Daily Love: Growing into Grace

Turn trauma into power.

To be human is to be in crisis. From our first breath, we trade the warm, loving embrace of the womb for the harsh realities of a situation we can’t possibly control. We seek solace from our suffering and look for wisdom outside the confines of dogma, but soon we’re drowning in vague spiritual lingo—intention, higher self, attraction, vibration—that’s poetry at best and manipulation at worst. We become so stuffed up with ideas of what is spiritual—doing vinyasas, attending seminars, being vegan—that we leave no room for Grace, that uncontrollable, benevolent power that wants to enter the world through and as you.

For Grace to unfurl in your life, you need to shake your foundations so the soil loosens, allowing devastating catastrophes to become wondrous opportunities. Spirituality isn’t about averting crises; it’s about making the cycle from crisis to Grace a little less bumpy. By identifying the patterns in your life, you’ll be able to figure out how to relax, find your power, learn from your difficulties, and allow Grace to enter.

Mastin Kipp knows a thing or two about the crisis-to-Grace cycle. In a matter of weeks, he went from being a hard-partying, 21-year-old vice president at a Hollywood record company to an unemployed, drug-addicted college dropout living in the tiny pool house of his ex-girlfriend’s parents. From rock bottom, he began his spiritual journey, learning from teachers like Tony Robbins, Joseph Campbell, and Caroline Myss, and his message of self-acceptance and service grew into his popular website, TheDailyLove.com. He offers no fancy degrees, just his life and his scars, which form a roadmap to help guide you through the uncertainty that lies ahead, marking where the cliffs are slippery, where the sun burns hot—and where Grace blossoms.