Today we ask that you know good energy is never lost.

Good energy is never lost.

Actions undertaken from a place of love are never lost, even if they appear to be.

No loving thought or action is ever wasted.

The more good energy you put into the world, the more good energy you will receive.

It may not come back to you directly.  It may not come back to you right away.  It may not come back to you in a form you recognize, or consciously desire.

But the good energy will come back to you.

It is common when people are feeling low, or defeated, that they listen to a negative voice that says all their good energy and effort is a waste.  It serves no purpose.  No one cares.  There is no point.

Do not believe that voice.  It is false.

All the good, loving energy you put into this reality is recognized, and received.  It will come back to you.

But it is useful not to have specific expectations or demands.  If you do good things with an expectation of ego gratification, this usually backfires.  It means your motives are mixed.

Be pure-hearted when you undertake good action.  

If you do it for ego gratification, that part of it can often backfire.

That is usually why it may appear that good, loving energy is somehow a “waste.”  It is the ego voice that says it is a waste, because it does not appear to gratify the ego’s need to feel special and safe.

Loving action is not about making you feel special or safe.

Loving action is about creating goodness and light in the world.

Once you separate the need to feel special and safe from your loving actions, it will be much easier for you to perceive that all of your good energy returns to you, and is never lost.  

Today we ask that you trust your intuition.

Many of you are in the habit of consulting psychics, and astrologers.  There is nothing wrong with this.  Often such people can offer very helpful insight — at times more helpful than many therapists.

It is not good to hand over too much power to such people.  But in the best case scenarios, what you will feel when visiting an “intuitive” is that this person is giving voice to things that deep down, you already know.

That is because you really do already know these things.

Everyone possesses intuitive capacity.  Historically women more than men are associated with intuition, but men are no less intuitive than women.  It is just that historically mothers often tended to cultivate intuition in terms of caring for their children.  Nowadays, a great many busy, distracted women are just as out of touch with their intuitive instincts as men.  

All that is needed to tap into intuition is space, and stillness.

If you give yourself space, and stillness, you will “hear” your intuition.  It is just as accurate as any psychic’s.

A meditative practice is an excellent way of cultivating space and stillness, so that you can hear and sense your intuitive voice.  

Tapping into intuition does not mean that suddenly you are in control of reality and life becomes a fantasy of riches and fame.  It does not mean that you will stop having unpleasant or uncomfortable experiences because your intuition is supposed to help you avoid all pain and suffering.

Intuitive awareness just means living more harmoniously with reality as it is, not as you wish it to be.  It means having accurate perception about people and situations as they are, not as you wish them to be or need them to be.

Any intuitive worth his salt is someone who helps people drop false projections and perceptions, so that they may see reality more clearly, and get in touch with what they deep down already know.

Today we ask that you stop struggling.

Most of you believe that it is necessary to “struggle to survive” in a cruel and hostile world.

But this not true.

There is a big difference between “struggling” and “making an effort.”

“Struggling” is what happens when you fight the flow of reality.  It is like swimming against a very strong current.  You exhaust yourself, and don’t get anywhere. 

“Making an effort” means swimming with the current.  It does not mean, be passive.  If you are swimming in a river, you must actively swim to stay afloat.  But the feeling is different.  You are making an effort, and it feels like you are going somewhere.  You expend energy, but you are also energized.

“Struggling” is what happens, for example, when you are romantically obsessed with someone who does not feel the same way about you.  No matter what you do, you cannot change the other person’s feelings.  The harder you try, the more unpleasant the situation will become.

“Struggling” happens when you argue with reality.  Always, there is a should involved with struggle.

“This person should love me.”

“I should be rich and successful.”

“I should have a different body.”

“I should have different parents.”

These are all struggle statements.  They demand what is impossible.

You can “should” until you’re blue in the face, but it will not change reality.  And you are wasting all your energy with these fantasies of the life you “should” have.  Meanwhile, real life is passing you by.  

When you are stuck in “should,” you are swimming upstream.  You are struggling. 

“Making an effort” doesn’t dwell in the land of should.  It dwells in the land of is.

“Making an effort” means you are in agreement with reality.

For example, if you wish to learn a new language, you must make an effort.

If you wish to build a meditative practice, you must make an effort.

If you wish to eat in a healthier way, you must make an effort.

There is no struggle with any of this.

Struggle happens when you think: “I shouldn’t have to do these things.”

“I shouldn’t have to sit in meditation to cultivate a calmer mind.”

“I shouldn’t need to do all this repetitive learning in order to speak a new language.”

“I shouldn’t have to eat vegetables to stay healthy, when I’d rather eat cake.”

Can you perceive the distinction?

It is entirely unnecessary to struggle in life.  Struggle is a mental issue.  It exists in the mind, not in reality.

It is necessary to make an effort if you wish to create new things or positively change things in reality.

“Making an effort” is not the same as “struggling.”

Learning to perceive the difference could spare you a great deal of wasted energy, and misery.

“Struggle” is an argument with reality.

“Making an effort” is an agreement with reality.

“Struggle” is a rejection of reality.

“Making an effort” is an acceptance of reality.

Can you see the difference?

Today we ask that you not listen to negative voices.

The world is full of negative voices.  Turn on the news, look at the internet, talk to a coworker.  You will be bombarded by messages of gloom, doom, and victimhood.  

Most of you carry around an internal negative voice.  It is always attacking you, and condemning life.  It is always telling you how worthless you are, and how hopeless life is.  

Most of the time, this voice is completely wrong.

If you actually kept track of how wrong that voice is, you would be quite shocked.

This voice discourages you from doing what you believe in.

This voice says it is impossible to ever feel good about anything.

This voice is wrong.

The voice of negativity serves a purpose.  Usually, it is trying to protect you from painful experiences.

Unfortunately, by trying to protect you from painful experiences, this voice is cutting you off from the experience of life itself.

For if you follow this voice to its logical conclusion, you would give up on life.  Indeed, every suicide is caused by listening to the voice of negativity, and following it to its logical — but totally wrong — conclusion.

This voice is wrong.

It is wrong because it is mistaken about the nature of reality.

The voice of negativity believes that reality is hostile.  It posits that you are a helpless victim, whose welfare is always at the mercy of a hostile reality.  

This is not true.  Reality is loving, and benevolent, even when it appears to be frightening.  You are a powerful being, and you have chosen existence in this reality.  

If you tracked how often the voice of negativity is wrong, you would stop listening to it.  You would not be so gullible as to keep falling for its lies all the time.

Do not listen to that voice, even if it claims that it means well, and is only trying to protect you.  It is not telling you the truth.

Today we ask you to calm your mind.

95% of all the problems you face could be solved if you would just calm your mind.

That is because most of the problems you deal with exist only in your mind.

While it is possible that some of you are currently engaged in a true crisis, most of you are probably not facing a life-or-death situation right now.

And yet the stress levels in your body may be very high.

What is triggering all this stress for you?

Your thoughts.

You are worrying about your future.

You are brooding about your past.

You are ruminating about how someone has hurt or offended you.

You are worrying about what someone whose approval you seek thinks of you.

You are worrying about what will become of your children.

You are worrying about sickness, or old age.

You are brooding about something awful that happened to you, maybe years ago, that you can’t get over.

You are worrying about all the terrible things happening in the world.

In reality, what is happening?

Probably, you are sitting in front of a computer.  Maybe you are driving a car.  Maybe you are watching TV.

Nothing bad is happening to you.

And yet the stress levels in your body are very high.

What is triggering those high stress levels?

Your thoughts.  Only your thoughts.

That is why it is so important to meditate.

When you meditate, you quiet down your thoughts.

This allows your body to relax.

Meditation actually helps you think more clearly.  Instead of worrying about the future and brooding about the past, meditation helps you to focus on what is right in front of you.  It helps you deal with the tasks immediately at hand.

If you were really capable of focusing your energy on what you want to do, instead of letting your scattered, anxious mind run off in a million directions, there is no limit what you are capable of.

This is true of individuals, and humanity as a whole.

If it were not for disorganized thinking, humans would have reached the stars by now.

Calm your mind.  Your mind can be your best friend, or your worst enemy.

For most people, it is their worst enemy.

Make friends with your mind.  Meditate.

Today we ask that you let go of the obsession with pain and suffering.

A lot of people are very obsessed with pain and suffering.

And it is not hard to see why.  Pain is an overwhelming sensation.  When you feel a sharp physical pain in your body, it overwhelms everything else.  You cannot think clearly.  You might scream and shout.  You are paralyzed and frozen.

Small children and animals know how to deal with pain.  They are very good at getting trauma out of their systems.  They yell.  They shake.  They sleep it off.  

But when it is over, it’s over.

Not so with older humans.  They do not know how to fully discharge pain and trauma.  So it lingers on.

But there is a more insidious element.

As children, many humans learn that pain and suffering imbue you with a kind of specialness.  Religions frequently promote this idea.  Beyond this, parents often respond to a child in pain by giving the child special attention — maybe even ice cream, or candy.  You have all seen children who exaggerate their pain and upset in order to get attention, especially from parents who are distracted.

This can create a negative pattern in which people subconsciously wish to create and prolong pain and suffering in their lives, because they believe it makes them special, virtuous, heroic, and worthy of love and attention.

Obviously, no one consciously wants pain and suffering.

But if as a child, you learned that the most special people on Earth — saints, martyrs, holy men and women — all endured horrible pain and suffering, this will create a powerful subconscious belief that “pain makes you special.”

If you are someone whose life is very dominated by lingering experiences of physical or emotional pain, it may be useful to examine the ways in which you were brought up to believe that pain makes people special, virtuous, noble, and worthy of extra love and attention.

It may not be comfortable to examine these beliefs, but if you truly desire relief, you must do so.

We would encourage you to notice your reactivity around the following statements:

There is nothing special about pain.

There is nothing morally superior about people who suffer a lot.

People who endure a lot of pain are not better than people who don’t deal with much pain in their lives.

There is nothing noble or virtuous about enduring pain.

Please notice if you feel reactive, or even angry, around these statements.

If you do, it means you have a subconscious attachment to pain.

If you wish to experience less pain, then sit with these statements until you can perceive that they are true.

Pain and suffering do not make men virtuous, noble, special, or more worthy of love.

Pain is just pain.  It happens.  It happens to everyone.  But there is no need to hold on to it.

Let it go.

Today we ask that you stop seeking approval from crazy people.

A crazy person is someone who believes a lot of crazy things.  He may be angry and paranoid.  He may be abusive.  He may be extremely fearful and judgmental.  He may be a racist, bigot, or religious fundamentalist.  He may have a violent temper, or be passive aggressive.  He may be addicted to substances, or self-destructive behaviors.

There are a lot of crazy people in your world.

There are a lot of crazy parents, teachers, pundits, politicians, clerics, bosses, CEO’s — in short, there are a lot of crazy people in positions of authority.

As children, humans instinctively crave approval from parental figures.  They need parental approval in order to survive.

Children do not understand when they have crazy parents.  How can they know this?  Later, when they grow up and see other models of behavior, they may realize this.

Even so, they will not be able to “turn off” their approval-seeking instinct.  It does not matter if they are consciously aware that they have a crazy parent.  Still, a part of them will crave that parent’s approval — possibly for the rest of their lives, and even after the crazy parent has died.

Children who grew up with a crazy parent are also likely to seek approval from other crazy authority figures — crazy bosses, romantic interests, spiritual gurus, and so on.  Crazy behavior will actually trigger approval-seeking in someone who grew up with a crazy parent.  It is as if you identify crazy energy as “mother” or “father,” and are drawn to it like a moth to a flame.  

To stop this pattern requires getting very clear and conscious about what you are doing.

Notice when you are in “approval-seeking” mode.  It may creep up on you unawares.  It happens when you feel a very strong craving for someone’s approval — almost as if your life depends on it.  The mere thought of this person being displeased with you or rejecting you fills you with fear, or shame, or self-loathing.  

If you catch yourself approval-seeking, it is time to take a long, hard, clear-eyed look at the person you seek approval from.

Is this person really worth it?  Why are you giving so much of your power to this person?  Is your well-being truly so totally dependent on this person being pleased with you?  

Most importantly, is this person crazy?  If you had a crazy parent, particularly notice if his or her behavior in any way reminds you of that parent.  

Obviously, if you work for a crazy boss, and wish to remain employed, this requires withstanding a certain amount of abuse.  But you must never internalize or believe what a crazy person tells you about yourself, or the world.

That is why it is extremely important to determine if any authority figure is a crazy person, or is acting crazily.

And let it be clear: abusive behavior of any kind is crazy.  It doesn’t matter if this person has risen to authority by acting abusively.  Abusive behavior is crazy.

It is possible to treat a crazy person with compassion, perceiving their humanity under their confused thinking and aggression.  But you must never believe a crazy person’s stories about you, or reality.

This is what it means to have a secure, strong sense of self.  It means not believing crazy people, when they tell you that you are worthless.

And know this: anyone who ever says that you are worthless, or treats you abusively, is crazy — at least in that moment.  

You do not need a crazy person’s approval.

More importantly, you shall never have it.  A crazy person’s approval is always momentary, and fleeting. Crazy people are very fickle.

Ultimately , you must know that your well-being does not depend on the approval of others.   Your inner well-being, what you think about yourself, how you feel about yourself — that is an internal state, and you can change it, without changing your external reality.  

If you can see crazy people with clear eyes, you will have much more peace in your life.  You will not believe their crazy stories, nor seek their approval.

When you are in that place, you may actually be able to help them.  

Today we ask that you not take yourself so seriously.

This may seem like a trivial request, but truly you have no idea how much human suffering has been caused by people taking themselves too seriously.

Wars begin because people take themselves too seriously.

Murders occur because people take themselves too seriously.

Every dictator and tyrant who has ever lived is someone who took himself way too seriously.

Terrorists and religious fanatics take themselves too seriously.

You cannot overestimate the value of comedy in this world.  Blessed are the comedians.  Anyone who can lighten hearts is helping the world immeasurably.

If you make people laugh, you are doing them a great service.

This is not to say there aren’t “serious issues.”

But many “serious issues” are caused by people taking themselves too seriously.

Look to children.  Does a healthy child take things seriously?  A healthy child is playful, and light-hearted.  It is only conditioning from adults that converts the playful, light-hearted child into someone who can’t have fun and takes everything seriously.

“Lighten up” does not mean “be irresponsible.”

There is a big difference between “being responsible” and “taking things too seriously.”

If you can’t tell the difference, it means you are taking things too seriously.

Don’t be a sourpuss.  Don’t be the person who walks in a room and stops everyone else from enjoying life because it is “irresponsible.”

People tend to be far more productive if they can play, be light-hearted, and let off steam.  That is why children have “recess.”  Children cannot learn unless they are allowed to play.  In fact, children learn best through play.

The same goes for adults.

Adults cannot learn, grow, and evolve unless they are allowed to play, and laugh, and be light-hearted.

Your world would be lost without your comedians.

If people stopped taking themselves so seriously, they would experience much greater flow in their lives, and far less drama.  Truly, this is so.  

Today we ask that you let go of the desire to be “seen” and “understood.”

It is a common wish for sensitive people.  You wish for other people to “see” and “understand” you.  You especially wish for your pain and struggle to be “seen” and “understood.”  Maybe then you would get what you deserve in life.  Maybe then you would be properly appreciated.

This wish is always doomed to disappointment.

You see, everyone else is very busy with their own life drama.  Everyone else is wishing that others would “see” and “understand” them.  All these people are far too busy with their own problems to “understand” you.

And that is okay.

Please let go of this need to be properly “seen” and “understood” and “appreciated” by others.

See yourself.  Understand yourself.  Appreciate yourself.

And perhaps you might spend some time attempting to see, understand, and appreciate other people.  They will be delighted if you do!  Just don’t expect them to return the favor.

It is the wise person who lets go of his expectations and demands of other people.

It is also the gateway to peace, joy, and ease.

It is okay if no one truly “sees” or “understands” you.

If you get truly present with yourself, this egoic need will subside.

It is the wisest of men who enjoys life as it is, and does not mind what other people do or don’t do.

Today we ask that you feel a deep respect for yourself.

Respect yourself.

Most people do not treat themselves with any respect.  They do not believe they are worthy of such a thing.

Respect simply means treating life with an appropriate reverence for its miraculous nature.

A flower deserves respect.  A tree deserves respect.  These are miraculous life forms.

Your planet deserves respect.  Of course, there is a great lack of respect for the planet and its resources in your reality.  Alien cultures would be quite confounded by your behavior!

But it is easy to explain.  Humans do not respect their planet, because they do not respect themselves.  How can they respect anything if they do not even know what respect is?

You do not respect children.  You do not respect the elderly.  You do not respect men.  You do not respect women.  You do not respect anything.

Respect does not mean “lacking a sense of humor.”  Plenty of humorless, morally righteous people have no respect for themselves or anything.

It is very possible to be a deeply self-respecting person with a wonderful, playful sense of humor.  In fact, the two go hand in hand.  

Respect means “reverence for life.”

To respect life is to have reverence for it.  To be in awe of its utter miraculousness.

When you respect something, you do not abuse it.  You do not call it “worthless.”

And yet how many of you constantly struggle with inner feelings of worthlessness.

How many of you were treated without respect as children, and so grew up feeling powerless, and not worthy of respect.

How many of you learned that the only way to command respect in this dog-eat-dog world is by behaving disrespectfully toward others — “putting them in their place.”

Most of you dislike it when you are treated disrespectfully.

And yet you do not respect yourselves.  So why should anyone else respect you?

You are worthy of respect.  No matter what you have or haven’t done in this lifetime, you are worthy of respect.

In order to command respect from anyone else, you must first respect yourself.  And you must treat others with respect.

No one respects a bully.  They may fear a bully, but what do they say behind his back?  Bullying is never the way to command true respect from anyone.  People despise a bully; they do not respect him.

If you wish to be respected in this lifetime, first look at the ways you do not respect yourself, and your body.  Then look at the ways you do not respect other people.  Then look at the ways you do not respect life on this planet.

Generally, when you respect yourself, your body, other people, and life on this planet, respect will no longer be an issue for you.