You’re probably well aware of what it feels like to fall backward. Things are going great and then the wheels come off. 

There’s a feeling of loss, and hopelessness of being back at square one. 

One step forward, two steps back as the saying goes. 

But what if you flip the script on that. And look at every setback as a new opportunity. Rather than falling back, now you’re falling forward. 

It might look or feel a little awkward, but I guarantee that it’s going to get you where you want to go a lot faster the one step forward, two steps back dance. 

The trick is in the pause. 

So often when a problem comes up, we skip right to fixing mode. Trying to put another fire out. 

Instead, take a deep breath and ask yourself this, “what if this is exactly what I needed?” 

All of a sudden your brain is looking for gifts and opportunities. You start to allow things to show up in a different way; a more gentle, graceful manner, rather than stressing out with your hair on fire. 

This isn’t ...

Do you remember when falling down was fun? Maybe playing as a kid, not worried about looking foolish. 

Somewhere along the way, things started to get much more important, and much more serious. 

But falling down is part of life. 

Failure is not the opposite of success; It’s not separate from success. It’s a necessary step along the journey. Often many times…

To find out what doesn’t work for you. 
To identify the muscles and skills you need to develop. 
To re-evaluate your priorities. 
To discover hidden treasures and opportunities. 

There is incredible value in falling down. 

In a world that judges people based on what they can produce rather than who they are. One that values the image of perfection over the wholeness of being….

Falling down becomes very unsafe. 

Looking foolish, silly, or dumb. 
They might not take you seriously if they see you fall. 
They might discount you all together. 
They might reject you or abandon you because they don’t want your failure on them. 

It’s no...

Falling out is a normal thing. 

We fall out of relationships as we change and grow. We fall out of healthy habits when things get busy. 

As our lives shift and change, falling out is part of the process. 

Yet so often, we make this wrong or bad. We resist it and feel guilty. 

If you fall out of healthy habits, you might shame or punish yourself because you let that happen. Or make excuses rather than just owning it. 

In with all those mental gymnastics, it’s easy to forget that you can fall right back in if you want. 

I know people who, rather than letting a relationship come to an elegant close, they’ll create drama so that they have a reason to break up. Somehow it makes it easier in the moment. It also makes falling back in that much more difficult. 

You’ve probably got friends who, no matter how much time has passed, when you’re together, it’s like nothing happened. 

What if we treated our healthy habits with the same attitude. 

Not feeling bad or making the other person f...

I wanted to share another poem from Swami Parthasarathy's Select English Poems. This one by Sabine Baring-Gould.
You'll see some of these poems scattered throughout the Mystic's Message for Self Love because they're so simple and insightful. This one is called, "The Olive Tree." The poem...

Said an ancient hermit bending
Half in prayer upon his knee,
'Oil I need for midnight watching,
I desire an olive tree.'

Then he took a tender sapling,
Planted it before his cave,
Spread his trembling hands above it,
As his benison he gave.

But he thought, the rain it needeth,
That the root may drink and swell;
'God! I pray Thee send Thy showers!'
So a gentle shower fell.

'Lord! I ask for beams of summer
Cherishing this little child.'
Then the dripping clouds divided,
And the sun looked down and smiled.

'Send it frost to brace its tissues,
0 my God!' the hermit cried.
Then the plant was bright and hoary,
But at evensong it died.

Went the hermit to a brother
Sitting in his rocky cell:
'Thou an olive tree poss...

I’m back today with another aspect of my journey with Insanity Max 30. It’s the idea of incremental growth. 

This is another simple idea. If you work hard every day, you’ll get better day by day. 

In Insanity Max 30 that looks like this: If I work diligently and max out every day, each day I should (key word there, should, we’ll come back to that) I should be able to go a little longer. 

In life, that looks like this: If I do the things I’m supposed to do, and avoid the things I’m not supposed to do, I should get better every day. 

Let’s say you want to meditate. So each day you sit down on your special cushion, close your eyes, and meditate. Day by day, you’ll be able to extend the space between thoughts a little longer. 

Simple enough, and yet anyone who has ever tried  to meditate knows that’s absolutely NOT how it works, some days your mind is chilled out. Other days your mind is a chimpanzee on speed. 

This might seem obvious, but the reason I’m bringing it up is because thi...

I can't say that I love working out. But I do like the way it makes me feel and I know it's important, so when I do it, I want to get as much done as possible in the time allotted.

That’s probably why I was attracted to Beach Body’s Insanity Max 30 with Shaun T. These are 30-minute high intensity workouts. And when I say high intensity, I mean it.

Shaun T is awesome, and fun, and if you’re going to do something as crazy as Insanity, you want a Shaun T in your corner. 

But this message isn’t about Shaun. It’s about the workout. 

See, how it works is you go full tilt until you can’t. When you tap out your first time, you write your time down in a sheet of paper, 

Simple enough, right? 

Well, in actual practice, it looks a little different. 

You’re going. You're working hard. The music is playing. Shaun this yelling… er…encouraging you to go just a little further. 

And suddenly, what should be a simple decision- can I go a little further, or do I need to stop- become…complicated…

I must have been about 7 years old when I made my first communion in the Catholic Church. But before I did that, I had to make my first confession.

There I was, sitting in a hard wooden pew trying to think of things I’d done wrong so that I’d have something to say. I knew you had to go in with something so I even considered making a few things up. I later learned that this is exactly what my mom did.

Ironic when you think about it. Committing the sin of lying while you’re confessing sins.

Anyway, I threw the priest a few of the things I knew were “sinful”- swearing (which I learned from my brother), Not being nice to my siblings, what have you. He gave me a few prayers to say and that was that.

I share this because confession is actually a very powerful sacrament. Where it goes awry is with the idea that someone else is responsible for relieving the burden.

In the church, it’s the priest that’s the conduit for god.
In our lives, we often need someone else to forgive us before we’l...

If you've ever tried to think your way out of a limiting belief, you know how futile and frustrating it can be.

Inside you is limitless potential. The Divinity in disguise, remember? On the one hand, I know this can be very inspiring; this idea of an ocean of amazingness largely unexplored, just waiting.

I also know that this can be frustrating as we try to unlock it.

Similar patterns play out in our lives. We find ourselves back a square 1- or so it seems.

And the idea of unlocking that potential can start a wild goose chase. Searching for something- or anything- that will point the way.
All the while, your most precious and vast resources remain untapped.

And this is because you're looking for a key in some hidden place. Like you're in a panic room, trying to solve puzzles to get the next step and break free.

What you may not recognize is that you ARE the key.

You're also the lock.

And the beauty of this paradox is that you truly do have everything you need.

The locks are al...

From the time we're young we learn through imitation.

We watch our parents and families, we watch our friends, we watch our favorite characters on TV and in books, our favorite superheroes, you name it. And somewhere along the way, we start to adopt their ways. Their way becomes our way. Sometimes it can even just become an idea like, "That's just the way it's done" without even really thinking about it.

As we grow in our lives, we find new idols in business and career, people who are maybe having the success that we want or living the kind of life that we dream about. But it's no wonder that when we try to do things the way that they do them, we often struggle and fail, or it works for a minute, and then it doesn't. 

And then the negative talk starts. The, “What's wrong with me, I'm just not good enough. I don't have what it takes”. 

I want to be clear. I don't think there's anything at all wrong with having role models. In fact, I think it's a really healthy thing to see the fine...

Today, I want to share with you a poem that was shared with me by my Vedanta teacher in India, Swami Parthasarathy, and the poem is “The Daffodils” by William Wordsworth.

It goes like this...

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.