When you despair, you have lied to yourself. You have said things will not change. You have told yourself that you will always feel dreary and have reason to. You have said that a suffering emotion will always grip you. But emotions are changing things. And so is your life.

Yet hope is a little thing. It is too little for you. Hope is very maybe-ish. It is a whimper of truth. It hardly passes for itself.

Awareness of truth is another story.

The story of life is change. Your life history is not the extent of you. Every moment is like a new bite of food, like a new taste whetting your palate. A surprise menu awaits you. Be open to newness. You have had enough of oldness.

You know you cannot predict even today. Yet you predict your life. You tell yourself you know ahead of time what it will be like. And so you entangle yourself in a thought.

You have even decided what you are like, as if you are already all formed and the concept of possibility does not exist. That is your undoing.

What you need to do is to undo your thinking. Undo your thinking, and you will be spectacular.

Light is constant, yet it seems to change. The leaves it falls upon dance to the light. Light makes shadows on the wall to appear. Whatever you have thought of yourself, it is only a shadow of who you are.

Transfer your thoughts to brightness. Then you see better. In the moments when you feel good, when you feel possibility, those are the moments in which you are closer to the truth of you and the truth of existence.

Do not berate yourself.

Encourage yourself. Don't wait for someone else to.

Or listen to Me, for I am the Great Encourager. Surely I am not the Great Depressor.

Take a stand for yourself. Then take a chance on life.

Certain music plays, and you dance to it. That is harmony. You do not waltz when tango music plays. If you want to waltz, you put on a tape with the lull of a waltz.

I will compare the music to your thoughts, and the dance to your life, for how you live your life depends upon your thoughts. Your thoughts are the music you play. They give you a tempo. They make you move in certain ways.

Stuck thoughts give you a stuck life.

Change your thoughts, and your life follows.

What are you saying to yourself much of the time?

You give up on yourself faster than you would anyone else.

Step out of past pictures of yourself. Paint a new portrait. Give yourself a chance. Do not take a hard line. Do not take yourself quite so seriously.

Can you be stone-serious and light-hearted? Can you keep a straight face and smile? Can you hold on tight to life and be loose?

What really matters to you in life? What do you personally care about? What would your ideal life be like? What would an ideal day? Then go deeper.

What music would you like your life to play? What moves your heart? What would you like your purpose to be?

Certainly it isn't to make empty motions in life. Find your purpose. Or let it dawn on you.

Sometimes you have wanted things you don't really want. You have your own genie within you who will give you what you ask for, so think again of what you really want. Put your attention where you want it to be. Put your attention high. Go to the top.

But high or low, I am with you.