Each of us individuals inherently knows how to swim harmoniously together in a pool of collective humanness. 

One (of many) thing(s) we can do to support ourselves on this path toward greater individual and collective wellbeing is to accept the complex nature of living with these brains in these bodies amongst billions of other humans on this planet. We can concede that the things that feel most challenging in this human existence are nuanced, not black and white.

The more practiced we become at slowing down, tuning in and dropping in, the more likely we are to feel touched by things we experience in our daily existence. 

You already know how to work hard and think hard. Maybe it's time to balance things out with a bit of light, spacious touch. 

A felt sense of being seen, accepted and lovingly held just as we are is the core of our deepest human longing. 

The more familiar we become with our internal landscape of sensations and feelings swirling through our bodies from moment to moment, the more trusting we become of ourselves over time. 

No need to reinvent the wheel each time you feel stuck in an unhelpful loop. Go back to the wisdom you already know as Truth in your bones. 

When we tune in closely enough, we notice that our hearts are touched by suffering in a way that naturally leans us toward alleviating pain — within ourselves or others. 

The more embodied we become, the more comfortable we feel inside our own skin, regardless of external circumstance. 

You're human, and things just feel bad sometimes for us humans. That's OK. You're allowed your full humanness. 

When you notice you’re entering lid-flipped territory there’s only one thing you need to remember to try to do: Get yourself grounded enough to be able to see and think clearly again (aka close your “flipped lid” back down).

Yes, there absolutely is a warm, soft side to self-compassion. But there's also a fierce side to it. This side has the flavor of “I love you too much to let you wriggle your way out of owning responsibility for harm you may have caused, intentionally or otherwise.” 

How lightly can you go about the “work” of your day today? 

Striving for balance often stirs up dust of guilt, shame and overwhelm, freezing us in our tracks before we’ve been able to get any real positive momentum rolling.

Harmony, on the other hand, feels like a homecoming. Like a return to a restful center point within ourselves. Harmony feels easeful and simple. Pleasant and natural.

These human brains love certainty. Certainty feels safe from a survival perspective, and "figuring things out" is one way our brain grasps after that certainty. 

So it takes some intentionality to pause, zoom out and ask: “Is figuring out why this is happening the most useful way to use my focus and energy right now?”

You staying as regulated, centered and grounded as possible right now matters. You serving as a model of equanimity and thoughtfulness for those around you who are feeling overwhelmed matters. The positive reverberations from you spending a joyful shared moment studying a butterfly with a five-year-old matter. 

In this moment when so much feels out of our control on the global scale, one thing that is within our immediate individual control — and which can have a profound positive ripple effect — is for each of us to do what we can to stay as calm, centered and grounded as possible as we take in information about what’s going on in the world.

The truth is we really can never know in the moment what ripple effects something happening right now – personally or collectively – will have into the future. Something that appears on the surface like bad luck right now could prove to be the biggest blessing as our path unfolds.

We notice that instead of descending into the depths of despair for long periods of time, we still scrape the bottom sometimes, but we’re better able to feel our emotions, process and grieve when that’s what’s called for, and bounce back to our homeostatic set-point and center more quickly and more easily than we used to. 

Yes, once we internally accept whatever's happening in a given moment we no longer need our external situation to change in order to feel OK, content or at peace. 

But we don't usually arrive into that space of acceptance without first going through some layers of resistance and grief.