Change of plans, everyone! The flow of life is taking over!

These days, a change of plans is enough to make any of us fly off the handle. We make these little plans and designs each day, expecting them to carry out, only to find life has other plans for us. We become frustrated, angry, and confused because we begin to think life is out to get us OR if we believe in a higher power, we believe it is out to get us too. Consider this: Have you ever thought that you can only control the actions you take and life controls the outcome? Detaching from any outcome you’ve set in stone in your mind will allow you to fall into a peaceful flow of life as you experience a change in plans each day. None of us truly knows the exact outcome of anything at all. We can make guesses of course, but we can never be 100% sure of anything. There are powerful solutions that can help assist you in letting go of your perfectly written out self-will blueprint which are:

1. DETACHING FROM EXPECTATIONS
2. LETTING GO OF THE RELENTLESS TAPE THAT PLAYS IN YOUR MIND THAT SAYS, “THIS IS HOW IT SHOULD BE”
3. ACCEPTANCE OF LIFE GOING IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION
4. BECOME WILLING TO LET GO OF CONTROLLING THE OUTCOME

The ways to practice each of these would be:

1. Detaching means to cut ties without any negative feelings. Cutting the cord with expectations will free you from having to form resentment at life or at anyone around you. This will allow you to walk a free man/woman.
2. The tape “This is how it should be” can easily be replaced with, “I hope for this outcome to happen, but whatever the outcome is, I know it’s for a very good reason.”
3. Understanding that life could go any direction at any given moment is VITAL for true contentment within. Stability on the inside will create acceptance and mindfulness of change on the outside.
4. Becoming willing to let go of controlling the outcomes allows you to experience a much fuller and richer life. It’s an invitation for miracles to plant their seeds and give you a life you could have never imagined.

“Going with the flow” of life will wake up a new freedom within you that you may have never experienced it before. It’s worth a try!

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When the Spirit is ready, The Teacher Will Appear!

Awakening can have several different meanings. It can mean a new beginning, birth, rebirth, or a significant event that offers new insight. This magical word, awakening, creates significant realization that human beings need to continue on the road of self-discovery.

There are multiple layers to self-discovery, so when one awakens, this is but the beginning. There is NEVER one complete awakening a human being will experience in a lifetime. The spirit offers multiple layers that will be discovered in life by keeping an open mind and remaining willing to grow along spiritual terms (whatever your spiritual choice may be).

There is a great mystery that comes along with personal awakening. Someone could tell you your entire life that the path you are choosing will lead to devastation and self-destruction. You remain deaf to this feedback and continue on your journey. 10 years later you sit on the bathroom floor, back pressed against the door, cold tile creating anxiety against your legs, and you wonder how you got to this point. You decide to take a walk to shake this relentless anxiety, yet it stampedes through your chest, spiraling down to create a shattered spirit. You have a seat on that ancient park bench you went to growing up, every time you were lost and confused. Only this time, there was someone else sitting on the bench. A woman in her late 40’s, strawberry blonde hair, draped across her right shoulder, gives you a welcoming smile almost insisting you sit. You never had seen her before, knew nothing of the life she lived, or where she was from. She was just there, for some reason, at that exact moment. This stranger, little did you know, would be the messenger to awaken a part of you that had been asleep for so long. You shared your troubles and she interrupted you:

“The path you are choosing will continue leading you to devastation and self-destruction.” This was the exact moment chosen for your spirit to awaken from this particular slumber. A light was now shed on the truth about you. Asking questions such as, “Did the egg come before the chicken or did the chicken come before the egg” is pointless due to the fact us humans will never truly understand how life unfolds. What our job is is to be awake to all of life, so we are more susceptible to having these experiences. As you keep your mind open, your internal alarm clock will sound, and the spirit will awaken.

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Do you feel as though you’re gaining a sense of power as you judge another person, place, thing, or your very own thoughts and feelings? If the answer is yes, I want to help you consider why you may be falsely informed and how you may be suffering consequences as a result of this. False power seems to be the master masquerade, covering up the more important type of power; Empowerment. Judgment’s job is to create a fear-based mask that is unwilling to challenge your own personal scaring or unconscious beliefs.

The difference between empowerment and false power is that empowerment awakens the intuition and false power feeds the ego. As a result of the judgment, whatever form it may take, your journey in life will not only become confusing, but you may experience a possible disconnect from your soul purpose here. I want to challenge you for a moment and ask you why you have certain judgments currently or previously? For myself, personally, judgment derives from fear. And fear breed’s threats that may be fancied or real. Due to this thinking and feeling of fear, this will lead to a shift in your brain function, which leads to change in your behavior, and the end result leads to deflection of any type-in this case it is Judgment, a seemingly protective shield.

Asking yourself these questions may also be useful in severing your relationship with judgment:

• “Have I experienced what this person has been through? Do I have all of the facts? Is it really any of my business?”
• “Have I experienced what this person has and I just judge because I am afraid to face this part of me?”

Considering these thoughts can help assist in removing the ego, and will open the door for intuition to walk in. Creating awareness around this subject will offer you a chance at keeping an open mind and potentially lead to more self-compassion and compassion for others on their life journey.

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Procrastination is so easy! “I’ll do it tomorrow.” “Oh, her birthday is Tuesday, so I’ll pick something up before the party.” “I’ve been late on my Verizon bill before, so I can just do a payment plan. They will understand.” What we don’t realize is as we are floating in the comfortable clouds of procrastination, we are not at all firmly planted to the ground, in the moment, where tasks can be completed. There is a significant difference between “pre-planning” and “future tripping,” Pre-planning is lining up specific tasks to complete, in order, to help obtain goals, remember significant events, or to allow us to complete all tasks that we committed to finishing. Future tripping is jumping in that little time machine and traveling to some far off place where we pretend to foretell the future.

It can be extremely frustrating falling out of your time machine and to land into the pits of procrastination. Once you’re behind, justification as to why you are behind is the stamp of approval that supports procrastination. If any of you are reading this and hoping for a positive resolution on how to climb out of the procrastination pit, this article is for you! Action is required in learning to tackle each task at hand. First, you must identify why you get behind and what was your reasoning behind the procrastination? Often times, the emotional part of your brain can rudely interrupt the logical part, and the mind-maze begins! Secondly, prioritize. Prioritize by making lists. Making lists (whether it is on paper, iPhone, computer, etc.) has been proven to increase productivity in people’s lives, which has led to positive self-esteem! Notice how your self-esteem takes a hit every time you put something off that you know deep down needs to be completed right away? Divide and conquer in a way that best suits your type of thinking. Human beings can only complete so much in one day- so, do your “have to dos” first! Deciding how many hours a day certain tasks will take will help prioritize your days in a way where you wont feel completely stressed to the max. “Do the next right thing” is a cliché for a reason.

It has been proven to assist people in being productive each day in their lives. As a result of being productive consistently, you will get to experience the true essence of the present moment and it will begin to become a daily habit!

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“It’s not about perfect. It is about effort. And when you bring that effort every single day, that’s where transformation happens. That’s how change occurs.”

-Jillian Michaels

Transformation is a process. As human beings, we can get so caught up in wanting to be at a destination, that we forget about the journey. The journey is being, living, and breathing in the present moment. “Future tripping”, or projecting what will happen in the days to come, is the quickest way to sabotage the transformation process. Transformation takes form on its own, naturally, when human beings can stop resisting change and start accepting the fact that they CANNOT control the outcomes in their lives. An often-overlooked hidden gem, which is a direct link to accepting transformation, is acknowledging the present moment and not judging it.

Transformation will require mistakes and stumbling on occasion, but this can be used as an opportunity to grow and to gain a positive outlook on making healthy adjustments to ones life. Adjusting is not always comfortable, but nothing can be truly appreciated without experiencing the essence of hard work.

As you make healthy adjustments, such as changing your diet, minimizing frivolous spending, or discontinuation of tobacco consumption, you start to see that other doors open, where they once closed. As we allow ourselves to discard old habits and behaviors, we can start to watch this miracle of evolution take place right before us. This miracle seems to prove that transformation truly is the breeder of faith!

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The only prison I know that has the lock on the inside is a human being. Did you know you have access to internal freedom? You become so used to being a prisoner of fear that you cannot even begin to imagine the possibilities that take form beyond the mental prison. The key that has the ability to set free a prisoner of self is gratitude.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
-Melody Beattie

The only thing that will ever get in the way of living a grateful life is yourself and giving people the power to stand in the way. I have witnessed a young man that had lost his legs and bound to a wheel chair, with one of the most jovial smiles I’ve come to witness. I have witnessed a gentlemen with a $2,000 suit on, riches galore, popular in his community, however, he has a struggle with what he has being “enough.” During life, we are offered opportunities to grow if we chose to view it from this standpoint. If we do not seek out gratitude itself, it will always seek you. Human beings have an internal ache that they are confused by and believe it’s an external solution to fill this particular void.

When we are resistant to grow, the spirit screams for a release-“If I only have more money, then I could be the most successful man in this city. If my wife would just get off my back about working so much, I would be a much happier man.” The difference between the young man in the wheelchair and the businessman is clear as day! The young man has realized his life could be worse and he could also have lost his ability to see, hear, and smell. The gift to view a beautiful sunset, to hear the music that makes his soul dance, to smell bacon cooking on a Saturday morning, was more than enough for him, which removed his thoughts of “If I only had legs.” He chose to look at his devastating experience, losing his legs, as a lesson in humility, not humiliation. The businessman was looking to the exterior to fulfill an internal mission- a mission to discover gratitude. Little did the businessman know instead of seeking it was his mission to create and act in gratitude. If one is not satisfied with what he has, then he surely will never be satisfied with more!

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An “attitude of gratitude” can change your entire perception of life. Acting our way into better thinking allows us not to get wrapped up and so consumed in self. It is a constant practice to apply gratitude in this thing called life. The keyword is PRACTICE. Selfishness and self-centeredness is human nature, but this does not mean you aren’t a grateful person. It simply means that taking actions and showing gratitude will alleviate some of that self-centered, ego driven lifestyle, and allow a new freedom to flow into your spirit. People cannot control the outcome of life, but they can control their attitudes, outlook, and actions. Showing appreciation is not always easy because there is a disconnect often created by human beings due to getting caught up in their everyday lives.

Consciousness becomes the moral compass that will always guide you back to being grateful and expressing this in your life. When you receive a gift from a close friend or you get a phone call from an old high school friend, how often is it that you express your gratitude and pass on what was so freely given to you? Becoming conscious of the fact you may not be applying gratitude in action is not a “bad” thing. Drop the negative label- this is an opportunity to create a new, positive, outlook on life, and use it as an opportunity to live in gratitude.

Ready, set, and….GRATITUDE IN ACTION!

Take a few moments a day to slow down, practice mindfulness and think of the people, places, and things you are grateful for and how you intend to show your gratitude and appreciation. As we are so busy at times searching desperately on the outside to fill particular voids, the answer is within oneself and giving freely to those around him. It is in the giving that you find a genuine connection with gratitude.

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Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) aims to address thinking errors – and their associated emotions and behaviors – that are unhelpful or problematic for a person.

CBT focuses on “here and now” problems and achievement of goals related to improving the quality of a person’s interaction with the world. Cognitive behavioral therapy appears even more effective when used alongside medication therapy and/or hypnotherapy.

CBT is sometimes used in the treatment of:

• Addiction
• ADHD
• Panic, OCD and other anxiety disorders
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Conduct disorders
• Depression and other mood disorders
• Eating disorders
• Insomnia
• Pain
• Personality disorders
• Some medical conditions
• Some psychotic disorders
• Suicidal tendencies

Elements of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy combines a number of therapies or strategies such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy, Cognitive Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Exposure Therapy and relaxation training. The six phases of cognitive behavioral therapy are:

1. Assessment
2. Re-conceptualization
3. Skills acquisition
4. Skills consolidation, application
5. Generalization and maintenance
6. Post-treatment assessment

Cognitive behavioral therapy can be delivered in one-on-one therapy sessions or in group therapy settings. CBT can be facilitated via a trained therapist, CBT computer programs, self-help instruction and group educational classes.

Brief Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (BCBT) is used when there are time limits to the length of therapy that can be received. BCBT is administered in about 12 accumulated hours and was first developed to treat traumatized soldiers in an effort to reduce suicide.

Goals

Thinking errors often involve qualities such as black and white thinking, over-generalizing, magnifying, minimizing and catastrophizing. Bringing thinking errors into balance with productive thinking eases negative emotions and decreases self-defeating behaviors. One of the goals of cognitive behavioral therapy is to help a person identify and replace thinking errors with productive, functional thoughts.

With continued cognitive behavioral therapy, a person will become more open to, mindful of and aware of thinking errors and will be able to challenge them and lessen their impact on his or her interactions with the world.

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Self-medicating behavior involves taking unprescribed drugs or other substances to treat mental and medical conditions that have not been officially diagnosed or that have been diagnosed but are not being treated by an appropriate professional. It also refers to the irregular use of a prescribed drug to treat a current or chronic illness. The act of using recreational and psychoactive drugs and/or alcohol is sometimes seen as a form of self-medicating that attempts to treat or mask underlying anxiety, depression, trauma or other uncomfortable, intolerable or negative emotions.

Self-medicating to treat Emotional Distress

It is thought that a person who struggles with drugs or alcohol settles on a “drug of choice” because the drug of choice best treats or masks the particular internal issue(s) the person is having. Unfortunately using substances to treat underlying emotional distress only works in the short term. Using inappropriate substances for self-medicating mental illness usually leads to an increased intensity of the symptoms and/or will bring out other symptoms of the illness that did not already exist.

Depressant Drugs

Self-medicating with depressant drugs such as alcohol and benzodiazepines serves to promote relaxation and ease feelings of anxiety or depression. Depressant drugs are effective in the moment; but over time changes in brain chemistry caused by long-term use of depressant drugs make the problem symptoms even worse, creating a cycle of continued use to treat ongoing, worsening symptoms. Alcohol is often used to lower a person’s inhibitions. A person under the influence of alcohol might feel pleasurable, helpful emotions more intensely such as courage, affection and easiness around others. Self-medicating with depressant drugs might also occur in an attempt to treat sleep problems.

Marijuana

Self-medicating with marijuana might occur to treat anxiety, sleep problems or other issues. Marijuana is unique in that it has many effects including that of a stimulant (in long-term users), a depressant/sedative, a psychedelic, and anti-anxiety or anxiety-producing effects. A person with ADHD might use marijuana for self-medicating.

Opiates

Self-medicating with opiate drugs such as heroin or morphine helps reduce the perceived sensation of pain and increases one’s ability to handle pain. Opiates also serve to alleviate anger, aggression and rage. The short-term effects of opiates help stabilize a person’s mood and eliminate or reduce depression and anxiety. Depression, however, is most often self-medicated with depressants or stimulants.

Stimulants

Self-medicating with amphetamines, cocaine, methylphenidate (“meth”) or other stimulant drugs can cause increased mental and physical functioning, increased or maintained energy, bring on euphoric and pleasurable feelings, increase self-esteem and relieve depression and social anxiety. But as with other inappropriate drugs used to self-medicate, the effects are short-lived.

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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is one of many anxiety disorders that have been identified. OCD involves irrational, frightening, worrisome thoughts and the excessive repetition of behaviors to address the thoughts, anxiety and fear.

OCD behaviors disrupt normal functioning in life, making it hard to hold down a job, maintain relationships and other important tasks and functions in life. People who are compelled to engage in behaviors involved in obsessive-compulsive disorder know that the behaviors are not normal. They experience distress, depression, self-criticism and self-loathing because of the condition.

Some repetitive behaviors found in people who suffer from OCD are:

• Having an aversion to particular numbers
• Constantly clearing the throat, sniffing or nose blowing
• Counting
• Excessive cleaning or straightening
• Excessive hand washing or fear of germs
• Hair plucking
• Hoarding
• Nail biting
• Opening and closing a door a certain number of times before entering or leaving a room
• Preoccupation with sexual, violent or religious thoughts
• Repeated checking such as with locks
• Skin picking
• Repeatedly turning lights off and on
• Keeping doors closed at all times
• Touching objects a certain number of times before exiting a room
• Walking in an unusual, patterned way

Elements of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessions

A symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder is the existence of mental obsessions. Obsessions are thoughts that keep coming back into one’s mind regardless of how hard the person works to ignore them or how the person has addressed the thoughts in the past. In severe cases, obsessions can develop into delusions as a person loses sight of the irrationality of the obsessions.

A subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder is Primarily Obsessional OCD. It involves obsessive thoughts without the associated external compulsive behaviors. Obsessive thoughts are usually aggressive or sexual in nature. A person with this type of OCD doesn’t display the repetitive behaviors of classic OCD but instead will have mental rituals they engage in. They will also feel an intense need to avoid situations that might trigger the obsessive thoughts. One’s mental rituals will consume much of the person’s time. Avoiding triggering situations will make it hard if not impossible for a person to complete some day to day activities, events and life roles.

Compulsions

Compulsions are behaviors or rituals that a person is compelled to engage in. The behaviors help the person feel less anxiety, panic and dread related to a particular obsessive thought. The behaviors involved in obsessive-compulsive disorder are neither the same as “tics” associated with other mental health or medical conditions nor are they the same as habits. The difference between compulsions and habits is that compulsions take up a significant amount of time, disrupt one’s life and cause much distress, while habits make one’s day and life more efficient, manageable and cause little if any distress.

Causes and Influences

• Abnormal neurotransmitter levels, especially serotonin
• Genetics
• In children – brain abnormalities
• In children – group A streptococcal infections (PANDAS)
• In children – life stress, trauma

Related Conditions

Unfortunately some people with obsessive-compulsive disorder are misdiagnosed with other conditions that have symptoms similar to those of OCD. Proper diagnosis is critical as people suffering with OCD have high rates of depression and attempt suicide more than people without OCD. About half of them live with persistent suicidal thoughts.

There appears to be a connection between obsessive-compulsive disorder and drug addiction. Addiction in this population of people might present as a compulsive behavior or might serve as a coping mechanism.

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) is a type of personality disorder rather than an anxiety disorder like OCD. A person with OCPD does not believe that his obsessive-compulsive behaviors are irrational or abnormal and actually gets pleasure from the obsessions and compulsions. The obsessive-compulsive behaviors are accepted by the person and viewed as a normal part of his personality.

Treatment Strategies

Common treatments include:

• Anti-depressant medications
• Anti-psychotic medications
• Behavioral Therapy (BT)
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
• Electroconvulsive therapy for severe cases
• Family therapy
• Psychodynamic therapy
• Psychosurgery for the worst cases
• Support groups

Experimental treatments include:

• Anti-cholinergics
• Certain opioid and psychedelic drugs
• Inositol therapy
• Nicotine treatment
• Nutrition therapy

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