Thanks for your lovely and insightful comment @gillianpearce!

Yes, we do have to start with ourselves, and that starts with knowing ourselves well enough to understand what truly matters... what matters "beneath the surface." Surprisingly few people get far enough in their personal growth process to truly get that if they feel an emptiness inside... there are no "things" on the planet that can fill it, only experiences and possibly LOVE.

I suppose one of the hard things here in the west is to reject the materialistic system and simply create your own paradigm. I experience very simple little "challenges" in everyday life... like when my adult kids want to know what I want for Christmas or my birthday, and there is really no explaining them that "things" hold little importance for me (we've settled on "food gifts" being a good idea!).

I can't help you "time" your powering up... I can only say that I remember to feel grateful that I am even ABLE to Power Up (or whatever benefit I get somewhere in life) in the first place. Striving for any kind of perfection can become a hurdle, in and of itself.

You're quite right about "orientation." It's a practice. When we look at what's around us... where do we focus our attention? On what is WRONG or on what is already RIGHT? Personally, I am choosing to look at what is right, as much as I can... while using open discussions of what might be seen as WRONG as "teaching moments;" invitations to people to examine their beliefs about specific things.