When his words guided us to visualize our bodies laying still, dying, my mind was on high alert, my emotions triggered, and I felt my body resisting his words and the experience. My mind had anticipated this dreaded moment and I was angry at its arrival, out of sheer fear of what I was going to feel next.

When we fully embrace our feminine energy, it feels comfortable to just be. We know that everything and everyone we come in contact with has been and will be touched by us. The question becomes, how do we want to touch them? Leading to, how do we want to be?

There are many self-improvement books and lectures that talk about the Ego being the voice of fear and limitation. What they don’t typically talk about is that the Ego is also our self-identity, our sense of self-worth, and who we are as an individual.

In the intervening two-plus decades, I have experienced countless emotions, thoughts, reflections, regrets and losses, as well as victories, successes, lessons and blessings.

Many people who talk about empowering others to become more motivated and fulfill their potential, yet when they meet a truly empowered individual, they hold back their support or are even quick to tear them down.

We have forgotten how to love and be loved, because love has become such a complicated matter. Many end up spending their life chasing the idea of love while putting up barriers to protect themselves from the pain of losing love.

During each occurrence, I found myself in a deep state of bliss, enveloped in an indescribable feeling of love, and crying tears of joy uncontrollably. I felt it from deep within, but also from above and around me.

Emotional abandonment is leaving our emotional needs unattended, often without acknowledging or addressing it with a response. That can leave us feeling confused, unsettled and unloved for a long time.

Sometimes, it takes a great amount of courage to go through life as a multifaceted human being. Because there are so many facets to you, forming a clear sense of self can be a confusing process.

That was when I came across the powerful idea of choosing happiness, as a decision. I realized then happiness is a commitment — it is a practice I would have to adhere to in order for it to last and expand.

Dark and alluring, she stands in my third eye—

Many of us were raised to have the capacity to attract good things in life. Fewer of us have the capacity to attract a flow of good things into our life continuously. Yet, there are also many who were conditioned to sabotage or block good things from entering or staying in their lives.

Just remember, when we talk about mind-body, that the mind actually represses things but our body never forgets. I have worked with many women who have been physically abused and all of them have very similar postural positions.

Somehow, my traumatic past made me feel special in a way. I had been telling those stories for so long that without them, I feared, I would just be ordinary.

Many of us struggle with external demands, stress, and busy schedules. We are programmed to believe that we are only valuable if we are constantly producing, achieving, or available for everybody. I’d really like to challenge that belief.

Nothing sends a stronger message of peace and love than a stunning display of 2,000 double-sided paintings, strategically assembled into a 175-foot-tall monolith. That is the grand plan of Ehsan, artist and owner of Vision of Unity and Peace gallery in Laguna Niguel, California.

Language, math and science are considered the essential courses taught at elementary schools, yet there is no mandatory curriculum for something as fundamental as how to be a good human being.

My life hasn’t been a walk in the park. I’ve been through many difficulties and spent years feeling lost and confused. Being a believer in reincarnation, I wondered often if I was being punished for something I’d done in a previous life.

Who are we?… It’s tempting to go identity-shopping and look for the answers outside of ourselves, but this way, we only end up building more layers on top of who we really are.

If you’re at a crossroads and are contemplating starting your own business, maybe my list of traits will help you determine, or at the very least, give you a starting point to research the right areas or develop certain traits you need to become an entrepreneur.