Words by Dorothy Mendoza Row

Accepting responsibility for your own life is not the same as blaming yourself. You are responsible, but you are not to blame. We are all doing our best with the abilities we possess at any given time. Mistakes are often a necessary part of the process to increase and expand those very same abilities that once left us so wanting. Blaming yourself is the same as blaming someone else. Both leave you stuck and stranded in the land of self-pity, poisoning your mind and eventually your body with all sorts of unnecessary and debilitating pain. If you find that you have made a mistake in the past, don't waste your time on self-blame. Learn from it, and make a better choice NOW.
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Go with the flow. It's easy and fun!
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The message for you is a simple one: Continue being you. Continue feeling deep, boundless gratitude for the many blessings of your life. You have a really nice groove going. Enjoy it!
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You are a joybringer. That is who you are. You are here to feel joy, share joy, expand joy, all throughout the world. Do not underestimate the importance of your mission. Joy is very important. Keep smiling.
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Be gentle with yourself. You don't have to change everything this instant. Allow change to come in its own time. Trust that it comes when you're ready. Often when we get our first unobstructed view of reality, and our choices made in ignorance are revealed to us, our first instinct can be to panic and push to change everything NOW, NOW, NOW. But that panic is fear descending upon us once again. And once again our vision becomes clouded. And once again we are unable to make awakened choices. And the cycle repeats itself. Again.
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No matter what you do, there's always going to be someone who doesn't agree with you. So taking your cues from somewhere outside of you is never going to work. It might provide you with some temporary relief, like a drug or a drink, but there's always going to be some sort of negative side-effect or hangover to deal with eventually. The only answer then, is to wake up to who you really are. When you are awake there's no need to look to anyone else for the answers you seek. When you are awake you see things as they are. There is no need to seek approval. You are who you are. And reality is reality.
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There was a time when I didn't like myself very much. And there are still times when I fall back into my old thinking patterns for a moment. Always when thinking about the past. Really though, you just have to do what you can. And all you can do is the right thing in the present moment, as each moment arrives. And the right thing is never to dwell on the past once the lesson has been learned. It's a double waste of time to waste your time thinking about the time you wasted someplace way back in time. All you have is NOW. Literally.