‘Stop catching the cat’ came to me as a message in a vivid dream. Friendly enough at first, a big black cat would jump up into my arms as I tried to walk down a long hallway and, trying to do the ‘right thing’, I would catch him in my embrace. But every time I caught him, he’d scratch and hiss at me until I set him free—only to have him jump right back into my arms.

On and on it went until I heard a voice delivering the most important message of my life: ‘Stop catching the cat’.

Sitting bolt upright in bed, I knew in a split second what my dream—and this capricious cat—were all about.

Now, there are a lot of ways to interpret dreams and especially ones featuring cats it seems, but to me ‘stop catching the cat’ meant choosing a better way to be in the world.

It meant stop choosing the difficult path … stop being anxious … overwhelmed … in chaos. Stop ‘embracing’ what doesn’t serve me and start making better choices to protect myself against the inevitable ‘scratches’ of life.

It meant being kind to myself.

Being calmer.

Looking after myself.

Second, it meant recognising that I am in control of my life, that I get to choose whether to pick up the ‘scratchy cat’ of worry and doubt and anxiety and chaos (or anything else that doesn’t make me feel a million dollars) or to finally put it down once and for all and move forward in a freer, gentler way.

I get to choose to make the best choices for me at any given moment—across health, happiness, home, family, self, career, friends, finances—and so do you.

‘Stop catching the cat’ is about moving forward and feeling better.

Because, after all, isn’t that what we all truly crave?