I’ve been searching for a way to wrap up this series in a profound way for a while now. I started down a few other paths that led to dead ends. Then I found a post called Finding Your Inner Light by the brilliant Buddhist teacher and author Jack Kornfield, which really struck a chord and seemed like a fitting coda.

t’s Week 48, and with the holidays in full swing, likely the second-to-last entry in this series. I’m publishing this post the day before the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and the day with least amount of light. Which is relevant. Why? We started this series back in January with the explicit goal of Finding more Light. As we conclude this series nearly a year later, I’m asking you to do the opposite: to release light. Or at least release your attachment to it. Or your desire to cling to it or hold onto it.

It’s Week 47 and we’ve now spent almost an entire year trying to find more light. Creating practices and strategies for doing that. Actively looking for light and passively noticing more of it. Training our brain to be more receptive to things we quantify as light. I started this series for the “Finding” part of the process. I’m guessing you wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t interested in that as well. But what happens when those good vibrations and feelings of peace and happiness and contentment go away??? Or they’re still with us, but we notice them slipping away? Or the big one you might not even be aware of: we’re in a good place now, but afraid that won’t last. What do we do???

For Week 46, I’m feeling reflective. Since we’re now in the final month of this year-long odyssey, I’ve been wondering what we’ve all learned from this series — me from researching and writing it and you all from reading? What are the key takeaways? How does it all fit together? To get a greater sense of that and some in-depth answers, I decided to so something different. I asked my AI researchers!

It’s Thanksgiving week here in the U.S. For Week 45, it felt like a good time to revisit the crucial practice of gratitude, which we first covered way back in Week 12. Think of it as a friendly reminder! We’ll do that via an inspirational collaboration between poet David Whyte and musician Mark Guiliana.

For Week 44, we find more light by letting go… with the help of Dr. David R Hawkins. This is a longer/deeper entry, which was the culmination of my original 30 Days of Finding Light journey. I’d love for you to read the whole thing and give it a try, even if that means coming back at some point later when you have more time to process it all. If you choose to make this a regular practice and maintain it, I believe it can change your life.

For years, I’ve been curious about A Course in Miracles (ACIM), the thick blue book that’s been touted by many spiritual seekers as a masterwork since it was first published nearly 50 years ago. For students, it offers what it refers to as “miracles” — profound shifts in perception from fear to love. Who doesn’t want that??? But because of its heft and some of the obtuse language within, the Course can be daunting for newbies. Until Pam Grout came to the rescue!

I’ve been thinking a lot about this project and what I want for Finding Light moving forward. I started this series at the beginning of January 2025 with the express intent of publishing 52 core entries and a companion bonus entry each week for a calendar year. I knew I’d be busy with work and life, but if I had been able to crank out 30 entries in a month back in 2020 — albeit when I was single and locked down during the pandemic — that schedule seemed doable.

For this Soulful Sunday bonus entry, we’re returning to the work of Tara Brach and the concept of Radical Acceptance, which I wrote about back in Week 41. I’ve been thinking a lot about how it applies to others, how we can do that, and why we should‚ even though it’s challenging!

As you’ve likely discerned by this point, I believe that Finding Light isn’t about a magic bullet for fending off darkness or depression — the inspiration for this site — but in having a handy set of tools I can access when needed and knowing how to maximize their benefits.

This week, we’re returning to the work of psychologist, author, and Buddhist teacher Tara Brach, who I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. Though that entry was about something she calls spiritual audacity, I want to tackle something even more radical: acceptance. It’s a hard one. A lifelong journey for most of us. But the potential reward is peace, at a level that many of us have never truly known, and true freedom.

I had two events this week that brought me joy and a hopeful feeling — that’s finding light for me — that I wanted to write a bit about. The first was Thursday night. I had the opportunity to see the great British band Elbow in concert at the historic Wiltern Theater, an art deco gem that’s one of my favorite venues here in Los Angeles.

Sometimes my Finding Light entries are in-depth explorations of complex topics. Other times, they’re just reminders of things you likely already know. Maybe you’ve just fallen out of practice? For Week 40 of our year-long journey to find more light, it’s the latter. And this one’s simple: read more books! As you’ve surely know, reading is good for you, in a number of ways both psychologically and physically — some which you might surprise you!

For this week’s Soulful Sunday bonus entry — where I try to answer, “How do these concepts apply to others?” — I want to talk a little bit about teachers and role models. I recently had an important reminder about their humanity.

This week, I’ve got a very simple but powerful message that comes from psychologist, author, and teacher Tara Brach. She spoke recently at InsightLA Meditation Center’s 80th birthday celebration for teachers Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman. Brach’s message was about the concept of spiritual audacity* in these chaotic times and having faith in the essence of what we are as humans, as well as the dignity and worth of all beings. Plus having true compassion for all who are suffering.

For this week’s Soulful Sunday bonus entry, I’m doing something different. There’s no great insight today, just a few observations about something traumatic that happened this week… something that took me a few days to shake off. Thankfully my Finding Light toolkit of practices has helped, as always! Maybe that’s the lesson and reminder for me?

Today I learned about a term called a ‘glimmer.’ Which is the opposite of a trigger. Glimmers are those moments in your day that make you feel joy, happiness, peace, or gratitude. Once you train your brain to be on the lookout for glimmers, these tiny moments will appear more and more.

For this week’s Soulful Sunday bonus post, let’s explore an ancient Mayan concept that I read about years ago. It’s the phrase “In lak’ech Ala K’in.” The phrase is derived from the Mayan greeting, which translates to “I am another yourself” or “You are my other me”, which reminds us of the connectedness of everything and everyone. We are all part of a collective whole. It’s also considered a moral code, signifying that harming another is a harm to oneself and that respecting others is a form of self-respect. “What I do onto you, I do onto myself.”

This week, we’re exploring a true paradox: the concept of “effort creates energy.” The core idea is the opposite of what most people assume; instead of waiting to feel energetic to do something, the act of doing it skillfully, or with the right mindset, produces the energy required to it.