Each of these five things can help you shift your daily experience in small but profound ways, as they have mine. This spiritual salve will help you gain insight, peace, and clarity, and make it easier for you to deal with the next moment in a healthy way.

Declaring to myself that I would keep no calendar, unplug from my laptop and all obligations, I set forth to discover what the morning would bring and follow the call of my heart.

We can choose to let fear be a noose around our neck, holding our breath through life. We can choose to hold onto what we believe we can control, saying no to experiences that may seem risky. We can choose to be satisfied, but less than passionate. Or we can choose to cut the cord.

Since becoming a therapist, I inspire my clients (typically not to the severity that my therapist "inspired" me, unless it is necessary) to take a 21-day alcohol detox every year around this time.

Often we are so focused on achieving a particular goal that we don't even see the greater possibilities that come into our life. We sidestep them thinking them to be unrelated or trivial to our mission, when in reality, they offer the very insight or opportunity we need to succeed on our primary path.

Is it possible to run a successful business and be committed to your spiritual practice? How can your inner wealth translate into financial achievement? How does building wealth equate with spiritual values?

How do you feel about change?  If you're anything like me, you probably have mixed feelings about it.  While it often depends on our perception of the type of change -- big or small, good or bad, needed or unnecessary, easy or hard, etc. - most of us seek and fear change simultaneously.

Each stage of this hike, and each stage of anything big in our lives, has its own unique terrain and demands real effort. In the high alpine and the luscious valleys, I learned to appreciate this reality.

When you are disorganized and you can't find what you need when you need it, you lose energy, time and money. Disorganization also lowers your confidence in yourself. Bottom line: It's not worth it.

With greater frequency I've recently wondered why I'm being shown the splendor and richness of the world that I've been fortunate enough to experience and can only conclude there must be a greater purpose -- a grander design to it -- than my own personal fulfillment.

The only way to open to change is to give up our resistance to it. This letting go is the easiest and hardest thing in the world to accomplish. The power of opening to the present moment and letting things be what they are is a simple act, and in many ways a great relief.