Trying to climb the mountain of “better” almost always involves huge amounts of exhausting labor, when we’re already dead tired.

never experiencing the joyful ease that comes with full integrity.

From childhood, my one overarching life directive was Do whatever it takes to win approval.

We learn from our culture how a good person is supposed to behave, and we behave that way. Then we expect the promised rewards: happiness, health, prosperity, true love, solid self-esteem. But the equation fails to balance.

Of all the strategies and skills I’ve ever learned, the ones that actually work are those that help people see where they’ve abandoned their own deep sense of truth and followed some other set of directives.

The Divine Comedy, written by Dante Alighieri in the early 1300s. This

The only change to make at this point on your way of integrity is to admit—just to yourself—that some of your actions are designed to impress or fit in with other people.

You’ll see that psychological suffering always comes from internal splits between what your encultured mind believes and what feels deeply true to you.

As I’ve mentioned, I’ve coached people who seemed to live right up near the