Life is what you make it. You can heap burning coals on your head, or you can live in heaven on Earth. My life has been both.

Over the years, I have figured out that I can be as happy as I want to be. Here is how: let go of expectation, want, and need. Now, I

am not just talking about material possessions ... how about the want to be somewhere you're not? How about the need to be

approved of or accepted? Or how about needing the past to be different than it is? These are examples at the core of human suffering.

How can you be someone, somewhere, or something that you are not? How can you change the past or see the future? It is not

possible. This creates an immense amount of friction in the mind and body. What is the result of friction? Heat, blockage, breakdown.

This is what is meant by dis-ease: disease. We run the word together like it means one thing, but slow it down and it is actually just

the opposite of being at ease. Going with the flow of life. AKA accepting the way things are. AKA being with what is, without

judgment.

Which is exactly what the practice of meditation is: the observation of our present-time experience without judgment, without

wanting it to be different. The two key points here are "present time," meaning not thinking into the past or future, and "without

judgment," meaning not creating a story about how things are.

This builds resilience in your experience of the world. You begin to not need to react to everything. You don't have to win the

argument. You don't have to have it your way. You can be easy about things.

When this ease is embodied and felt, the whole system of mind, body, and soul opens up. Consciousness expands. You start

attracting the relationships you want, the doors of opportunity open, life becomes less difficult.

This does not mean that life is without challenges. The waves of life keep coming no matter what. Things won't go your way, that

person will act up, you might lose something you love. However, we don't resist it ... we feel our feelings about it, we accept that that

is the way life is. And with this understanding, we don't suffer our entire life because of one incident, one loss, or one experience.

Pleasant and unpleasant experiences are part of life. What would life be like without them? We would have no contrast. Boring!

How do you start to put this into practice? First, start with observation. Notice where your mind says something needs to be a certain

way, then try to soften it. Let go of control in little ways. Fear and resistance may arise ... see if you can breathe with it. One deep

inhale and long exhale can change your whole mental and emotional state. Notice the mind creating a big story about something

that happens in your experience. "That should be like this." "I can't believe they did that to me." Deep breath. What if you didn't

continue that narrative, dropped it, and returned your attention to something happening in the present, like your breath? Does the

commentary in the mind actually help the situation, or does it create more suffering? Just be curious.

Work on these things.

Much love,

Casey