We all have unlimited potential. We keep most of it locked away in a vast, mysterious area of the psyche called the “Shadow.” The Shadow is the birthplace of brilliance, the crucible of creativity.

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.

The root of much unhappiness is comparison. Comparison gets in the way of healthy self-appreciation — and thus happiness – more than anything else. Because of comparison, hardly anybody is ever happy with what they get and nothing’s ever good enough for practically everybody. That’s because we measure our success in anything by comparing it to what others have or to what we have had before.

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.

There is something intoxicating about fear. We all face it every single day. We face the fear that the people we encounter will instinctively judge us because of how we look. We face the fear of making a poor first impression. We face the fear that we will not, at every moment, be our best and that this will somehow cause us to fail.

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.

We don’t often think of losing weight and becoming healthier as a way to live greener and become a better steward of the planet, but becoming lean and going green go hand-in-hand. Here are some easy ways to slim down, become healthier, and take better care of our beautiful planet.

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.