X. A Look Inwards / Return. Wheel Of Fortune

    Your body feels rejuvenated as you stretch after you wake up the next morning, unable to get the experience from yesterday out of your mind. Each moment of the journey plays over in your mind. Part of yourself wants to go back to the water, to dive deep and stay for as long as you can. To become part of that underwater abyss once more. If the experience yesterday taught you anything though, it's that running away is never an option. You can't keep running from yourself and your life, instead, you must face it head-on with compassion and unconditional love. As you are in this moment right now, you are enough. The place that you are at in your life is enough. What you have accomplished this far is enough. Everything that you have done up until this point in your life has been enough. Chasing "enough" and trying to find something to fill the pit inside of your chest will only cause the pit to widen. You must realize that the pit was dug by you each time you knock yourself down. The guilt you feel in your heart when you want to love yourself and be proud of yourself but feel unable to, attempts to mend your heart each time you try to weaken it. Thankfully though, our souls are resilient. Instead of looking in the mirror with contempt for the person you see yourself as, look with love and understanding. The person before you has tried their hardest to survive and exist in a world that seems cruel most days. You, more than anyone, are deserving of your own love and acceptance. With acceptance, the expectations that you have for yourself will also fall, allowing you to feel content in yourself as you are. View yourself with the love you put out into the world and you'll notice that while the shovel may still be there, the pit is not. The world is a beautiful place and by existing within and spreading love to yourself and others, you make it even more beautiful.

    You return to the beach later that night, not to dive into the water, but to lay on the sand and look out onto the waves. The waves rhythmically crash against the shore and you align your breath with it as your heart begins to swell.