Everything that bothers me is a gift.


If I’m bothered, I’m stuck in a story that isn’t serving me. The thing that’s bothering me is there to wake me up to my story and return me to peace.


Everything that appears to threaten my identity is there to wake me up to the fact that I’m clinging to an identity that doesn’t serve me. And it will keep challenging my self-image until I clear up that stressful, impossible-to-maintain, false notion of myself.

Everything that appears to scare me is there to wake me up to the fact that I am scaring myself, that without my stressful story there is nothing wrong. And it will keep scaring me until I’m finally able to clear up my innocent imagination, stop scaring myself and know that the eternal now, free of any story, is always perfectly safe and kind. 

Everything that appears to annoy me is there to wake me up to the fact that I am holding a negative opinion, that there is no annoyance without my opinion. And it will keep annoying me until I finally clear up the true source of my annoyance. 

Everything that appears to hurt me is there to wake me up to the fact that I am hurting myself through what I’m thinking and believing. And it will keep hurting me until I finally see that no one can hurt me but me, recognize where all pain comes from and decide to stop hurting myself. 

Everyone who appears to judge me, roll their eyes at me or hate me is there to wake me up to the harshness of my own self-judgment. And they will keep judging their hearts out until I clear up my relationship with myself and recognize and cherish my true nature independent of how anyone appears to see me.

Everyone who appears not to understand is there to wake me up to the fact that I don’t understand, that I’m living in someone else’s business, which I can’t know. And they will keep failing to understand until I let go of the idea that anyone should understand anything other than what they understand (much less what I think they should understand).

Everyone who appears to run away from me is there to wake me up to the ways I abandon myself. And they will keep running away (or so it will seem) until I can sit with myself and feel completely stayed with. 

Everything that appears to take from me is there to wake me up to the truth about what is mine and what is not mine. And it will keep seeming to take from me until I finally see that I always have what I need, that I never need what I don’t have, that I can never lose what is truly mine and I let go of my stressful attachment to things that don’t actually belong to me.

Everyone who appears to not respond to my emails is there to wake me up to my stressful need for external validation in order to feel okay. And they will keep failing to respond to my emails until I settle into the truth of my validity prior to anyone else’s say-so.

All these things are gifts!


Everything that appears to _____ is there to wake me up to the truth that _____. And it will keep coming at me until I _____.