Many religious texts describe people who have lived chaotic lives. They’ve turned down a dark road that only leads to more chaos. Then someone tells them that there is a different way—one that has living water. Who are these people today that inspires us to live differently?

At one time or another in our lives, we’re presented with an ethical dilemma—truth or loyalty? Sometimes our desire to live honestly or seek justice interferes with our desire for community. Most spiritual traditions uphold honesty and justice above loyalty. If all of us lived with integrity, we wouldn’t have to choose. We would know that if a person, political group, or work situation acts dishonestly, we would be best to choose truth. Loyalty means nothing if it’s not held together by truth. Loyalty ultimately weakens if it’s woven with threads of greed, intolerance, or lust.

We can look at the various trials of life as a running race. We know we’re not the only one going through this. Just the community of those suffering as we do reminds us we’re not alone. To get through our trials, we move at the pace that is uniquely our own. We take in the positive vibes around us and believe we will endure.

I laugh every time a yoga practitioner—especially a yoga instructor—says, “I used to think yoga was about the pose.” A simple study of the yoga sutras will tell you that’s not the case. When we arrive at a place in our lives where we are stuck, yoga helps us to rewire the patterns in our consciousness. That is where the practice of yoga begins.

Long gone are days of blue laws. We no longer hold one day a week apart from the others for proper rest. Our lives can easy erupt in frenzy because we don’t hold a Sabbath Day holy. The Sabbath is that one day of “not-doing” or “undoing” that reminds us of what is most important. How we spend our Sabbath is telling of what we hold sacred in our lives. What do you make time for?

We spend a lot of time thinking or feeling or daydreaming. When do we let our minds relax? When do we pause and experience the newness that exists in this moment? Meditation cultivates the quiet mind. It takes time and patience, but it’s a worthy investment.

We often get stuck in patterns and attachments without recognizing how they keep us stuck. Removing the bandage hurts, but joy comes after the pain. This Easter morning, let us taste what freedom feels like by focusing on what gives eternal life.

Too often we’re told to surrender and find ourselves swallowed instead. Love can quickly morph into codependency when the person we love suffers from addiction or mental illness. We want to help, but our help only enables and feeds the illness. Surrender to the transcendent—be it God or the Universe or whatever. But surrender wisely, discerning when your help harms or truly heals.

In a culture that loves goals and success, we don’t deal well when uncertainty strikes us. We don’t like chaos, so we seek patterns—sometimes unhealthy ones—to give us order. Uncertainty reminds us that change is inevitable. It tells us that we’ve become too comfortable with old ways. Uncertainty calls for us to remain alert, which opens up possibilities we might not have considered.

Although optimistic thinking has the power to open our minds to different paths in the road, it isn’t the same as positive thinking. When we tell ourselves (and others) to “think positive,” it’s negating and bypassing the necessity of suffering. Suffering prepares us and strengthens us for a new road that lies ahead—one that we might not necessarily see. If we bypass it, we might not have the wisdom or spiritual strength to take this new path.