Your job is not to please your audience. Your job is to make your art and help it be in the world.

Many of us who have deep misgivings about capitalism also love money or at least want more of it, and this can feel incongruent. It helps to understand money as a resource, an energy. It does not have to be intrinsically good or bad. We project meaning on it.

Grief is part of life, throughout life. Though we may be afraid of it, it isn’t bad; it simply exists, a shared human experience. Over

We have a story about who we are and what we are like. We not only believe it, but we also may operate as if it’s an unmovable truth, the stuff of the universe. It’s unchangeable.

As you identify thought patterns that you want to disrupt and feelings that you want to work through, taking a contrary action can be an effective tool for personal growth.

accepting your fear doesn’t mean you embrace it or will behave based on it. Accepting isn’t the same as condoning. Accepting your fear means you are aware of it and agree that, “Yes, there it is . . . there is my fear.”

Working on your relationship to the self means a growing self-awareness. Knowing yourself well will help you in all other relationships.

Often, the solution is to take contrary action. This means that you are afraid to do something, but you choose to do it anyway.

Detaching from our thinking is a life-changing skill. We are not our thoughts. Most thoughts are not true. Not all our thoughts need close consideration. Most do not need to be acted upon.