If you continue to ask everyone else who you are, without having any understanding of who you want to be, you will be swept away by the wind with no direction.

If you're struggling -- if you're feeling out of, or the need for, control -- it's less likely that something's wrong with the object of your desires, and more likely that there's something you've been unwilling to give up in order get what it is you say you want.

Grace is always extended, something that becomes clearer each time I remind myself that healing is an ongoing process and never a final destination.

In anticipation of holiday gatherings with family, frequently gift yourself with the mindful practice of sitting with the breath, appreciating the air, sipping seasonal drinks and really tasting each drop. Feast on feelings, honor each morsel of the moment.

Without change in ourselves we become stifled and stagnant; without change in the world we will not survive. Such impermanence means that every difficulty, challenge, joy, or success will, at some point, be different: This too shall pass.

The dramatic storylines actually create the drama in our lives. By focusing on future uncertainties and fabricating the details around what might happen, we get plenty of present-moment stress that fires up our cortisol levels and makes it harder to cope with the reality of our situation.

As much as we look forward to sharing the bounty at our holiday tables with friends and family each year, some parts of the long weekend can be a little trying.

The two parts of genuine acceptance -- seeing clearly and holding our experience with compassion -- are as interdependent as the two wings of a great bird. Together, they enable us to fly and be free.

I believe each of us has an innate capacity for strength and throughout our lives, we develop -- through conditions we find ourselves in -- the skills to be secure, passionate, formidable and determined.

Since what is resisted persists, acceptance of "what is" helped remove the actual source of discomfort: the anger of intrusion on my peace and rest.

I think we could all learn something significant from dogs regarding the nature of not just giving, but receiving. There seems to sufficient conversation around the need to be a good giver, and appropriately so, but there is little talk about the other end of the stick.

When we practice Radical Acceptance, we begin with the fears and wounds of our own life and discover that our heart of compassion widens endlessly. In holding ourselves with compassion, we become free to love this living world.

Sometimes when I talk about "Radical Acceptance," I like to tell the story about Jacob, a man who, at almost 70 and in the mid-stages of Alzheimer's disease, attended a 10-day retreat I was leading.