What Kind Of Old Person Do You Want To Be?

You know,

We often think gentleness and having an open heart is kind of weak and foolish,

But actually it's the other way.

Going around with a closed heart,

Always trying to stay in control is foolish,

Because that way you just end up locked up in a prison of your own making,

And you've strengthened the walls and double-locked the doors.

So don't do that.

Even though it might seem,

You know,

Scary even to keep your heart open,

Keep an open mind,

Trust in something beyond you.

But if you really do it,

I mean with real sincerity,

You'll be brought into a wisdom that is just priceless.

You'll find the help you need,

You will find the people you need,

You will find some hardships too,

You'll find some difficulties that are just tailor-made for you to help you grow.

And it matters how you handle them,

Whether you keep that heart open or if it closes,

You know,

Let it open again,

No matter what happens to you.

You know,

There's some people who've experienced the heaviest hardship and they come out the most beneficent.

You know,

Viktor Frankl's one,

He went through the Holocaust and was in,

You know,

A concentration camp,

And he came out of it with a really deep love of humanity.

See,

There's something in us beyond our humanity that if we open to it,

Will help us and will inform us and actually protect us.

Yeah,

It's way safer to open to that than to double-bolt the doors and be scared of everything.

Because you know,

We just get older and however you live your life,

It just gets more exaggerated.

So,

If you keep your heart closed and feel threatened all the time when you're younger,

It gets worse in old age,

Often.

You don't want to be an old person like that.

No,

No.

Keep your heart open.

Keep your mind open.

Believe in yourself and turn to that Creator inside you for guidance and for solace.

For solace.

I used to,

You know,

My way has been really this focus on self-compassion.

Whatever happened to me,

I would just sort of imagine the Creator looking at me with great compassion for this struggling human being.

Or I'd imagine angels hugging me.

You know,

And gradually I became more and more lodged in that energy,

You see.

It got stronger and stronger in me.

That's why I know it works.

But you have to be sincere.

You can't be ambivalent.

Okay,

Bless your hearts.