Vigilant Awareness.

To overcome fear, make it your friend and recognize its function. Fear is simply the warning system that is activated when something goes wrong. Acknowledge your fear, face it directly, and you will receive its gifts of vigilance and awareness. Combined with your love and wisdom, fear becomes a part of clear focus, prompting you to stay awake and pay attention. From this place of vigilant awareness, you will have the courage to look at the whole picture of what's going on within and around you. You can still see the possibility of negative outcomes, and you also see the many blessings surrounding you in each moment. Get to know your fears. Invite them for tea and listen for the wisdom in their stories.

Stop Your World.

Have you ever noticed that when crisis, illness or tragedy strike, it seems like everything just stops? All of a sudden, all of those tasks that would have otherwise have kept us running around like the proverbial headless chicken seem unimportant or even meaningless. Is it possible that one of the reasons we need illness and crisis is to slow us down and help us remember what really matters? What if you sat down every day and did this without a tragedy or health problem to cause it? Being still and silent gives you access to healing, rejuvenation, compassion and insight that otherwise might elude you. Honor your body/mind/spirit by hanging out quietly in its presence on a regular basis. What you find there will amaze you.

Through The Illusions To The Light.

Develop your laser vision to see through the illusions this world offers. See through the façade of anger, violence and fear to the need for love that lies beneath. See beyond the face of ignorance and poverty to the essence of dignity and grace that lies at the core of every human soul. Look beyond the veil of greed and power to the innocent fear of poverty and pain that motivates excessive acquisition and accumulation. Use the laser beam of your inner vision to reveal and awaken the spark of beauty and grace that rests quietly in the heart and soul of all beings. And be sure to turn this beam within, to reveal and illuminate the magnificence that is you. Past the clouds of pain and confusion, you will find the brilliant light that is you.

The Joy Of Facing Reality.

When someone says, "Let's face reality," you're about to hear a negative opinion. The next time you hear, "Let's face reality," just say, "Okay, which one?" or, "Okay, you tell me yours and I'll tell you mine." And if you really want to wake up some brain cells, say to a friend, "Now, let's be realistic. This is a beautiful, miraculous world and we are incredibly fortunate to be alive in these bodies at this time." If you're going to face something, face the glorious freedom and responsibility of being a creator of your own reality, and make it one you can thoroughly enjoy for the rest of your life. If we could truly know reality, we would never be sad or afraid again.