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Once you anchor yourself into the centre, all it takes is a tiny shift in the direction of the light for your life to start becoming easier, softer, and more aligned. My dark season came, and I clung to it and identified with it for a little longer than I would have chosen to. But I can now see that I needed it to break something open and take me to a higher place.

My life took me on a profound and, at times, traumatic journey, but the study of spirituality taught me a very valuable lesson: if you only think you’re going to feel better in the future, you are sending a strong signal to the Universe that you’re not feeling good now. This alerts the survival instinct to take you away from the present moment, which starts another loop of seeking something else.

I believe lessons return for a reason, and those reasons become clear once you take the first step towards changing something. I have witnessed many, many incredible shifts in my life when I have intentionally taken just one small step towards a new ray of light. But I have also come to see that in grasping the new light, we must also forgive ourselves for not seeing the old pattern we have fallen into. In grasping the new light, we must reach with one hand in the air and the other hand on our hearts – we must stop punishing ourselves for taking a wrong turn.

When you see the blessings that show up when you are living in the present moment – stop, pause, and honor these moments. The mind will start softening back into its true nature. The things that once felt heavy will start to lose their power over you as the mind starts serving you, and not the thought system.

Healing for me began when I was able to see my patterns. It began when I felt compassion for the confused and reckless person I used to identify with. And it continues each day as I forgive myself for not having the necessary mechanisms to change the way I used to feel about myself. Radical self-acceptance is necessary to be able to fully embrace and enjoy everything life is giving you.

I think we go over a situation in our heads again and again to try and seek relief from it; we are looking for a clue, an answer, a resolution; the final piece that will give us freedom from the pain of that situation.  But the relief can never be found in the thought, or the mental images that are created by the thought. The relief can only be found in the background of the thought. In the stillness, and the silence of the moment that is. And it was in stillness that I was able to start processing the pain. It was with self-compassion that I was able to start releasing the pain.