YOU ARE FEARLESSNESS
Surrender to the now. Surrender is a word that gets tossed around a lot more these days as Westerners have become more interested in seeking wisdom from the East. It’s an interesting word because to some of us, surrender means we give up. But actually, surrender in the spiritual sense is more about merging. We merge with life; we merge our wants and desires with what is happening with the now moment. We merge with Spirit’s will instead of fighting or resisting.
The more we live in our moment-to-moment experience, instead of worrying about all the “what if’s” in the future, the more we trust life, our True Self, and the more we can show up in a fearless way. Things are going to unfold, but it’s our job to stay in inner harmony with what life brings. It can sound far easier to say than do, but don’t worry, the more you commit to your meditations and practice, the easier your overall trust of life will get.
Lean in. When you feel the overwhelm of fear, close your eyes and locate where you feel it in your body. It might be in your gut, your heart, your throat, wherever. Focus on that area of your body and breathe in and out slowly. Don’t think or analyze the fear, just fully feel it.
It may sound a bit cheesy, but the saying “What you resist persists” holds true. Let the fear be felt so that you can let it go, rather than trying to create resistance to it. After letting it run its course, which will probably take a few minutes (so long as you tune out your thoughts), you can open your eyes and then figure out the best action or step to take, which is sometimes to do nothing. If the feeling of fear comes back, do this again to release it from your body. This is what practice is all about: doing what helps us, over and over again.
YOU ARE A WARRIOR
Organize your life. A warrior is organized with his or her time, so he or she can maximize daily efforts and energy toward his or her purpose. Consciously create a flow to how you start and end your day. If you are disorganized, you will waste a lot of time and energy. So, get organized, and also schedule time for your practice and meditations so they become as honored and important as your daily list of to-do’s.
Develop self-reliance. Depend on your own inner strength. Never think you have to rely on someone else for your success. Sure, helpful contacts are important, but ultimately, it is your own valiant, consistent efforts—your smart actions—that take you where you want to go.
Be honorable enough never to hang on anyone else. You are a child of God. You have all the power necessary to take yourself where you want to go. Work for something greater than yourself. If you are working for yourself, it’s far easier to quit and break down and get tired. But when you are part of something much larger, and your purpose includes dedicating your efforts to something much greater than yourself, you will find yourself blessed with infinitely more energy to get through the day.
YOU ARE LOVE
Replace judgment with compassion. The more we can see our own wounds, the more we realize that other people have them too. And that they aren’t necessarily “bad,” but they come from a place of limited perspective. They are experiencing blockages of love too. When you look at a situation with compassion, you can transform it, and in the process help others to rethink their behaviors and actions.
Be grateful. Gratitude allows you to shift your focus into positivity and goodness, and ultimately love. When you focus on lack, that’s what you get in life. Lack sucks. If you lack water long enough, you will die. If you lack food long enough, you will die. If you lack love long enough, you will die. Instead, tap into plenty. When you focus on abundance, you get that in life too. You realize that there is so much in your life already, and when you are appreciative, more comes to you. Moreover, according to Harvard Health Publishing, psychology research shows that gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, improve their health, and build stronger relationships.
YOU ARE WHOLE
Choose to release. Choose a past action you regret. It could be losing your temper with your kid or your significant other, lying, being petty, stealing, or whatever. Recall the incident and let whatever feelings rise up in your body when you do so.
Then take a deep breath and find the lesson(s) that you learned from the incident. It could be as simple as, “Well, I’m not going to do that again!” Close your eyes, place both of your hands over your heart, and say aloud or internally, “I now let it go.” And mean it. As much as you can in the moment, feel that you’ve done all you can now, the past is the past and fully let it go. Let any feelings rise up and then subside.
As you continue your meditation practice and journaling, you may become more and more self-aware of other incidents you are holding on to. Please repeat this exercise at any time for each incident to keep letting go of past behavior and instead focus on wholeness now.
Remember you are the core, not the shell. Think of a coconut. Have you ever seen one freshly chopped from a tree? The outer shell is a few inches of thick, rough, and weathered wood. That’s not the essence of the coconut, though. Beneath the shell is the fruit: the snow-white meat and the sweet water. The deliciousness of life—that which sustains—comes from the inside. Always remember that.
YOU ARE PEACE
First, make up your mind to be more peaceful. It may sound basic, but intention is everything. First, you have to make a clear decision about what you want to create in your life. To find your center, make up your mind to be calm no matter what happens. Don’t worry, the “no matter what happens” part is a work in progress for all of us, because to be honest, a lot of things can still make you feel less than calm but you still see progress. And what’s important is committing to this intention. Right now, just decide to be calm as much as possible. You can even use the phrase “Be peace” as a mantra you can say throughout the day.
Stay centered and surrendered. Spiritually speaking, trust means that if you do your best right now in the present moment, your life will unfold as it is meant to. Buddha taught that the only way “not to be assailed by past and future” is to be mindfully present moment to moment in your life, without attachment to the outcome of your actions. Life is ever-changing, but if you can show up in the now and just be, you will feel free no matter what happens. In this way, trust helps you to stay less attached to things having to be a certain way. So stay present, which is where your power is rooted.
YOU ARE MAGNETIC
Listen well. Listen most of the time and speak only when you have something you really want to share, and not just to fill silence or talk out of nerves. Talking too much can actually diminish your magnetism. It burns a lot of your energy to talk all the time, and besides, idle chatter is usually pretty shallow. Save your words for when you really have something to say, and that way when do you speak, your words will be laden with meaning and power.
Look within. Self-awareness is a very important aspect of this path. Many of our chapters include reflections so you can look at how these teachings apply to your own life. You must continue to analyze yourself on a daily basis so you can stop living out old, unconscious patterns and reactions and start walking in your truth. Nothing is more magnetic than someone who walks their walk.
Stick to a lifestyle that supports your goals. On a practical level, you need to maintain your living habits in a way that enables you to protect the vital forces in your body. For instance, overloading the body by overeating diminishes your life force and your magnetism. So be sure to eat only as much as you need to, sticking mostly to lighter, easily digested plant foods. Don’t overtax your body with drugs and alcohol. If you don’t pay attention, it’s easy sometimes to let the after-work wine or other drinks start to creep up. Be your own personal manager over your lifestyle and make the adjustments necessary when anything feels imbalanced.
