You don't release control via force.

Let's say you're holding onto something. You don't force yourself to let go. You first notice that you're holding on.

Then your hands can open. The muscles can loosen.

When you're scared to release control, don't jump to conclusions about how to release control. Understand: Why are you scared? What's the root of the fear? Why are you seeking to control this thing?

The fear itself is always connected to something else.

If you go back to the first principle - letting go feels like death to the ego - it's that connection between deeper identification with the context, circumstance, environment, or opportunity that creates the fear. And from there, you control.

Control is the blossom. Fear is the branch. Self-identification is the root.

This is the harder but most freeing part of the work: you begin to dissolve your identity.

You still do things. You still create. You still show up. But you're not so emotionally hooked. Not so insecure that you need everything to work out the way you'd prefer.

You learn to let go of your preferences because you see the nature of the dance between preference, expectation, control, and the creation of fear through that entire mechanism.

Less expectations = less attachment = energy freed up within your being to do this work.

You gotta consider that the entire planet is created via atoms. Something created the atoms, the ocean, the particles of water.

Get granular within your own being:

• Your psyche
• Your energy
• Your vibration
• Your worldview
• Your identity
• Your beliefs
• Your actions
• Your nutrition
• Your input
• The things you don't say
• Your relationship to external environments
• External stimulus
• The people you interact with

When you look at your life from that level, everything begins to get clearer.

But it takes a commitment to God, a commitment to truth to free up the energy needed to see the world from the granular level.

If you are totally addicted to distraction, then you don't look within. If you don't look within, then you can't understand.

Start simple. Look at balance, but understand that balance comes in seasons. Winter is balanced in itself - it is the decay. Same thing with fall.

If we had summer all the time, that would be disgusting.

I was removing vines recently. It's mind-blowing how if you don't prune and take care, nature will... the vines will kill the trees.

Are the vines bad? No. Maybe they have negative energy - they crawl up trees, strangle the trunk. If they get all the way up top, they drag the tree down.

It's like lobsters in a cage - when one's crawling out, others drag them down.

Humans work that way too.

The next level of consciousness isn't saying the vines are bad or the people who drag you are bad or the lobsters are bad.

It's holistic understanding: How can I be the one for this world that inspires change?

And it can only happen through doing the work within your own self.

From 18 to 26: 18 confused, 20 little less confused, building stuff, feeling good but having confusion. 22 feeling extraordinarily clear, powerful, aligned, still having confusion. 22 to 26, same thing. Lots of great moments, lots of tough moments.

It's a game of not quitting.

It's surrendering to where you are in your life and being as honest as you possibly can with yourself and everyone you meet.

No one will ever have the answers to your truth, but the fundamentals will be there. You execute on what I speak about, and I can guarantee that as you do this work, you will change.

You will learn. From that change, from that learning, I don't know what will happen. But I can guarantee you'll recognize you're changing and start to see the meaning in the change.

That's my promise to you.

If you would like to work one-on-one, we can get you into great shape while working on emotions, relationships, your connection in the workplace. Everything to do with your identity - who you see yourself to be and limitations you may be struggling with.

I will never be able to do the work for you. I will always be able to listen, and through that listening, you may have that same essence strengthened in yourself. {link}

Justin