Thoughts are illusions at best

Thoughts are illusions at best. They are suggestions and approximations intended to help us make sense of our world. Too many of us see them as some kind of matter-of-fact gospel. They never were. Your stressful thoughts don’t need to be taken seriously. All there is is the calming beauty of the present moment.

One of the worst qualities a person

One of the worst qualities a person can have is the need to show how smart they are by catching others' mistakes. In some areas, this may be useful, but in general life, it's a disaster. Whatever pattern is repeating in your life has one common variable: you.

As long as you don’t burn any bridges

Think of your life as a bus. You need to get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats. Too many of us keep people aboard our bus out of guilt, history, or fear. “We give the best seats to whoever got there first, not who deserves them. If there are people in your life who don’t give you energy, don’t support you, or don’t add some type of value to your life, it’s time to let them off the bus. That doesn’t mean burning bridges; it means you need to stop investing in those relationships.

Thank things before you leave them

The relationship,  the job, the version of you that survived it. Gratitude before goodbye isn't weakness. It's how your nervous system closes a tab instead of leaving it open forever.

Talk to your body parts like they're people

Your stomach, your chest, your throat. They hold things your mind hasn't processed yet. Ask your stomach why it's tight . Ask your chest why it won't open . Sounds unhinged. Works anyway!

Exercising grief is understandable

Exercising grief is understandable; it can be cathartic to express a loss for a while, depending on what happened. But the more you can remind yourself that your thoughts of what happened are not the same as reality’s neutral and natural purity, the better you will manage. When we judge a loss as a loss, we emphasise that loss. It is felt as pain. The sooner we accept and de-energise these thoughts of loss, the better we manage. We return to the lucid beauty of the present more often. This has to happen at some point; the sooner, the better.

Try to break the mold

Modern life is largely spent in three positions: sitting, standing, and lying down. Try to break the mold. This week, spend more time doing something besides sitting, standing, or lying down. Go for a walk, stretch in the grass, swim in the pool, kneel in the garden, climb a hill. Our physical abilities rarely vanish overnight. They usually fade away from disuse. The body trains for tomorrow based on what it is asked to do today.