Today we ask that you look at your need for approval.

Are you someone who needs to be liked, and approved of?  Are there particular people whose approval you hungrily seek, and whose disapproval feels debilitating?

The desire for approval is natural, and instinctive.  There is a part of you that believes your survival depends on approval.  To be cast out of the tribe was, in ancient times, a death sentence.  Children naturally seek their parents’ approval, and then grow up to be people in search of approval from authority figures in their lives.

Please know that you do not need approval in order to survive.

This does not mean, go around alienating people or being an unfriendly person.

There is a big difference between being an approval-seeking person, and someone who is just “good with people.”

An approval-seeking person is often not good with people.  That is because an approval-seeking person is so desperate for approval that he or she may resort to inauthentic behaviors in order to win approval.  He or she will do things that are not in integrity to win approval.

If you go against your own nature to win approval, if you are not true to yourself, if you pretend to be someone you are not — this will always backfire.  Often you will wind up being disapproved of by the person you were trying so hard to impress.

Just be yourself.  Be yourself.

Some people will like you.  Others will not.  That is the way of things.  It is a matter of taste, like favorite movies and TV shows.  Some people will be into you.  Others won’t.

But at least the people who are into you will really be into you.  And one person who loves you for who you are is worth ten thousand false friends.

This is what happens when you stop seeking approval, and stand secure in yourself.

Some people may not like you.  Others will.

And you will find that the world will not end if you some people don’t like you.  Truly, those people are not your friends.

Clasp your true friends to your heart.  Let go of everyone else.

Let go of the need for approval, and you may just find true love.

Today we ask that you connect with something or someone in your life that is very pure.

What does this mean?

For many people, life is a mixture of pure-hearted actions, and actions that are clouded, or ego-based, or fear-based.

So: you have jobs.  For many, you do your job for a mixture of reasons.  At the core there may be a sense of love, and satisfaction at a job well done.  But usually there are other reasons: you must pay the bills, support yourself, or support other people.  And so comes confusion: do you do what you do for love, or for money?

Even with an action as pure-hearted as raising a child, confusion can arise.  A parent loves his child, and yet may place his own egocentric projections upon that child.  The parent loves the child, but also needs the child to meet his projections, live out his own unfulfilled aspirations, and so on.  And so parenting becomes this mixture of pure-hearted and egocentric motivations.

That is why today we ask that you connect with something in your life that is truly pure.  Something about which you feel no confusion, or inner conflict.

It is something that you love to do, just for the doing of it, with no thought of reward.

It can be as simple as watching a favorite movie or television show, or listening to your favorite music, or reading a beloved book.  Or playing a game or sport that you derive pure enjoyment from.

There is absolutely no sense of fear around this activity.  It is just something you love to do, in a simple, utterly uncomplicated way.

This is where your heart is.

It is so very good to sit in that feeling of pure-hearted connection and joy.  Whatever it is in your life that gives you this feeling — do that!  Cultivate pure-hearted action.  You will find that the good feeling that arises out of doing things you love just for the fun of it has a way of spreading into other areas of your life.

Today we ask that you find a few moments to create space for yourself within the hustle and bustle of your busy lives.

It is not hard to do this, but it takes a small amount of will and effort.  For continuous activity has an addictive quality.  It is difficult to pull yourself away from the flow of continual stimulation.

The best thing is to create a little window of time for yourself, in which you can relax, and settle your mind.

You can do this by setting a timer.

Even three minutes is sufficient to create space, and breathing room.

One thing you can do is set a timer for three minutes, and look out a window.  During that three minutes, be very attentive to all that you see and hear.  Even if your window looks out on a boring view, there is still much to see out there. 

Imagine asking a small child to report on what he sees out the window.  The child would see many things: the colors of cars, a piece of paper on the ground, a fly buzzing.  See if you can bring that kind of attentive consciousness to looking out a window.  Three minutes isn’t a very long time.

Another way to create space is by setting a timer for three minutes, and doing simple physical exercises.  Stretch.  Touch your toes.  These of you familiar with yoga can do simple yoga exercises.  

You can also set a timer for three minutes, play music, and dance.  Move.  Jump up and down.  

The key is to be very present in your body.

Whatever you do during your three minute break, it is essential that you do not look at a computer, check email, or answer a phone.  Turn off your ringers and buzzers.  This exercise is all about creating a break in the continuous flow of nervous stimulation.

Even doing this once a day can be very helpful.  Twice or three times a day, better still.

Three minutes is not much time at all.  You will not fail to get things done by taking a three minute space break.  But it just long enough to give your mind a little breather, and will actually help you work with greater consciousness and focus.

Today we ask that you let go of your need to “be somebody.”

You are somebody.

You are somebody.  You were born somebody.  Every minute of your life, you have been somebody.  Every minute of your life, you will continue to be somebody.  And you will continue to exist even after you no longer have a body.

There is an intrinsic, perfectly defined You-ness.  It is one of a kind.  It is utterly impossible for You not to be You.

You are perfectly You, regardless of how much money you possess.

You are perfectly You, regardless of whether or not your peers recognize you as someone “important.”

You are important.  You have always been important.  Not in a puffed-up, egotistical way.

Every living creature under the sun is lovable, miraculous, and important.

Please know that you are loved.

Even if you believe that nobody in the world cares for you, and that your life is meaningless…

… you are loved.

The You that is You has been watched over at every single moment of your physical existence in this lifetime.

This is not about specific deities.  It just about the way your reality really works.

Even your scientists understand that human beings only perceive a tiny fraction of what is.  They call this vast unknown “dark matter,” and “dark energy.”  They speak of unseen dimensions curled up within your own.  They notice curious properties of matter at the quantum level.

As yet, humans know very, very little about all that is.  But greater knowledge is coming.

You are loved.  Every single one of you is loved.

And you are all terribly important.

You are important in a way that requires no ostentatious display of wealth, beauty, power, or fame.

Please know this.

You are somebody.  You have always been somebody.  You will always be somebody.

Today we ask that you do something silly.

When no one is looking, do something very silly.

Look at yourself in a mirror and make silly faces.

Make a silly noise.  Jump up and down like a monkey.

Do things that would make a small child giggle with delight.

Every now and then, it is very good to just make a complete fool of yourself.

If you’re secure enough in yourself to be silly in front of someone else, wonderful.  If not, do it in privacy.

People have a habit of taking themselves too seriously.  They get into all manner of very serious arguments with one another.

Imagine what would happen if, when having a serious argument, someone crossed his eyes, stuck out his tongue, and hopped on one foot.

The other person would find it hard to stay angry.

Whenever you start to take yourself too seriously, life has a way of throwing a banana peel in your path.

If you fall and laugh, you will feel a release.

If you fall and complain and feel grouchy, or like “you’ve been made a fool of” — well, too bad for you.

The universe has a great sense of humor.  The more you can laugh about things, the more you will enjoy life itself.

It is wonderful to be a fool.

Today we ask that you drop all pretense for a few moments, and just be honest.

What does this mean?

Many people do things that are not good for them, or others, but tell themselves lies about what they are doing.

This is like indulging in food, alcohol, or drugs that you know are just not good for you, but you tell yourself a little story about it.  You say “It won’t hurt just this once.”  “A little bit can’t do any real harm.”  “I’ll just sneak this in when no one is looking, and promise I won’t do it again for a while.”  These foolish games that people play.

It is not good to lie to people.

It is not good to take advantage of people.

It is not good to mislead people for personal gain.

It is not good to put on a false face in front of someone, then viciously gossip behind his back.

It is not good to have contempt for the people you work for, or with.  To smile at your employer or employee, then say behind his back, “I hate this person.  This person is an idiot.”

Please understand that being like this is not good for you.  It has nothing to do with the other person.  It is not good for you.

These behaviors erode your own well-being.  They erode your well-being the same way that indulging in unhealthy food, drink, or drugs erodes your well-being.

You may get a buzz, or rush, or high from being dishonest with people, or from being casually cruel.  But it is truly not good for you.

Why is it not good for you?

On an energetic level, it invites the same treatment to be visited upon you.

If you gossip cruelly about other people, count on it — someone will gossip cruelly about you.

If you take advantage of other people, count on it — someone is going to take advantage of you.

If you put on a false face for people, count on it — others will put on a false face for you.

You may protest and say “But this is how the world works!  Everyone lies, everyone cheats, everyone takes advantage, everyone gossips cruelly.  I’m just doing what everyone else does.”

So might someone say, “Everyone eats unhealthy food, everyone drinks to excess, everyone takes drugs!”

You might say that, and never understand what it is to feel truly good, and healthy.

Yet true health is possible.

How do you become healthy?  By dropping unhealthy habits, even when it is difficult.

Some of you may not know what it is like to be upright and honest when dealing with other people.

Please know that it feels good, and satisfying.  It is like eating a nourishing meal, or going for a hike in a beautiful place.  

Behavior that is good for you feels good.

Just be honest.  Drop all pretense.  

Treating others with kindness, honesty and compassion will invite the same energy into your own life.

Today we ask that you release your need to continually absorb information.

You live in a time in which human beings are endlessly deluged by information.  It arrives via the electronic media that surrounds you.  You are barraged by up-to-the-minute news, social media updates from acquaintances, and often your own obsessive need to educate yourselves via the internet.  No sooner do you think of something, some topic, than you do an online search to acquire further facts.

While there is nothing wrong with staying informed and educating yourselves, the human brain is simply not equipped in its current state to cope with the sheer volume of data many humans are attempting to process on a daily basis.

Please remember that the human brain and nervous system evolved under far different conditions.  The brain is a remarkable organ, and humans are evolving rapidly.  Nonetheless, the amount of nervous stimuli many people experience on any given day exceeds by a thousandfold — ten thousandfold — the amount of nervous stimuli your ancestors dealt with.

It is literally scrambling your brains.

The side effects of this overstimulation include: insomnia, chronic fatigue, attention deficit disorders, and a whole host of stress-related physical symptoms, such as headaches and digestive upset.

Your overstimulated nervous system overheats like a car.  To make matters worse, many people use caffeine and other stimulants to keep the engine going as a stop-gap measure.  

You are running out of oil.  Your engine will seize up.  

Over an extended period of time, continual nervous overstimulation can be quite damaging.

Cool down.  

Cool down.

Give your nervous system a break.  Step away from the computer.  Put down the phone.  

Step outside.  Get a breath of fresh air.  Look up at the sky.  

Get back into your body.

Get back into your body.

Ideally, if you can take one day a week — or even a half day — of giving your nervous system true down time, away from electronic media, it would be of immeasurable benefit to your health and well-being.  

Spend time outdoors.  Go for a hike, or hang out in a park.

Spend time with young children, or animals.  They know how to play.  How to be in their bodies.  Learn from them.  Remember what it was like.

Breathe.

Let go of the need to know and understand everything.  The world will not end if you’re not up on the latest.

Let go.

Let go.

Today we ask that you release your habitual thought patterns.

What does this mean?

Habitual thought patterns are like bad eating habits.  They are things that the mind loves to “chew on,” the way people like to chew on sweets or potato chips.  It is not good for you, but there is an addictive urge to do it anyway.

Habitual thought patterns are things that you often find yourself thinking about that have nothing to do with your present reality.

They can include:

Grievances about people who wronged you in the past.  

Grievances about things that happened to you in the past that you feel you did not deserve.

Reliving “mistakes” or “bad decisions” you feel you should not have made in the past.  Specifically this is about imagining that you would currently be in a better place than you are now if you had not made some past “error.”

Worrying about the future.  Particularly things that you have no control over, like aging, or the long term fate of your children, or the long term fate of the planet.

Fantasizing about the future.  Imagining where you will be when you achieve some kind of success that you do not currently have — the “dream house,” or the “dream vacation retreat,” for instance.  Fantasizing about your children’s future achievements.  Fantasizing about achieving recognition that you do not currently have.

As you may perceive, habitual thought patterns tend to take recognizable forms.

They always take you out of the present moment.  They occur in the past, or the future.

They want things to be different.

They want your past to be different.

They want your future to be different.

They continually analyze your past, obsessing over what you and/or other people did wrong.

They continually strategize about the future, seeking to control events and so prevent new mistakes from occurring.

These thoughts want to “fix” everything.

It is very easy to get caught up in the flow of this kind of thinking.  It is as easy as mindlessly eating a whole bag of potato chips, or a container of ice cream.

It is not good for you.  Please understand this. 

When your mind is off in the past or the future, part of you is not here.  This actually drains your life essence, and prevents you from doing things in the here and now.  It is a cause of chronic fatigue and nervous exhaustion — for the mind utilizes a great deal of physical energy engaging in these fantasies and projections. Your physical body is hard pressed to supply your brain with the energy required to run these programs.

If you notice yourself caught in a habitual thought pattern, the best thing to do is change your state.  Get up.  Breathe.  Do some simple exercises.  Get back into your physical body.  Get back into the here and now.

You truly have no idea how much this can benefit you in your daily lives.

Today we ask you to do one thing at a time.

Contrary to the current practice of “multitasking,” humans are only capable of doing one thing at a time well.

You can do several things at once if you wish, but you will do those things poorly.  Far from accomplishing more, you will actually accomplish much less.  You may in fact accomplish nothing.

So if you’d actually like to get things done, we strongly urge you to do things one at a time.  Whatever you are doing — do that.

If you are speaking with someone on the phone, be fully present with the person you are talking to.  Listen to that person fully.  When speaking, be centered in your consciousness.  Know what you are saying.

When working on a project, work on the project.  Do not check email or Facebook every two minutes.  Be fully present in working on the project.

If you wish to check email or social media, then do that.  Give yourself a period of time — ten minutes, for example — and just check your email.  Only do that.  When responding to email, do that with your full attention.

If you are with a child, be fully present with that child.  Give the child your full, undivided attention.

If you are cooking a meal, do that with your full attention.

If you are taking a shower, do it with your full attention.  Be alive to the experience of cleaning your physical body.

Remember — you can only do one thing at a time well.

You can do many things at once poorly.

It is your choice.

Today we ask you to ground yourselves in the present moment.

There are many ways to do this, and they are all very simple.  The challenge is that it requires you to become aware of your thoughts, and to make a conscious effort to pull back from the discursive flow of thought.

Pull back from the endless babbling brook of the mind, with its worries, its fantasies, its projections, its obsessions, its need for constant stimulation — the thinking thinking thinking thinking thinking thinking.

Today, at least for a few minutes, step away from the computer.  Put down your cell phone.  Go outside if you can, and get a breath of fresh air.  Look around.  Really see where you are.  Listen to the sounds.  Feel what it is like to be inside your body.  Feel your physical sensations.

Just for a few minutes of time, be like a little child, or an animal.  Just be in your body, looking around, listening, smelling, touching, feeling.  

What do you see?

What do you hear?

What do you smell?

What do you taste?

What do you feel in your body?

Come back to yourself.  Come back to yourself.

Even a minute of presence, even a minute of stopping the mental noise, can do immeasurable good.

Just breathe, and be where you are.