I sometimes call this our "spacesuit self" because we come into an environment that is difficult and challenging, where we're told to be different. We're told to jump over hoops to be loved and appreciated, so we have to develop spacesuit strategies to get approval and create ways to avoid being judged.

I speak a lot about what I call "the trance of unworthiness" which is really epidemic in our culture, this sense of "I'm not enough," or "something's wrong with me." Most of us have some level of it because our culture has all these standards (handed down through our families) of what it means to be okay.

We can find true refuge within our own hearts and minds-right here, right now, in the midst of our moment-to-momen t lives.

I want to accept myself completely, just as I am.

There are some things we can't choose, but in being present we can choose how we want to relate to them

In any moment, no matter how lost we feel, we can take refuge in presence and love. We need only pause, breathe, and open to the experience of aliveness within us. In that wakeful openness, we come home to the peace and freedom of our natural awareness.

The renowned seventh-century Zen master Seng-tsan taught that true freedom is being "without anxiety about imperfection.