Before you find out who you are, you have to figure out who you aren't.

Many self-employed people provide services that are nonessential. So whether you get your hair done less or your hair cut less, or your nails done less, as a writer and a speaker I was very clear that corporations weren't being as open and as generous and I wasn't getting the kind of work that I usually got.

You really have to learn what you're good at and what you're not good at, what you can handle and what you can't handle. We have a tendency to forget it.

A stable and nurturing childhood is essential for the healthy psycho-emotional and spiritual development of a human being. While we may understand what is supposed to happen to us physically, we must begin to better understand what happens to children mentally, emotionally and spiritually as a result of the families into which they are born.

You have a right to say no. Most of us have very weak and flaccid 'no' muscles. We feel guilty for saying no. We get ostracized and challenged for saying no, so we forget it's our choice. Your 'no' muscle has to be built up to get to a place where you can say, 'I don't care if that's what you want. I don't want that. No.'

It is important to acknowledge all your feelings and not beat yourself up for having them. Your feelings are not good or bad, they just are.

Never underestimate the ruthlessness of the ego to keep you in a state of suffering in which you voluntarily participate.