It's so tempting to look for our treasures in the world. Appraise. Relationships. Accolades. Money. Sex. Solutions to all our problems - or so it seems.

As with a lot of things in this world, the solution is opposite to what it would first make you believe. Yes, of course it’s nice to have a lot of cash, be acknowledged, and own nice things, but for the most part it won't actually solve our problems. It's cliché but true. And I think we all know it.

The real work is in the privacy of our own hearts, minds and nervous systems. That's where we'll find true freedom. Self love. Connection. Sovereignty.

The amount of freedom we can experience in the outside world is directly tied to our willingness to enter the depths of our inside world - not the other way around. We can only experience outside of ourselves what is true within. Life is a mirror.

The real work is in the privacy of our own hearts, minds and nervous systems.

You have to work on your inner world first before you can manifest something like it in the outside world & sustain it. I’ve experienced it many times. Getting the thing felt good for a moment, until the deeper emotion I hoped to avoid came back to the surface - and everything crumbled.

Funny thing is - once you've healed a wound in your own heart, the need to fill it up with something in the outside world becomes a lot smaller, or even disappears completely. It's another crazy, beautiful paradox of life. You realize you didn’t need the thing all along - you just needed to feel safe, relaxed, or learn to love yourself.

So next time you find yourself really wanting to get something, pauze and ask yourself: what am I trying to find, feel, or avoid feeling? And is there a more direct way I can give this to myself, internally?