fake it till you make it

I am about as down to earth a gal as you might run across. I like to laugh. I like to create. I like to grow my own food. I have dirty fingernails, I am covered in poison ivy, I have chicken crap on my shirt, but I am happy.

If I could pass on the best advice ever to my kids, it would be the following:

1. Live your passion.
2. Don't take too much time worrying about what people think about you.
3. Don't settle. Be flexible, but don't lose yourself in somebody else.
4. Sometimes things are just the way they are. Give it up to the Universe.
5. Listen to your higher self, the one that loves you and is looking for your highest and best good.
6. Laugh. Find humor in the everyday. Please don't take life too seriously.
   
7. Express yourself. Write, cook, make art, sing, color a path with sidewalk chalk.
8. Be mindful. That is a biggie. Look into it. How you speak to people or yourself, and what sort of energy you really want to put out there.
   
9. Go to therapy at least once in your life. Especially if you need an objective view. We all need one. Friends are wonderful too, but they are not professionals.
   
10. Be kind. That means to yourself too.
11. You are loved. The very fact that you exist is proof.
    
12. Be more grateful for what you do have, instead of spending time and energy wishing for what you don't.
    
13. Fake it till you make it. Which means be open for the positive, even when you are going through tough times. There is meaning, there is a lesson, always. Stop and tell yourself, "I may not be sure what the highest and best good is, but I will wait for the answer." Sometimes it ain't pretty, but those are the kind of lessons that are the very best. Cherish the courage it took to make it through. Give yourself credit. If you can't, fake it until you make it.

~crow