Today we ask you to take responsibility for your creations.

Everything you put out into the world is a creation.  Every email you write, every Facebook or Twitter update you post — these are creations.  When you call someone, when you interact with someone — this is a creation.

By creation, we mean you are making something.  You are building something.  It may be a very little thing, but it is still something.

Everything you create has a charge.  It will either be positive or negative.  It will create good feeling, or bad feeling.

Every email, every Facebook update, creates good feeling, or bad feeling, in those who read it.

Every person you interact with will be left feeling better or worse as a result of the interaction.

(By this we do not refer to people who feel negatively “reactive” to a positive message.  We are speaking of the basic intention of the creator.  You are not responsible for the reactions of individuals who, like Scrooge, reflexively shout “Bah humbug!” at a loving message — though your own reaction to such a negatively-oriented individual is in of itself an act of creation.)

So — you are constantly creating.  Every time you engage with other humans, you are creating.

Then there are much larger acts of creation.  The creation of works of art.  The creation of new technologies.  The creation of new ways of thinking and doing things.

And, of course, there is the creation of parenting a child.

You are constantly creating.  The question is: what are you creating?  How do your creations affect other people? How do they affect you?

Do your creations make you feel better, or worse?  Do they make other people feel better, or worse?  Do they increase well-being?  Or do they increase fear?

Even if you mean well, try to pay attention when your words and actions increase other people’s fears, or your own.

Take responsibility for your creations.  See how powerful you truly are.

Today we ask to you to take notice of practices that you know would be good for you, but that you have resistance to.

Most people reading these word are healthy-minded enough to have a sense of what is good for them.

Maybe it is eating in a more healthy, balanced way, or cutting down on consumption of sugar, caffeine, or alcohol.

Maybe it is getting more regular exercise, or spending more time outdoors.

Maybe it is making sure that you give your body and mind adequate time to rest and unwind each week.

Maybe it is cutting down on time spent on the internet or Facebook, or on time spent watching television.

Maybe it is about getting more conscious about your thought patterns.  To indulge less in anxious or negative thinking.  To be less angry or judgmental toward other people.  To gossip less.

Maybe it is establishing a regular meditation practice.

Chances are you have a pretty good sense of what could improve the quality of your existence and make you feel better in your mind and body.

Really the most important activity to undertake in any given day is maintaining and increasing your mental and physical health and sanity.

Everything else follows from this.

Low energetic states block you in countless ways.  Every human wishes to feel a fundamental sense of well-being.  For most people — certainly people who possess the basic comforts, i.e. food on table and roof over head — it is low vibrational energy that blocks this, not any external lack.

Whatever external thing it is you think will make you happy — whatever it is you feel you lack — these things will not and cannot make you happy so long as your body and mind are in low vibrational states.

But establishing healthy practices — this can and will create well-being in your life.

So look at these practices you know will make your life healthier, and ask yourself: what is stopping me from doing these things?

You may say, I don’t have time, I don’t have money.  But is that really true?  Be honest, now.  Most healthy practices do not really take much time or money.  It costs nothing to meditate, for example, and that ten or fifteen minutes you spend meditating each day you can easily pull from something like time spent browsing the internet.

Ultimately, it is your choice: you can take action to strengthen your body and mind, or you can fall into inertia and let entropy take over.  You can fall into low vibrational states, if you wish.  But more money will not cure you when you are in a low vibrational state.

You can increase your well-being, right now, and absolutely nothing needs to change externally for this to happen.  Isn’t that wonderful, how much power you have?

Today we ask you to examine your beliefs about money.

For many people, money is a central obsession.  The whole purpose of existence is the accrual of money.  Money is equated with security.  The more of it you have, the more secure you are.  Money creates lasting security for you, and your heirs.

Of course, this is not true.

The billionaire is not more secure than the beggar.  Why is this so?  The billionaire is no less prone to sickness and suffering than the beggar.  The billionaire may certainly be able to afford expensive medical treatments, but this does not guarantee that his life will be prolonged.  Accidents and diseases kill billionaires as surely as they do beggars.  The billionaire may experience as much stress as the beggar.  Nor can the billionaire ensure the security of his heirs.  They may be happy or miserable.  They may die young or old.  Ultimately, their fate is not determined by wealth — or, rather, wealth itself is neutral.  It can create joy or misery for people depending on the people themselves.  History is rife with miserable princes and princesses.

So wealth does not create security.

Wealth is neutral.  In of itself, it is neither good nor bad.  Money is neither the root of all evil, nor the fountain of youth and delight.  It is neutral.  It is neither good nor bad.

Individuals respond to money in different ways.  Again, money itself is neutral.  However, in certain individuals, the concept of money can have a very poisonous effect.  When saying money is the root of all evil, one is looking in the wrong place.  Money is neutral.

It is the human ego that has a complex relationship with money.  By ego, we are describing the part of human consciousness that perceives itself as separate from others, that is obsessed with power, status, control, and superiority, and that is prone to fear and aggression.  That is what we mean by the “ego.”  We could also describe it as the Fearful Self.  Every human possesses this part, but in some humans it is more active than in others.  In most humans it is quite active.

It is the Fearful Self that can have a toxic relationship with money; that can, in fact, go quite insane in regard to money.

It is perhaps a good analogy to say that money is like a painkilling drug.  The drug in itself is neutral, and can be very useful.  But in the hands of an addict, a painkilling drug can be highly destructive.  The drug itself is neither good nor bad.  It is neutral, and can be very useful.  But the individual can misuse it in a self-destructive way.

Money can be very useful.  In the right hands, it can be used for great good.  To give is a wonderful thing.  It can help to create freedom, health, and beauty.  It can help to create joyful experiences and expand human consciousness.  The money itself is neutral.  But individual human beings can and do use money as a tool to create great good.

For other humans, it is terribly destructive.  They become obsessed with hoarding it.  They become addicted to consumption, believing that happiness lies in the accrual of objects.  Some humans can be quite warped and damaged around money.

Again, it is not the money itself.  It is the human ego, or Fearful Self, that has the problematic relationship with money — the way alcoholics have a problematic relationship with alcohol.  Liquor itself is neutral, and for many people it can create a pleasant experience.

So: money cannot create security.  It is neither the root of all evil, nor the fountain of youth and happiness.

It is neutral.  It is a powerful substance, the same way a drug is a powerful substance.  Like a drug, it can be used to create good or ill depending on the individual.

If you have a problematic relationship with money, it is not about the money.  Look inward.

Money is like sugar.  Sugar can create a delicious treat.  But with people who do not understand the proper use of sugar, it can create disease and suffering.  Sugar itself is neutral, and can be very pleasant and create joyful experiences.  So too can money.  That is the proper use of money — to create joyful experiences, for yourself, and others.  

Today we ask you to reflect on the desire to attack and judge other people.

Often this is linked with a sense of righteousness.  Perhaps you are doing it for the other person’s own good.  Or else you are doing it to protect and defend something that you hold dear and believe in.  So there is a desire to do good linked with the judgment and attack.  It is not right, that this person is behaving this way.  Someone needs to say something.  Someone needs to hold this person accountable.

The problem here is that right and wrong tend to be very subjective.  There are many people out there of course who will righteously judge and attack things that you hold dear, and will feel completely justified in doing so.  Racists, bigots, and religious fundamentalists profoundly believe in their judgments and attacks.  They absolutely believe that they are protecting what they hold dear.

This being the case, how can anyone truly know when it is right to judge and attack?  If you can see with clarity that the racist or religious fundamentalist is ignorant and clouded in his judgment — when it is so absolutely clear to him that he is righteous — isn’t it possible that you, too, might be wrong about these things that arouse your own righteous judgment?

We would say that it is actually impossible in your reality to possess this kind of certainty, for a very simple reason: your perception is too limited.

Because you do not and cannot have access to all the information required to make a correct judgment, therefore you are not fit to judge.

For example: what if you found out that someone whose behavior you consider to be despicable has a brain tumor?  And this brain tumor directly affects that person’s behavior?  Would you continue to feel the same level of righteous judgment toward this person?

We would say that it is wise, and not far from the truth, to assume that anyone who arouses your desire to judge and attack “has a brain tumor.”

You cannot understand all the forces and causes that have shaped an individual’s perception.  Would you attack a young child who has been raised to have views that you find repugnant?  Would you have the same contempt for a racist or homophobic child that you do for an adult?  But, really, what is the difference?  If a racist or homophobic adult has been surrounded his whole life by other racists and homophobes, what chance would this person have had to learn any other way of being?  What good can possibly come from attacking this person?

Really, what good can ever come from attacking anyone?  Think about this.  Wars begin because humans believe that good can arise through attack.  Countless individuals have been killed through history because humans believe that good can arise out of attacking other humans.

There are far better uses of your energy.  Attacking other people is simply not a constructive use of energy.

Only when humans learn that no good can arise from attacking other humans will they be ready to truly grow as a species, and reach the stars.

Today we ask you to cultivate patience.

Humans have always had difficulty with patience, but these days patience seems all but on the verge of extinction.

People have come to expect that everything should happen very quickly.  Everything must be immediate.  One looks for something on the internet, and there it is.  One orders something, and the package arrives tomorrow.  People are always instantly reachable.  They have cell phones, emails, and texting at all times.

And while all of these technological advances are wonderful in many ways, this expectation of instant gratification can be highly destructive.

Not everything happens instantly, or overnight.  Nor should it.  In nature, things take time to grow.

Seeds take time to germinate.  Plants take time to grow.  It takes nine months for a healthy human infant to grow in the womb.  And, of course, many, many years for a human child to grow into adulthood.

These processes cannot be accelerated without causing destruction.

The creative process — any creative process — requires time.  Things cannot be created overnight.  All creative work requires a germination period.  During that time, it may appear that “nothing is going on.”  In fact, there is a great deal going on under the surface.

But to the result-oriented observer who expects everything to arrive overnight, this appearance that “nothing is going on” may prompt the decision to pull the plug on the whole creative endeavor.  And this is quite tragic.  It is like getting rid of the farm because the seeds aren’t sprouting fast enough.  It is madness.

Accelerating the pace of production creates vast misery.  No matter how nice your cell phones may be, it should not require human beings to work seven days a week with insufficient rest in order to get them to you.  And this goes for everything.  No matter how nice it may be to get things overnight, it should not create misery and suffering for other humans.

Please, please, please learn to cultivate patience.

The world will not end if you don’t get everything you want right away.  And this desire to get everything right away causes the abuse of human beings everywhere, as well as the destruction of newborn creativity in the cradle, because new ideas “take too long.”

All creative endeavors — whether they’re ideas, plants, or children — require time, nurturing, and patience.  Things cannot be hurried and rushed without causing great harm.

Learn patience.  Learn patience.

Today we ask you to learn to focus your energy.

Scattered energy — or “ADD” — is a serious issue among modern people.  Your attention is continually being pulled in many different directions.  You are neither here nor there, but rather half-here and half-there, with your attention torn between what is happening in the emails and texts, what is happening in your mind, and (usually last) what is actually right in front of you.

The thing is, when you are half-here and half-there, you are not really anywhere.

Imagine an ant who can’t figure out where to go.  The ant goes one way, the ant goes another way, the ant stops.  The ant does not really get anywhere.

Of course, in life, ants do get places.  They have a direction.  They may seem at times to run here and there, but they have a purpose.  They are looking for food.  They are scouting.  But they always know where the hive is.  And soon enough they form a trail.  Ants in a trail are the very picture of directed purpose.

The “ADD” mind is a bit like the ant scouting for food who never finds what it is looking for.  It just keeps running back and forth.  It cannot create a directed trail, cannot move the hive toward a singular purpose.  It does not know its way back home.

Focus your energy.  Focus.  Focus.  

The only thing that matters and is real is what is right in front of you.  Not the emails and texts — unless your singular purpose is to spend your life reading and answering emails and texts.

Focus.  If you have a task before you, turn off the email and texts.  Sit with what you are doing.  Be with what you are doing.

There is something fuzzy, shapeless, and unreal about the mind that cannot focus; that is neither here nor there.

When you focus, you become real.  Solid.  Present.  And then you can truly move energy.  Then all the little thought-ants line up in a trail and move in a directed way.  Things get done quickly.

Meditation is a very good way to focus energy.  You breathe, and center, and calm the scattered mind.  Even five minutes of meditation can create invaluable focus.

Focus.  Focus.  Turn off email, texts, and Facebook, and focus on what is right in front of you.  Why take five hours to do what can be accomplished in one?  Center.  Relax.  Focus.

Do one thing at a time.  In reality, you can only actually do one thing at a time.  But two minutes of work followed by five minutes of social networking followed by two minutes of work — how can you ever get into any kind of flow?

Whatever you are doing, do.  Be present with it.  Focus.  Do not think about what you are doing an hour from now, tomorrow, a year from now.  That future does not exist in reality.  Anything can happen between now and tomorrow.  Reality is what is right in front of you, now.

If you can do that one thing that is right in front of you, with complete focus, everything else has a way of falling into place.

Today we ask you to understand that you are not in control.

Many of you may pay lip service to this idea.  But it is the very rare human who actually lives this consciously.

Much of human action revolves around asserting and attempting to maintain control.  Everyone wants to be in control.  This is the greatest aspiration of the human ego — to grasp, and permanently maintain control.

Being in control means you are secure.

Being in control means you can neutralize all threats.

Being in control means that life goes the way you want it to.

Being in control means that you know are a good, virtuous person (and everyone else thinks so, too).

Being in control means that you are an ideal parent, whose children’s lives unfold just the way you want them to.

Being in control means you can meticulously plan your future.

Being in control means that all your i’s are dotted and your t’s are crossed.  You have plenty of investments and you are insured against the unexpected.

Being in control means that everyone respects you.

Being in control means that your body is a well-oiled machine that does exactly what you want it to.

Being in control means that you live to old age, watch your children and grandchildren prosper and have happy, idyllic, successful lives, at which point you die painlessly in your sleep.

Do you know anyone who is in control?  Really, truly, in control?

We don’t.

That’s because there is no such human in existence on your planet.

Control is an illusion.  It’s an illusion.  It’s impossible.

It is impossible for you to control reality in this way.  Ask any human who has ever lived if this is possible.

And yet admit it: there is a part of you that believes, despite all the evidence against it, that it is somehow possible to live this way.  That you can be safe and secure and live to a ripe old age in a healthy body and watch your children and grandchildren be happy and prosper and never deal with the unexpected.  Or at least you’ll be prepared for the unexpected, and properly insured against it (which means it isn’t really all that unexpected).

This is impossible.  It is impossible.  Ask anyone, if you don’t believe us.

And yet so long as you believe in the ego’s fairy tale, you will be miserable.  Because part of you thinks it can be in control, that control is possible — and therefore life, to you, will feel like an endless series of slaps to the face and punches to the gut.

But life doesn’t have to feel that way.

The more you release your controlling grip, the less suffering you will experience.

This is really true.  Almost all suffering arises from humans attempting to control what cannot be controlled.

Would you like to suffer less?

Release control.  Relax.  Relax.

This does not mean, go passive and be a doormat.

It just means, release your grip.  Release your grip.  Life is a river, and it is pulling you along.  If you cling in terror to a rock, of course you will experience a great deal of pain.

You are not in control.  You never were, you are not now, and you never will be.

You don’t have to believe this.  It isn’t required.

But if you’re interested in suffering less, it’s just something to consider.

Today we ask you to meditate on the idea from the Tao Te Ching, that says: “In action, watch the timing.”

There is a strong tendency in humans toward compulsive action, or what you might call “instant gratification.”

You perceive something you desire, and you cannot rest until you have it.  Perhaps you see someone else with this thing, and you experience a terrible sense of envy.

It is like a child, who sees another child playing with a toy, or eating ice cream — and the child goes berserk with desire.  The child cannot rest until he too has the toy, or the ice cream cone.

So-called “adults” are no different.  It is only a matter of scale.  For adults, it is about buying the car, or the house.  Or the better car, or the bigger house.  

If you are single, and your friends are getting married, you too must get married.  And you must have a wedding at least as nice as the one your friend had.  And then, when the friends have babies, you must have one, too.

These compulsions are so potent, so primal, and so much a part of “normal” human existence that you may not perceive them to be compulsions.

And yet they are.

We do not say there is anything wrong with weddings, houses, and babies.

But if you believe that the wedding, house or baby will somehow complete you, and make you happy, and fill a void within you — then, yes, it is a compulsion, and of course you are in for a horrible disappointment.  All the divorces and foreclosures clearly indicate that we are dealing with compulsive behavior.

Compulsive behavior is unconscious behavior.  You are doing something, but you do not know why — you only know that you must do this thing, that you cannot rest until you do this thing or have this thing.

That is the warning sign.  If you cannot rest until you do or possess this thing, that is the warning sign.  You are in the grip of compulsive behavior, and you are in for some unpleasantness.

Conscious behavior feels different.  You are acting deliberately.  There is nothing frenetic or manic about the action.  You can rest.  You can stop thinking about it.  There is no compulsive sense of “I must have this now!”  It does not arise out of envy.  Nor is there a sense that getting this thing will make you happy and solve your problems.

Conscious behavior is quiet, steady, and unhurried.  There’s no rush.  It can wait, if need be.  There is a sense of stillness and peace around it, instead of frustrated agitation.  There is a sense of well-being in you now.  You are complete now.  Attaining the desire will not add to you.  It will not and cannot give you anything that you do not already have right now.

Actions taken consciously generally do not backfire in the way that compulsive actions do.

So just be aware.  Be conscious.  What is the feeling tone around your desires?  Is it agitated and frenetic?  Is there a sense of desperate yearning and urgency?  Is there a sense that fulfilling the desire will complete you or solve your problems?

Or do you feel basically peaceful.  You are going about your business.  You are steady.  There is no rush, no mania, no obsession.  If it happens, good.  If it does not happen, good.  

Ultimately, it is your choice.  Perhaps you believe that you only accomplish things in life when you are in the grip of compulsive behavior.

Even though this may not be true.

Look back on your life.  When you acted compulsively, did the outcome fulfill your expectations — even when you got what you thought you wanted?  

There is a purely selfish reason for acting consciously, instead of compulsively.  Generally speaking, the process of conscious attainment is far more peaceful, and the outcome far more satisfying.

Today we ask you to understand the concept of rest.

The concept of the rest day, or sabbath, has largely been lost in the modern world.  Modern people are always at work — always receiving emails and texts, always taking their work home with them.  Workaholism is celebrated as a virtue in your society.  That in of itself is nothing new — workaholism has been celebrated in your society for a very long time.  But it used to be that even the most die-hard workaholics were obligated to wind down a bit on the Sabbath.  That is no longer the case.

A whole host of problems arise when people forget how to rest.  One of the biggest issues is insomnia.  People’s nervous systems are so overstimulated that they cannot shut down.  It is a very destructive illness, insomnia, one that breeds a variety of even worse physical issues — for the body that cannot sleep will inevitably experience other forms of illness.

Of course, there is no insomniac in the world who couldn’t be cured by a week spent in a remote location with no access to phones, the internet, email or television.  Even the worst insomniac would quickly find himself sleeping soundly, for ten hour stretches — and such an experience would do him and his body a world of good.

Rest is essential.  It is absolutely essential.  Whatever your workaholism gains you will be lost tenfold by all the physically and mentally debilitating symptoms it creates.  A brain that cannot rest at night cannot sustain productivity in the long term.  In truth, you will have to work more because it takes twice as long, three or four times as long, for a tired brain to accomplish what a well-rested brain can accomplish.  It is even worse than that.  It can take ten or more hours for a tired brain to accomplish what a well-rested brain can do in one.

We would recommend that everyone who suffers from insomnia or fatigue to spend a week in the country without phones, email, internet, or television.  But we know most of you will not do this.  

Still, there are things you can do.  You can take a daylong sabbath away from email, Facebook, and the internet at home.  It requires willpower, but such a fast is even more healthy than any kind of dietary fast or cleanse.

Rest, people.  Please let yourselves rest.  The value of rest cannot be overstated.  And if you really are interested in “increasing your productivity” — rest!

Rest.  Rest.  Rest.