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    Your natural beauty.

    You are incredibly beautiful, even if you think you’re not.

    Even if you think your nose is too long or too short, your hair too curly or too straight, your body the wrong shape or size, your skin not dark or light enough, whatever it is.

    Just as you are able to look at all kinds of people and see their beauty—not the beauty of their makeup or fashion or vibe, but their real, raw, interesting, unique, diverse human beauty—you can see this.

    It’s astounding, how gorgeous and different and wonderful we all are!

    If you don't have this ability already, you can learn to see the magical diversity of all of us, the way we are shaped, the weight we carry, the way we walk and move, the way our bodies protect and contain us. You can see this beauty in others, whenever you look with love.

    Ahhh... and when you look with love, it feels like you’re looking at angels all day long; these beautiful beings that are other people, that are the human race. 

    And here's another wonderful thing: you can look at yourself with this same love. Just look at someone else with love, then expand your heart, and fold yourself in, in full acceptance of who you are and how you look, right now.
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    Pushing your edge.

    There’s a lot of talk about going the distance: setting your own personal records, being your best self, making the grade, and so forth.

    I think this is all very important, with one distinction: you want to make sure you’re pushing your own edge, not an edge that somebody else chose for you.

    Someone else’s edge might be starting a company, or writing a book, or running a marathon, or traveling the world. Your edge might be any of those, but it also might be entirely, completely different.

    Maybe for you, these aren’t edges. Maybe your edge is needing to learn a language fluently, or do a photography project, or volunteer at a charity.

    It’s not important that you do what every one else is doing. What’s important, is seeing what fascinates you in this world: the strange, the unusual, the geeky, the unpopular, the odd, the fascinating.

    If there’s something that you find so fascinating and interesting that you can’t imagine not doing it, or you can’t imagine being bored with it, that’s your edge. Push that. 
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    Folding laundry.

    There is a beautiful intimacy that comes from doing everyday tasks, such as folding laundry for yourself, or for your family members.

    When done with intention, it becomes sheer delight to pull each item of clothing, freshly washed and dried, and sort and smooth and fold this item.

    If you are folding clothing for yourself, you are infusing love into the clothing you will wear later. If you are folding clothing for family members, you have a chance to connect in with each family member as you fold their shirts, pants, underwear, socks.

    Instead of doing it hurriedly, as a bothersome chore, use this time to infuse love into the clothes. In the same way that your ancestors once sewed a little talisman into a pocket, to keep the wearer safe and well, you can infuse your protection, your care, your support into each item of clothing that you fold.

    We are able to feel each other’s feelings, even from far away. We are able to feel the blessing of the clothing we wear, when it has been folded with love by another. 
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    Swimming in the ocean.

    If you are lucky enough to live near the coast, you may be able to swim in the ocean frequently.

    This gift, of immersing the self in the briny deep, of becoming buyount in the salted water, and using your own body to move and frolic with the waves, is astounding.

    You don’t have to surf, or body board, or do any particular thing when you’re in the water. Just standing, waist or chest high, so you can feel it all, your full immersion in another environment, is plenty. You, with your supple beautiful skin, are able to do this; you are an animal that can go into water, or on land, or in air. You can exist in multiple environments, with multiple elements.  

    The waves have a language all their own.

    If you stand there, baptizing yourself in this great glorious deep, you will be able to hear it, first with your body, then with your soul. 
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    Ease in your body.

    If you can learn to be easy in your body, your life will become easier too.

    ​When we’re young, and not quite yet used to our body, we might spend a lot of time adoring it, or hating it, or being ashamed of it, or being proud of it.

    As years follow, our body changes: we start to age, and we can either do battle with products and surgeries and self loathing, or we can decide that age does not have a foregone conclusion.

    There are many cultures where age doesn’t matter: where a sixty-year-old person has the body of a thirty-year-old.

    ​In these cultures, regardless of age, there is ease in the body, ease in the human container. There is a sense of appreciation for all our bodies can do: climb, sit, stretch, make love, dance, walk.

    In truth, our bodies are the coolest machines ever, and we get to use them from birth until we die!

    Take some time to let go of shame around your body, and simply enjoy your container, exacly as it is now. Not thinner or bigger or smaller or stronger.  

    If you want to change it, you can.

    But before you change it, learn to love it. Learn to feel it, know it, exactly as it is, in this moment. Be easy in your body, as you are right now. 
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    Taking it all in.

    ​Being in the Now is a marvelous thing. It helps us focus on the beauty of the moment or pay attention to the task at hand; it helps us let go of pain of the past, or fear about the future.

    And yet even if we work at living in the Now, there is also the reality that we DO have memories of the past, that we DO have dreams for the future.

    In this way, there is extraordinary value in taking it all in: all the life we’ve lived up until Now. Our childhood, our teen years, our adult years and all joy and disappointment and growth we experienced then.

    All this, balanced by the dreams we still want to accomplish, do, feel.
    When we look at all the experiences we’ve had, the good, the bad, the all of it, we can understand what a gift it is to be here Now, soul in human container, living a human life.

    All those experiences! All those feelings! All those connections with others! We can look at the continuum, from birth until now, and just take it all in. Good, bad, all of it.

    When we look at the hopes and dreams we still have for the future, we see how far we've come, how much we've changed, and what we as a Soul, long to experience next.