By Peggie Arvidson

9 Lessons from a Life in Hands.

I just hit a milestone in my hand analysis career (13 years!) and it got me thinking about what I’ve learned in that time.

Here are 9 things I’ve learned about business, hands, life and love in the past 13 years:

1. If you’re not happy, nothing outside of you is going to make you happy. I first had my hands read because I thought it would be a magic button that would miraculously solve all my inner turmoil and hand-wringing. It didn’t.
2. Stretching is awesome, jumping off the cliff in an attempt to start from square one sucks. There’s a whimsical belief that if you leap the net will appear, and while I really like that image it isn’t the way it worked for me. (Here’s the deal, I asked for a divorce, met a totally unstable new boyfriend, took all my cash and bought an overpriced condo instead of paying back a crap-ton of debt and sold the business that was the source of my income – all within the span of 3 months. So don’t be like me, think some things through before you leap, at least so you can figure out WHERE the net is likely to show up.
3. Being spiritual isn’t the point, being present is. I thought a spiritual teacher had to be all kinds of holy (and obviously poor) and always good and compassionate. That’s impossible for me and now that I think about it, an ego-driven belief. All that spiritual do-goodery was exhausting. When I chose to simply slow down and be present, the life I lead became infinitely more enjoyable.
4. Relationships are paramount. You’ve heard the adage that says you become the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with? It’s true.  I love being surrounded by brilliant, high caliber people. I’ve been joyfully surprised to see how easy it is to grow and expand in all phases of life when surrounded by people who, by their very presence, help me grow- spiritually, mentally and financially.
5. Money is not the enemy. I have no idea when or why I decided to remove money from my life like a metastasizing cancer, but I’m glad I figured out that it was ME, not money that was the issue. I had one of the most eye-opening opportunities to love money in my life. I’m glad I accepted the challenge, but I wish for you to never be in that position. As a result I’m as passionate about my cultivating my relationship with money as I am about cultivating deep relationships with people, animals and all of nature.
6. If you’re afraid, keep going. As Winston Churchill said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” Whenever I’ve been afraid I go within and ask for some higher wisdom to find the Love. You can’t be afraid and feel love at the same time. So I give myself permission to love my way through to the other side of fear.
7. Screw moderation. Everything in moderation? Except moderation. I can see that working for things that aren’t that great for me – like wine or a pint of my favorite ice cream, but when it comes to things I love and have passion for? No way. I am passionate about reading hands. I’m passionate about connecting with others among many things.. Why would I want to moderate any of that? I’ll take as much of things that bring joy to my life as possible, thank you very much.
8. Love your body. No matter what it looks like, no matter if can’t do a headstand or crow pose, or whatever your personal grip is about your body. Celebrate it in all its wonder, listen to it, nourish it, cherish it for every last thing it does today. I can’t do any work in the world without my body and for that reason alone I love the body I have.
9. Love. It’s taken me years of introspection, deep conversation, study and more to realize what LOVE really is. It is so much bigger than me and so much more than songs and poems and romance (all good stuff though). Whenever I’m in doubt, think I cannot do something, am freaking scared of going another day trying to do this thing called life, I reflect on LOVE.

Now that you’ve read through my list, I encourage you to look back at how far you’ve come so you can revel in your growth and victories.