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Here’s your Duo, wonderful friend of mine…

YOUR DUO OF PERFECT PERSONAL BALANCE

Part One: Your Grounding Elemental Ritual

For this ritual, you must be seated outside in daylight hours, on the ground, with your toes in nature. 

To your chosen location, please bring a small candle, matches/a lighter, a bottle full of water, and a hand fan (a simple one constructed of paper would be perfectly acceptable).

Then, do the following:

1. Light the candle and set it in front of you, easily visible and as close by as is safe. 
2. Pour a small amount of water into one of your palms and cup it there as it drains slowly through your fingers.
3. Using your remaining hand, fan yourself gently.
4. Ensure your feet are making direct contact with the earth.
5. Speak the following words with certainty, confidence and a deep awareness of your current state:

“Fire, water, air, earth, 

Each one integral to my birth,

And to the life I have since lived,

What more ever could you give?

Just this, I ask – just one more thing,

Surround me as a binding ring,

Keep me grounded in this world,

Alive and awake to both blessing and curse,

As they are, those things let me see,

Rather than as I’d prefer them to be,

With a pure heart, let honesty lead,

This is the way things should always have been.”

6. Observe a few minutes of reverent silence, thinking only of the elements and your appreciation for them. Then, end the Ritual, safely extinguishing the candle.

Immediately, any sense of disconnection from the earth and the truth of reality will evaporate. 

You may even feel a little flat or down, but don’t worry – that won’t last long. It will balance out as it was meant to once you’ve activated your Scepter…

Part Two: Your Silver Linings Scepter

Continuing onto the second part of the Duo, here is your beautiful Silver Linings Scepter. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s been around for centuries.

It was initially created for a prince who could never see the upside. You know the expression “every cloud has a silver lining,” I trust? Well, his had to be, I suppose, manufactured.

Your status is nowhere near as dire, but the Scepter will still greatly help. It will pull you far out of this rut you’ve been in lately.

All you need to do to activate it (and immediately increase your supply of hope and optimism) is follow these simple instructions:

1. Display the image of your Silver Linings Scepter in full-screen mode on your chosen device (phone, tablet and laptop would all work fine).
2. Sit before the displayed image and make unbroken eye contact with it for as long as possible, not blinking until it’s vital you do so.
3. When you finally blink, keep your eyes closed and take a deep breath. Hold your breath for as long as is comfortable, then gently release it.
4. Open your eyes and regain your normal breathing rhythm, but keep looking only at the Scepter as you say this phrase from memory: Lift my heart and let me see – there’s good in everything, golden strands and sprouts of green.
5. Press both of your palms over your heart, and repeat the phrase a second time: Lift my heart and let me see – there’s good in everything, golden strands and sprouts of green.
6. As you did during the Ritual, conclude the activation with a few minutes of silence. After this, you can minimize the image and continue about your day.

When the Scepter is active, the balanced feeling you’ve been searching for and working hard to attain will overcome you within a few hours. 

Suddenly, you’ll be free to breathe easy. 

To see chances with clear but hopeful eyes. 

To avoid missing a third opportunity in a row – and not by any sense of a narrow margin.

And then, in time, you’ll have the mental space and energy to absorb these Principles and make your change stick for the long term…

YOUR PRINCIPLES OF PRODUCTIVE PRAGMATISM

I’ve considered each of these carefully, and I can promise that if you continue to abide by them in your rebalanced, recentered state, you’ll never fall too far toward toxic positivity or negativity. You’ll keep the scales aligned!

Here they are…

1. Always Respect Your Energy Limits – It’s fair, realistic and not remotely pessimistic to know when you’ve run out of energy. Though some people take productivity and positivity to mean never “admitting defeat,” I know this is a foolish outlook. We all need to rest and recharge to get back up the next day with vim.
2. Choose Consideration and Willingness over Commiseration and Woe – It is okay to see the errors you’ve made in the past. To see them, to think about them, and to be willing to admit them. On the other hand, it’s not okay to constantly wallow in them and let your sorrow define you day after day. Draw the line. 
3. Know the Small Things ARE the Big Things – The best way to be genuinely happy on a daily basis is to realize that everything matters. Little things, medium things, big things – these all combine to become your life. If you can enjoy the “simple stuff,” you can enjoy it all.
4. Understand “Sensible” and “Hopeful” as Sister Phrases, Not Antonyms – You can be sensible AND hopeful. These traits match well, in fact. Hope isn’t mindlessly assuming it will all work out – it’s wanting everything to work out. And sensibleness is doing everything possible to help that hope win.  
5. Never Apply a Permanent Solution to a Temporary Feeling – Give yourself the time, space and kindness to sit with your feelings before rushing to action. In this way, you’ll avoid making decisions in the heat of joy or the heat of sadness, and you’ll avoid negative consequences. 
6. See That Your Strength Is Not In Standing Unassisted Forever – The happiest people are the ones who know they can lean on others when they get too tired to stand alone. When you’re ready to learn that and put it into practice, you’ll genuinely have mastered productive pragmatism.

That concludes the third offering I needed to share with you today and leaves you plenty to get on with,        .

Let’s catch up again soon, okay? I know a lot of progress is coming your way.

Your loving friend,