear or desperation.

It is not the amount of space between where you are and where you want to be that determines the length of your journey, Dear One.

The length of your journey is determined by the distance that you must travel from where you are, to feeling good about where you want to be.

There can be no brighter future ahead, Dear One, if you don’t allow more light into your present.

The very best thing that you can do to create a better tomorrow for yourself is to find something to be happy about today.