We don't have trouble feeling happy about someone else's happiness because we're terrible people. We have trouble feeling it when we want something like what they have for ourselves...

And we secretly fear we may never be able to have it.

Last weekend I got to visit the 9/11 Museum in New York. And about 15 steps into the building, huge wet tears started rolling down my face. I was hit with this visceral sadness of "Oh my God, this is humanity."

You'll know when to leap when you feel it in your bones — in a part of yourself that feels totally un-pin-point-able, but also more real than anything you've ever felt before.

Acknowledging and accepting our emotions is very different than indulging or dwelling in them. The more fully and honestly you let yourself feel whatever you're feeling right now, the less you'll have to play clean-up down the road. There are no emotions you're not allowed to feel.

The more you let it all hang out there, the more fear melts away and connections bloom. Once you reveal your deepest, darkest secrets and see you don't actually die from doing so, you're free. No more hiding and no more shame required to try to protect those vulnerable parts.

If you pay attention to the repeated actions you're taking (and thoughts you're thinking, words you're speaking) now, you can lay the bricks of the supportive habits you want to become your default M.O. down the road. The first step to changing a habit - however deeply entrenched it is - is to become aware that you have it.

When we align our actions in a committed way with our most sincerely heartfelt desires, the universe tends to step in to support us in some way, even if not in exactly the way we'd envisioned. But we have to meet the universe halfway.

You never know whose life you might be changing for the better right this second by just showing up. There's no different way, no "more” you need to be to positively impact someone's life right now.

When the landlord opened the door to the apartment I now live in, my first thought was, Wow, this is tiny. My second thought was I know I'm gonna live here. I just knew in my gut this space was for me. And the past 3 years have proven that intuitive hit to be right on the money. Sometimes intuition comes clearly like that. But when fear is involved, intuition can feel fuzzy.

I thought there was something defective about me that I hadn't been able to figure out how to kick these maddening, self-defeating eating habits.Then one day this question crossed my mind and really hit my gut: "I wonder what I'm using food to distract myself from?"

Don't sweat the details at first. They'll clarify as you go. Start with just the ONE thing you know from deep in your being you want - and you see - in your ideal future day. Keep that one thing front and center in your vision; trust it and build on it.

Negative energy can be strong. But your positive, centered energy is even stronger.

You are not in your way. Only your judgments of yourself are.

Let the self-judgment go and you're free.

Sitting around focusing on my heart and repeating that I wish myself and others well, and expecting it to actually change anything? Please. I felt way too far gone for that. But its simplicity is precisely why the practice of loving-kindness is so brilliant. It's like a backdoor into self-love.

Making major life changes can feel scary and complicated. But I see (and know from personal experience) how the simplest practices, repeated with intention and attention, can make the most profound positive shifts in life.

Once we acknowledge what's really up for us in this moment, we can appropriately address it and clear it through that awareness. We keep the channels clear by staying as honestly and objectively aware as possible of what our energy and emotions are up to in the present moment.

In 2009 when I moved from San Diego back "home" to the Bay Area I was sad. In more grief than I'd ever known I could be, in fact. The move took place after the first man I'd ever really opened up to loving and being loved by died in a car accident. And I had no clue what I was going to do next. All I knew was that just "being" was the only right thing in that moment.

And what can feel tricky is that of course there are yoga poses and things and people in this life that really aren't the best fit for us. But when you stay plugged into your intuition about what really feels right for you, when you stay open enough to be willing to try out just this one little shift…you can have those breakthroughs. You don't need to wait for some gigantic shift in outer circumstances to break through your inner barriers.

Worry is a subconscious way of keeping ourselves comfortable - aka (emotionally) safe - aka small. But if you stay aware, you can use worry to your advantage. You can start to view it as a signal that you're about to step into some sweet, new, expansive territory.

But there's an alternative to this stress-inducing, actually counter-productive type of "time management": To tune into your inner energy in a given moment and let it guide you in the most appropriate-for-this-moment action to take next.