Because your feelings need to be limber.

Feelings are magnetic. So it goes that if you generate certain feelings – and you have the power to create any feeling you desire – then you increase the power of your emotional magnetism. But we need to limber up, loosen the images and adjectives encrusted on our goals and most-desired states. It helps to get poetic, lyrical, and abstract. Go there with me.

I want my day to feel like jazz.

I want kissing to feel like eating an orange off the tree from Tuscany.

I want my next success to feel like Adele must feel with her latest album.

I want my body to feel like a Jaguar in a new open field.

I want smiling to feel like mangoes.

I want my friendships to feel like sandalwood oil, and bowls of popcorn, and hand-knit, with Vodka mixers, served up in a red tent.

I want my nervous system to feel like The Buddha must have felt when he discovered The Middle Way.

I want my gigs to feel like Jimmy Page playing Kashmir, and Gaga doing a Born This Way finale, with some Leonard Cohen tenderness.

I want my neighborhood to feel like a new Jason Mraz song.

I want my integrity to feel like the Hope Diamond.

I want my money-making to feel like walking though a vineyard, surveying ripeness, a production of sun and earth for craft and pleasure.

I want my word to feel like gold bullion.

I want my laughter to feel like electric pineapple children.

I want the end of the day to feel like a happy quiet baby.

I want being of service to feel like a Squaw mixing herbs into healing paste for warriors.

I want my philanthropy to feel like a cosmic Queen on her best day.

I want my challenges to feel how Siddhartha felt when the left the kingdom.

I want my love to feel like a gorgeous secret that only he and I know. For eternity.

I want my writing to feel like Citrine, and Jack Kerouac with a fresh buzz on.

I want my ideas to feel like sunrise.

Editor’s Note: Danielle LaPorte is the creator of WhiteHotTruth.com, which has been called “the best place on-line for kick-ass spirituality.” She is the author of The Fire Starter Sessions: A Digital Experience for Entrepreneurs, an inspirational speaker, former think tank exec, and news show commentator. You can read all of Danielle’s EcoSalon guest articles here, and find her on Twitter @daniellelaporte.

Image: A6U571N.

The post How Do You Want It All To Feel? Sensuous Goal Refinement + Emotional Magnetizing appeared first on EcoSalon.

When you’re at the end of your rope, maybe it’s because of hope.

Hope: noun, verb.
• the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.
• a person or thing in which expectations are centered.
• a four letter word that doesn’t amount to much.

Every word you speak or think lands somewhere – it’s heard by you (and if not consciously, certainly by your unconscious mind), by the people around you, by the Dream Fairy, The Universe, The Powers That Be.

So what kind of message does the word “hope” send out? How is Life, or your boss, or your partner supposed to interpret “hope?” Hope doesn’t tell anybody where you really stand on an issue. It doesn’t holler, Go get ‘em! or declare I wholeheartedly believe! or I’ll do whatever it takes.

Hope hangs out on the sidelines…just, you know, hoping. While expectation, optimism, and pragmatism are on the field playing the sport of life. Full on.

Maybe hoping is for sissies.
And if that’s true, than intention and faith are for heroes.

What if you banned the word hope from your vocabulary? Try this hope-replacement exercise. How do you feel with each of these statements?:

• “I hope I’ll get the job.” BZZZZT! Reframe it.
• “I really want to get the job.” (“Point taken,” says the Universe.)
• “I’m praying to get that job.” (Prayer is an action too.)
• “I have done all that I can do to get the job.” (Yes! Stand tall.)
• “I will either get the job, or I won’t.” (Precisely. Now you can get on with your day.)
• “I expect to end up with a job that I love.” (Excellent! Open-ended and affirmative!)

Do a Hope List. What are you hoping for? Opportunity to knock? The outcome to be positive? The test results to be negative? Replace “hope” with action words, reality words, intentional, faith-bounding, wide-open, change-agent hero words.

There are too many variables out of our control, yet many variables firmly within our control. It’s foolish to plant big desires on the sands of hope. It’s amazing what happens when you decide to not lean on hope (tho’ you may go through withdrawals at first, not having hope as dream-filler can be profoundly uncomfortable.)

When you move beyond hope, you take responsibility. You face facts. You see solutions that you didn’t see before. You stand in the present.

Hope less. Realize more.

Editor’s Note: Danielle LaPorte is the creator of WhiteHotTruth.com, which has been called “the best place on-line for kick-ass spirituality.” She is the author of The Fire Starter Sessions: A Digital Experience for Entrepreneurs, an inspirational speaker, former think tank exec, and news show commentator. You can read all of Danielle’s EcoSalon guest articles here, and find her on Twitter @daniellelaporte.

Image: sleepyjeanie

The post Give Up Hope. (It’s a Good Thing to Do) appeared first on EcoSalon.

We’re counting on you.

Rachel Crow is fourteen and she can sing. You’ll cry happy, cheer-leading tears when you watch this video.

The gem of this comes at the end of the clip and it’s easy to miss. I had to watch this twice to catch it. SPOILER ALERT: When Rachel gets four thumbs up from the judges (yeah!) and there is wild applause and cheers, she says something so important:

“Thank you. I won’t let you down.”

Thank you. I won’t let you down.

This is the most humble and courageous phrase you can speak when life opens the door wide for you — which it does every day.

You’re up for it. You’re grateful. You see the gift and you realize you can’t do it alone.

With this: Thank you. I won’t let you down, you rise to the occasion.

There are so many people believing in you. Backing you up, saying prayers, taking your call, saying yes.

Dream realizing is reciprocal. Sometimes, when someone believes in you, you are honor bound to go for it.

Say it. Believe it. Hear it (from my heart to yours).

Editor’s Note: Danielle LaPorte is the creator of WhiteHotTruth.com, which has been called “the best place on-line for kick-ass spirituality.” She is the author of The Fire Starter Sessions: A Digital Experience for Entrepreneurs, an inspirational speaker, former think tank exec, and news show commentator. You can read all of Danielle’s EcoSalon guest articles here, and find her on Twitter @daniellelaporte.

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It’s time to get whelmed instead.

Your plate is full, right?
You’ve been at this for a while.
Life is your kind of kuh-raz-eee.

And then it gets fuller, and the time has come, or there’s a curve-ball, and things get well n’ truly wild.

And you could say, because it’s your right to, that you’re feeling “overwhelmed”. But don’t. Don’t go there. Stay with me, on the light side of change and bursting creativity; on the front end of pressure, and greatness, and the best and worst kinds of challenges.

Back away from overwhelm. Because when you just utter that word, you cast doubt on your capacity to rise. You let angst flop on your couch. You fret that you might not have the resources to surmount obstacles or to seal the deal on your dream.

Let’s make a pact. If you slip and use the o-word, I’ll refuse to believe you. I’m going to act like you didn’t even say it, and I’m going to remind you that

: you put everything on your plate with intention, and you have a huge say in creating your reality.

: you’ve been watering your dreams for years and you’re going to get what you ask for and allow (ya!)

: tragic circumstances or a circus of success — you’ve got what it takes to meet life with more giving.

Ban “overwhelmed” from your vocabulary. Refuse it entry to your psyche. You’re bigger than that.

Just be, you know, whelmed (this is best said with a Jewish, Brooklyn accent.)

Whelmed. Not at full capacity, rather, full of capacity.

Whelmed. Sounds full of potential, doesn’t it?

Editor’s Note: Danielle LaPorte is the creator of WhiteHotTruth.com, which has been called “the best place on-line for kick-ass spirituality.” She is the author of The Fire Starter Sessions: A Digital Experience for Entrepreneurs, an inspirational speaker, former think tank exec, and news show commentator. You can read all of Danielle’s EcoSalon guest articles here, and find her on Twitter @daniellelaporte.

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On letting go of your dreams.

Louise* and Lance* were best friends. Just friends, never so much as smooched. They were roommates, they got drunk at concerts together, they slept in the same tent, exchanged great Christmas presents. Lance dated other people. Louise was in love with Lance. Plain as day, we all could see it. Well, maybe someday Lance will get it.

Twelve years went by. New partners and holidays came and went. It was good n’ truly time for Louise to lay down the torch. She decided make a pitch. This is the crescendo of all romantic comedies where the protagonist decides to go for it:

It is 4 a.m. and we’ve all been dancing at a fabulous wedding. Louise and Lance are slow dancing as the DJ starts packing up. There is a small audience of us in the corner table balancing Stella bottles and wearing neckties around our heads. “Oh…my…I think she’s going for it,” one of the cast says. We lean in to gawk, trying to read their lips.

Sure enough, with heart in hand and Cabernet courage, Louise makes her overture. Do you think we could make a go of it? Lance listened. He’s a great guy. He listened softly. And softly he said: “If it were going to happen, it would have happened by now.”

Truth bomb. Gently dropped.

If it were going to happen, it would have happened by now.

Even destiny has an expiry date. This is such primal wisdom. I’m all for relentless dreaming and fierce faith. But if you’re spending an overly long time trying to wish, hammer, hope, push and ploy things into form, maybe it’s time to point your dream in another direction. If a crop isn’t growing, the farmer doesn’t keep wasting water and fertilizer on it. He yanks it out, tills the soil and plants a whole new kind of seed.

Let ’em go. Kill the project. Shut down a division. And take that same longing for love, or creative fulfillment, or phat cash and face forward!

Here’s the key dance move:

Hold on to the core desire of the dream – that feeling you want to feel when the dream is realized, but shift to a wholly new target. Change directions and a new form of satisfaction could be right around the corner.

…just like it was for Louise. She got on with her life. And fell in love with someone who fell crazy in love with her – easy breezy and right away.

*names have been changed to protect the identity of the temporarily heartbroken.

Editor’s Note: Danielle LaPorte is the creator of WhiteHotTruth.com, which has been called “the best place on-line for kick-ass spirituality.” She is the author of The Fire Starter Sessions: A Digital Experience for Entrepreneurs, an inspirational speaker, former think tank exec, and news show commentator. You can read all of Danielle’s EcoSalon guest articles here, and find her on Twitter @daniellelaporte.

Image: Hamed Parham

The post Find a New Target for Your Long-Unfulfilled Dream: A Love Story appeared first on EcoSalon.

We know you can, we know you can…

I’m all for mental health days. And gentleness. And I think the world should take the month of December off. And for the love of God, a four day work week would revolutionize the collective human spirit and thusly, healthcare. But this pep talk isn’t about taking it easy, this is about another form of self care: doing whatever it takes.

Just got dumped? Lace up your runners and move your body.
 Under the weather? Go in to work any way, wearing your favorite sweater.
 Up to your earrings in deadlines? Go cheer on your friend. Show up at the bake sale. Call your mother.
 Crying before show time? Put some tea bags on your eyes. Say a prayer. Enter stage left.

Push. Turn up the volume. Go hard. Go harder. 
Re-prioritize your aches and pains.
 Infuse your sensitivities with courage.
 Tell fear to fuck right the fuck off.
 Devote to Done.

There are soul-justified reasons to cancel. There are times to just stop. This isn’t one of them. Keep going. Show up. Full on. Full tilt. Full out. Decide to be one of those people who pull it off.

Do what you say you’re going to do. 
Don’t let us down. 
Decide to rise.

Why decide to rise? Not for the reasons you might think. In fact, these are the reasons that will make you sick and tired:
Do not rise out of obligation. Do not rise because of feared consequences. Do not rise because you think being tough makes you smarter (it doesn’t).

Decide to rise because you want to expand – your being, your life, your possibilities.

Decide to rise because super powers are meant to be activated and applied in everyday life.

Decide to rise to explore your place in the universe.

On the other side of deciding to rise is illumination, ecstasy, insight. And the angel of your strength is there waiting, smiling, applauding, with a goblet of endorphins for you. Drink up.

When you transcend circumstances you get special privileges. You get evidence that you are indeed amazing, and irrefutable proof that what your heart and mind choose is what matters. And you get the deep knowing that life wants you to win.

Decide to rise.

Lean in. Listen up. Closely. 
It’s your soul speaking and she says, 
Get UP!
I need you. I want you. I am you. Choose me.
Lean in. Listen up. Closely.

Decide to rise.

Editor’s Note: Danielle LaPorte is the creator of WhiteHotTruth.com, which has been called “the best place on-line for kick-ass spirituality.” She is the author of The Fire Starter Sessions: A Digital Experience for Entrepreneurs, an inspirational speaker, former think tank exec, and news show commentator. You can read all of Danielle’s EcoSalon guest articles here, and find her on Twitter @daniellelaporte.

Image: Tigr

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Do not get a tattoo. Just don’t do it. Nine times out of 10, it’s a regrettable act of stupidity, or vanity. Or both. Resist the urge.

You’re still reading this? Still craving some ink? Well, if you insist (and you had better want a tat enough to insist on it), then let’s proceed.

8 things to keep in mind when choosing a tattoo:

Tats are a big damn deal. They last longer than marriage and mortgages. Be lucid. Get meaningful. Is Mickey Mouse on your ass the best moniker of your Higher Self? That tribal arm band…what tribe you from, mister? Getting a tat to be cool, or as a right of passage is plenty understandable. Just dig deeper than the flash art available on the tattoo parlor wall. Good rule of thumb: think about a specific tattoo design for one year. If you still LOVE it, go for it.

It’s bad luck to tattoo your boyfriend’s name on your ass. Yes, it is from experience that I speak. I thought Seattle Boy’s signature on my bootay would rock his world (never mind that he was legally blind.) Just as the tattooist is about to put the needle down on my tush, he looks up at me and says, “You know, this is the kiss of death. Your relationship is like, so doomed.”
“Shut up and brand me,” I said with conviction. I left Seattle boy a few months later.

Tattooists are generally arrogant, intimidating, secretly very sensitive artists. I said generally, not universally. I have seven tattoos (most of which I regret, a few of which I adore,) all from different artists. Most of them were scarey to me. While it’s a life-changing event for you, it’s just another gig for them—they will put their 100% best into their art, but if you want a cake and candles for your big day, forget it. They’ve seen every stupid, masterpiece-worthy design that’s ever been inked. As my first tattoo artist quipped, “Quit yer grinnin’ and drop yer linen.” End of creative discussion.

Bearing in mind the aforementioned, stand your ground. Be particular. Risk being annoying. If you don’t feel “heard” by the artist, leave. It takes some mettle to walk out on a pierced punk with FTW on his neck, but you won’t regret it.

The best tattoo artists are worth the wait. Just like hairstylists and good lovers. And the best ones are good listeners. (Just like hairstylists and good lovers.)

Don’t get tattooed when you’re drunk. Not because it’s dumb ass, but because alcohol thins your blood and you’ll bleed more.

Yes, it hurts. Imagine scrapping a hot needle across your flesh, firmly and repeatedly. For pain management I use this technique: I clench wads of tissue in each hand (because my palms start to sweat), I chew a pack of Juicy Fruit gum and I say to myself: This will be over and it will be so worth it. Or not.

Tattoos can be life affirming, flesh-honoring symbols that celebrate your truth and remind you of who you truly are. Go sacred or go home.

Editor’s Note: Danielle LaPorte is the creator of WhiteHotTruth.com, which has been called “the best place on-line for kick-ass spirituality.” She is the author of The Fire Starter Sessions: A Digital Experience for Entrepreneurs, an inspirational speaker, former think tank exec, and news show commentator. You can read all of Danielle’s EcoSalon guest articles here, and find her on Twitter @daniellelaporte.

Image: Bob Jagendorf

The post Tattoos: Go Sacred Or Go Home. 8 Things You Better Keep In Mind appeared first on EcoSalon.

How to use your psychic powers on mice and men.

I was working for an organization in New Mexico. Our office was an old compound of adobe buildings, off a bumpy side road, by a field. One summer, we were overrun with mice.

We couldn’t do traps. Cruel. Messy. Yuck. The humane traps (Mister Mouse crawls into a plastic house and a door shuts. He waits to be picked up. You then drive Mister Mouse forty nine miles away and set him free.) Not very practical when you’re dealing with an extended family reunion of mice.

So we did what any self-respecting cosmic team would do with a vermin problem: we meditated. Our plan: one fifteen minute meditation as a group at the end of a staff meeting, and anyone who wanted to keep sending out their own thought waves throughout the day, then, yeah! The meditation: “Dear Mice. We love and respect you. And, this is our space. Please leave within the next two weeks. If you choose not to leave within two weeks, we’ll set traps and kill you. Bless.”

I guess mice can tell time, because in two weeks, nary a mouse turd could be found. They va-moused out of our space.

The moral of the story, in three points:

USE YOUR PSYCHIC TELEPHONE. IT’S FREE!

1. Speak with your mind, grasshopper. Engage your inner resources first. Meditate before you activate. We exert so much physical energy and time trying to make things go our way. Memos, conversations, to-do lists and PLANS–all those damn plans. Try using a different channel to get your point across.

Another case in point: I needed to fire a staff member. It’s something everyone would prefer to avoid. So I sent her this psychic text, “This isn’t the right place for you. Find another job, or I’ll fire you in two weeks.” She quit, head held high. I didn’t need to say a word. Mind-email? We’ll never know, but it’s a lot more efficient than handing someone a box of tissue and their last cheque on a Friday.

2. Have a very clear intention. You can’t be all like, sorta kinda, maybe, possibly wishy washy. State your position and send a clear signal.

3. Intend for the highest and best outcome for all, and deeply accept that it is ultimately out of your hands. Speaking psychically to people (and animals) isn’t about manipulating them. That kind of mind screwing will give you much-deserved karmic migraines. The more win-win your wordless intentions are, the more you increase your chances of being heard.

Does this work for wooing men? “Call me by Friday or I’m dating Buddy.” Maybe. Does it work for getting your building superintendent to clean up the lobby? “Mr. Rogers, the foyer needs love so we’ll all feel better. PS, You’re awesome.” It might. Does it work for sending love, and light, and new possibilities in a potentially all-powerful instant? If you believe it, it does.

If you’d like to make a call…
please dial in to your solar plexus.
Speak clearly, kindly, truly.
Operators are standing by.

Editor’s Note: Danielle LaPorte is the creator of WhiteHotTruth.com, which has been called “the best place on-line for kick-ass spirituality.” She is the author of The Fire Starter Sessions: A Digital Experience for Entrepreneurs, an inspirational speaker, former think tank exec, and news show commentator. You can read all of Danielle’s EcoSalon guest articles here, and find her on Twitter @daniellelaporte.

Image: Balistik Coffee Boy

The post Before You Bust A Move, Pick Up Your Psychic Telephone appeared first on EcoSalon.

Danielle LaPorte of White Hot Truth inspires us to do everything we set our minds to.

Seemingly impossible; they can, but you can’t; not in this lifetime, light years away, inconceivable.

The stuff of dreams.

Luck.

Ha.

Instead, take this into your cells:

Miracles, proof, evolution and revolutions, breakthroughs, dawnings, devotion, in time, in the realm of possibility, with the power of love, come hell or high water, positively conceivable.

You Can:

Laugh again after unspeakable loss. Joy will wind its way around scars that will never unknot within you-like smiling ivy warming tree roots.

Triple your income. Jump a “class bracket”. Pay cash. Never worry again about if you have enough money to do what you want.

Be one week from filing divorce papers and see that he’s the LOVE OF YOUR LIFE. (Oh yes, I know of what I speak).

Get over not getting what you thought you wanted to get but never got from your parents, because at some point, you need to get on with getting what you want in the here and now. (Give your folks a break).

Have never walked a full mile and become one of those people who not only runs many miles but LOVES to run. This happens, I’ve heard tell.

Where you used to fill space and time to avoid the terror of stillness, you can actually rest in the peace of your radiant mind. Calm permeating.

Come out of the closet, stand in front of your family, and commit to the one you love in full color and pride.

Lose the weight – permanently. Yes, forever.

Hug the person who you sold you down the river when you run into her on the street years later , and mean it.

Start.

Finish.

Cure yourself.

Melt into love.

Truly,

you can.

Editor’s Note: Danielle LaPorte is the creator of WhiteHotTruth.com, which has been called “the best place on-line for kick-ass spirituality.” She is the author of The Fire Starter Sessions: A Digital Experience for Entrepreneurs, an inspirational speaker, former think tank exec, and news show commentator. You can read all of Danielle’s EcoSalon guest articles here, and find her on Twitter @daniellelaporte.

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The post You Can Change: A Sweeping Affirmation appeared first on EcoSalon.

This is not the bedrock kind of faith that grounds your psychology or devotion. It’s not the spiritual-insurance kind of faith where we hope (trust) that life will come through for us, in the end.

It’s the Holy wow, I’m standing at the beginning of something that is so insanely ripe with potential that I wanna get naked and roll around in it right now, while singing rock opera kind of faith. It makes you grin and do uncharacteristically obsessive and impulsive things. Bright faith chugs downs exhilaration at every pit stop.

“This is a state of love-filled delight in possibilities and eager joy at the prospect of actualizing them. Bright faith goes beyond merely claiming that possibility for oneself to immersing oneself in it. With bright faith, we are lifted out of our normal sense of insignificance, thrilled as we no longer feel lost and alone. The enthusiasm, energy, and courage we need in order to leave the safe path, to stop aligning ourselves with the familiar and convenient, arise with bright faith.” – Sharon Salzberg, Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience

Bright faith is essential to falling in love – with people, with causes, with your own unfolding self. Bright faith is primal to creativity.

Bright faith can be unnerving, slightly embarrassing, and awkward. We are trained to resist it, and we do so at the cost of innovation and the passion we crave.

BRIGHT FAITH BURNS THE PATH TO CLARITY

Here’s a headline for a life resume: “Selectively, but wildly excitable.” I adore exclusively stoked people. They’re discerning — not everything is a great opportunity, in fact, golden ops are rare. But when they see something that glimmers with uniqueness, or resonates with their reason for being, they just they freak the fuck out.

This is how brainstorming goes with brightly faithful people: “Hmmm. Uh huh. Nope. Nah. No. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Ooh. Ahh. Wait a second. Holy sh*t, yes yes, yes, oh my God, we could…and then we could…and it would be so…and Holy yes and…I’ll sell it all if I have to…and what am I going to wear when I accept the award?! Who will we invite to the wedding?! How big do you think we can build it? Excuse me while I make a phone call.” They go off.

It’s illogical, and grandiose, crazy, and most certainly romantic. It’s faith. But these are the essential ingredients for breaking through mediocrity and cynicism. Bright faith is a divine kind of madness. And what the Spocks of the world don’t quite get is that the chaotic sparks of bright faith actually burn a path to clarity of mind.

To create things of beauty — in form or between two people — it’s a passion first, discrimination second formula. And yep, it’s dangerous.

BEING ‘UNCOOL’ IS THE ULTIMATE STRATEGY

If I have to choose between two service providers with similar skill and equal pricing, I’ll always go with the one who expresses their excitement. I did a gig recently with someone who said, “Oh my God, I’m so excited to work with you! I’m going to hang up the phone and do the happy dance.” She was so uncool about it all. No pretense, just joy and bright faith in how much fun we could have. So then I said, “Me too! Now I’m really stoked. I’ll do the happy dance when I hang up too. Let’s do this!”

My best strategic meetings have been the most uncool. Un-self-conscious. Everyone comes to the table with bright faith. They’re happy to be there and they say so.

Bright faith shows up at the beginning — that extremely precious and fractional space when you need as much light as you can to see which way you want to go. The more possibilities you let shine — the more you shine with possibility — the more lucid and discerning you can be.

Facts, faced: you are extremely fortunate.

By many accounts, you and I have every advantage to be happy, healthy, and deeply fulfilled.

Your heart may be broken, you may not have enough money to get to the end of the week, you may be fighting for your life.
 But when placed into perspective — you are extremely fortunate.

In fact, if you’re reading this, the highest probability is that you are living in the western world, above the poverty line, in a democratic environment.

Somewhere else…

: If you were unfaithful to your spouse, you would be stoned, likely by your neighbors.

: Are you gay? If you’re found out, you will get jail time.

: Thirsty? Clean water is five miles away. Walk to get it. You have one bucket.

: Have you complained about the government in an email? You’re going to court.

: Want to convert to a religion other than the one you were born in to? That would warrant execution.

: You may want to play soccer with the other boys your age, but you have weapons training.

Women…

: You can’t get a job because by law, women are considered “half the value of men”. Hell, you can’t even vote. You can’t even look a man directly in the eyes.

: If you’re menstruating, you will miss school rather than face the ridicule.

: Raped? Refuse a marriage proposal? If you’re lucky, they won’t kill you, they’ll just throw acid in your face.

: Long for erotic pleasure? It’s difficult since your grandmother cut out your clitoris with a razor blade when you were twelve.

: Long to be thin, to run in the sun? Forget it, men in your village like large women and you are force fed.

We could go on with the atrocities and restrictions — from the extremes of human trafficking (the average American girl is thirteen when she is forced into sex slavery) and torture, to what we consider basic health-care, like clean needles and dentistry. The hell that is Haiti, and parts of Uganda, Sierra Leone, West Bengal…and our own cities…

Facts, faced: even in our struggles, most of us are privileged. We have so many rights, must we exercise the right to complain?

Sometimes, the most direct route to appreciation is through the darkness — even if it’s merely imagined.

I’m writing this from an airport because I missed my flight — which derails my luxurious escape plans for a day. I’m lucky to have plans, to be sitting by a $2 million dollar sculpture, in a gun-free airport, drinking my peppermint tea, in a new warm coat, using free wifi. I’ll choose to be appreciative.

Your mother had the right idea: eat your dinner, there are children starving in the world.

That fresh salad you get with your entrée. The insurance on your car. The clothes you wear, where you want. The hands you hold in public.
 The light you’re reading by. That vaccination scar on your arm. 
Your innocence.
 
Really, what’s the worst of your problems?

Perspective isn’t everything in terms of have’s and have nots. But you can work it to your very great advantage.

Editor’s Note: Danielle LaPorte is the creator of WhiteHotTruth.com, which has been called “the best place on-line for kick-ass spirituality.” She is the author of The Fire Starter Sessions: A Digital Experience for Entrepreneurs, an inspirational speaker, former think tank exec, and news show commentator. You can read all of Danielle’s EcoSalon guest articles here, and find her on Twitter @daniellelaporte.

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