Today we ask you to connect with the feeling of joy.

All of you know this feeling.  It is rooted in the heart.  It is a wonderful feeling, a feeling of rightness and well-being.  It is accompanied by smiles, and laughter.  It is a very warm, vibrant feeling.

Even if you feel very far from joy in this moment, it is still possible to connect with joy.  If you have an animal in your life, being with that animal will connect with you joy.  Young children are also very connected with joy, although sometimes parents feel so much stress that they have difficulty connecting with this.  Even so, if you calm your mind, it is often easy to find joy in the presence of a young child.  

Experiencing beauty can connect you with joy.  The beauty of the natural world resonates joy.  Art and music often resonates joy.   Certain films or TV shows resonate joy.  The act of singing, or dancing, can easily connect you with joy.  

Sometimes joy can be found in very simple, earthy experiences — like gardening, or cooking, or baking.  Sometimes there is great joy to be found in the smell of freshly baked bread.

Whatever gives you joy — connect with that.

Please know that there is no greater virtue than experiencing joy, and sharing it with others.

Many of you believe that it is virtuous to suffer; that it is only through suffering that you can demonstrate your worth.  You believe that if you care about something, you must suffer for it.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Do you want to do good in the world, for yourself and others?  Then cultivate joy.  Cultivate joy in your heart the same way you cultivate a garden.  Water it, and nourish it.

When you are joyful, you will naturally be moved to share your joy with others.  And there is no greater gift you can give anyone than the experience of joy.  

That is true virtue.  Not suffering, and martyrdom.  There is nothing more virtuous than sharing joy.

Joyful people are gentle people.  Joyful people feel a natural sense of compassion, and connection.  Joyful people do not abuse themselves, and so do not abuse others.  Joyful people are easy on themselves, and so easy on others.

If you wish to help the world, there is nothing better you can do than cultivate joy in your heart.  Then you will be a blessing to everyone you touch.

Today we ask you to not get caught up in drama.

You live in a reality that continuously engineers drama.  If there is one thing you can be certain of in your highly uncertain reality, it is this: reality always creates drama.

Why this should be so is not particularly relevant, except to say that drama is an extremely powerful teaching and learning device.  If you want to teach something, it always best to frame it within a story.  Stories are how the mind learns.  The mind continuously creates stories — that is how it makes sense of things.

So stories and dramas are intrinsic to your reality.

But it is possible to experience the drama of reality without getting so caught up in the story that you lose yourself completely.

If you look at the wise men, sages, and mystics in stories, they always stand slightly outside the drama.  They may participate, and play key roles.  They may even die in the course of the drama.  But the wise men and sages always stand slightly outside.  They generally do not experience the same level of terror and trauma that the other characters experience.

It is very possible to adopt this stance within your real-life dramas.  It is possible to stand slightly outside the drama, and not get completely lost within it.

Some of you may have had the experience of a “lucid dream.”  In a lucid dream, you become conscious that you are dreaming.  When this happens, you step outside the drama of the dream.  You are no longer lost within it.  You are awake.  You no longer fear the dream, for you know it to be a dream.  Sometimes there is an exhilarating sense of freedom associated with lucid dreaming.  You are no longer subject to the rules of the dream drama.  You can do anything.

It is possible to experience even waking reality as a kind of lucid dream.  Obviously, there are major differences between waking reality and dream reality.  We do not advise you to jump off a cliff or step in front of a train in waking reality.  The lucid dreamer in dreamland can jump off a cliff or step in front of a train.  The laws of waking reality are different.  

However, waking reality is not as different from dream reality as you may think.

When someone is called “enlightened,” it really means they are experiencing waking reality like a lucid dream.  The drama goes on, but they have stepped outside of it.  They may participate in the life drama, but they do not lose themselves.  Such beings usually are sages who are greatly helpful to their fellow men, just like the sages of fiction.

Waking up in reality begins when you learn that you have free will.  You do not have to react to the drama the way you are programmed to.  What your parents and ancestors have always done, you do not have to do.  What your society and peers say you must do, you do not have to do.  That is how you begin to step outside the drama.

You step outside the drama when the voice in your head shouts at you to REACT! and DO SOMETHING! — and you choose not to.  You are no longer a slave to your impulses and conditioning.

The drama will never stop unfolding.  But it is possible for you to step behind the curtain, and glimpse the truth.  When you learn to question your reactive, impulsive thoughts, you begin to wake up.

And when that happens… life ceases to be oppressive, and traumatic.  It becomes exhilarating.  

Today we ask that you understand that you cannot control your external reality, but you can control your experience of external reality.

This gives you an enormous amount of power.

Most humans believe that they are capable of controlling external reality.  This is the cause of terrible suffering and misery.  

Humans cannot control their external reality.  If they could, they would all live in comfort and ease, content and unchallenged, eternally healthy and youthful, and never dying.

Clearly, humans cannot control their external reality.  The belief that they can — and that, in fact, they should — causes so much unnecessary suffering.

It is like a child who gets enraged because he cannot have everything he wants all the time.  Such a child is always crying and having tantrums.  Adults who believe they can control reality similarly are always crying and having tantrums.

You cannot control reality.

But you can control your experience of reality.

Your experience of reality happens inside your mind.  It is internal.  This is why two different people can have the same experience, and react completely differently.  For one person, bungee jumping is exhilarating, and fun. For another, it is pure trauma, and terror.

It is possible to make a conscious decision to love and enjoy your life, no matter what is happening externally.  Every human being possesses this power.  Your minds are so incredibly powerful in this way.  

It is true.  You really can choose to enjoy life, no matter what is happening.  And if you stay very conscious with that decision, it will change your whole experience of reality for the better.

You cannot control reality.  But you can control your experience of reality.  What great power you have!

Today we ask that you openly express appreciation.

If there is something good in your life, express appreciation for it.

If it is a person, tell that person how you feel.  If it is an animal, give that animal your love and attention.  If it is the universe itself to whom you feel gratitude, then tell the universe you appreciate it.

Expressing appreciation is purely good for you.  It is really a very selfish thing to do, since all it does is draw good energy around you.

It is like playing a video game, and doing something that wins you many points.

If reality were a video game — and in many ways it is very similar — the act of expressing appreciation would win you many “points” in the game.  That is what expressing appreciation does.

For our part, we would like to express our appreciation to you, dear reader.  Thank you for your open heart and mind.

You are so loved.

Today we ask that you know you are never trapped.

Entrapment is a terrible feeling, and it is a very common one.  People feel trapped.

They are trapped in lives they do not want.  They are trapped in jobs they do not want.  They are trapped in relationships they do not want.  They are trapped in bodies they do not want.  They are trapped by their past, and they are trapped by their future.

Only this is not really true.

You are not trapped.  There is always a doorway you can walk through.  There is always a way out.

This is true even if you are literally trapped in a prison.  For the prisoner in jail, there is a way out.  And that way exists in his mind.

It is perception that makes people feel like prisoners.  The truth is, most people do not live in jail.  And yet they feel as though they do.  On some level, they believe they are in jail.

But there is a way out.  You are not a victim of your reality.

Chances are, you are not truly trapped in that job.  You could leave, if you wanted to.  It is the same with your relationships.  You could leave, if you really wanted to.

That means you stay in these situations by choice.  And that is okay.  It is okay to stay in that job or relationship.  Just be clear with yourself.  Know that you are staying in that job or relationship because you choose to.  You may have very good reasons for staying.  If so, you are not a prisoner.  You are not trapped.  You are doing what you do very deliberately.

In situations where the entrapment is more literal — as in an unhealthy body, or in a prison — there are still paths to freedom.  What makes the experience of a sick body or imprisonment particularly excruciating is the sense that you are a victim of a terrible injustice.  What is happening isn’t fair.  It is wrong.  It is a mistake.  It should not be.

You can change so much of your experience of reality simply by choosing to drop the story of: “This should not be happening.”

Whatever is happening, is happening.  So: work with it.  Work with it.  You have all seen individuals who deal with serious physical handicaps, who choose to work with their situation rather than collapse into victimhood and despair.  Such people are not prisoners of their conditions.  Neither are you.

Within prisons, some prisoners are transformed and liberated by their experience.  Others sink into deeper states of darkness and misery.  But even in such places, there is a choice.

If even the prisoner has free will, so do you.  Chances are, you have a great deal of freedom compared to someone in jail.  You are not trapped.

Please know that you are not meant to be miserable in life.  Truly, experiencing suffering, misery, despair, and a sense of entrapment does not make you into a more virtuous human being.

You are free.  And your life is meant to be enjoyed.  Truly.  You are not trapped.  You have a choice.

Today we ask that you do not lose your faith so easily.

All of you have experienced miracles.  All of you have experienced moments of grace.  Tremendously good things have happened to you.  You have experienced moments of perfect timing.  You have been in the right place at the right time.  You have experienced good things come to you from out of the blue.  Things have fallen into place.  And in those moments, you have felt a deep sense of well-being and rightness.

Sadly, for most of you, those moments are fleeting.  It is like you suffer from a form of memory loss that causes you to rapidly and completely forget all the good things that happen to you, and only remember the bad.

No matter how happy or blessed you may feel in any moment, there is a voice inside your mind laying in wait — for any slip, any sign of darkness, any moment of doubt.

Like the Doubting Thomas of lore, you may be staring a miracle in the face — and still you need to poke at it, doubt it, reduce it to nothing.

If you could only hold on to that state of grace you sometimes feel, how wonderful life could be.

The truth is, you can.  You can consciously will yourself to count your blessings, rather than your defeats.

It requires a conscious effort.  

The human brain is, to a large measure, “hardwired” to focus on what it finds fearful rather than on what it finds enjoyable.  This is a self-protective attribute of the brain rooted in your evolutionary past.  When you are a hunter-gatherer living in the wild, it is necessary to keep alert to potential threats.  

That said, you can consciously change “hardwired” elements of your neurology.  The brain is incredibly plastic, and fluid.  By consciously choosing to think about the good things in your life rather than focusing so much mental energy on what you find threatening, you can change your habitual thinking patterns.

Thinking patterns are not so different from eating patterns, or exercise patterns.  Like eating patterns, some thinking patterns are healthier than others.  It just requires a conscious effort to establish and maintain healthy thought patterns, the same way it does with healthy eating patterns.

Healthy thought patterns focus on the good.  When good things happen to you, you make time in your thoughts to really appreciate those good things.  You remind yourself of the happy feelings, the joy, the gratitude.  You reinforce the good feelings and thoughts in your consciousness.

It won’t happen overnight, but a conscious process of focusing on what is good in your life will change your experience of life itself.  When you train your mind to really relish and savor good experiences and good feelings, rather than endlessly dwelling on what makes you miserable, this will change your experience of life.

It is a choice.  The same way a healthy diet is a choice.  You do not have to be a victim of a mind that tends to obsess over negativity any more than you have to be a victim of cravings for unhealthy food.  They are both habitual patterns, and you do have the power to change them, through conscious effort.  

Savor the good things in your life.  When something good happens to you, really celebrate it.  Draw the feeling out.  Make it last.  And please — do not forget!

Today we ask that you listen to and trust your “gut feelings.”

When you are faced with situations that you find confusing, or when you are confronted with a choice and feel indecisive, there is always a part of you that knows what to do.

The problem is, your conscious thought process is often in conflict with this deeper awareness.  Often your conscious thought process is heavily informed by societal expectations.  You have been taught, since childhood, to believe that you “should” do certain things, in order to be a virtuous and responsible person.  This programming and conditioning is so strong that you believe that these thoughts come from you, when in fact they are an overlay of other people’s thought processes.

Standing in opposition to your programming and conditioning is the voice of your Deeper Self, which some identify as the “gut feeling” or “intuition.”  In fact, this part of you is the Real You.  It is the Timeless You, that existed before all your mental programming and conditioning.  Some people think of this as the “heart,” and in truth this consciousness is rooted in your torso — both in the “heart” and “gut.”

So these conflicts arise between the mind and heart.  When this happens, you feel literally torn in two.  You are anxious.  You cannot rest easily.  Your dreams are troubled.  It is an unpleasant state.  Some people are always in this state, because their conditioning is so strong that they simply do not know how to listen to their hearts anymore.  Sometimes mental and physical breakdowns occur to people who are in this state.  The heart cannot be ignored without causing damage.

How do you listen to your heart?

Pay attention to what is happening in your body.  Pay attention to your indigestion, your shaky nerves, your insomnia.  Your heart is trying to speak to you.

In order to hear the heart, you must learn to quiet your mind.  One way to do this is by learning to meditate.  Another way to do this is to cultivate a practice of questioning your thoughts — “The Work” of Byron Katie is a very clear and useful tool in this regard.  Questioning your thoughts is a direct and powerful way to undo your mental programming and conditioning.

The main thing to understand is, the Voice in your Head is often wrong.  When the Voice is critical, attacking, rooted in fear, and projecting images of scarcity and doom, it is wrong.

The feeling tone of the heart and gut is a far more trustworthy guide.  It, too, has a voice, but that voice is quieter than the Mind Voice.  That is why it is essential to learn to quiet the mind.

When you learn to listen to your heart, your life experience will become gentler.  This does not mean that all your life dramas will end, but you will feel better in the midst of them.  You will be in alignment with your Deeper Self.

It is so good to learn to listen to the heart.

Today we ask that you appreciate your physical body.

The human body is a miraculous thing.  Right at this moment, as you read these words, countless processes are taking place within your body.  They are highly complex, perfectly timed, and totally unique to your specific body.  Though all human bodies share the same structure and general functions, no two bodies are alike.  Your body is uniquely yours.

It is a masterpiece, truly.  Even if it does not function as you believe it should, it is still a masterpiece.  Humans are still a long way away from being able to replicate anything near the complexity of a human body.

So just stand in awe.  So much is happening in there!  Food is being digested, and converted to energy.  Impulses are traveling through your nervous system at incredible speeds.  Your immune system is working to clean your body of toxins and unhelpful organisms.  Your heart is pumping — this extraordinary muscle ceaselessly, steadily circulating your blood.  Billions of cells are performing their unique functions.

And no matter how flawed you may believe your body to be, the vast majority of its function is perfect.  This is true.  If your body were not functioning mostly perfectly, you would not be alive within it.

Really think about this.  There is a great deal that needs to go on correctly within a physical body in order to sustain life.  No matter how dissatisfied you may be with your body, it is still doing a very good job.  If it weren’t, you would not currently be alive within it.

Human bodies take a lot of punishment.  Most of it comes from human minds.

You expect so much of your bodies.  Really, you expect your bodies to be superhuman machines.  You want them to be beautiful, thin, continuously energized, eternally youthful, never sick — flawless.  

Many people spend a lot of time mentally attacking their bodies for all of their perceived physical imperfections.  This is a terrible thing.  You must understand, the body is aware of these attacks.  But the body is very innocent.  It is innocent, like an animal.  It does not want to let you down.  It wants to do its best for you.

Any attack or criticism of the body is a rejection of the life force itself.  You have no idea how damaging some of those body-attacking thoughts can be.

We say this not to make you paranoid, but just to make clear that your body is listening.  When you attack it for its perceived flaws, it hears you.  

And sometimes the body, in its innocence, attempts to make you happy in ways that you do not actually want.  There is a communication breakdown that occurs.  The body wishes to serve you, but its consciousness is different from that of your mind.  Sometimes the body attempts to communicate with you in ways that you find quite unpleasant.  Sometimes the body responds to self-attacking thoughts in ways that you find quite unpleasant.

It is possible for the human mind and body to have a healthy, loving relationship.  This must begin in the mind.  It begins with you consciously loving and appreciating your body, no matter what condition it is currently in.  This is an essential practice in terms of cultivating physical health.

Also, you must learn to listen to your body’s cues.  When it is tired, rest.  When it is sick, rest.  Sickness can be very important to maintaining health, as many illnesses actually assist your body in releasing toxins.  This only works if you work with your body, and allow the detoxification process to occur unchecked.

Your body is good.  It is miraculous.  Please love it.  Please appreciate it.

Today we ask that you honor yourself.

You all do good things.  You are all good people.  This is absolutely true, no matter what your critical inner voices may say.  You are good.

So today, honor yourself.  Honor yourself for what you do.

All of you do good things.  You may not consider your good actions to be big, or important, but nonetheless they are meaningful.

Connect with your goodness in your job.  Even if your job may seem lowly or unimportant, connect with your goodness in it.  

Connect with your goodness in the way you interact with other people.

If you are around animals, connect with your goodness in the way you interact with animals.  

If you are around children, connect with your goodness in the way you interact with children.

Connect with your goodness in the way you interact with yourself.  Ways in which you keep your mind and body healthy.  Honor yourself for these actions.

People spend a great deal of time being critical of themselves.  The problem with this is that it sets up a negative feedback loop.  Why do anything, if it will never be good enough for your inner critic?

That is why it is so important to take time to honor yourself.  It is not vain or egotistical.  It is just self-love, in the healthiest sense.

When a child does something good, the healthy parent applauds and encourages that child.

Be a healthy parent to yourself.  Applaud and encourage yourself for the good you do.

Honor yourself.