Abundance isn’t itemized- it is seeing the whole thing and how it all relates and nourishes. It is all you and you are all it and it is all your life. 
Abundance reminds us that we are all connected: our worth, our capacity, our success. 

Abundance is the vessel, not the things in the vessel. All that you have and achieve is always going to be a projection of who you are and how you value yourself now. As you expand your sense of worth and worthiness, so too expands your abundance. 
When you are full, complete, whole, abundant, you don’t attract or are drawn to things that make you feel more whole, but things that harmonize with who you are. 

So as always, love is the answer. Just because you can have more and will grow to have more doesn’t mean that who you are and what you have now isn’t just so, just enough, perfect. So for that, abundance is only in the moment. It’s not what you had or what you desire, it’s who you are and what you are now. 

You’re not going to expand by looking outwards, but by feeling into the fullness of yourself now and all that is here with you. Trust that abundance won’t come from what you do alone, but how much You are embodied in what you do. The more you feel the fullness of self in the moment, as you do, give, create, receive, the more the outward expression of abundance will match.

The moon knows its fullness, regardless of how empty it might appear. Feel into your fullness- take a break from the daily bookkeeping of what you have and what you need, where you are now and where you are going.


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Receiving is not taking, it’s opening yourself up to the offerings of life. Receiving is being present with what is around you and allowing yourself to enjoy it, be nourished by it. Flowers, the stars at night, your favorite song, a good meal with friends are all cup-filling moments that are available to you as soon as you are present with them. Just as much as it is a challenge to learn how to express, give and create authentically, it is just as challenging to receive fully and in the way that you need to. It is a complete cycle of embracing the resources and gifts that are present and available to us all. 

We tend to get out the abacus and begin tallying what we have given, what we have gotten- keeping tabs on debts needing to someday be repaid- but none of that feels good and comes from a mindset of scarcity, like we don’t have enough so we need to be super careful about what we give and take. Receiving reminds us that there is enough to go around, especially when we don’t assume that what we need can only come in one singular, resource-draining form. 
Contributing and receiving are two equal parts of the circle of humanity, community, sangha. We cannot be fully engaged in the circle if we do not do both. You are not a better community member because you are constantly giving. There’s safety in giving- be it help, information or just stuff- because you’re on top, on the offensive, putting everything out there so that no one can see the man behind the curtain. It is disengaged from the whole of the community. Receiving is vulnerable, it’s admitting that although you might be able to do it alone, you don’t want to because it’s exhausting, lonely and unnecessary. It’s not saying that you’re not enough, it’s just saying that we’re better together. Receiving is less about being weak and needy and more about allowing yourself to be human, allowing others to share in your humanness with you and allowing yourself to experience the beauty of connection, compassion and kindness. 

For those ambitious Souls- life isn’t just about achievement and putting out there, it must be equally balanced with presence and allowing yourself to soak up the good and see and experience how those around you are shining, achieving and giving as well. For those lovers, nurturers and supports- receiving is a two way street and the best way to understand the value of yourself and all that you give is to allow yourself to be gifted with the same generosity.

Freedom is an embodiment. There are resources, circumstances and physical things that support freedom, yes, but all of that is useless if it is not met with an energetic, mental and emotional freedom. Freedom is freedom to simply be and whatever might be required to support that. It is the ultimate expression of doing as a result of your being. 

If you are not free then there is nothing you can do or receive that will ever give you freedom. It can be such an easy trick to chase something that will give you freedom, be it money, time or energy, but this chasing in and of itself is not free, it is chained to the thing that you desire, so how much freedom can you get from this thing if you are tied to it? If your freedom only comes when you have it? 

Freedom is being free from any demands or unjust desires. This doesn’t mean that you are accountable to no one, but rather that everything you do is by choice with awareness of how it is supporting your highest self. 
We tend to think of freedom as us vs. them, that your freedom is limited by other people, outside circumstances and resources. But really, freedom is soul vs. ego. The ego is telling you that you will be free only when… It puts the blame on other people and things which is not only limiting your freedom but it is disempowering you too. The soul is here to be, to shine, to live without any attachment to any thing or outcome. To simply enjoy what it has, here and now. The Soul knows that your freedom is determined by how well you know yourself and how present you are in the moment and how willing you are to live by that. 

Freedom cannot be determined by the book, it must be felt into in the moment- does this feel free to me? Sometimes saying No is just as freeing as saying yes. Sometimes stability and structure supports more freedom than open space does. If you are feeling stuck somewhere, or limited, consider first what your mindset is towards the situation and what limitations you are holding there. Once you understand your self-imposed limitations then it will become clear whether or not there are also physical limitations and misalignments as well. Hint: the physical understanding is much easier than the mental/emotional one. 

Loyalty is the theme of community and relationships. Of dependence, interdependence and independence. Loyalty brings us together. Holds us together and eventually allows us to part. Loyalty is not the same as attachment. 

The truth is that it’s loyalty to ourselves that brings us to other people and places- because there is something there, and in them that we crave so much and need to be with. Loyalty is akin to dependability, both of which hold vibrations of groundedness, rootedness. This doesn’t imply that you stay with the same thing forever, but you stay with yourself forever. You know who you are so well that you are always loyal and dependable to it, even if the outer expression sometimes changes. 

Loyalty honors the beauty of relationships, how we have so much to share with each other and we are willing to stick around to find out what more is there.  Loyalty is secondary to trust- trust in yourself first and foremost and whether or not a situation/relationship feels good and worthy of your loyalty to it. Trust in others and the work you have put into each other to see past the fear of discomfort of challenge to the prospect of deeper learning. 
The dark side of loyalty is sticking it out and staying around because you should, because you worked so hard to get here, because it’s stable, because you know they can be so much more, because you hope it gets better. Your eyes have moved away from yourself, your heart and are desperately seeking outside of you, in the land where you have to control, fueled only by blind hope and good memories. 
Loyalty can stabilize or it can stick. You don’t have to be attached to something to be with it, even if it’s for the rest of this life. But really, loyalty asks you to be fully present and loyal to this moment and whoever, whatever is here with you. Make your choices and take your actions based upon this and what feels good about it- be it moving on or staying a little longer.
For those who are in an ambitious mode, the sirians, second and seventh energy centers loyalty reminds you to know where your feet are right now, it is from here that you take the next step. It doesn’t matter how badly you want the plan to work, or how desperately you want that dream, it is only now that matters and that has the answers of how to get to where you are going. Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. Be loyal and dependable to yourself and your integrity in this moment and trust in the path forward. For those who are more grounded and maybe even stuck, loyalty is a fluid thing- remember who you are and what you bring forward, and what you deserve to expect in return- write it down and make sure that everyone and everything in your life hits this criteria. Be loyal to this, to yourself, more than the relationship, the job, the peace of mind. 

Hope is a four letter word that, depending on the reader, can be interpreted in a multitude of ways. Hope, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is a feeling of desire and expectation for a certain thing to happen in a certain way. This type of hope is a quick and easy setup for disappointment which can lead to resentment when things don't turn out as we *hoped* they would. This isn't really hope- this is projecting your wishes into the future, irregardless of the reality in which you exist and in spite of the truth around you. This hope is mistrusting, the assumption that the only way life will work is if you force your perception of how things should be upon it. This is exhausting, it's fighting the river because you don't trust where it's going. This hope is the opposite of mindful- it's not present, attentive or meeting the moment because you're focused on where you want to be and whatever you need to do to get there. It's a set up to be completely reliant on conditions- life will be good when a certain plan that you've concocted in your mind occurs, which ultimately means that until that plan happens life is not good. It is the desire to plan and design our lives that takes us the furthest from happiness and peace by chaining us to Father Time and what he may or may not bring. And what happens when you don't get what you hoped for? You are left shattered, resentful, betrayed and in general worse than when you started. It's that much harder to appreciate where you are because you are not where you had *hoped* you would be and so the cycle of self inflicted hardship continues. 

But there is another type of hope, I've heard it called Mature Hope or Practical Hope. This is the hope that allows us to see the seedling growing out of scorched earth. Instead of fixating on the future, this hope is grounded in the moment and aware of the potential response that can come from within, the response that can meet the conditions of the moment to create a greater outcome. We cannot control anything that is not our own, thus waiting for ______ to come to us to make our lives greater is relinquishing our power and putting our wellbeing into the hands of someone or something else. It's putting our faith in someone or something else's hands and hoping that they/it cares more about our wellbeing than we do. Mature hope, however, is founded within ourselves and upholding our individual power as creators of our own life. It has the faith in ourselves that we will know what to do as long as we stay focused on the present moment, and that as long as we do this then the best possible outcome is sure to arise. Mature hope is founded on personal ideals, intentions and in general knowing thyself. Who you are, what matters to you, what you seek to bring forth and how these things combine to address the conditions of the moment in the best way possible. Mature hope also holds an element of letting go of how things could/should be (and maybe even recognizing that how things should be is a delusion of the mind), because this holding on is only distracting you from what is and thwarting the strength of your ideals and intentions. Really, hope is tied to uncertainty because regardless of what we wish, we never know how things are going to turn out. In The Five Invitations, Frank Ostaseski says, "the hope is in the potential for our awakened response, no in things turning out in a particular way. It is an orientation of the heart, grounded in value and trust in our basic human goodness, no in what we might achieve." When looking at it this way, hope is the greatest stance we can take as a human being in the face of life and its harshness. 

Everything is a bit of a mess right now. It seems like the world as we know it, the systems that we live within, are crumbling before our eyes. It's easy to jump to finger pointing, blame and all that is wrong. It's equally easy to begin to *hope* that things will turn out a certain way. But let's sit for a moment and apply the above paragraph. Regardless of what got you here, what others are doing and of where you are going to be in six months or six years from now, none of which you can control, You are full of strength, wisdom, love, ingenuity, creativity and resilience- how can you put it to good use right now? What are you able to plant into this moment that you can put your trust and hope into? Can you see the seedlings of your skills coming in to create a brighter future? (Hint: don't look for what is happening around you, feel into what has been strengthening within you these past few weeks, this is what is going to create all that will happen)

Remember: the only way to support all of this (your best self, your ideals & intentions) is to support yourself, as you are, in this moment, which simply put means: to do something that feels good. What can you do today, right now, that feels good? And can you trust that, even just for today, that is enough?

Remember: it's not easy to not think about the past or the future. Really, it's impossible and unrealistic as a human being to give that up all together. So how do you find some balance and reduce these exhausting thoughts? Awareness. Every time you become aware of your thoughts jumping forward or backward, creating false hope, you weaken them. Through awareness of these thoughts you see them to be just that- thoughts- they are not reality and they are not even you, they are simply the thoughts that live within your mind. So don't fight them, because that requires more thinking and you're just feeding the monster, become aware of them and come back to the moment.