Often we build our personalities with a sliver of who we are and a lot of what we think we need to survive in our social groups with all their conformities. But certain things are sacred about who we are personally and must be respected, nurtured, and preserved for us to maintain our dignity along with our responsibility to God to be a creative loving person.

So here are some of the basics.

• Identify your advantages and disadvantages. See what you can change. Learn what you have to accept. Do it. Then engage life with all your heart.
• Have conscious values about life. Express your values. Question yourself about things. Question everything and everyone's opinion. Then decide. You're capable. You're responsible. And you can always change your mind.
• More than anything else---be honest with yourself; but at the same time be kind and patient with yourself. Simply put, care about yourself, trust yourself, and love yourself.
• Have goals. Goals take the chaos out of life. If you don't know what you want; that's your first goal. Try the classifieds and magazines. Look everywhere. Feel it and you'll find it.
• Accept your likes and dislikes with courage. Replace negative thoughts of failure with positive thoughts of success. Your friends and society won't always agree with you but your dignity demands it, at least in the sanctuary of your own thoughts.
• Live your life like you're going to live to be a hundred. Live your life like you're going to pass away tomorrow. No, it isn't easy but it creates the balance you need to live a full life.

You can learn more by checking out the website, www.spiritingaround.com and going to the Press Room page or try Amazon to see more reviews that people have posted.

Spiriting Around: A Modern Guide to Finding Yourself, 304 pages, $14.95, is available at Amazon.com, your local bookstore, online at www.spiritingaround.com, or call toll free: 1-87-SKY-HIGH 0 (zero)