Now, we are not suggesting that you do anything drastic here! Don't write to us and tell us that we said you should quit your job or leave your mate. All we mean by a shake-up is that sometimes we all get too complacent, or set in our routines. We forget to stop and take a good hard look at ourselves and what we are doing. It is really easy to get into feedback loops, acting and reacting in same ways, whether or not they are positive or productive for us.

In an old Star Trek, The Next Generation, beloved Enterprise was stuck in a time warp loop, experiencing same two days over and over again. Their reactions to this crisis, over and over again, would lead to their destruction. It was only after they became aware and changed their reactions, that they were able to escape loop.

In this life, we are all here to learn lessons, and we will keep being presented with opportunity to learn them until we get it right. One of lessons I have to learn this time around is about people I choose to let into my life. I used to be kind of person who would let anyone into my life if they seemed to like me. I was emotionally needy. As I progressed, I thought that I was starting to get more discerning about this. I thought that I was learning to avoid people who were going to be negative influences and weigh me down. Some years ago, I had a friend who was a very toxic person. She was emotionally out of control, making very poor decisions and bringing a lot of negativity into my life. I made decision to end friendship. At time, I attempted to do this gently, but she was very offended, and wrote me an 18-page letter, rambling and quite scary. It clearly illustrated to me that I had made a very poor decision by letting her into my life to begin with, and that I had done right thing in cutting her loose. To be honest, I was rather pleased with myself for making right decision. I had learned a valuable lesson! I was never going to get into that situation again! After practically wrenching my arm by patting myself on back, on I went with my life.

About 7 years ago, I met a lady who would become my “best friend”. I gave her keys to my kingdom, so to speak. I shared everything with her, and she with me, or so I thought. As time went on, I could clearly see that she had her own emotional baggage, but don’t we all? I certainly went through some tough times during our friendship, some of which I have shared with you in past issues. There were times that I was an emotional wreck. However, I did learn from these bad times. I grew, and moved on. I genuinely learned that I would be just as happy as I decide to be in this life. I choose to be happy here.