Christmas is a time for inner giving. If you give outwardly, in compliance with the rules, you will up your stress level. However, if you cherish your inner being, you will reap rich rewards. This is NOT self-pity but a gentle acknowledgement of the road you have walked in 2012.

It has been a rocky one for me on several fronts. Emotional backwaters overtook me and I floundered for quite a while. Out of that came some good writing, as always. God must have said, “I’m gonna give that one lots of tests and the ability to write her way through them.”

I sense that you have had your own rocky periods, as souls seem to have been thrown into the fire en masse. The first step in self-healing is to acknowledge that only you can minister to you. Just look within and feel your energy level. If it needs boosting, simply say this, “Work hard gathering energy when you have no problems.” Works like a charm. Came from my teacher, Vernon Howard.

The second step is to remember that if something is right for you, it is right for the universe. No ifs, ands or buts. If you feel a NO about something, then it’s a NO to the nth power. Likewise with YES.

There are two more things that work for me. “I vow to relieve the suffering of all sentient beings.” (The vow of Kwan Yin). The energy of the vow is the “how” of it. Just rinse and repeat as needed and you will have a lustrous heartful of care. (Gotta get my puns in while I can.)

The last one is this: “I am in God’s presence now.” And you are.