Meeting Will Etchison in person, you might be impressed by his enthusiasm, his individuality and his confidence. Hanging out with him can be an adventure, whether he’s borrowing a mic from a street performer, breakdancing at karaoke or inviting you to a go-karting track. Of course, he wasn’t always quite like that. Growing up, even though his parents did their best to teach him that his value could be found within, he felt the social pressure in school to believe that his value could only be found in the opinions of others. He started changing his appearance to try to impress other people, change his behavior or hide things about himself, and even change his taste in women. As you might imagine, none of this helped him find happiness for more than a fleeting moment. Then when he told a therapist that he was so concerned about being perceived as weird. She responded simply “Why don’t you embrace your weirdness?” Suddenly things started to click for Will - realizing he didn’t have to pretend to be someone else in order to be accepted. Perhaps whoever or whatever he was, was enough.

If you get to thinking, you might realize you have a lot of concerns about the past and the future. Perhaps you’re not sure if you made the right decision in ending a relationship, or changing careers, or staying with a career. Naturally, it can be quite stressful to think about all of the things that you might have done wrong, or still might do wrong. If you start to tabulate them, you’ll probably find that there’s no end to the list. Now we bring our attention to the present moment, noticing the sensations in our bellies, in our hearts, in our minds. We can realize directly, and intellectually, that we are not complete, that our actions might not be perfect, that we are ongoing processes that need never be complete. You don’t need to fear being; you are being. You are alright. Content warning: shamanic substances