A chapter from Candice O'Denver's "Clarity in Everyday Life: A Handbook and Guide"

1. RELAX AND ENJOY LIFE
When we have done everything and we no longer need anything and there
isn’t anything whatsoever that can pull on us in any way, then we’ve come
to absolute completeness.
When we stop for a moment and consider our life, how much of it has been
spent running from one experience to another hoping to find some kind of
comfort? For example, we get up in the morning, and let’s say that we feel
foggy or half-asleep, so we run for a cup of coffee or some other kind of
pick-me-up to change what we feel. Then we look at the people around the
breakfast table; we may start thinking about their shortcomings or why we
don’t want to be there with them at that moment—or we start feeling guilty
because we’ve been thinking about their shortcomings and not wanting to be
with them, and we try to relieve ourselves of that guilt by being nice to
them.
Then we go to work, and we have to face the wild and wooly array of
different personalities that we find there. We often feel powerless and
helpless in the face of the challenges we have in the workplace. During the
day we’re thinking about some kind of pleasant state that we can get into
that won’t involve the state we’re currently in, so we start thinking about
what it will be like when we get off work. Then we’re thinking about how nice
it would be if we could retire!
At the end of the day we get off work, but things aren’t yet what we hoped
they would be, so we think, “I’ll have a drink or a joint, or I’ll watch TV or go
to a movie or try out that new restaurant.” Then, of course, there’s always
sex. Nothing else is working, so how about our old standby to provide a
moment of complete relief? All the while we are seeking the next experience
that will make us feel better. Yikes!
The very best thing we can do for ourselves is to live life with a one
hundred percent commitment to open intelligence. Until we begin living as
open intelligence, we will have so many expectations of how life needs to
change. But when we have that commitment to open intelligence, less and
less will we need to rely on trying to change things.
When the need to change ourselves and our circumstances is completely
resolved and there is no longer a focus on a self-centered existence, then it’s
seen that the self-centered existence never was anything fixed or solid. By
recognizing our natural beneficial being, the self-obsession that was once so

2. prevalent is no longer to be found, and instead the desire to be of benefit in
a very natural way pours forth.
Please relax and enjoy life. Don’t beat yourself up with all the descriptions
you’ve learned about what you need or what you need to be. When ideas
come up: “Oh, I’m unemployed, I am employed; I am successful, I am not
successful; I need to change this, I need to change that,” relax and see that
everything is ​as it is​and that there is nothing to change.