What if such a device were capable of functioning even in the absence of snoring or REMs? After all, plenty of people go unconscious while still awake—a kind of zombie-like condition where speech, hand gestures, body posture, and facial signals still function as though the person were fully awake and conscious. Politicians go unconscious like this a lot. Talking heads on the evening news and game show hosts are masters at this deception. Religious zealots and others controlled by various ideologies are slightly more dangerous examples of persons who have mastered the art of going unconscious.

Don’t despair—now there’s hope.
Every human being actually does have such a device factory installed, calibrated, and ready for use. It’s called a Universal Basic Unconsciousness Detector or U-BUD for short. It doesn’t slice, dice, chop, or do anything useful in the kitchen. However, It’s perfect for those light-hearted conversations with your boss, those easy going differences of opinion with your spouse, and those heart-warming audits with your IRS agent.

Just think of the possibilities!

Your U-BUD can provide endless hours of fun for the whole family.
Take your U-BUD to meetings and family outings. Bring it with you on those long trips in the car. Why struggle with unconsciousness any longer? Now, with your very own U-BUD, you don’t have to. You’ll know instantly when unconsciousness takes hold and your reality begins to flicker. Your friends and neighbors will be amazed and want a U-BUD of their own.

But wait, there’s more!

Act now by ordering your own U-BUD during the next 10 minutes and we’ll send you another U-BUD for free. That’s right—one for you and one to keep as a spare or to give to that someone special. Now you and your partner will never have to put up with unconsciousness again. You’ll be able to remain conscious at all times and—best of all—help others remain conscious too!

In addition, if you order your U-BUD in the next 10 minutes, you’ll receive one more free of charge AND you’ll get a handy guide with 25 real-life examples of What to Look For When You or Someone You Know Goes Unconscious. Suitable for hanging on the wall in your den or framing for the office, this guide is a perfect way to remind yourself how unconsciousness can strike. Yours free of charge if you order now.

And, as an extra special bonus, we’ll also send you a free 12-month subscription to the popular newsletter Dozer’s Weekly, full of news from around the world about how unconsciousness strikes millions. You’ll read about:

• How unconscious corporations milk billions out of sleeping governments around the world

• How education in urban America is the biggest myth of all

• How the Bill of Rights was dismantled while the people slept

• How Washington counts on keeping the nation greedy, apathetic, ignorant and unconscious

• Exposing the reality of America’s sleeper agencies: the FDA, FCC, EPA, USPS, and more

• How the Federal Reserve system can only work when everyone is unconscious

Order during the next 10 minutes and all these will be yours for free:

• Your very own Universal Basic Unconsciousness Detector

• An extra U-BUD to keep as a spare or to give away absolutely free of charge

• A 12-month subscription to Dozer’s Weekly to keep you up to date on the latest news from around the world

Your U-BUD really exists and is ready for use.
Believe it or not, each of us has a kind of Universal Basic Unconsciousness Detector hardwired into our brains. Deep down, we know when something is not true or when buttons get pushed that trigger an egoic reaction to what someone is saying, how they’re acting, or what our reactions are.

We may find ourselves doing this hundreds even thousands of times a day as we catch ourselves reacting to things and using old tapes, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. We automatically think “crook” when we see someone in prison garb proclaiming his innocence, or think “nice man” when a smiling sleazebag claims to be entitled to millions of other people’s money.

We believe that our religious traditions are the ones most correct. We ignore all the signs that point to failed systems and broken dreams because we don’t want to consider the distressing truth. We automatically reach for a cigarette or a drink or a handful of potato chips when we experience momentary stress no matter how minute. We accept that our government has no hidden agendas and always does the right thing.

Unconsciousness is everywhere, including ourselves. Watch for the telltale signs in others and you will learn to detect them in yourselves. You don’t need an infomercial solution. You have your very own U-BUD and its been part of you since you were born. Learn how to use it in your own life and teach your kids how to use theirs.

The goal is not to keep from going unconscious—which is after all, utterly impossible all the time and under all circumstances—the goal is to be truly awake, alert, and aware as much as you possibly can in your daily life. If everyone could simply be conscious say 10 percent more on a day-to-day basis, how different the world would be! How much harder it would be for those who count on manipulating us when we’re unconscious! How much easier it would be for us to truly resolve our misunderstandings and disagreements.

About the Author
Timothy Thompson is a professional freelance writer/editor whose work with Dream Manifesto helps illuminate life for online and offline audiences around the world. He is currently working on several writing and editing projects. Visit Thompson InkWorks for information.

Get your free copy of my new book:
The Principles of Successful Manifesting - How to make your life dreams come true.
Click here to download

Paying alimony? Yeah, you decided to get married to that person, but you didn’t know they were going to divorce you and make you pay them. These excuses really do seem to make things easier. No reason to feel guilt or self-doubt. You did your best. Life happened to you.

Life happened to everyone. Your sister. Your friends. They all tell you the same thing. That no good mother is such you-know-what she wouldn’t let me keep living in her house, they say. Why do all of these various people do these horrible things to everyone? They’re just mean. They have grudges. They’re jealous. They are “haters.” They hate me because I’m beautiful. When viewed through an objective lens, most of these motives would seem flimsy, even silly, but through the eyes of a victim, these motivations seem to make perfect sense.

Victims Only Think About Themselves
When feel you are constantly being victimized in your life, you are actually being selfish. All you can think about is how terrible you’ve been wronged and how you are going to show those that victimized you.

Victim-hood leads to many negative emotions, pushing out any positive emotions that might have overtaken the victim. When you are so focused on yourself, you don’t think of other people and whether or not they are doing okay. You don’t think about how you can help them. Why would you? You’re the victim. You have problems. It slips your mind that everyone has problems. If you helped another person with their problems, it might actually cheer you up a little and give you some confidence. Can’t have that.

Helplessness Leads to Hopelessness
Victims are helpless. Someone that feels victimized typically feels no responsibility for the unpleasantness that has befallen them. With no responsibility in creating your own personal disaster, you were helpless to do anything to stop it. Therefore, you’re still helpless. You want, no, you need for someone to help you, to make everything better.

The longer this goes on, the less in control of your own life you feel. You’re completely helpless to do anything. There’s absolutely no hope for you, anymore. When there’s no hope, nothing matters. You get reckless. You do things just to make yourself happy for a few ephemeral moments. You spend money you don’t have. Your mind runs on and on with nonsense. You have nothing left. There’s no joy in your life. There’s no more reason to live. You have no future.

Why Has This Become Popular?
Victimhood has become the default state of a great many people around the globe. Why would so many choose a state of such utter sadness and disappointment? No one can say for sure. A popular view is that the the rise of the welfare state, shows like Jerry Springer, shifting cultural norms, and media in general are to blame.

Many victims would say it’s not a choice to be a victim. Once you are victimized, you have no choice, but to be a victim. That is the victim mentality in a nutshell. You have no choice. Anyone can, all of a sudden wrong you. Sure, this happens, but most of the time, you share some responsibility. If you were beaten and mugged, there’s no reason for that, but you were in that area at that time for a reason. You chose to be there. You didn’t know you’d be mugged, but you willfully decided to go to that place at that time.

Random bad things do, of course, happen, from time to time, where you don’t have much responsibility. But part of the responsibility of being alive is knowing that bad things are going to happen to you and that you are going to have to deal with them and move on. Say you’re laid off from a job do really well. Not fun, but there’s no reason to dwell on it. Yes, you were wronged by the company to which you contributed so much effort, but all you can do is move on and find another job.

If you can’t find another job, like so many Americans and others in today’s challenging times, take the opportunity to do your own thing and become one of the liberated self-employed. The freedom of never again answering to a condescending abusive boss is a blessing that is many times only facilitated when one loses the perceived safety and security of steady employment. Hardships are meant to provide the catalyst for positive change, but change scares most people. That’s why hardships are required to facilitate these changes.

Self-employment seems iffy to most people, but when you have no other choice, it’s a pretty good option. Once you’re confident in your ability to make money without depending on a boss, you’d be insane to ever want to go back to your old way of life. However, would you ever have really quit your well-paying job to strike out on your own? Probably not. Getting laid off, might have been the best thing that ever happened to you.

If you recede into victim-hood, asking why something so terrible ever happened to you and wondering why no one will help, you’re not going to realize the positive developments that will come from your trouble. Life isn’t an exciting challenge, anymore, it’s a monster springing out from behind a tree to slice you and dice you! You’re stuck. You’re a deer in the headlights. The car is going to kill you, and you can’t move a muscle. You aren’t going to figure out a way to become self-employed. You’ll get a minimum wage working for a boss who no one can stand.

You Have A Choice
Humans aren’t naturally victims for very long. Why is this such a pervasive attitude in today’s culture? People in power want you to feel helpless so they can control you. That’s why. Plain and simple. Who would work a low-paying, disrespectful service or outgoing call job, otherwise? But, have hope. No one can be a victim forever.

Keep Hope Alive
Sooner or later, everyone realizes they are the only ones with control over their own lives. Once you realize that you are never a victim, you can do incredible things. All of these people will have this epiphany after dealing with the bleak consequences of feeling helpless. They will take control of their own lives, and the world will be a wonderful place. A place full of confident, loving people doing everything they can to help other people to be as happy as they are.

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The Principles of Successful Manifesting - How to make your life dreams come true.
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Every person is anchored by their beliefs for good or bad. Everyone experiences difficulty at some point, some more severe or consistent than others. It is the anchoring beliefs in a person’s life that determine how that person will react when faced with challenges.

If you develop the unshakable power of presence when around a suffering person, you become the realest, most substantial thing in his or her life for a time. You are the rock that the sufferer relies on to provide answers or insight, solace or support, clarity or the dissolution of obstacles. Really, being unshakably present just allows the other to fully express the amazing power of knowingness we all possess, which is the the first step in changing the causes of suffering into inner wisdom.

In Buddhist tradition, suffering is given the name of dukkha, which is derived from the earlier duskha, meaning uneasy. The Buddha himself reportedly observed that:

Birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, death is dukkha.
Sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are dukkha.
Association with the unbeloved is dukkha.
Separation from the loved is dukkha.
Not getting what is wanted is dukkha.

He elaborated further, classifying dukkha into three categories, sometimes referred to as:

• Direct pain like physical pain, illness, old age, death and bereavement.

• Pain and suffering caused by change or the intransitoriness of happiness.

• Reactive pain to others in pain themselves or to inherent limitations imposed by existence and consciousness.

When it comes right down to it, suffering is usually brought on by an adverse reaction to change.
Hardship is neither particularly positive or negative in universal terms. The universe keeps on churning out potential disasters fraught with danger or opportunities for happy fulfillment depending on how you look at them. The only constant in life is that everything changes. Fear change and attempt to resist it and you will suffer. Believe that the change that you experience in your life is mostly just a way to experience more pain and you will suffer even more.

Take it even further by attempting to dictate to the gods what and how you will take your change and you will fall prey to what ancients in the Greek world recognized as hubris (overweening pride) and hamartia (error or sin). Dictating change for yourself and others exposes the central flaw of the human ego, as we have observed in numerous dictators of change in the persons of Attila the Hun, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Kim Jong-il, Idi Amin, and Slobodan Milosevic.

Fear of change can be mild or severe, and can have an impact on only you or on millions.
Assuming for the moment that you are not some monstrous tyrant ready to cause suffering to millions in the pursuit of living out your worst fears, how can you begin to conquer your fears in a way that eliminates anxiety and painful effort?

The following are offered as a guideline to achieving that goal for yourself. This method takes a willingness to be honest with yourself and to ask questions that may not have readily apparent answers all the time. Persevere and you will be rewarded with a healthier awareness of change and a willing acceptance of it as a means to grow from experiences that require heartfelt change.

Identify your fears around change.

• What situations or persons do I hold onto no matter what?
• What or who am I willing to let go?
• Am I anxious or uptight about either holding on or letting go of them?
• Will I show weakness to myself and others if I change my attachment to holding on or letting go?
• Can I experience change with joy and anticipation?

Identify what it takes to truly change.

• Where does my passion come from?
• Am I willing to seek it out by doing whatever it takes?
• Can I be open to change as an instrument of self-growth and realization?
• What do I modify in my thoughts, beliefs, actions, or relationships that will make that so?

If you answered “no” or “I don’t know” to any of the last group of questions, you are not ready to attempt to conquer your fear of change just yet. Be patient, observe in your life where failing to change means increased suffering or pain in some form, and find ways to work with your fears to balance them to the point of being neutral. When you have a state of neutrality regarding your concerns, come back to this exercise and begin again. Do this process as many times as it takes to be able to clearly identify your passions and to answer “yes” to the other questions.

Put it all together.
Working with your fear of change requires an honest desire for a better life as well as self-awareness, energy, and committed resolve. You don’t need to trick yourself into it, but you may find that a good amount of creative flair and a playful attitude will go a long way towards achieving your goal. You may uncover many beliefs about change that either directly or indirectly inhibit your ability to roll with the punches when required to do so. Take your time.

Be present and practice presence on yourself and others to see how suffering affects us all. Understand that sometimes change is beyond our control and that it can bring serious situations that are full of misery for all concerned. Your ability to fearlessly handle day-to-day change will ultimately prepare you for the times in life when pain and suffering seem inevitable.

About the Author
Timothy Thompson is a professional freelance writer/editor whose work with Dream Manifesto helps illuminate life for online and offline audiences around the world. He currently makes his home in southern California and is working on several content writing and editing projects. Visit Thompson InkWorks for information.

Get your free copy of my new book:
The Principles of Successful Manifesting - How to make your life dreams come true.
Click here to download

How compartments and domains are similar.

First, they are both somewhat arbitrary and artificial constructs. There is often no clearly defined idea where self ends and family begins, for example. The lines of demarcation may be blurred between your professional work life and your life as an American, German, Chinese, or other citizen. Your ethnic background may reflect the mutability of ancestral bloodlines when it comes to your self identity. Compartments and domains are very arbitrary in this way, and both are capable of enormous change over time.

Second, both compartments and domains are convenient ways of grasping larger concepts. It is easy to grasp 30-something demographics in 21st century America, and much less easy to understand the broader demographic of 20 to 60 year olds. Sometimes, reducing a larger category into a smaller one is a matter of convenience. It also allows for more specific treatment of the category group in question. Compartments and domains lend themselves to this kind of drill-down analysis with the aim of uncovering specific identifiable characteristics of various subcategories within the larger context.

Third, compartments and domains may be structured in various ways depending on a predetermined hierarchy of needs. Governments, religions, corporations, and other large collective entities very clearly exhibit hierarchical structures based on authority (responsibility), influence, or overall goals. Sometimes it is convenient or necessary to show relationships based on activity or function rather than on more formal structures involving rank, title, or authority. Both compartments and domains can be structured and restructured according to need in this manner.

The key differences between compartments and domains.

As the word itself implies, compartments have some kind of barrier between one compartment to the next. The barriers between compartments may be physical, structural, rule-based, or purely conceptual — but they are there and will definitely have an effect on the flow of information between them. Domains are more like spheres or areas of activity. Being activity-based, domains interoperate freely amongst themselves unless something impedes the free flow of information and movement. Compartments have walls while domains have spheres of influence.

Compartments imply a more rigid structure of organization than domains. It seems natural and appropriate to define compartments in certain more or less rigid ways; on the other hand, domains are quite mutable and can adapt themselves to various magnitudes of influence and ever-changing environments. A compartment (physical or conceptual) that is built too rigidly will eventually become meaningless and crumble of its own accord. A domain merely shifts its sphere of influence to accommodate the changing environment.

Compartments are essentially hardwired systems, much like a traditional network relying on wires connecting one piece of equipment to another. Domains are more like wireless networks that can easily drop or pick up signals as needed. The rigid pathways between compartments allows for effective communication only when conditions are exactly right. The more dynamic information exchange between domains guarantee that communications will always be available in one form or another between domains.

Compartmental structure is generally inherited from traditionally defined roles within society. Bureaucracies are almost exclusively compartmental in nature and thus, very slow to react to changing circumstances and mostly blind to flashes of insight and creativity needed to overcome challenges. Domains generally recognize not only challenges themselves earlier and more effectively, but also quickly promote members of the domain into positions of influence as needed to deal with these challenges.

How to use domains effectively in your life.

In order to shift from static compartmental thinking into more dynamic domain thinking, you must first recognize where you tend to compartmentalize the issues, relationships, and activities within your own life. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Is my schedule too rigid to allow for a full spectrum of activities with people who are important to me?

• Do I neglect my health or happiness in favor of things that don’t really contribute to my well-being?

• Have I lost touch with others? With myself?

• Do I have beauty, harmony, balance, and love in my life right now?

• Do I spend too much time pretending to be productive? Do I waste time in irrelevant activities?

• Are certain negative emotions like anger, fear, or disappointment common experiences in my day-to-day situation?

• Do I unconsciously think in “us vs. them” terms when considering something or someone I disagree with?

Asking yourself these questions, gently but firmly, will get you in the habit of examining where you have built the walls of compartmentalization in your life. Simple awareness alone, is usually enough to open your heart and mind to more dynamic ways of relating to the realities of your life. Compartments are all about separation. Domains are all about spheres of influence.

Realize now that you have the power to change anything in your life that’s not working. Do not accept someone else’s compartment as your belief that that’s just how life is. Someone built that compartment in the first place and you accepted it as your own. You can tear it down at any time. Your life is not bounded by anything at all, but may seem like it is from the perspective of a mind used to pigeon-holing things into tidy compartments.

The big wide world of happiness and fulfilled action can be yours if you are willing to transform the various compartments of your life into dynamic and expansive domains. Why not get started immediately?

About the Author
Timothy Thompson is a professional freelance writer/editor whose work with Dream Manifesto helps illuminate life for online and offline audiences around the world. He currently makes his home in southern California and is working on several content writing and editing projects. Visit Thompson Inkworks for information.

Get your free copy of my new book:
The Principles of Successful Manifesting - How to make your life dreams come true.
Click here to download

Here are some classic examples of how the impulse of instant gratification works in real life:

- If you are seeking a relationship, you want it to unfold as magically as in the movies, and you’re impatient about building rapport and getting to know someone. Beguiled by Hollywood, you believe that romance is as simple as locking eyes across the room, talking breathlessly, and effortlessly plunging into a whirlwind of pleasurable experiences.

- If you are looking for prosperity, you want a complete business-in-a-box that tells you how to get rich quick, and you’re impatient about studying the many facets of business and the rules of sound money management.

- If you are not well, you want medication or surgery that will provide an instant cure so that you can get back to your normal life, and you’re impatient about carefully selecting the foods you eat, reducing your stress levels, and considering a holistic exercise routine.

- If you are worried about signs of aging, you may consider a botox injection to get firm skin and instant youth, and you’re too impatient to bother learning the facts about botox–thus, failing to discover that it is a botulinum toxin, a complex protein produced by a bacteria whose effect is as toxic as food poisoning.

- If you believe in the value of instant gratification, you believe that faster is better, and you want fast food, fast technology, fast education, and fast service. It can’t be much good, you reason, if it’s slow. You equate slow with inefficiency.

Overstimulated By Technology
Partially to blame for the cult of instant gratification is technology, in particular the technology of mass communication and rapid transportation.

Technology was supposed to make life easier. With more labor saving devices, we were supposed to have more time, not less. What technology has done is make us addicted to stimulation. People feel an urgent need to be dialing someone on their cell phone instead of merely driving or walking down the street. Faxes and email make ordinary mail into snail mail. Everything is faster, not only digital connectivity, but how fast we communicate and how fast we travel. We constantly hope to do more in less time.

Hollywood, The Entertainment Industry And Role Modeling
Although amplified by technology, the impulse of instant gratification has always been a part of human nature. In the past it used to be considered a character weakness, but today it is considered a sign of personal efficiency.

Nowadays, people who subscribe to instant gratification are often, fast-talkers, fast-thinkers, and fast-movers. They idealize a fast life. They believe that they are modern people, hip to technology, savvy, cosmopolitan. Even lighting up a cigarette is considered too time-consuming. Why use a match when you can use a lighter?

The modern self-image owes a lot to the stereotypes of Hollywood and the entertainment industry, which has created a subliminal pattern of mass role modeling. In Hollywood, for example, heroes and heroines glorify the hyped-up personality and extol the virtues of a volatile lifestyle.

The average viewer is primed for five times the action than previous generations of movie-goers. Why, settle for a few fist fights as in the old Westerns when your new screen hero can blow up a fleet of police cars, cause multiple car pileups and ruin numerous lives in the same time frame? Blockbusters are not built on people simply talking and behaving normally. Celluloid adventures without massive disasters are no adventures at all.

A Change In Perspective
In the earlier part of this century, according to Sigmund Freud‘s Theory of Personality, the urge of instant gratification was considered a symptom of poor impulse control, an expression of weak ego boundaries.

Since the superego represented the principle of morality, the ego the principle of reality, and the id the principle of pleasure, an inability to delay gratification was the result of a reckless id that could not be controlled by the ego or the superego.

Today, these ideas are considered quaint. Life is not about staying balanced but about getting the most satisfaction in the shortest amount of time.

The Brain And Instant Gratification
Besides the pervasive influence of digital technology and the entertainment industry, Neurobiologists, scientists interested in learning how the brain and nervous system work, have discovered some interesting things about how low impulse control often starts in childhood.

One of these findings is the effects of drugs and alcohol on children.

Due to the stress of modern life, women tend to drink more alcohol than during previous generations. In the United States, 15 percent of women admitted in a survey that they drank alcohol, and of that number, 30 percent admitted that they drank during pregnancy. Drinking during pregnancy causes harm to the embryo.

The alcohol crosses the barrier of the placenta and damages the growing brain of the embryo. Many children are born with mental health problems due to alcohol ingestion in the womb, a condition called fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Children with FAS are often impatient and find delayed gratification almost impossible. However, alcohol is only one cause of stunted mental development in babies.

Drugs, ingested by pregnant mothers, both prescriptive and recreational, have also created havoc on the brain and nervous system of children. The cumulative effect, culturally, of drug and alcohol abuse by pregnant mothers has been a new generation of children less equipped to handle the stresses of modern life and more inclined to seek instant gratification whenever they can.

Another discovery by neurobiologists is that children who are able to demonstrate delayed gratification are more intelligent than those who demand instant gratification.

One study, conducted during the 1960s, has been a landmark in showing the correlation between delayed gratification and intelligence. It has been called the marshmallow experiment.

Walter Mischel, a researcher at Stanford University, worked with a test group of four year old children. He offered each one a marshmallow, but promised another one if the child could wait for twenty minutes before eating it. Some waited, others did not. The researchers kept track of the children into adolescence and found that those who had the capacity for delayed gratification scored about 210 points higher in the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).

Exploitation Of Instant Gratification By Industry
In any modern city, industrial interests, wishing to promote more wealth through consumerism fully exploit low impulse control.

In any city, billboards, slogans, banners, and shop signs assault the innocent pedestrian. The invisible fingers of the market manipulators are forever seeking to stimulate trivial desires and separate consumers from their hard-earned money, even enticing them to spend much more than they have through a credit system.

If people have a tendency to consume too many soft drinks, eat too many fast meals, take too many medications, and buy too many things that they simply don’t not need for their well-being, it’s because their sense of instant gratification is perpetually exploited. Neon signs, repetitive trigger words, colorful logos, and jingles influence consumers. This assault comes from gigantic billboards and electronic signs as well as from radios, commercials, computers, and print ads.

This exploitation of a need for instant gratification, does more harm than merely empty bank accounts. All kinds of aberrant behavior arises from distraught people, including domestic abuse, suicide, and criminal activity to compensate for cash shortages.

Instant Gratification And Emotional Intelligence
Daniel Goleman, the creator of the concept of emotional intelligence, believes that a person can handle difficult life situations well if they have emotional maturity – because they can clearly think about things, make the best decisions, and take the right action.

Positive emotions create positive thoughts and behaviors, and this is high emotional intelligence. Negative emotions, likewise, create negative thoughts and behaviors, and this is low emotional intelligence.

Emotions, triggered by the consequences of dealing with what happens after satisfying a moment of instant gratification, usually escalate problems. The fleeting happiness of consumption is followed by numerous negative emotions, spiraling from anger to despair

After dissipating income, people feel frustrated, and frustration leads to feelings of anger, and anger leads to acts of destruction, either through self-sabotage or lashing out at other people.

It is difficult to make sound decisions about self-worth, discipline, and proactive action in the grip of negative emotions. Those who feel negative emotions precipitate negative experiences for themselves and other people.

The higher a person‘s need for instant gratification, the lower their emotional intelligence.

How The Money System Has Changed And How To Think Long Term
The global recession is a symptom of how the money system has changed. The traditional money system is causing the human race to run out of resources, from fuel to food.

People need meaningful occupations. They also need to live within their means, avoiding irresponsible consumer spending. By reducing both national and personal debt, and by working on building goods and services of tangible value, it is possible to change for the better.

Although the modern world has been created by the ingenuity of generations of hard working people, few modern people have the patience to study, practice, and perfect skills. Young people want to have in a decade the level of wealth it took their parents a lifetime to acquire. This has resulted in people taking all sorts of economic shortcuts, including fraudulent practices in corporate boardrooms that affect stock exchanges.

Understanding the value of change, how do human beings turn their back on a culture of instant gratification that is causing havoc with the money system across the world?

How Thinking Long Term Can Lead To More Success For All
The most startling solution to date has come from the city of São Paulo. According to Business Week, in June, 2007, Brazilian populist mayor, Gilberto Kassab, did something unprecedented in the history of the modern world: he banned all advertising in São Paulo–making it the first city in the world to say no to advertising.

Although this sounds like a myth perpetuated by the radical magazine, Adbusters, a glossy American magazine that details how advertising perpetually feeds the neurosis of instant gratification, in São Paulo, Brazil, this dream has become the new reality.

The clean city laws brought down eight thousand billboards. A Brazilian can walk through the city streets without encountering manipulative messages from posters, flyers, billboards, and advertising on buses and trains.

Populist writer Roberto Pompeu de Toledo hailed it as “a rare victory of the public interest over private, of order over disorder, aesthetics over ugliness, of cleanliness over trash.”

The president of the city council, Roberto Tripoli, said, “What we are aiming for is a complete change of culture. Yes, some people are going to have to pay a price but things were out of hand and the population has made it clear that it wants this.”

Is Instant Gratification Short-circuiting Civilization Itself?
While it may seem rather dramatic to blame the ills of the world on something as simple as instant gratification, reviewing the story of how mass communication and transport technology, the sublime influence of Hollywood and the entertainment industry, the neurological problems caused by drug and alcohol on babies, and the brainwashing nature of modern advertising, the impulse of instant gratification does seem to heavily contribute to the foundations of reckless living on this planet.

With the virulence of commercialism reduced, people have a chance of establishing meaningful personal and cultural goals, spending more time getting to know each other better, and regaining an emotional maturity that will lead to long term benefits, like ideas on how to allocate resources so that everyone in the world can meet their basic needs for shelter, food, and drinkable water.

Long term success for all is only possible when intelligent thinking, feeling, and behavior is reintroduced to the world. Instant gratification is a trap that avoids building real wealth.

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The Principles of Successful Manifesting - How to make your life dreams come true.
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Paradoxically, it is also the domain of our most destructive impulses.

Fictional characters like serial killer Hannibal Lecter become popular icons because at some level we recognize them as manifestations of dark desires we keep locked away in the dungeon of our Shadow. But Mozart, Shakespeare and Mother Theresa are imprisoned in this very same dungeon.

Dualism does not exist in the Shadow realm. There is no distinction between potential for “good” and potential for “evil” – it’s all the same. That’s what makes the Shadow such a frightening and dangerous place.

Yet it’s a place we must explore if we are to live fully actualized lives.

Dark Projections
Many avoid undertaking this exploration for fear of letting the monsters out of the dungeon. But the fact is those monsters actually have more power to dominate us when we attempt to suppress them. Left unexamined, they take the form of projection.

Suppressed Shadow monsters hijack our perceptions of our spouses, our children, our parents, our coworkers, our closest friends and bitterest enemies. We project them into political parties, religious institutions and corporations.

They are the source of our deepest resentments. They are the root cause of prejudice, envy, irrational fear and hatred.

When ruled by emotions like these, we are reacting to aspects of ourselves that we have suppressed. As the cartoonist Walt Kelly once put it: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

This isn’t to say that all perception of evil or wrongdoing is rooted in delusional projection. Far from it: people and institutions really do abuse their power and create very real threats. There is evil in the world. But when we are dominated by an unexamined Shadow, we react to such threats in destructive ways. In extreme cases, suppression of the Shadow drives us to seek out dangerous, life-threatening situations.

If we fear our own anger, for example, we may be drawn to angry lovers. Our attempts to change or fix the other’s behavior mirror our efforts to tame our own inner monsters. The lover’s actions may be inexcusable, but we – ruled by the impulses of our suppressed Shadow – have placed ourselves in a position to be hurt or even killed.

Of course, projection can take much subtler forms. A coworker or acquaintance that “rubs you the wrong way” undoubtedly has qualities you do not want to face in yourself.

If you often find yourself using the word “stupid” to describe other people, chances are you fear your own intelligence isn’t up to snuff.

Class envy – that pervasive barrier to abundance – is also projection. Whatever negative qualities you prejudge the wealthy as having – snobbishness, self-entitlement, dishonesty, greed, indifference to the suffering of those less fortunate – are sure to be qualities you keep locked away within and hidden from yourself, regardless of your economic status.

Most people never see the extent to which projections warp their perception of reality and keep them closed off from abundance and joy. Advertisers, political parties, the news media and even educational institutions play upon our tendency to project fear and hatred onto other groups, nations and organizations; we are socially and culturally conditioned to live in projection.

Dr. Carl Jung called confronting the Shadow and its projections the “First Act of Courage.” He and his proponents warn of the dangers that lie in wait if one undertakes this journey unaided, or before one is ready.

However, if you have glimpsed the extent to which your projections cause you unhappiness, you can begin to liberate yourself from them and at least get a taste of spiritual freedom without undergoing Jungian analysis.

Turning Off The Projector
In total privacy, write down your deepest fears, resentments and sources of hatred. Hold nothing back. You never have to show this list to anyone; burn it when you’ve finished if you wish. But get the list down on paper, in black and white.

Don’t limit yourself to people. If you’re terrified of spiders, write “spiders.” If flying in an airplane makes you a nervous wreck, write “flying.”

At this point, do not attempt to explain or justify or gain an understanding about the items on your list – just make the list without intellectualizing it. When you can’t think of anything more, tuck the paper away somewhere and leave it for a day or two.

As you go about your life, seemingly inconsequential “pet peeves” – things you suppose too silly to mention – might spring to mind. Make a note of them and include them on your list. When you are confident the list is as complete as can be, look at each item and simply ask yourself, “Why?”

Your list may well include people who truly have harmed you – people whom you feel justified holding in contempt. After writing out their sins and misdeeds, sit back and ask yourself if you have ever done – or wanted to do – the things this person did to you. If the person was verbally abusive to you, think about the most verbally abusive things you’ve said or wanted to say to someone. Consciously identify with the individual you so deeply resent.

In severe cases – an abusive parent, for instance – this may be difficult or impossible to do. If so, skip that person and move on to someone you resent for less traumatic reasons.

Attempt the same analysis with your fears. Why are you afraid of flying? If you know air travel is statistically safer than driving a car, and if neither you nor anyone close to you has suffered a plane crash, what is at the root of this fear? For most people, it is based on an obsessive need for power or control. Is that the case with you?

As you jot ideas down, cross-reference your fears with your resentments, looking for patterns. If your fear of flying is about control, ask yourself whether your resentments have a similar basis: you couldn’t control this person, or that person put you in a situation where you felt powerless.

In all likelihood, this list will prove to be little more than a penlight – a pinprick of illumination within the vast, inky darkness of your Shadow. But the mere act of writing it will bring an awareness of projections large and small that cloud your experience of reality and block you from the life you truly desire.

Conclusion
The Shadow contains the deepest mysteries and darkest secrets of our souls. It can never be completely mastered, but abundant living depends on the willingness to consciously confront it.

The minimal beginning suggested above can free you from at least some of your most destructive projections. When the major ones are out of the way, the smaller and more insidious ones become easier to spot.

As you clear away your projections and see the illusory nature of hatred, resentment and fear, you will become increasingly open to a great reality: the reality of joy.

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In other words, whether you are happy with what you get depends on how it measures up to some norm. That norm depends on two things: what other people get (social comparison), and what you yourself are used to getting (habituation). It is hard for success in any form (money, status, prestige, and so on) to improve your happiness because as actual success rises, the norm by which success is judged rises in step.

A study, for instance, found Olympic bronze medalists to be happier than silver medalists. The bronze medalists, it turns out, tended to compare themselves with all the people who competed but won no medal at all, while the silver medalists compared themselves with the gold medal winners and tortured themselves with the belief that they could have – should have – won the gold. Similarly, in families, it has been found that the more your spouse earns, the less satisfied you are with your own job.

Because we constantly compare ourselves to others, we don’t feel good about what we have and who we are. The grass seems perennially greener in your neighbor’s lawn. Continuing with this metaphor, it might be said that the grass always seems to be greener in your neighbor’s yard because (1) you’re urinating on your own lawn and (2) you’re looking at your neighbor’s lawn from your lawn, and everything looks better from a distance. There is only one solution to this “grass is greener” problem: practicing self-appreciation. Self-appreciation involves both staying off of other people’s lawns and taking care of your own.

Appreciate Your Own Lawn
A key ingredient in happiness is appreciating your life as it is. You can do this by keeping an appreciation log. Just list the positive aspects of things in your life. List the positive aspects of what you have and what you appreciate about your life and the people in it. And be sure to make a list of what you appreciate about yourself. Do this at least once a week – every day is even better.

Science has found that the benefits of being grateful are optimized when you focus on appreciation at least once a week. This exercise isn’t about wearing rose-colored glasses as much as it is about appreciating what’s worthy of appreciation. Some things are just bad. If you can’t change them, learn to accept them.

When you’re feeling particularly frustrated, jealous, or hopeless, see if you can’t sit down and write out a list of things you appreciate about your current situation. By doing so, you’ll come to the realization that you have enough and do enough already. And when you do decide to get or do more, it will come from a positive, healthy, loving, inspired place instead of a dark, negative, and unhealthy bottomless pit.

To fully appreciate yourself and your life, you have to ignore what others think of you, what others have, and what others do. Only your thoughts influence your happiness. Others’ thoughts of you do not affect your happiness. Only your thoughts about their thoughts affect how you feel. Only your thoughts about what they have and what they do influence your feelings of well-being. You can change your thoughts and you can’t change theirs. What others think, say, do, or have has nothing to do with you.

The only opinion in the entire universe that is of importance to you is your own. And your opinion affects your entire life. Nobody else needs to get what you’re doing or agree with it. So replace your shopping sprees, working sprees, pleasure sprees, complaining sprees, and unhappiness sprees with an appreciation spree. Shop for things to appreciate about your life and yourself, not for things to purchase or improve. Never admire somebody else’s fortune so much that you become dissatisfied with your own.

Take Care of Your Own Lawn
An important way to appreciate your life is to take care of what and who you have in your life. Take care of the things in your life by giving them routine maintenance and keeping them clean and polished. Wash your car; dust your desk; use your kitchen to cook great meals instead of going out. When you care for them, your possessions will only grow in value. Take care of the people in your life in similar ways, figuratively speaking. Give your friendships routine maintenance. Check in on the people you care for; tell them you appreciate them. They’ll appreciate you back.

My mother and father believed in taking care of things. They worked hard to provide us kids with some rather generous and expensive gifts and they hated seeing those gifts lost, broken, or going unused. Despite their admonishments, however, we would inevitably tire of that new bicycle, video game system, compact disc, or toy and toss it downstairs into the cellar or garage, never to be seen again. We’d do that every year with something or other. Somehow, though, my parents’ lessons about taking care of things stuck with me.

Just as frequently as we’d toss a random toy or gift into the cellar, we’d find one there, too. It was like Christmas in July. There was always at least one old Christmas or birthday gift sitting there just waiting for us to retrieve it. We’d pull that old baseball mitt, chipped wooden baseball bat, crippled doll, rusty bicycle, or deflated football from the crack or corner in which it slept and run upstairs as happy as you’d be after finding a long-lost friend.

Then we’d break out the oil, the cleaning solutions, the wood glue, a rag or old T-shirt. And we’d go to work on that mitt, bat, doll, bike, or ball. Before too long, it looked and felt brand new. When we were done fixing it, we’d play with it as though we had just bought it from the store. Each and every time, I remember, I felt a mix of excitement and slight sadness that I had somehow unappreciatively let this great gift get musty, dusty, and old when it had treated me so well. From then on, whatever it was that I found I promised never to treat it so poorly again. For the most part, that’s what I did. Every summer I seemed to learn the same lesson: what you appreciate and take care of only grows in value. That’s the lesson here, too.

I’m still the same way. The only difference is that the toys are sometimes bigger and the stakes are sometimes higher. What’s more, I believe in taking care of my relationships and myself the same way. For instance, I work out nearly every day. I get a haircut every Friday. Simple things. They make a difference in how I look, yes, but the important thing is that they make a difference in how I feel. People do notice that, and I notice it, too. I’m happier.

About the author:
Robert Mack is the author of Happiness from the Inside Out. He is the resident life coach for Miami Life Center, of Travel & Leisure’s top twenty-five health and wellness centers. Visit him online at:
www.happinessfromtheinsideout.com.

Excerpted with permission from Happiness from the Inside Out  © 2009 by Robert Mack. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. Reprinted with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com or 800-972-6657 ext. 52.

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All of this fear can choke us, stopping us in our tracks. We intellectually know that we shouldn’t let it. But somehow, it sneaks in and can strangle the creativity in our lives.

About five years ago, I was in a very bad place. I compulsively worried about everything from what people thought of me to the state of the world. I worried so much that I couldn’t eat. I worried myself into sleeping less than four hours a night. My fear was making me miserable, and I was making myself sick.

Finally, I woke up one morning in the middle of the summer, and I decided that I was tired of feeling so bad every single day. I was tired of worrying what people thought about me and how I could please them. I took stock of everything that was making me feel miserable in my life, and I fired some things.

I say firing; it’s really just a shorthand way of saying something that something that you used to allow to have power over you no longer has that power. You fire it. You take away its key card and you have security escort it to the door. Many people, when they try to get rid of something toxic in their life, they decide to hate or fear it, completely avoiding it so that maybe the problem will just go away.

However, by keeping these things in your life, you still expend a large amount of energy in combating them daily, whether it be through fear or anger.. By consciously deciding to fire something, you declare to yourself that the thing that was pulling your life down (whether it be a person, a relationship, or anything else) no longer has any power over you.

That day, I fired a lot of things that weren’t making me happy. I fired my parents because my fear that they would never accept me was causing me panic attacks. I fired my own hypocrisy and decided to start being truthful. I sat down and systematically fired everything that was holding me back from being the person that I wanted to be. And you know what happened? I felt better. I got out of bed, and I started to actually live my life. And whenever the things that I had fired tried to bother me, I just fired them again and kept on moving. We all have so much to do every single day. Who has time to feel crappy?

As Margaret Cho quipped on the Notorious C.H.O. tour, “How much time would I save if I just let myself walk by a plate-glass window without sucking in my gut and throwing back my shoulders? How much time would I save? And it turns out I save about 97 minutes a week. I can take a pottery class.” We all have so much that we could be doing in the time that we sit around being fearful and not believing in ourselves.

And its hard to shake out of that way of thinking, because we have been taught from the moment that we were born that we are not perfect. That someone else has it better, and that we should strive to be exactly like them. But, you can only live one person’s life at a time, and when that life isn’t your own, you end up unhappy. And it’s all because we are afraid to be who we are. Why else would we put up with all of the extra that comes with it?

Anyway, as I went through the next few weeks, people began to notice a change in me. I was happier. My mood was lighter. And, truth be told, I became more productive. Without wasting all of that time in fear, I was able to live a better life than I had ever known was possible. Over time, I was able to resolve my issues without all of the baggage that came from experiencing it all in the moment. Some things got rehired. Some things, we had to remain split up due to irreconcilable differences.

Once I had confronted my fears the first time, I soon realized that it wasn’t worth it to be afraid of anything unless I had a fantastic reason. So, I took it on myself to confront my fears whenever I could.

For instance, I had a fear of roller coasters. When I supervised a field trip to a theme park, I rode one of the largest roller coasters in the theme park. Sure, it scared me, but it clued me into something larger: I didn’t like roller coasters because they made me violently motion sick. I started to realize that fear might be my body’s way of irrationally avoiding things.

By confronting our fear, we give ourselves the opportunity to make choices to live the life we want to live rather than the life we think we should live. Once we stop being afraid of other people’s judgment, then we can start living the lives that we know we should be living. You can make the choices that are the best for you. Don’t worry about keeping up with other people; there is no final tally. What works for other people might not work for you.

Once we can name our fear for what it is, we can get past it and achieve our goals. Never let fear stand in the way of doing what you want to do. Fire that feeling that says you can’t do anything that you put your mind to. Fire your fear. Most of all, though, don’t give into the fear of the unknown.

The unknown isn’t something we should fear out of hand. Instead, embracing the unknown gives us the chance to do all the things in the world that we seek to accomplish. Conquering this fear allows us to undertake career changes, cross country movies, and relationships; it enables every single major decision that you are confronted with in your life.

No choice is simple, but nothing is simplified by fear. By firing our irrational fears, we can lead better lives without the baggage that comes from carrying this heavy load.

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1. Shop the perimeter of your grocery store where all the fresh, healthy food is located, like fruits, vegetables, seafood, and meats. The packaged, processed, and frozen foods that often contain trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, and other unhealthy additives are typically found in the center of the store. This could also be a money-saving strategy, since fresh foods typically cost less than processed foods.

It’s better for the environment because all that excessive packaging ends up in landfills. You are reducing waste as you’re reducing your waist! Don’t forget to bring reusable bags to the grocery store to cut down on the resources required to manufacture new paper and plastic bags as well the energy required to make them.

2. Hit the bulk aisle for healthy foods like whole grains, nuts, and cereal to cut down on excessive packaging and save you some money. While refined, simple, and starchy carbohydrates, such as white bread, white rice, white pasta, and highly processed foods, can contribute to weight gain and can prevent weight loss; whole grains like oats, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, and quinoa can have the opposite effect.

Not only are they the key to weight loss and weight maintenance, they can also reduce your risk of heart disease and diabetes. You are also requiring less energy from the planet when you eat food that is minimally processed. When you choose whole grains, the planet’s energy and resources aren’t expended taking apart the grain and processing, refining, and bleaching it.

Those whole grains you’re eating are eventually processed or broken down, though. Guess where that energy comes from? You! So not only are you saving Earth’s precious resources and the energy required to process whole grains into white foods; your body is using its energy to break down those whole grains instead. To be gentler to the environment, bring your own containers or use brown paper bags from the produce section and reuse them several times because recycling the bag.

3. Walk, bike, or take mass transit to run errands, visit your neighbor, attend worship services, or take the kids to school. It’s pretty clear how biking and walking can help you slim down, but mass transit calls for more exercise too since you have to travel to pick up and drop off points. Sure, all these methods require a little more time and planning ahead, but losing excess weight and becoming healthier while reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the leading cause of global warming, is definitely worth it!

4. Patronize farmers’ markets and put yourself smack in the middle of the freshest, local, and seasonal bounty of fruits and vegetables that your community has to offer. This also helps to support the local economy, requires less fuel to transport food to you, and less carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles transporting food great distances.

Much of the produce you buy at your local grocery store comes from agribusiness giants that ship food thousands of miles for your convenience. Food that comes from a nearby farm is going to taste a lot fresher and tastier and spending money at farmers’ markets tells the farmers to continue to put their land to good use and keep growing healthy food for the local population.

5. Buy organic food instead of food manufactured and grown using conventional practices because it’s guaranteed by the USDA to not contain pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, genetically modified organisms, or sewage sludge. Certified organic food is also produced on ecologically-friendly farms that are required to use sustainable practices that ensure the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water, which keeps your drinking water cleaner.

One tiny word of caution: just because a food is certified organic doesn’t mean it’s healthy or that it will help you lose weight. There are hundreds of organic foods that are in this category such as packaged foods, ice cream, and breads and pastas that are not whole grain. Organic food can be more expensive so here are some cost-cutting strategies:

• Use the web for coupons
• Shop at discount stores or buy in bulk
• Look for store-brand organics
• Join a food co-op
• Buy produce in season.

6. Eat Less Meat and more protein substitutes like legumes, nuts, seeds (which contain antioxidants, omega 3 fatty acids, fiber, Vitamin E, and far less saturated fat, antibiotics, hormones) is good for you, animal livestock, and the planet. Plant-based food has far less environmental impact than animal-based food. Getting your protein from sources other than beef is a pretty brilliant idea.

The EPA estimates that nearly 75 percent of the water pollution in the United States is a direct result of industrial beef production and processing. The problems associated with global warming and climate change are also increased due to beef production and consumption. From a health standpoint, there are many reasons to limit your beef consumption.

Beef is a leading source of dietary saturated fat, which can significantly increase the risk of heart disease, the number one killer of men and women today. Beef consumption also creates a significant number of public health hazards because animal feed in industrial meat plants may contain arsenic, animal by-products, and antibiotics.

Making simple changes like these not only transforms your body and makes you healthier; it also helps transform the Earth and makes our planet healthier.

About the author:
Kami Gray is the author of The Denim Diet: Sixteen simple Habits to Get You into Your Dream Pair of Jeans. is a mother, blogger, author, and TV Wardrobe Stylist who says a dream pair of jeans can be a great motivator for losing weight and keeping it off. Thanks to her green upbringing, her plan focuses on becoming lean while simultaneously minimizing the impact we make on the planet. Her book was released this month. You can find Kami online at http://thedenimdiet.com or read her blog at http://blog.kamigray.com

Based on the book:
The Denim Diet: Sixteen simple Habits to Get You Into Your Dream Pair of Jeans. © 2009 Kami Gray. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com or 800-972-6657 ext. 52.

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People pass on all sides in waves of color, bearing with them their own shadows, just as you, when sunlight touches them and stretches around. They might be lawyers, prostitutes, clergy; no ethnicity is excluded. All are equal; they have shadows. It’s a law of nature, of the physical world; every material thing casts a shadow of its own.

Take a walk in the countryside. It could be in the farmland of Kansas, Iowa, Michigan, perhaps a forest of trees. Smell the fragrance of spring blossoms, manure fertilizing crops, observe shadows of trees rustling in the breeze.

But we call it shade. And is it any wonder that shade is another name for spirit? Ghost, ka, demon.

It was believed in many ancient cultures that the shadow was the soul. For this reason vampires were portrayed as casting no shadow. And so it is said that when we fight our negative desires that we have unconsciously created, those which we attempt to hide and inevitably display in dysfunctional ways, that we are “battling our inner demons.”

My first experience with ‘shadow work’ as it is called, was with Centerpointe Research Institute. Well, that’s almost true, but give me a moment to relate my experience.

My shadow work resulted around anger. Mine was the common dysfunctional family. A self-righteous father with an immense insatiable hole to fill, and a loving mother who was as equally repressed as I.

Boundaries were ever shifting. What was permissible one day was wrong the next, then allowed the day after.

I was abused verbally on a daily basis, told I was worthless and other comparable ‘content-value’ labels. I struggled with myself because, while most of me did not believe these things, part of me questioned my certainty, made me think every so often that perhaps I was worthless after all. I experienced depression and on several occasions seriously contemplated suicide.

Meanwhile our family was in significant debt even though my father made sixty grand a year. I was wearing his hand-me-downs which were too big around the waist and too short at the pant leg. When I got a job, he abused me to my friends, and took half my money for rent which only went to buy more things. He didn’t drink, yet we never could figure out where much of the money went to.

After I caught him with another woman, life was more peaceful than it used to be because he was no longer around, but six months after I discovered that, despite my best efforts and my vow that I would never be like him, I sounded like him. It was something my mother did, and though I don’t remember what it was, I remember that I was reactive. I heard Robert in that voice, in that sentence I never completed, because suddenly I realized I had been acting that way for the last several months.

While he was around to remind me of the behavior that I hated, I was so docile I let people walk on me, but now that he was gone, everything of I which I was not aware floated to the surface. I knew that practicing is preaching, but I never realized I had been affected so strongly until that moment. What you do unconsciously will effect those unconscious around you.

I told my mother that was being a jerk, that I was being just like Robert. I asked her forgiveness and asked her to tell me any time I was acting like him because I did not want that in my life. It wasn’t until a few years after that I discover what this was called, but I never made the connection until the last few paragraphs, that I had actually done some beginner ‘shadow work’ on myself.

The ‘shadow work’ with the Centerpointe assistant, however, was much deeper. At first I struggled with wrapping my mind around the concept of becoming anger, until I realized I couldn’t logically be anger, that I had to be anger intuitively.

It required me to feel what anger feels like and fall into it, without any sort of mentally conceived definitions. It was an abyss and I hated what I found there, I hated being anger, especially when I began to speak from that voice which I had repressed in my attempt to survive.

Before we can rid ourselves of these shadows (and we all have them), we must first acknowledge that we created them ourselves. It does not matter that another assisted us in producing them. It doesn’t matter that we conceived them unconsciously.

What matters is that we conceived them ourselves and that only we can be rid of them ourselves. All it requires for us to be is willing and early on, some quality guidance. We cannot just label them as our ‘demons’ as if they something outside our sphere of control; all of us must be responsible for our own actions, for our own lives.

This is what Debbie Ford is offering. Her work is essential for helping you discover your full potential. Throughout her video The Shadow Effect, she gives examples of celebrities and our perceptions of them that instantaneously arise to show us that we are in fact no different than them, or anyone else in that we can achieve, or fail, as they.

No matter how high of a pedestal one is put upon, they are still only human. Anyone could argue any political angle, in favor of one celebrity or against, but those points are moot beside the fundamental purity of her intention and the value she offers to you, the seeker. We all can disagree in any area, but the point is made clear that our potential is limitless and that we all require assistance, even if it means assisting yourself, to change that shadow into light.

More information about the movie: The Shadow Effect

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