Yung Pueblo Says You Can “Pick the Path That Lights You Up” and Feel Lighter in These Heavy Times. Here's How

pick the path that lights you up

the one you know deep down is the right choice

stop listening to doubt

start connecting with courage

do not let the idea of normal get in the way

it may not be the easy path

but you know great things take effort

lean into your determination

lean into your mission

lean into the real you

After I stopped serious drug abuse, I realized that I had been using a mixture of whatever could bring me temporary pleasure to cover up a void in myself that I did not have the courage to face. The void was never satiated or content. Any enjoyment I could experience or attention that people gave me was never enough. It felt like an endless vacuum that could take in the world, spit it out, and still have room to ask for more.

A shift finally came when I stopped throwing pleasure at the problem and started nourishing myself with nonjudgmental and honest attention. The refocusing of my energy into paying attention to all my changing emotions had an immediate effect. Paying attention eased my incessant craving

for more pleasure and I stopped feeling so ragged and run-down.

During the years when I had abandoned myself, my mind felt undeniably heavy, and I knew that I needed to find a clear way to help feel lighter. I began by examining every part of my life and put my focus on doing the opposite of what had almost led me to an early death, from eating foods

that made me physically stronger to exercising to paying real attention to my thought patterns, even when they felt turbulent.

I started examining my relationships with friends and family and tried behaving with kindness and patience in areas where there was once too much roughness and irritability. I acted like a detective in my mind, asking questions to deeply investigate and discover the source of my problems.

Whenever the urge to escape with intoxicants tried to take hold, I would bring my awareness inward to take a good look at the tension. I remember finding immense amounts of sadness and fear, and an emptiness that ached for love.

Later I would discover that this was a space that only my own love and unconditional compassion could fill. I did not immediately arrive at answers to all my questions, and it was not until I started meditating that I learned the real root of my suffering. But the simple act of being unafraid to take a deep look within released much tension in my mind. Simply accepting whatever I found helped me feel a new sense of ease, even when my mood was down. Running away from myself took up so much more energy than mustering the courage to embrace solitude and stillness.

The first year of building positive habits created a massive shift in my life. There were many ups and downs during that time, but my persistence did not waver. Going back to how things were was no longer an option. The habits that initially felt like impossible tasks started slowly becoming second nature. And as time passed, happiness became more common and my heart started feeling stronger. The old feeling of heavy, stagnant energy started lifting. Before the healing, I felt like a stranger inside my mind and heart. Gradually, that feeling passed and I began to feel at home in my own being.

If you are open to experiencing a profound transformation, you need to come to terms with the fact that much of your struggle is self-imposed. How many times has your imagination disturbed a perfectly peaceful moment? How many times have your cravings blocked you from fully enjoying the abundance in front of you? How many times have you impatiently waited for a particular moment—and then, once you were there, your mind started fixating on what it was missing? There is always more to want. The mind has a strong pattern that bends it toward dissatisfaction. It will pick things apart without realizing that, in the process, it is undermining its own joy.

Owning your power means owning the responsibility for your happiness and for your healing. By doing this, you will be able to manage the things that are actually within your control. It feels easier to live life constantly blaming other people for any tension you may feel in your mind, getting pushed around without clear direction, and constantly letting your present-day feelings be governed by the hard moments that happened in the past.

But know that it feels so much better once you let go of being the victim and take responsibility for your life. While many of us have encountered serious trauma and some people have done us incredible harm, if we want to repair and heal the imprints that burden our subconscious and skew our perception, we need to embrace the hard work of becoming our own hero.

letting go can feel like a tremendous struggle

even when you know that it is absolutely necessary

for you to live a better life

breaking with the past is literally a break

an end

a refusal to return

old patterns keep repeating until you intentionally

move in a new direction

Excerpted from LIGHTER by Diego Perez Lacera. Copyright © 2022 by Diego Perez Lacera. Used by permission of Harmony Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

*P.S. Maria is going live with Yung Pueblo on Instagram on 10/12 at 2pm Pacific Time.

Diego Perez is a meditator and New York Times bestselling author who is widely known on Instagram and various social media networks through his pen name Yung Pueblo. Online he has an audience of nearly 3 million people. His writing focuses on the power of self-healing, creating healthy relationships, and the wisdom that comes when we truly work on knowing ourselves. His two books, Inward and Clarity & Connection were both instant bestsellers. Diego's third book, Lighter, is available now wherever books are sold.