Universal Healing: Honor Your Fight & Inner Light

The way I see it, a year is like a cake with holidays and special occasions being sprinkles here and there. When you come to sprinkles, go big on the celebration. Besides, every other day is just regular cake.

A lot of holidays on our cake are just there because they're mainstream, but they don't excite us as individuals. Just going with the flow, we miss out on opportunities to grow.

Imagine how much sweeter our unique cake is when we shake up our sprinkles, step outside our mental barriers, and intentionally decorate with international holidays that evoke an empowering energy.

One holiday that should be on everyone's cake is Diwali (pronounced "Di-vali"). This is a 5-day celebration, starting today, traditionally in India but everyone benefits when we acknowledge and honor the triumph of

• light over darkness
• good over evil
• knowledge over ignorance
• wealth and prosperity

It's easy for us to get swept up in the day to day, feeling the weight of challenges and overlooking our growth and gain. Adding dedicated time in your year to elevate these will help restore inner peace and self-worth.

With this in mind, people ensure homes are spick and span, bright lights (typically diyas) are everywhere and a feast is prepared to take part in the start of new beginnings.

With gratitude, light always triumphs over darkness. I'm grateful even for the people involved in my challenges because they stimulated my strength and perseverance in a way that otherwise would have continued to slumber. I'm grateful for the passionate fire it instilled in me to help others through challenges I've overcome and the growth I see in them because of it.

Celebrating good over the evil we've experienced in our journey shifts our emotional focus to the pride of our perseverance instead of the pain of the experience. This builds love for ourself by highlighting our strengths as a hero instead of feeling like a victim. This sharpens us for the inevitable next battle ahead.

Knowledge over ignorance is a big part of empowerment and overcoming darkness. Everyone has value and helps others grow in their personal development, whether you're trying to or not. You deserve the truth. When you know what's right, it's easier to do what's right, and easier to treat yourself the way you deserve to be treated.

Wealth and prosperity are more valuable in heart money than paper money. When you're living a life of purpose that you're passionate about, you live a more fulfilling life with less regrets at the end than when you just work to collect a check and wish every day was Friday. Appreciate the abundance you have where it matters most first, there's more control and immediate results when you go inward. The other rewards will soon follow.

This year, as I light my diyas, I am grateful to add this sprinkle to my cake and honor my inner warrior that's capable of overcoming the challenges behind and ahead of me.