Here we are, you and me.

I’ve lived a while now and I’ve known a lot of people. Had a lot of experiences, felt a lot of different things. But right now, I’m talking to you and only you.

You’re reading this for a reason. Maybe you are open-minded. Maybe you are curious. Maybe you want to hear something different. Maybe you want to be inspired. Maybe you’re really desperate for some answers. Maybe not.

Whatever the reason is…although I cannot actually be there with you, I want this to be as personal as possible. I’ve found that when you get real and personal with people, things are much easier to understand.

This blog is all about empowerment through understanding. I believe that the more you understand, the better you will feel and make others feel. The richer your life will be. You can be free of the grip of chronic, paralyzing fear, and you will learn how to tame those fears you do still have. You will be able to see opportunities in everything, even the worst of situations. You will feel your own awesome inner power, and you will be able to use it consciously and deliberately to do wonderful things. No matter what you are thinking right now, you have it in you.

I myself, for most of my life, never thought this empowered state of mind existed. I thought only a very few gifted people–Gandhi, Jesus, and Nelson Mandela, for example–had some kind of genius that allowed them to have a perfect sense of purpose, that allowed them to be peaceful at heart even though so much torment went on around them. I thought I was a wackjob. I saw myself as a victim and a resister, always swimming in conflict–not as a peaceful lover and giver. I took things and people for granted. And despite my good intentions, I ended up hurting myself and a lot of other people.

But then I broke through. And now I know there is no going back. It’s like crawling and walking; once you learn to walk, there is no question, barring something very unforseen: you will never go back to crawling.

What’s the catch? Like anything in this world, self-empowerment is not without its challenges. Nor does everything bad and dangerous disappear when you are fully conscious and self-empowered. On the contrary…you see danger everywhere. You become conscious of how fragile things are–very conscious. You come to understand, even as you acquire this awesome control over your own being, that you really have no control over anything else. You are at the mercy of too many other forces to count. So what’s the point, then?

The point is that when you get strong enough in spirit to let in the whole truth, the beautiful and the ugly, you are able to do so without falling into a neurotic paranoia. You can realize such wonderful and horrible things…and still be calm and at peace inside. And when you can do that, you can do anything. It’s a feeling like no other.

I’m not promising you protection from bad things–they will happen no matter what. I’m not promising you that you will never swim in the ocean of sadness and anger again–you will many times. New challenges will arise once you conquer the old ones; that will never stop being the case.

But this latent power of yours will help you deal with all this in two extremely vital ways. When difficulties arise:

1. You will much more often be sure of how to go forward to reach peace of mind.

2. When you don’t know how to go forward, you will know what mindset to take, what questions to ask, whom to ask them, and so on, so that you can find your way.

If you can know all this, you will never be permanently lost. Though there will be many times that you will become lost and confused, you’ll always have another way out.

Make it a New Year’s Resolution to remember that. And feel free to bookmark this blog and/or leave a comment or two! I’ll be back…