The work of knowing the self requires honesty and willingness; honesty to be able to accept that the truth IS the truth and willingness to face all that comes up as the truth. The truth is often painful and necessary, but the truth is also liberating. It will free you.

Accept yourself by accepting others. Accept your truths in everyday thoughts, desires, behaviors and encounters. The truth is all around you, part of you, inside and outside of you. It is what you seek. Know yourself. Be willing to be honest and truthful. It’s a good place to start.

– From the Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

It is often hard to hear the truth. But the truth sticks around. When you are ready to hear it, it will be ready to speak to you. If you are not certain of the truth, look to your fears, for they do not lie, and sometimes they are easier to acknowledge. The truth lies right beside them. Find one and you will find the other.

– From the Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Change may take some time to institute. Sometimes it is easier to make incremental changes, working daily toward a goal. Sometimes it is easier to simply and abruptly shift into a new mode. However one goes about it the decision to change is usually a good one if one’s purpose is to grow and evolve, to allow the self to expand and have new and beneficial experiences.

To change simply because one is restless or feels a need for something new, however, may not be the best time. Far better to sit with the restlessness or need until it becomes clear what it is. It may not be in fact a need to change at all but a need to remain steady and present where one already is. For often it is in the sitting, in the confrontation with what is that one changes the most. Not all change requires action. Some change just requires a shift in mood or idea. Sometimes just a change is thinking is all you need to spark new life.

To stay present in each moment of the day is to be aware that you are a physical being, for you must anchor in your physical body to remain fully present. And yet, to remain aware that you are also a spiritual being is equally important, for to be present in each moment is to bring both physical and spiritual together in awareness. It is quite a feat, for usually one or the other is off doing its own thing! The energy of awareness is the breath. Use it throughout the day to bring you back to home base, to your physical-spiritual self together as one, if even for just a moment!

When there is conflict, either within or without, there is need for change. The body, the mind, and the spirit all have their means of calling out, of signaling that something is not right, that something must be done differently if life is to progress in an evolutionary direction. When wishes for something new arise, pay attention. When dreams of new life come, pay attention. When the body refuses to do something, pay attention. When energy does not come when needed, pay attention. To take control of one’s life one must pay attention but one must also act on one’s own behalf. Change is not something to fear but something to wholeheartedly embrace. Change is good.