In mindfulness, acceptance always comes first, change comes after.

What is it about our expectations, plans, or ideas that hold such sway over us? It is as if we've written a script for a play of our lives that runs about a month ahead of actual life; if reality varies from what we've created in our minds we disengage or pout.

Embrace and accept who you are. Don't be someone else, be yourself.

Life is a lot easier when you make peace with yourself. When you forgive yourself. When you stop tormenting yourself over the past or things you have no control over. When you live in acceptance of who and what you are instead of fighting with yourself every day. Loving yourself is vital. Love will heal your heart and the relationship you have with yourself. When you find peace with yourself, when you learn to love yourself everything in your life will be so much easier. You will have a stable place to work from. You will have a home within yourself. You will have a greater inner strength you can draw from. Make peace with yourself first.

In this moment, there is plenty of time. In this moment, you are precisely as you should be. In this moment, there is infinite possibility. (17)

We waste so much energy trying to cover up who we are when beneath every attitude is the want to be loved, and beneath every anger is a wound to be healed and beneath every sadness is the fear that there will not be enough time.

When we hesitate in being direct, we unknowingly slip something on, some added layer of protection that keeps us from feeling the world, and often that thin covering is the beginning of a loneliness which, if not put down, diminishes our chances of joy.

It’s like wearing gloves every time we touch something, and then, forgetting we chose to put them on, we complain that nothing feels quite real. Our challenge each day is not to get dressed to face the world but to unglove ourselves so that the doorknob feels cold and the car handle feels wet and the kiss goodbye feels like the lips of another being, soft and unrepeatable.