Thank you so much to everyone who joined our online gathering today. Below is the recording, for those of you who missed it. Share it far and wide. This conversation feels like a warm blanket of comfort and calm, in a time of high uncertainty. It might just be what your friends, your family members need right now: the permission to feel it all as is without judgement, the chance to be in the energy of compassion and gentleness of a loving community, and the nuggets of personal and impersonal truths from this powerful group. Enjoy!

Are you finding ways to stay emotionally and spiritually sober amidst the massive swirl of anxiety around you? 

It's not easy, but your sobriety within counts the most right now.
All the emotional healing and the spiritual work you have done in the past, this is when you get to choose which way you will go. And this choice is a moment to moment one. Here, now. Are you choosing to stay within yourself, with whatever is swirling inside or will you move up and out of yourself and join the collective swirling which is taking you further and further away from your knowing, and your safety?

Leading others well begins with leading yourself. Being in your body, connected to your passions, your fears, and your intuition makes you powerful. It amplifies your light. When you let your mind be in charge, your reach is minimized. You repeat the old, and there is very little space for creativity and true inspiration. When you are with yourself, within yourself, leading from an embodied place, your words have a quality of resonance to them. Their coherence ignites wisdom and insights in others.
You can be a leader that helps keep the status quo, making sure all run smoothly, so things remain the same. Or you can be a leader for change, an embodied soul whose mere presence is enough to inspire and shift the energy in a room. One keeps you small, and the other is the reason you were born. Be a catalyst for transformation. It is life-giving to everyone around you, including you.

Human beings have a peculiar and destructive habit of putting leaders and people with authority on a pedestal. We give away our power in order to feel secure, cared for, and part of a group. It also alleviates our deep-seated fear of loneliness. When we place someone on a pedestal, we separate ourselves from the responsibility of our path. We don’t have to fully own our life and our choices as we defer to someone else, like in a parent-child dynamic. As soul-realized beings, we need to let this go. Ultimately, you are the teacher, the one you have been waiting for. The advice of gurus, healers, parents, coaches, psychics, mediums, and others are helpful to a point, but when soul acceptance and soul-love is integrated, you move away from the teacher and move more into yourself. You come back to the wholeness that has always been there.

Stop. Right here. Right now.

Take a deep breath in through your nose, and let it out your mouth.

Continue. For a moment.

Stop going so fast. Just stop.

Right here. Right now.

Your heart knows. You are here.

Breathe.

Remember who you are. In your heart.

Stop. Pause. Breathe.

Come home. Be in you.

You are here. Now. How beautiful you are.

You are here in your heart.

Breathe.

Feel. This moment. Your being. You.

You. Are. Here. Now. Breathe.

And remember.

This. Now. Is more important than anything you were doing.

Come back now. Be home.

In the centre of your chest.

Everything is there. Nothing is missing.

Breathe. Be here. Be home.

In your heart.

New Year’s resolutions are typically goals that we set for the coming year, results we plan to achieve. For example: “This year I will exercise, meditate, or somehow succeed more… and I will stress, drink, and overeat less.” Optimistic and caught up in the spirit, 'New Year’s Eve You' makes promises on behalf of 'Future You', and Future You never have a chance, because goals set in the future often stay in the future, and we find ourselves making the same resolutions the following year.

There is only ever right now. That's why deciding what you will be in the future is never as powerful as making changes in the present moment. Start thinking about how you want to live your “nows.” The best way to make your intentions a reality is to re-conceptualize resolutions as daily commitments, more like a “New Day’s Resolution.” 

Over the past 12 years, I have gone through an incredible journey...

Excitement is a fire emotion, a take action emotion. So is anxiety. At the emotional level, they are both arousal feelings. At the spiritual level, they are both the element of fire. Except that with anxiety, instead of feeling inspired, we are stopped dead in our tracks, we back away, our fire remains unfulfilled.

One week before I was to lead my very first retreat, 10 years ago, I was really nervous. And I was frustrated with myself because up to that point I had been really excited about finally making this dream of mine a reality. But it didn’t feel so good now, I even thought of cancelling the program. 

At the time I was working closely with Laura Kealoha, a Kahuna from Kauai, so I called her for some advice. She said: “Have you considered that this feeling you are having might actually be excitement, but it just feels different? Focus your anxiousness into a concrete action toward your goal, just as you would with your enthusiasm. Use that nervous feeling and...