By giving meaning to hardship through words, you can structure a life around your values, your strengths, and your intentions. You get to choose how you show up. I created these affirmations to help us fully inhabit ourselves and our more difficult experiences, so we can tell a story of strength and perseverance.

This is a prayer for peace for all of us who've known the power of grief and the balm of friendship, who've been touched by the hands of despair but who still choose life. Wherever you are now -- wherever you've been and wherever you're going next -- may you open your heart to the freedom that's still available to you, whatever it is you decide that freedom means for you.

Letting yourself not just navigate this season, but seeing yourself as inherently part of that process is a radical way of looking at life. It changes almost, if not every single thing. It's a way to find your footing in the world and in this moment, a matter of forgiving yourself and the past enough to move forward.

Before anything else, it’s okay to admit you’re not perfect or good all the time. It’s okay to admit that some days, weeks, and seasons are much harder than others. Hiccups are part of life. So are you. When you feel as volatile as a storm, try using these affirmations for mood swings. So you can get on with your life.

When I was in my lowest place, that was sacred ground. Thinking about how desolate I felt being in that place, it reminds me that I’m a much stronger version of myself only because of the weakness I’ve felt. May these words of strength help you see that you, too, can bloom from nearly anything.

Coping with trauma, what happened in you in response to what happened to you, is a tall order. Especially when you’re coping by trying different ways to heal it rather than hide it. If you’re one of those trying, I bow to you, and I share these quotes about healing from trauma with you, because of who you've become.

Here’s an enchanting candle gazing meditation that’s easy to do and doesn’t require a whole lot from you. It’s from my book Sleep Rituals, reworked and given an appropriate name: Burn Your Thoughts. Give yourself that mental space — to clear away whatever isn’t letting you be fully in the moment, or fully in your life.

This poem you're about to read is what inspired me to say: greet every experience like a chance or a teacher, if not a friend. Even sorrow has its light, beautiful things grow out of the worst times. Just ask anyone who's known loss, and who's taken that pain and used it for their own betterment, or in service to others.

A cloudy day is the perfect chance to meditate on the miracle of your own being here. No matter how old you are, there’s a certain wonder and lightheartedness in watching the clouds drifting through the sky. To rekindle your interest in the world above you, try this cloud meditation. Keep looking up and you might just see that you too, can let the light shine through. That you too, have an influence on the world.