* Chicago Area Folks: Join me in Oak Park on Saturday, April 5th, from 1:30 - 4:30pm, for the Enough As You Are workshop.

* Join my dear friend and brilliant spiritual teacher Lee Harris in La Jolla, CA, in July for his beloved Soul Magic retreat.

Hi Friends,

I sat down this morning to work on an essay I started a few weeks ago about my struggle to figure out how to show up right now, about the heaviness I feel for our country and world, about the ever-present contradictions I grapple with as a human being in this place and time. But I don’t feel like writing about any of that right now, because I woke up this morning, having just completed an 82 hour water fast, feeling good. Feeling grounded, and joyful, and deeply connected to love.

So I’m not going to force myself into the energy of despair just to complete an essay. I’m going to hold onto this content feeling, gonna welcome it in and wrap my spirit around it as long as it lasts, gonna let myself feel joy because it’s as important as any other way to feel, even and perhaps especially in a world with so much heartbreak.

The video I’m sharing today I recorded a few years ago. In it I talk about the gift of bringing awareness to what we’re doing and how we’re feeling about what we’re doing, and the invitation in this awareness to align our choices with better feeling ways of being.

I see so much of my spiritual path as common sense. Do more of what feels good and you’ll feel good more often. Do less of what feels bad and you’ll feel bad less often. This is not advanced calculus kind of stuff. And yet, as we all know, simple and easy are not the same things, at least when it comes to living more peaceful, joyful, aligned lives.

Even so, awareness is always a great place to start. How is what I’m choosing to do right now making me feel? is a helpful question to ask, especially if we have the courage to stick with or shift our actions in accordance with the response. Without awareness, change can be especially difficult.

Let me know how the video lands for you.

I’m happy with my choice not to dive into the essay I’d been working on, not to force myself into an energy I’m not currently feeling. I’m happy with myself for opening up to the feeling of peace and joy I have right now, for choosing not to stifle it because of all the suffering out there, for remembering that it’s not my misery that helps to lift people out of theirs.

We are here to feel everything, or we wouldn’t be feeling everything. Please let yourself feel joy when it comes around. Welcome it. Play and dance and laugh with it until it decides to move on.

So much love to you all. Thank you for being here.

xoxo…Scott

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