Welcome the five points that follow as friends along the way to a life free of self-defeat, for that is exactly what they are.

1. The more light we can put on those parts of us that tell us it’s OK to wallow in dark thoughts and feelings, the less power they have to deceive us with the pain they would justify.

2. Calling on anxious thoughts to answer fearful feelings is like trying to stop a landslide by throwing rocks at it!

3. The more we awaken to the realization that quiet happiness is our true natural state, the sooner we will recognize and release whatever would compromise us by sending us out to look for what we already possess.

4. Nothing is more productive than watching our own thoughts and feelings; self-observation not only reveals unconscious self-wrecking states for what they are, but this order of higher awareness also protects us from their wasteful negative influences.

5. Seeking the higher happiness that comes only with spiritual wholeness is like hoping that a merry-go-round can turn into a Ferris wheel.