“One of the most powerful tools for awakening truth in the midst of your chaotic daily life is to take frequent pauses. Simply stop for a moment and feel what your life is right now. Right now: stop reading and simply experience what this moment feels like.

You can take these pauses anytime throughout the day. Sitting down to meditate is helpful but it’s not necessary. Just settle into any moment and simply feel it. With whatever arises – anger, anxiety, restlessness – you don’t have to “let it go” because, after all, that would just be more doing, more effort. Just let it be there. Remind yourself to feel this.” ~ Ezra Bayda

Within that space of openness, it becomes possible to see the beauty that surrounds you. Gratitude lifts your energy to higher levels of consciousness and provides the opportunity to see more clearly.

Today my intention is to look forward with enthusiasm to the adventures of the day.

Living a life of grace allows us to grow from our challenges, find peace in the midst of sorrow or confusion and experience the vast, infinite healing power of the Divine. How gently can you greet and accept what is?

Awareness heals. Bring your attention to how you respond to the situations you experience. Sometimes you may be amazed at your own motivation and empowerment and others may leave you wondering what in the world just happened. Act with integrity, do your best, accept what is – this is the process of awakening.

Choose to see beyond the labels of good and bad, recognizing all experiences as opportunities to awaken. You can embrace life’s wonder and mystery as easily in the midst of traffic as you can meditating on a mountaintop.

Today my intention is to live with an open heart.

You have the ability to handle whatever comes your way. Every situation you encounter is an integral aspect of your spiritual awakening, providing opportunities to expand your consciousness and cultivate your unique gifts.

Mindfulness in the present moment allows you to drop the stories and patterns of the past or worries about the future. It frees you from attachment to end results, clinging and anxiety and opens the heart to life.

Take all the energy used to worry about the future and redirect in inward. Utilize it instead to find joy in the present moment, to create harmony and clarity and see through the illusions created by the mind. Suddenly things feel simple and safe and the soul is liberated.

“The art of living is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging on the other. It consists of being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.”
~ Alan Watts

Today my intention is to be here Now.

Change is the natural flow of life – welcome it, learn from it and let the consistency you seek come from within.

“Ultimately we need to understand that spiritual life isn’t about being safe, secure or comfortable. It’s not that we won’t sometimes feel secure in the course of our spiritual practice; we surely will. And so too will we sometimes feel insecure. Yet there is a fundamental security that develops from many years of practice – though it is a far cry from the immediately comfort we may now crave.”
~ Ezra Bayda

When you approach your life experience with humility, humor, non-attachment and compassion, greater access to your inner wisdom is assured. From this place of empowerment it becomes easier to recognize the limitless possibilities that are available to you. Allow the gentle whispers of love and wisdom to guide you.

Today my intention is to create peacefulness in my mind and trust my inner wisdom.

Let all your choices be led by joy, love or enthusiasm rather than fear. Living a passionate life allows you to find your own vibrant and expansive way to explore the unknown.

Fear makes us smaller. It creates blockages and sets limitations in place whereas joy creates a space in which a transformation can occur. If you cannot immediately change your circumstances, change your thinking. Your choice to embrace happiness and passion will draw new friendships and opportunities to you.

Choose to fall madly in love with life. Begin and end your day with gratitude. Appreciate the small things and surround yourself with those that inspire and uplift you. These conscious choices bring inner peace and satisfaction and ultimately, complete harmony with all that unfolds in your experience.

Today my intention is to bring passion and joy to all that I do. Nothing is more important than my state of consciousness.

The awakened soul seeks self-understanding and unconditional acceptance of others. All of life is a process of removing the barriers to love that we carry. These blockages get lodged in a particular chakra and disrupt the flow of ease and grace in our experience.

Healing comes from bringing awareness to areas of repeating patterns in our lives. Utilizing color, positive intention and conscious action is helpful when purposely seeking to create greater balance.

Intense emotion or reactivity is an indicator of something that is rising to the surface to be healed. Pay attention to where you feel it in the body while observing any repetitive stories created by the ego. Treat yourself with kindness and patience throughout this process. Then, utilizing the guidelines above, take conscious and healthy action.

Your purpose is to awaken to your true, infinite and divine nature. When you discover the power of acceptance and surrender and take responsibility for your own joy, miracles abound.

Today my intention is to live an inspired life. I choose to utilize every experience as a vehicle of my awakening.

Together we weave a tapestry of exquisite design. Each moment your unique light adds another thread to an ongoing masterpiece. Even though we are deeply intertwined, we may not fully realize the results of any given action; therefore, seek to add love to the collective energy with the knowledge that your existence serves a Divine purpose.

The world is your reflection. Strong emotional reactions indicate a need to go within and examine your personal beliefs and triggers. Even in solitude, your state of consciousness matters.  Our thoughts and words send waves of energy throughout the universe that will eventually return to us tenfold.

Love yourself. Project kindness whenever possible (and it is always possible). Pay attention to any judgment that arises and do your best to heal old wounds. This allows our collective consciousness space to expand into new realms of joy.

Today my intention is to move beyond limited human-mind thinking and align myself with the infinite Divine Mind, where all things are possible.

Many believe that they must wait until their lives fall into place before they can be happy; however, spiritual practice calls upon us to love life even when it seems to be a mess. Doing so cultivates the ability to see challenges differently. We learn how to open to the unwanted and ultimately discover that we cannot be truly happy until life is difficult.

Choose joy in the present moment rather than waiting for some imagined future to unfold as it “should”. Loving life as it is allows us the opportunity to truly engage with it, learning a little more each and every step of the way. The path to lasting joy is saying yes to life again and again, regardless of what is presented. Weave it into the tapestry of your experience and be willing to step into the unknown.

True happiness has no opposite. It is not dependent upon anything and is the natural state of your being.

Today my intention is to remember that the point of power is always in the present moment. I choose joy Now.

Each of us walks a unique path of transformation, consistently seeking to release the things that no longer serve our growth while expanding into new levels of consciousness. It’s important to remember that you are the master of your experience. The energy you emit into the world determines the types of lessons and circumstances that will best serve your growth.

“We awaken to self-knowledge through the relentless practice of self-observation. Self-observation is not analysis; it is simply noticing what we think, how we think, what we fear, how we react, and what our strategies of behavior are. Notice, notice, notice. In observing ourselves objectively – that is, without judgment – we can begin to see clearly our fear-based ideas of how we’re supposed to be, how others are supposed to be, how life is supposed to be. In seeing through our beliefs, we penetrate the countless layers of illusion that silently run our lives.”
~ Ezra Bayda

Underneath the layers of illusion we discover ease, grace, peace and wholeness. Attend to your own state of consciousness, live authentically and embrace this moment as sacred. Your life is a dance of awakening.

Today my intention is to release any limitations based upon old perceptions and programming. I am free to embrace all the joy and abundance this world has to offer.

Ego-driven thoughts of negativity, fear, anger and blame run constantly in the background of all conflict. The mind latches onto a story and repeats it incessantly until it is accepted as “truth” or “telling it like it is” creating separation and hostility.

Those beliefs to which we cling tightly should be most suspect. The spiritual seeker, having learned the transformative power of love, is willing to bring new perspectives to daily interactions. When we shine the light of consciousness onto a situation, the situation is transformed. Even the light of a single candle transforms the darkness, allowing us to see more clearly. Each time we purposely shine the light of consciousness, whether directed within, towards another or outward to encompass the world, we add to the light which already exists.

The higher your vibration, the greater your perspective. If there is even one person, memory, political party, culture, business or entity in the world whom you have yet to forgive, there is more work to be done. Whenever you feel yourself being triggered, bring the light of consciousness to the present moment by asking:

What am I trying to learn?
How can I bring love to this situation?
Is there something within me being reflected? (If so, realize that it is coming to your attention because it is ready to be healed and transformed)

Every circumstance is a vehicle of your awakening. Don’t go back to sleep… freedom awaits.

Today my intention is to act with integrity, do my best and accept what is.