As a fellow empath, I’ve been guilty of blindly diving into the deep depths of giving my unconditional attention to others without being cognizant that my emotional bucket is finite. Being an emotional anchor for others is a gift that shouldn’t be taken for granted. I believe the world would be a much kinder place if we all embrace our inner sensitivity and harness this skill to help others navigate through the ebbs and flows of life.

I’m not going to lie to your face and tell you that my year so far is perfect. But my perception and response to what occurs in my life feels more at ease as I’m happily working on leveling up from all my shortcomings. Confidence doesn’t just turn on like a switch once you’ve had a massive epiphany. Confidence is riding the spectrum of not letting the hiccups in life rob you after you change your belief systems. You move the needle and acknowledge the bigger picture of progress rather than micro-analyzing it.

I think back to some of the most trying periods of my life and realize: In the midst of feeling like I’ve lost everything, I feel the closest to myself, to divinity — to god. From death deciding to claim a friend when her life had just barely started to being cheated on by the person you thought you could trust — your mind goes numb with shock, then the rest of your body follows. It’s as if muscle memory regresses, and your knees forget to unbuckle itself — letting you crash to the floor; Your mind and body choose to not register the agony your heart is experiencing.

A large part of being a high-value person is your willingness to express the sacred values you believe in for the world to see. It’s one thing to have an understanding of your convictions, but without having the courage to apply them externally, people don’t know that you have an inner light you’d like to shine. When your thoughts, behavior, actions match in complete alignment with your personal value system, your radar for attracting people, opportunities, lifestyle changes to reinforce your standards becomes an automatic consequence of your shift.