I use myself as an example a lot when I’m teaching. Naturally I know myself as well as anyone, and have been witness to what was silently going on in the background. I’ve picked myself apart numerous times, and I’ve found that no matter how different we all are, there are certain principles that […]
Sometimes we cling to the strangest things… including some weird and destructive ideas about ourselves that can be self-fulfilling. The most common of these is the pride that many of us take in our past suffering. I’ve done it myself many times, and so have you. There’s probably only a 50/50 chance that you’re […]
As we go through life handing the bumps and bruises that we all get a taste of, there’s a learning curve. Of course, the very way that we do handle that stuff determines how tough it’s going to get. Learn the lesson, it gets easier. Keep doing the same stuff, and the lesson continues until we […]
Recently a pal of mine, Julie, wrote something about “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Got me thinking. Of course it’s a cliche’…but cliches become cliches for a reason: because as often as not they’re true. Those of us with “differently-enabled” loved ones in our lives become painfully aware of this truism. Nothing […]
One of the first things I realized (almost as soon as I had any conscious thoughts at all) was that I wasn’t like everyone else. I remember looking around me as a small child and thinking, “WTF? What is this place?” Or at least the baby equivalent of that. 🙂 Oh, I had a pretty good family. My parents […]
The way people label themselves has always fascinated me. For most of us it starts at a very young age… even in middle school you have the cool kids, the rich kids, the jocks, the nerds. Even the loners are a group…they just don’t congregate as such. Most of the time we choose these labels for ourselves; sometimes […]
I recently had a few conversations that provided stark evidence of what happens when we choose to keep ourselves in the “comfort” zone of pain. We can call this choice “subconscious”…but it’s really more properly an un-conscious reaction. It’s conditioning,, and it continues simply because we don’t take the time to examine and become aware […]
I was recently reminded of a phenomena that I’d best describe as “phone phobia“. It’s an irrational fear of speaking with strangers on the telephone; the roots of this fear are deep and subtle, yet it appears that many people are subject to it to some degree or another. I know whereof I speak. Growing up […]
When we begin to look for answers (especially in times of troubles), generally the topmost question we have is, “How did things get to be the way they are for me?” Many of us go through a stage where we blame other people, luck, and a million other things for what’s around us. But If we’re diligent […]
In the first post in this series two weeks ago, we looked at general circumstances regarding the connection between spiritual experience and mental illness. We will now get a bit more specific. A question was asked about how entity attachments can occur. That depends. First a definition: an “entity” as we use it is any […]
