Chapter 28

✨ We need to look no further than ourselves to recognize that we live in a fallen world. There is not one human being who is perfect, living in absolute Divine harmony. We all stumble and fall. Our mistakes and our failures have the potential to teach us or to destroy us. The yoga practice teaches you how to face the lowest places within yourself and never be vanquished. You learn how to rise again and you find the strength it takes to do whatever it takes, no matter how long it takes.
It is not our perfection that defines us, but our vulnerability, our broken-heartedness and our weakness. The human experience is about love, a love so big and great that it holds all the good and all the bad, all the light and all the shadow, a love beyond duality. We are not here to sit on the top of a hill and look down on everyone. We are here to live with compassion, to suffer with one another, until each and every one of us is lifted up in the tidal wave of love.
I cannot count how many times I’ve failed. I make mistakes every day and find myself staring at the mirror image of my own weakness. The strength never comes from me. This “I” of the ego is nothing. The strength is always a gift of Grace that happens when “I” get out of my own way. Whatever light you see in me is merely the reflection of a larger, grander Higher Power that shines brighter than a thousand suns.

✨ Be, think and act with nothing but love. Give more than you receive. Be of service in big and small ways. Live your life with so much fullness that you are an overflow for others. Who you are is who you choose to be. Believe in love and radiate the highest vibration, always, all the time, pure and simple. It’s the hardest task, but so worth it.

✨ When something feels off it probably is. I always feel what’s right and what’s wrong in my heart. I may choose to ignore the signs, consciously or unconsciously, but if I look back I can always see them in retrospect. On the other hand, when something is truly good it speaks for itself.
Motivation and intention set the tone for every action. What’s in your heart sends out a vibration that impacts everything and everyone around you. There are people who check all the boxes because they think they should and because they want to be seen checking all the boxes. I’m always a little suspicious when I meet someone who can’t stop telling me about all the good they’re doing, how awesome they are and how lucky I am for all the big and gracious favors they’re doing for me. If someone needs to try and sell me on how awesome they are, perhaps they aren’t actually that awesome? I mean, if they are truly doing right by me, won’t I see it, feel it and acknowledge it? I may be a bit cynical, but lately I’ve had one too many conversations with people who say they’re offering me the deal of a lifetime when in fact they’re feeding me smoke, mirrors and lies and trying to bully me or manipulate me for their own advantage.
These experiences are few and far between in my average day. Mostly, people are good and if given the chance will do the right thing. I’ve had people help me in ways I wasn’t aware of until years later, the debt I owed them was so great I’d never be able to pay it back. And they never mentioned it once and, when I tried to thank the and repay them, they asked only for a hug and my gratitude in return.
The heart doesn’t lie. Sooner or later, truth always comes out. Before you act, you know whether it’s good or bad. You always know. It’s a matter of being strong enough to choose what’s good even when it’s not particularly popular or profitable.
Be strong. Strong enough to see what’s right and hold your ground. 

A few days ago on a coffee date with my best friend for hours discussing life; relationships, cultivation, growth, and forward movement.
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Sometimes in life we don’t have desirable choices, but we can make the best choice to cultivate what we want to ignite forward movement. Everything else will come from these decisions. We wait so long for things to come to fruition before the fruit ever even drops from the tree. We need honesty, commitment, and patience - things that we want to see in the world, but we need to build them for ourselves first.

Let’s have a real moment. When was the last time you cried? And what was the reason? If you don’t want to share here, at least give yourself the space to reflect.
I cried 3 years ago at a funeral. I haven’t completely made peace with the loss, but I feel like I’m dealing with it in a healthy and compassionate way, in honor of the loss and myself.
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Sometimes when we cry we just need the release, for whatever reason - stress, feelings of being overwhelmed, triggers...
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Sometimes it’s caused by pain - loss/death, breakups, physical pain.
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It’s important to get to the root of this pain so it is acknowledged and not looked at as a momentary sign of weakness.
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When I was a new single mom at nineteen, I cried multiple times a week. Mostly in the shower so I could hide and be alone. This became a cleansing ritual for me. If I could have given my nineteen year old self a piece of advice, it would have been to allow myself to truly feel the pain and deal with it head-on. What would actually follow would be a year of binge drinking and a lot of self-loathing.
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We create our own world based on what we believe we deserve and how we approach our feelings. We don’t need a reason to validate how we feel. So give yourself space to cry, feel disappointed, jealous...but take responsibility for your feelings so they don’t come back to bite you in the a*s.