Art by birthday girl Betty Verbeke!

Even though I'm still in the grips of a birthday celebration hangover at 9pm, I have never been more excited about life. This week, I learned how to get off the mood swing roller coaster AND how to be god. I feel like life is making it rain on me.

1. Say whatever you want.
Our neighbor walked by our window, saying to her friend, "Dude, what the hell is up with that light?" She was referring to the CFL desk lamp on the windowsill, keeping our precious cape sundew Cecil out of dormancy. Her friend must have muttered, "Shhh," because the next thing she said was, "What? I can say whatever I want!" And she can! It's not like she offended us with her question. And she has a really pretty voice.

2. Win at relationships.
Betty is so brilliant when it comes to self love. The key to a great relationship is to DO YOU. Betty's expert advice: Always do your normal routine as if you're single. You'll keep being your reason for feeling good, instead of depending on your partner to give you attention. You won't be needy, and your partner will always want more!

3. Don't be afraid to look at yourself.
Self reflection activities like journaling are free therapy. Everything dark inside you will feel better when you bring it to light.

4. Develop your voice.
This week I have a collection of 3 disparate ideas about writing that I'm using to guide my work: Write to GIVE love, not get it. Write for a single person who you have in mind as the perfect person to read what you write. And share your work because "I just want everyone to know how good this stuff is. I love it and I want them to love it too."

5. Think of life design as steering the boat of your life.
I like finding ways to think about life design that makes it simpler to grasp. So, picture this: There is stream of life. You're the boat in the stream. When life is hard, you're hanging onto the banks or trying to go upstream. When you turn the boat in the direction of the flow, life swims nicely along. Life design is the act of nudging the steering wheel of your mind to turn the boat from upstream to downstream.

6. Try this mantra: Everything happens for a reason. The universe is unfolding perfectly.
Thanks again to Betty for this one! Use this to keep calm in a stressful situation, or when things don't go as expected. Deep down you know it's true.

7. Try these affirmations.
After much introspection I have discovered my core desires: I want to feel good about myself, have the best day of my life, make my best work, and feel the best I've ever felt. Easy, right? Practicing these affirmations helps me stay focused:

I'm having the best day of my life.
I am making my best work.
I feel the best I've ever felt.
I feel good about myself!

8. Feeling precedes experience.
It all comes back to last Monday. Kelly had this epiphany that she was god, feeling great and feeling free. She wasn't attached to any form. Her heart and soul were completely open to anything and she didn't care about any manifestation because she knew it could only go her way. Her soul was free, not attached to anything, not caring if she got attention, because she knew god is infinite and only prosperous and anyone else can know that too. She was feeling so godly, and then we got this awesome manifestation (getting to talk to our crush for hours!). Then the next day Kelly could feel herself being distracted by the manifestation (getting attached to it, thinking about it, mining the past for good feelings) and she didn't feel as good. She started caring about her manifestation. She realized she had to feel the god feeling and not be attached to anything if she wanted anything attachment-worthy to come along again! To practice feeling that god feeling, skip down to Tip #12.

9. Get off the roller coaster.
I've heard others talk about it, but for the first time it made sense to me when I was writing my notes for the seventh day of the 40 Day Prosperity Plan. I'm practicing not letting things affect how I feel whether they're good or bad. If it makes me feel good, it will make me feel bad and vice versa. I'm practicing a detachment from the ups and downs of life. If I find myself feeling annoyed by something, I'll say "Get off the roller coaster" and I'll remember to roll with the punches. If something good happens to me, I'll say "Get off the roller coaster" so I don't hang onto the positive manifestation for hours or even days after it happened, preventing more good from coming my way. What I want can only come in the present, and I can't be attached to the past and be present at the same time.

10. Question your need for traditional concepts of security.
In his brilliant book, The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety, Alan Watts explains that you can never really have security. If you want security, you make yourself separate from life by making life something you need to be protected from. The only real security is to acknowledge that you're one with life, so you're always secure no matter what happens. You can't protect yourself from life. You ARE life! You can practice being one with life by being "in the Now".

11. Be dominant/assertive/the Alpha Dog.
Sometimes I'm timid as hell, but it just takes a tiny bit of practice to feel confident and powerful. Ask for what you want and expect to get it. To practice getting in this mindset, challenge your worries by saying, "How dare you doubt me!" If you're worried what other people think, counter with "I dare you to doubt me!"

12. Be god.
Self improvement makes you neurotic. Embrace the perfection you already are. Practice feeling like god by watching your breath, thinking, "God is breathing in. God is breathing out." Makes this moment kinda holy doesn't it? If god is breathing this moment, we must be doing something right. Whatever you're doing, it's all good, because god is right there with you.