When I was in high school if you were black and lived in Detroit, and you wanted to drive down to Florida to go on vacation, you had to plan to drive all the way through, because you couldn't stop in a hotel all the way through South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. We can't even fathom such a thing now, can we?

After a while, we start really believing these things are true. People who have had self-defeating behaviors for a long time, such as people who have been overweight since they were children or people with longtime addictions, actually believe there is no other alternative.

Every little obstacle-every fall you have-is an opportunity.

Give thanks for all that shows up in your life including the stuff that you perceive to be negative, the things that you wish wouldn't have happened. Don't take anything forgranted.

Even if you are loaded down with guilt about everything you did in the past, you still are experiencing the guilt in the moment.

If you think peaceful thoughts, you'll feel peaceful emotions, and that's what you'll bring to every life situation. If you're attached to being right or absolutely need something in order to be at peace or successful, you'll live a life of striving yet never arriving.

Once you put your attention, your thoughts, your energy, your consciousness on a new intention, that's what you begin manifesting into your life. The word "intention," I believe, is really important, because it doesn't leave any room for doubt or maneuvering: "I intend to create this in my life out of the circumstances that I'm now experiencing."