I know why you are here on earth because I know why I am. It is so simple and so fraught with difficulty. Are you ready to hear the answer that you already know?

You are here to love yourself. No, you can’t do it for very long at a time. That is why the suffering continues. It takes conscious energy and intention to get the job done.

Say to yourself: I choose to love myself. Five words of freedom, utterly guaranteed. I just can’t guarantee that you won’t fall into self-loathing again.

I have long been living a life in chains. That is one reason I love Leonard Cohen’s song, “Born in Chains.” The chains are mechanical and they hurt. Mine have to do with forgetting to love myself. But so many people never do.

I write about my own life, as I don’t like generic stuff about awakening. So I give details. Yet I remain intensely private. Go figure.

I am having lots of insomnia and bad dreams and hints of depression. All to be expected from a sleeping human being. As Leonard also wrote, “There ain’t no cure for love.”

So I go about my simple days feeling anxious and often blue. Until I remember why I am here. To love myself. And I stop and give myself conscious love. And it works. Miraculously, it works.

I don’t deserve to suffer. No one does. And no one has to, if they are doing their inner work. Be faithful to it. That is really all that changes anyone.

Vicki Woodyard