Fear values staying small and keeping others small.

Faith values expanding into levels of health, wealth, love, and self-expression and supporting others in doing the same.

When we are possessed by fear, we make “choices” based on fear’s values. The moment we notice ourselves operating from this life-draining space, we can make a new choice that helps us and others thrive.

Fear is lazy and scared. Faith is willing to work and is full of love.

Whose values are you aligned with right now?

Your primary responsibility is to receive; to receive information, insight, wisdom, inspiration, love, clarity, peace, abundance, and all of the other good stuff. Once you receive the truth, you can create from a place of ease and humility. We miss out on the fulfillment we could have when we think our job is to create everything ourselves and then receive later. This thinking implies that we are more powerful than the mystery working around us and for us and that we alone are responsible for all of the gifts available to us. The truth is, we are only powerful when we realize our job is to be in awe of what has been made available to us.

It takes active energy and focus to stay present and at ease enough to receive. It requires us to let go of doubt, fear, judgment, worry, comparison, and other distractions. To receive, we must do the hard work of choosing the more curious path rather than the one that serves our mind’s agenda over what would serve the highest for us and others at the moment.

Receiving might sound like it’s too easy, yet it is a responsibility that requires mindfulness and commitment.

What if you let go of the stress of needing to be responsible for creating everything and shifted to being responsible for receiving?

Your natural essence is expressing yourself freely, contributing joyfully, and receiving openly. When you find yourself in the experience of holding back, it’s not because you are holding back; it’s because something is holding you back. The good news is that something that is holding you back is something you can let go of.

A lack mindset, fear of being judged, a belief that people need to like you, or an unforgiveness or a grudge are things you could let go of that would allow your energy to flow naturally toward what your body and soul want to experience. When you choose to let go of what is holding you back from feeling like you are meant to feel, you can trust the wisdom within you to guide you in the correct direction for you to give and receive at your next highest level.

You aren’t holding back. Something is holding you back. And you can let it go. What is that thing right now?

Your mind and body are always moving energy and always working hard.

They are either working to resist what is happening or to create. Your body loves to use its creative energy for life-giving things; your job is to let it. You can do this by noticing when you are allowing yourself to focus on forms of resistance like blame, fear, judgment, resentment, resignation, or worry. Once you see, you can redirect your energy to create what you truly want to create. It takes hard work to shift your energy and create, but you are already working hard at resisting.

What would light you up to focus on and create? All you need to do is notice everything that isn’t that and redirect again and again.

There is the type of fear that keeps us alive; we love that type of fear because it helps us jump out of the way of the moving car.

Then, there is the type of fear that keeps us from truly living, which means experiencing love, health, abundance, and Self-expression. While we don’t want to dwell in this fear or let it stop us, it does serve an essential purpose. This type of fear is helping us evolve, showing us where we have the opportunity to choose love.

Whenever we experience the fear that keeps us from feeling the good things we are meant to, these sensations invite us to choose love. Not only will choosing to take action from love help you evolve, but it will also help clear a pathway that is a part of our whole evolution as a species.

Embrace all the fear. Let it help you stay alive and fully live.

It’s easier to do what you don’t love because the things you don’t love keep you connected to fear or resistance, and fear and resistance don’t take any energy to give in to. The easiest path is the path of fear, resistance, or stagnation, yet it’s the easy that leaves you feeling unfulfilled.

Doing what truly brings you more you love requires moving through the discomfort of expending energy on overcoming your mind’s resistance to newness and uncertainty and letting go of what you are used to. Stepping into new levels of loving what you do with your time is harder than falling into what you know, yet the hard leaves you feeling fulfilled.

Doing what you love is a discipline. Are you willing to do the work?

As you begin a new year, a new habit, a new project, or a new idea, bring ease. And the way to bring ease is to know that the new thing will absolutely be awkward. The ease comes from expecting the awkward, ebracing the awkward, and dancing and laughing with it.

We skip endings because they are awkward. We skip beginnings because they are awkward. What if you could actually receive the gift of the whole by welcoming awkward with ease?

Completing your year is different than letting the end pass you by. Completing allows you to feel whole and carry forward all of the obvious and surprising gifts into the future. Our bodies are always ready to share with us and know exactly how to help us. To complete your year, you could try on asking your heart and body these nine simple questions:

• What ways of being, habits, or patterns do I want to let go of that limited me this year? What will be possible without them?

• What ways of being or habits do I want to appreciate and carry foward? What will be possible as I allow these to expeand?

• What ways of being or habits do I want to begin? What will be possible with these things as a part of me?

• What brought me the most joy this past year?

• What drained me the most this past year?

• Who or what is there for me to forgive from this past year?

• What life lessons did I learn that are mine to own?

• What can I appreciate myself for that no one else can because they don’t fully understand?

• Complete this sentence: If I named this past year, it would be called “The Year of _____________.”

Spend a few minutes feeling and being with what you discover. Keep your notes with you to remind you of what you created and received so that you can create and receive from a brand-new place.

We walk around each day like we know exactly what’s going on when in reality, we are living in a mystery that none of us can understand.

Given that none of us know anything, extending some compassion to ourselves and each other might be a good idea that helps us all feel better.

What if you didn’t really have the “right” way figured out, and you didn’t need anyone else to either?

There is no room for self-doubt in a life well-lived. We must, of course, have a healthy awareness of skills we lack, and we are most inspired when we grow in the areas that hold opportunities for us, but this is different than believing and giving energy to self-deprecating thoughts.

To believe in your Self and love your Self is the least selfish thing you can do. To drain other people’s energy and to rob them of what you could contribute to them through needing to prove, be validated, or hustle is the selfish thing. To believe your thoughts are more powerful or accurate than the Truth and Perfection you were created from is the ultimate form of self-importance. Your humility and ability to serve are expressions of your Self-Faith, not self-doubt.

How might your life and the lives of those you care about change if you only had room for Self-Faith?

Just like physical wellness requires a whole lifestyle to support it fully, so does a life of Love.

Rest, nourishment, how you spend your time, what or whom you spend your time with, the things you consume, what you say yes or no to, and what you give attention to all make it easier or harder to feel and give love.

Just like wellness, Love is not a feeling to wait around for. It is a lifestyle you can cultivate, and it takes intentionality.

What little shift could you make today that would contribute to a more Loving life?

I am good. I am unconditionally loved and celebrated. I am inherently valuable as I am right now. I am effortlessly beautiful. I know everything I need to know right now. There is an abundance of everything I need. Success is my natural essence. I have 100 percent faith in the future. Life is easy and fun.

My mind doesn’t produce these thoughts and beliefs by default, and I choose to create and believe them because it is my responsibility to contribute and not to be a drain. When I go through life believing I am flawed, unloved, lacking, and bad, I pull energy from others rather than give it, and my job is to give and I know because it makes me feel good.

Self-love is not selfish, it is your responsibility. It is your responsibility to remind yourself deserve it, because we can only remind other people of that when we remember it for ourselves.

How might your life and therefore the lives around you change if you made a loving relationship with yourself your foundational job?

You will never be perfect. The world around you and your life circumstances will never be perfect. Because of that, it’s all perfect.

Your number one job is to relax and appreciate the mystery and miracle of this life. Appreciation is the foundation for truly receiving and giving.

Inagine a world where we all let go of perfection and took responsibility for appreciation. What might change if you did your part?

To live with courage means to live a life of the heart. It feels safe to do the thing that closes your heart off and creates a false sense of protection when in reality, the safe and small thing is blocking your heart from what it desires.

Is there something to let go of that would let your heart be open, and the idea of letting that thing go scares you a bit? That is the place to begin bringing some wonder. If you want to truly be happy.

The courage to speak up or take a leap is essential, and it is only courage if it comes from love.

The most important part of the thing you want is noticing when you aren’t doing it or don’t have it and rerouting.

The most important part of commitment is recommitment, which means we need to love when we notice ourselves wavering.

The most essential part of loving is recommitting to love, which means we must love when we notice ourselves hating, judging, or resisting.

The most vital part of focuing is refocusing, which means we get to love noticing when we have succumbed to distraction.

The most crucial part of abundance is recommitting to and upgrading our abundance mindset, which means that it serves us to love noticing when we are believing in lack.

How might your ability to create and receive what you want expand if you were able to fully love its opposite?

Non-attachment is noticing your heart’s desires and how your mind sees them manifesting, knowing you will be okay whether or not what your mind prefers actually happens.

Non-attachment is the practice of letting go. However, the most fun part of non-attachment is that your job is to be open to magic when you let go. It is a part of your birthright to be blessed, joyful, abundant, and in a state of wonder. When you practice non-attachment and choose to be open to magic, you set yourself up to see opportunities, gifts, pathways, and miracles waiting to be embraced.

Your mind has a limited view of how things can happen and what could or should happen. Let go of the grip and allow yourself to receive and give something more extraordinary than you can see now.

Where is it time to practice non-attachment and be open to magic?

So much of our suffering would be relieved if we practiced noticing the difference between our preferences and the truth.

We may prefer that someone behave a certain way or that an outcome we are hoping for comes to fruition, and just because we prefer they do, that doesn’t mean they “should.”

There are infinite possibilities, and our minds cannot know the “right” one. We suffer in our frustration and disappointment about our “right” outcomes not happening. Our freedom and joy come from choosing love over preferences. Not so we can become complacent but so that we can continue to create at our highest level because that’s what love does.

What if you could lift up above your preferences and connect to the truth?

If you want to expand in what is most important to you, consider that every single thought, emotion, and body sensation is an opportunity to redirect yourself to that essential thing.

This means you can feel at ease, knowing that nothing can take what is important away from you, and it can only expand if you are willing to use what you notice as an opportunity to grow instead of shrink back.

You are a miraculous and resilient being designed to thrive. Trust that all experiences have value for you, and enjoy the ride.

Most people won’t choose love because they don’t realize they can and that it’s the only way to win.

Most of us accidentally believe that winning comes from someone else failing or holding back. Our fear tells us there can only be one winner when, in reality, we can all win because there is more than enough of what we all want. And if we live a life “created” from fear, we lose.

When we feel pulled to succeed over someone else instead of succeeding by elevating everyone, we can ask ourselves what Loving Abundance would do, as if it were a person, and go from there.

How would your contribution and capacity to receive expand if you let love be the thing that lifted you up?

Expectations create shoulds, which create division. Values create value, which creates wholeness.

Instead of holding yourself to your mind’s expectations, which can limit or disappoint you, or commit to your heart’s values, which will always leave you feeling proud.

Where is it time to hold yourself in the context of your values instead of your expectations?