A path with heart winds inward as much as outward, for how can it be a path with heart if the true self and the true heart are not found and embraced. Finding one’s path with heart entails finding who one truly is, so begin there, unlocking the secrets of the secret self, enabling the heart’s intent, venturing first along the inner path so that the outer path may be recognized as truly resonant. If one’s own heart is unknown one’s path will be hard to find.

To despise the self yet seek to love others will not result in a path with heart but only in a heartless striving for the unattainable. Learn first to love the self and then all love will be possible. A path with heart hums with loving kindness and compassion for the self and all beings. That is a true path with heart.

A warrior strives always for balance, and yet a warrior is always open and flexible, ready for anything. Yet a warrior also knows that excess reduces the possibilities for real magic to happen and so a warrior is impeccable in maintaining an open mind and heart while simultaneously honing the skills of a patient warrior, knowing that all good intentions and dedicated practice eventually bring rewards. In humbleness does a warrior proceed through life, knowing that at any moment everything can change. For a warrior knows the real truth, that to think one is in control is an illusion. And so a warrior’s main goal is to walk a compassionate path of heart with grace and humbleness, maintaining balance within and without, fully aware and ready for anything.

Regret not, but move steadily forward reminding the self often of the duality of life on Earth, that yes you are a physical being but also so much more than that, a spiritual being as well. Seek always to discover what that means. Knowing that you are more than your physical self is to be physically more present. For in knowing that you are so much more, you know that so much more is available too. And that is what you seek, fuller knowledge and access to all that is outside of the physical. You ARE more than your physical body. Don’t be afraid to find out what that really means!

Life unfolding offers all that is needed. All that is to be faced will be found in its daily challenges. Reminders of who you really are will emerge as you experience all that life offers and all that life takes away.

To turn away from the rigors of life may offer temporary solace and much needed rest, but the warrior knows that to retreat completely from the wiles and woes of life is to stop evolving. Only in stepping into the full force of life does a warrior learn to grow, learn what it means to be kind, loving, and compassionate. And so, a warrior does not stand down from life but stands up to it, taking every day and every thing that happens as a lesson to be mastered.

Life—it’s all you need. For it contains everything that will take you forward to discovering the true self, the warrior self who knows that every day is a gift.

Carve out sacred time and sacred space each day, time for reflection, recapitulation, and rejuvenation. Without a spiritual component, without embracing and exploring the mysteries, the whys and the deeper meanings, life soon flattens out into worries, fears, and stresses, and joys are few, enlightenment a foreign word. To embrace the self as a spiritual being is to embrace life on earth as sacred time. Grasp not at that which is not present but at that which presents itself each day. There you will find the sacred, in each moment of reality.