Today we ask that you accept the nature of your relationships.

People struggle a great deal with their relationships.  They spend a lot of time wishing other people were different.  Friends, lovers, family members, coworkers, even people they barely know — how much energy they spend, wishing other people were different.

They crave more intimacy.  Or else more space.  They want more respect.  They want more attention.  They want everything to be just so, and are very agitated when people do not live up to their expectations.

There is not a single moment of time or energy you have spent wishing for other people to be different, that has not been a total waste.

You may as well wish for water to stop being wet.  You may as well wish for the moon to stop waxing and waning.

Do you want to be happy?

Then stop wasting your time wishing other people were different.

Cats are cats, and dog are dogs, and frogs are frogs.  A cat will never be a dog.  A dog will never be a frog.

The only person you ever have any control over is the person reading these words.

Stop tilting at windmills, and blasting all this wasted energy toward other people.

Do you want to be happy?  Turn that energy inward, toward the self.  Use it to work on your thoughts, your beliefs, your perceptions.

Change the way you think, and then what other people are doing or not doing will not matter to you so much.  Eventually, it will stop mattering at all.  

Leave people be.  Let cats be cats, and dogs be dogs.  Don’t turn people into “projects.”  You want a project?  Go look in the mirror.  There’s plenty to do with that person.  A lifetime’s worth.

Leave other people be.  Accept them, as they are.  You will be much happier, if you do.

Today we ask that you be very honest with yourself about your state of being.

Many people are perpetually dishonest with themselves about how they truly feel, and this gives rise to countless problems.

So today, be honest with yourself.

If you are weary, rest.

If you are mentally overwrought, give your brain a break.  Don’t just keep pushing.  Step back.

If you do not really wish to do something, don’t do it.

If there’s something you really wish to do, do it.

Just be quiet, and listen to yourself.  What do you need today?  What would really help you to feel better this day?  

If you are quiet, the answer will usually present itself.

But many people are never quiet enough to listen to themselves.

So today, be quiet, and listen.  Be very honest with yourself.  

Follow your feelings.  Do what feels good, and nourishing for your body, and mind.

Today we ask that you pay attention to voices — both external, and within your own mind — that wish to suppress your feelings of joy.  

Such voices are endemic in your reality.  There is an absurd association between virtue and a lack of joy.  Many people consider it somehow irresponsible for other people to be in a state of joy.  Such voices might say: “There is so much misery in the world, how dare you have a good time.”  Or: “The world is so unstable and dangerous, only a fool would drop his guard and enjoy himself.”

Some religious people believe that divine powers are against joy — that it is far more virtuous to suffer than it is to be happy.

The main block to joy in your reality is the cacophony of Fear Voices.  Turn on the TV, or read the latest news, and you will find a whole choir of voices shrieking at you to be very, very, very afraid.  Awful things have happened!  Awful things are happening!  Awful things will continue to happen!  Stay tuned!  Stay on guard!

So life, for many people, becomes like trench warfare.  They dig themselves a little hidey-hole in the ground, and hide in it.  They believe that sticking your neck out means you expose yourself to danger — snipers are waiting outside, ready to shoot if you give them a chance.

And even though the trench is claustrophobic and constricted, and lacks fresh air and sunlight, far better to stay in that dark, dank little hole than venture out into the no man’s land outside.  Anything could happen out there, and not for the good.

But what if all that isn’t true.  What if, outside the trench, there’s a field of flowers, and sunlight, and trees.  There’s room to stretch your legs, and play, and sing, and dance.

And we are here to tell you now, if you believe in God — God wants you to play, and sing, and dance, and enjoy the good, green earth.  And if you do not believe in God, then believe that life in a physical body under the sun is brief, and it is not meant to be wasted in misery.  Do you think that anyone, on his deathbed, wishes that he’d been more miserable?  Dying people, sick people — all wish they’d enjoyed their health and vitality more, that they’d been more awake and appreciative in their time, rather than bogged down with a million meaningless cares.

Life is meant to be enjoyed.  Really.  Truly.  And if you feel bad because people in the world are suffering, you are not helping them one bit by suffering on their behalf.  

But if you choose to enjoy yourself, there’s a far greater chance that you will do or invent or create something that will help your fellow man.  If nothing else, your joy will be infectious, and help spread joy to the people you encounter.  This far more useful than being miserable.

Do not listen to the suppressive voices, whether they are outside, or inside.  Don’t live your life like a scared little mouse in a hole.  Pick yourself up, and breathe the fresh air.  Play, dance, sing, create.  That is your purpose here.  There is no other.  

Today we ask that you be sensitive to your body’s energetic rhythms and cycles.

Every human body has rhythms and cycles — the male no less than the female, even if the female’s cycles are more pronounced, and easier to track.

All humans naturally cycle through periods of more energy and less energy.  Again, in women, this is more clearly observable in relation to the menstrual cycle.  But it occurs in men, too, as well as in women past the age of menopause.

Sadly, most modern people are so out of touch with natural rhythms that they have great difficulty sensing their own internal rhythms.  They do not even acknowledge such rhythms exist — even women, to whom these rhythms are obvious.

If you are around animals, you can perhaps see that animals are aware of their rhythms.  Sometimes animals are more alert, and active.  Sometimes they have energy, and need to run, and play a good deal.  Other times they are less active, and sleep more hours of the day.  Sometimes they are in great need of affectionate contact.  Other times they wish to keep to themselves a bit more.

Humans are no different.  Sometimes humans have energy.  Other times they have less.  Sometimes humans need to eat more.  Sometimes they need to eat less.  Sometimes humans need extra sleep.  Other times they can hum along on less sleep.  Sometimes humans greatly need to socialize.  Other times, they need quiet and solitude.  Such patterns, of course, vary widely from person to person.

On top of the individual rhythms are the world’s rhythms — the solar and lunar rhythms, and the seasonal rhythms of summer, fall, winter, and spring.  Such rhythms have a great impact on animals and humans.

It is good to understand that you are not and cannot be the same all the time.  You are not a robot, powering along in a steady, consistent state.  You are a biological organism, and you are governed, like it or not, by a complex set of rhythms.

This is one of the reasons it is so very important to allow yourself to rest when you are tired.  It is the call of your body’s natural rhythm.  If you frequently refuse to heed that call, then you will become increasingly “out of whack” with your rhythm.  It is like an instrument falling out of tune.  Over time, this can lead to a host of mental and physical difficulties, including insomnia, anxiety, depression, and various stress-related illnesses.

So please, men and women: understand that your body has rhythms and cycles.  When you calm your mind and allow your body to relax, these rhythms will clearly present themselves to you.  Please listen to your body’s rhythms.

Today we ask you to loosen your grip on whatever you are clutching.

If you look inside, most of you will find that you are holding on to something — or many things — very tightly.

Maybe it is something you want very badly, that you are worried you will not get.  Maybe it is a grievance, or feeling of injustice.  Maybe it is a position in an argument you are having.  Maybe it is a way that you feel victimized.  Maybe it is anger at a person, or situation.

Whatever it is, this thing you are holding on to is a tight, clenched bundle of energy in your consciousness.  It is a knot.  It is a place that blocks flow.  Usually, when people are holding on to things, there is physical tension in the body.  The mental knots create physical knots and blockages.  This can be a source of pain, and illness.

That is why it is essential that you release blocked energy in your mind.  You all know, deep down, what you are holding on to.  You know what you are clenching.

Please understand that this tightness does you no good.  It will not resolve the problem.  It will not change the past.  And it will only continue to create tension in the future.

So focus on a clenched area.  As you do, imagine that it is an object you are clutching very tightly.  The object has a size, shape, texture, and color.  It may be warm, or cold.  Really allow yourself to see and feel this thing you are holding on to.

Once the image/feeling is there, notice how you feel inside your body as you clutch this tension-creating thing in your mind.  How does your stomach feel?  How does your chest feel?  How is your breathing?  What sensations do you feel?

Now… imagine that you are releasing this burden.  It drops from your hand.  It falls to the ground.

You can just leave it there, on the ground.  Nothing will happen to it.  It is safe.  You are free to walk away from it, and get on with your life.  You can always come back to it, if you wish.  It’s still there.  The main thing is, you don’t need to hold on to it.  Let it rest on the earth.  The earth can support it much better than you can.

Please — release your worries, your fears, your anxieties, your grievances, your traumas.  You do not need to hold on to these things, in your body and mind.  Just set them down.  Release them.

You will find that issues resolve much more smoothly when you do not clench around them.  Release.  Relax.

Today we ask that you allow yourself to relax.

Relaxation is highly undervalued in your world.  People pay lip service to the value of relaxation, sometimes spending large sums of money in order to immerse themselves in relaxing, spa-like environments.  But relaxation is generally seen as a special thing, something to indulge in only at certain times, at a certain level of affluence.

Many people associate virtue with a constant state of activity.  The virtuous person can do the work of two people.  The virtuous person is so active and busy that he only sleeps four or five hours a night.  He is always doing doing doing.  There is no time for rest.  Maybe once or twice a year he will go on vacation, but even there he might be busy doing doing doing.

This is really not a healthy way to live.  Nor is it healthy to teach children that they always ought to be doing doing doing — scheduling continual activities even for children of a young age.

It is very important for children to have unscheduled, unstructured time.  It is important to play and relax in a loose, open space.  It is the same for adults.  It is very important for adults to have unscheduled, unstructured time in which to relax and play.

The lack of “free time” creates a host of problems for people: stress, anxiety, depression, fatigue, insomnia, illness.  It is actually possible for someone to work himself to death.  There are many cases of this.  That is why relaxation time is not something to be taken lightly.  It truly is essential for mental and physical health.

So please, allow yourself to relax.  Give yourself the gift of unstructured time.

Relaxing is no less virtuous than working.  If relaxation weren’t vital to health, humans would not need to sleep.  Many busy people resent their human need for sleep — but that is madness. Sleep is not the enemy of productivity.  It is your friend and ally.

Make friends with your body.  Respect its need for rest and relaxation.  Learn to value rest as much as you value activity.

Today we ask that you do something because it makes you feel good.  

This should be your only goal, your only motivation.

Whatever it is, it should not be “productive.”  It should not be “responsible.”  It should not be something virtuous.  It should not be about self-improvement.

Just do something that you know will make you feel good, and is fun!

And be very honest about that.  Yes, eating a bunch of doughnuts may be gratifying in the moment, but in all likelihood it will not make you “feel good” — not really.

If you enjoy singing, sing.  If you enjoy dancing, dance.  If you want to curl up with a good book, go for it.  If you want to listen to music that makes you feel good, listen away.  If you want to watch a film or TV show that makes you feel good, watch away.

We know that you are very busy.  But all of you can take five minutes out of your day to do something that has no other purpose than to make you feel good and light.

Taking time to do something just because it makes you feel good is like opening the curtains in a dark room and letting light in.  It’s throwing open the window to let in the fresh air.  It does so much good for your mind and body.

And please — don’t feel guilty when you do something just for you, because it makes you feel good.  What you are doing in those moments is purely good.

When you see a happy child at play, don’t you feel good?  You probably don’t think: “That child shouldn’t be so happy!  That child should feel guilty!”  (And if you do, all the more reason for you to lighten up — for your own good, and everyone else’s.)

You are as lovely and lovable as any child.  When you are happy and playful, it brings joy to the universe itself.  So please don’t feel guilty.  And if you do feel guilt — notice that.  Ask yourself: what’s that all about?

Doing something because it lifts you up and makes you feel good is truly the best reason to do anything.  

Today we ask that you examine your beliefs about “making things happen.”

There is a notion that, in order to accomplish things, you must be in a self-punitive state.  You must “get your act together.”  You must “whip yourself into shape.”  You must “get your butt in gear.”  These very phrases reveal an aggressive, self-punitive energy.  The idea of “getting one’s act together” implies that what you are about to do is, in fact, an “act.”  It is not authentic.  It is not the real you.

So: maybe it is time to drop this idea that one must abuse one’s self in order to accomplish things in life.

Do trees “whip themselves into shape” when they wish to grow, or produce fruit?  Does the sun have to “get its act together” in order to bring light to the cosmos?

Things happen.

You have all had experiences in which certain things in your life have come to you without “making it happen.”  And you all have also had experiences in which you have tried and tried to make a certain thing happen, and it just won’t.

Creating and growing requires receptivity, encouragement, and nurturing.  

This is universally true.

In order for things to grow, the ground must be fertile.  Seeds need the right soil.  They need water and light in the correct proportions.  All gardeners understand this.

It is really the same with everything.  If you want something to grow in your life, you must create the proper environment for it.

“Whipping yourself into shape” is really a very poor method of self-gardening.

You are the ground in which your experiences grow.  If you desire more growth and expansion in your life, then you must make yourself a good environment.  You need to fertilize your own soil, and give yourself water and light.  You need to give yourself a trellis on which to climb.  You need to pluck your own weeds, and lovingly prune yourself if you’re growing in too many directions at once.

Timing is also very important, as it is with gardening.  Everything has a season.  If you plant at the wrong time, you will not experience the desired outcome.  In order to plant at the right time, it is necessary to be very sensitive to yourself, to know your own seasons, to know when it is time to plant, and when it is time to lie fallow.  It is crazy to expect yourself to continually produce.  That is poor soil management for the self.  You will burn yourself out, just as overfarmed soil loses its fertility.

Other times, there are fertile moments, and it is good to plant.  If you are sensitive to your own patterns and rhythms, you can feel this.

Really the best thing you can do is just to lovingly cultivate yourself.  Then, good things will surely grow and ripen within you — all without you “making things happen.”

Today we ask that you be very clear with yourself about what you are doing, and why.

It is very easy to fall asleep in one’s daily routine.  There is a lot to do, and you must do it.  Often one feels that there is no real choice about any of it.  You are obligated to do all the things you do.  In order to be a good, responsible person, it is necessary to do these things.

The problem is, living a life of obligation and duty drains all joy out of existence.  It is a very sad thing.  Often what happens is that activities that could and should be a source of joy — like working in a career, or raising children — start to feel obligatory, and joyless.  This is very sad.

So please remember, as you go through life, why you are doing what you do.

If you are in a career, what drew you to this career in the first place?  What excites you about it?  Do you have a sense of purpose, and meaning?  Please connect with that awareness.  It is why you are doing what you do.

And if it is absolutely impossible to connect with any sense of joy, meaning, or purpose in your work, then please consider finding something else to do with your energy.  

If you are raising a child, please connect with the feeling of love and joy around that child.  Remember the excitement you felt as you were waiting to meet this little one for the first time.  There is nothing obligatory or dutiful about this.

When you connect with a feeling of love and purpose in what you do, you wake up out of unconscious living.  Everything you do has a purpose.  You can cook your meals with a sense of love around the nourishment you are giving your body.  You can take a shower with loving attention to your body.  You can clean your home with a sense of love for your personal space.  Everything, no matter how mundane, can be done with this sense of very conscious love, and care.

And you will find, if you stay conscious in this way, that life itself will become sweeter.  Life can be a dull chore, or an opportunity to create love, joy, meaning, and purpose — for yourself, and those around you.  

Nothing external needs to change in your reality in order for this to happen.  It can happen right here, right now, in this moment.

Today we ask that you go wherever you are sent.

The flow of life is like a great river.  It is also like a strong wind.

Sometimes you are in a slow, broad, meandering part of the river, and you do not seem to be going anywhere.  Sometimes the wind does not blow, and you are becalmed, like a ship at sea with slack sails.

Then, suddenly, the wind picks up.  You are moving.  You are going down the stream.  This movement has far less to do with you “making things happen” than you may think.  When the wind is calm, you cannot force it to blow.  And when the wind blows, good luck trying to get it to stop.

When the wind blows, the best thing to do is go with it.  Let it move you along.  Yes, you can steer the ship — but it would be madness to try to stay still, or to turn into the wind and try to sail in the opposite direction.

When the wind blows, when you move into a swift-flowing part of the stream — the wisest course is to let the momentum carry you along.  Go where the river flows and the wind blows.  Just steer, and keep your vessel upright.  Keep your wits about you.

You can try to go against the flow, but this will leave you exhausted, and shattered.

When you raise your sails to catch the wind, however, the experience can be quite exhilarating.

Also, it is good to learn how to ride out the calms.  When the wind dies down, enjoy the calm.  Do not struggle to get things moving when the wind is calm.  Then you will just exhaust yourself, and get nowhere.

There is a skill to living life that sailors understand.  You cannot control the wind, but you can learn to ride it.  When the wind blows, go with it.