In this space, I feel confident in my surroundings. I am curious, rather than fearful. I don’t necessarily leave my doors wide open at night, but I lock them because I am choosing when I am available to others, not because I feel unsafe.

When I can listen to my own heart and answer based upon my own inner compass, I no longer need to fear being taken advantage of. I say “no” not from a space of rejection, but a space of being alright with not acquiescing to something that is not aligned with how I feel.

When I feel like I have enough material comfort, I don’t need more. The gold-plated wastebaskets and 40 luxury cars become unnecessary. “Why would I need two horses? It would be very hard to ride both of them at the same time.”

My emotions flow safely and freely, without being buried or masked. I appreciate the taste of food while respecting when my body feels sated. Eating to the point of satiation, not fullness. Enjoying the input my body’s senses provide — touch, scent, light, heat — while also respecting the sensations of when my body needs rest.

I do not need a “perfect” body, because my body is perfect as it is. It asks me to take care of it, so I do, so it feels healthy and alive. I enjoy how it expresses my personality, and enjoy taking care of it, so that it can express me. I like looking like me, so I do not need to do anything excessive to let my natural self appear to the world.

They aren’t bottled up, so they are neither suppressed nor held back until they burst out. I have found ways to express them safely, so that they cause harm neither to myself nor others. In that space, I get useful information from my emotions, without being overwhelmed by the volume of unreleased angst.

I can change my circumstances, where I can change them, and be alright where I cannot. Perhaps only in small ways – being able to change the sheets on my bed or brush my teeth, for example – but eventually I can find meaningful work that allows me to purchase goods and services that literally change the world around me and create a physical base that lets me do more with my power.

When I own my own power, I do not have to control others. I am comfortable with the power I have.

When someone feels good about themselves, recognizes that they are loved simply by having been created on this planet, they no longer are concerned about how others feel more than themselves. They also no longer feel critical towards themselves, and by extension don’t feel critical towards others, either. Nobody needs to be seen in a negative light when you don’t feel negative towards yourself.

The Universe bestows such amazing gifts on us. Trees breathe life-sustaining oxygen. The sun warms our skin. Rain dampens our parched lips. The oceans lead us to our own sense of breathing. And they do it just because. What gifts the world gives us, simply for being here!

Once we realize how loved we are by the Universe, it is hard to feel empty anymore. We also find that, while we can enjoy being with others, we don’t need it. People will come and go in our life, and we will enjoy being with them for the time we are together. But we no longer need any one person to be in our life for life to be enjoyable.

My former partner had an experience in college where he was walking with his friend, who was going to the dean’s office. He was feeling really nervous, until he stopped and asked himself why. He wasn’t going to see the dean, his friend was. That was when he realized that he wasn’t nervous. He was simply picking up on his friend’s nervousness.

When you can recognize the things you have a feeling about, and recognize when an emotion you experience is at odds with your feelings, you can recognize when you don’t have to react to that emotion as if it were your own.

The first lies are the ones we make to ourselves. The others are when we tell ourselves it’s alright to lie to others. When we find that we can no longer lie to ourselves, we simply stop. We discover that speaking the truth has a much greater strength than lying or evading it. Being honest with ourselves and others simply becomes the best way to share.

As we find our integrity, we come to realize the value it has. We can say that our word is our bond, or that we can stand by our word, and that means something. People come to trust that we will follow through, and are encouraged to follow through for us. While alliances of convenience might be made without integrity, we can only create bonds of strength by honoring our word. Integrity is the coin of the realm.

When feel that we are heard, it gives us the opportunity to focus on listening. When we aren’t swinging from this pendulum, we don’t have to speak as much. We can listen and absorb as much information as we need before acting. And, by listening, we give others the opportunity to recognize that their voices matter as well.

When I accept responsibility for my actions, and when I can address the mistakes I made, I no longer feel a fear of making mistakes. As the fear is removed, I can also see which outcomes are likely, as well as which outcomes are very unlikely. I can feel comfortable about seeing what I do, and redressing the wrongs I’ve done, learning as I go. I don’t need to close my eyes to do what must be done, and I can see where I can forgive myself for my actions.

When I feel like I am part of the entire whole, I no longer feel alone in the Universe. How can I? I am part of it, just like every other part of it. God is experiencing the universe through all of our experiences. We each contribute to it.

With this kind of connection, with the understanding that we are all connected, there is no need for adherence to a religious or cultural or tribal belief system. Everyone is part of the grand play, in their own way, and we do not need everyone to believe as we do. We can all be as religious or areligious as we choose.

When I accept that intuition and reality work together, I do not rush blindly into situations that ask for a greater awareness of my surroundings. I can be careful – full of care – when I make the next leap, rather than having to leap off the cliff and hope that I will be caught.

In this space, I can both see the potential of a person or situation, without losing sight of the reality of that person/situation. I can see how loving they are underneath the anger and pain, and still accept that they are angry and painful. In that situation, it may not make sense to hug a roaring bear, but to love it from afar.

When it comes to synchronicity, it typically comes in two forms. The first form, preemptive, is the sense that I should follow a particular route. When someone asks me to do something out of my comfort zone, and I get no resistance, or even a feeling of encouragement, this can be a sign that I should do it. Most importantly, even if the outcome is less than pleasurable, I can still appreciate what I learn from it. No experience is without an opportunity for learning more about releasing my assumptions about my limits.

The second form, confirmation, appears after a spiritually important event. When we do something that has significance in our lives, something may shift in our perceptions. We may see series of numbers appear, or a certain song may play over the radio, or whatever. When this happens, it is a signpost that confirms when we think we have done something important in our growth.

As an example, for me, series of 2’s and 7’s appear when I do something spiritually significant. For example, when a friend of mine asked me to drive 300 miles out of my way to help her, and I said “yes” without pause, suddenly combinations of those numbers appeared everywhere. License plates ending in 727, 227, 722, etc., appeared half a dozen times in one drive. Four of the five long numbers on my gas station receipt had 72 in them. When I got to my friend’s place, the odometer read 144722. The universe was confirming that I was on the right track, “in the flow.”

Does this mean that every appearance of 72 and 27 is meaningful? No. Only those that are connected with me making a choice outside of my comfort zone. And that is the key – being able to recognize the difference between the appearance of a number because it just happens, versus the appearance of a number as a confirmation of a decision.

From this space, I do not have to lose my sense of self, even while I enjoy being part of a greater whole. I can appreciate being a dancer in the dance. I can appreciate all of my experiences, whether they are labeled “good” or “bad,” while also appreciating that I, say, prefer strawberry ice cream over chocolate.

Frequently, a massively painful experience can catapult a person into feeling that everything is beautiful, even that massively painful experience. While this is true, there can also be room to appreciate when something sucks massively.