Susie asks…
“Can Happy Guide be used to overcome fear of spiders?”
The answer is yes, with a bit of extra “application” detail. A lot would depend on the severity of the phobia and the aim — what is the outcome wanted?
But let’s assume a general case… First, you have to deconstruct any belief that is helping to fuel the overreaction. Basically — what are the FACTS? Continue reading “How to overcome fear of spiders”
One day at work something HIT ME like a ton of bricks. It was one of those pivotal moments we have in life. I was soldering — I was an electrical engineer and my head started swimming.
In only a couple of seconds I became disoriented and straight away was lost in a fog that was to last for 13 years…
I was scared; suddenly I couldn’t function, couldn’t focus and couldn’t do normal things like drive the car.
I shut MY WHOLE LIFE down. It was a knee-jerk reaction that was probably the wrong move but I didn’t know what else to do. I lost everything and I mean… EVERYTHING… Continue reading “How did Happy Guide come about?”
I often write about my friend who has “OCD” — obsessive compulsive disorder. Because the issues he faces are the same ones we all face.
His are just more extreme, more obsessive but they’re the same. Just two days after giving his full effort to just one simple technique he called me…
“I’m cured,” he said.
This was after months of severe anxiety states. He was shaking a lot of the time, sweating heavily at night. His thoughts were racing constantly and he couldn’t control them.
He had to stop work several times and his life was grinding to a halt as he avoided as much as he could and withdrew into his private world of pain.
The reason I’m telling you all this is to show you the amazing power of attention. The technique is simple — distraction…
Continue reading “20 years of OCD cured in 2 days!”
Meditation is the ultimate life-changing experience. The point of meditation is to set you free.
In a sense, it’s the only freedom really possible, but freedom from what? You could say “Freedom from anything that isn’t really you.”
In the ordinary human experience, what we believe as “me” or “I” is thoughts about the content of our life, our body, our mind — beliefs, ideas and concepts about ourselves. None of these things is who we really are.
It’s attachment and identification to these things that stops us seeing our true selves. So, we are actually “asleep,” in the sense that there is no higher awareness that can say “oh, that was a thought (or feeling).”
Just like when you’re dreaming there’s no higher awareness that knows you’re dreaming until you start to wake up and then you can say “oh, I’m dreaming.”
When you’re fully awake, you’d say “that was a dream.” If there is no higher awareness, then there is no choice. In the “normal” level of awareness thoughts and feelings become us, because all our attention is in them. There is nothing higher — like in the dream… Continue reading “What is the point of meditation?”
Are you in a bad mood after eating? Does your energy crash? Do you have difficulty concentrating?
The reason could well be food intolerance. I’m not a fan of the term “food intolerance” — it sounds so wishy washy for a condition that can make your life a misery. Continue reading “Bad moods after eating”
This is a very important thing to understand about overcoming anxiety and worry:
It’s impossible to control thinking when you’re anxious.
Anxiety is a “fight or flight” state. It’s do or die, survival…
It’s a state that is intended to save your life. In the modern world we have so many pressures on us that just were not there as human beings evolved.
And so we become anxious when we cannot fight or run. And all that anxious energy has NOWHERE TO GO. That’s very important background information to know before you can deal with this… Continue reading “How to overcome anxiety and worry”
It’s a common problem. We’ve decided meditation would be good for us and so we give it a go.
Then we realize just how turbulent our minds are.
When you look at your own mind from a “stand back” position, you really see how wild the untamed mind can be and the trouble it causes.
All good… awareness is the first step to change… very true… Continue reading “Why do I have crazy, disturbing or evil thoughts during meditation?”
Depression is one of the worst afflictions anyone can suffer because no matter what the outer circumstances of life, the EXPERIENCE of life is dark, painful, hopeless.
Words can’t describe the awful pain that is depression. It’s torture…
The reason I’m so desperate to speak about this is that the truth about depression is just not common knowledge.
Depression, like so many other health conditions, is treated as if something suddenly went wrong with your brain. Anti-depressant prescriptions are taken en-masse…
These drugs attempt to alter the chemistry of your brain to try to FIX a lack or excess of brain chemicals like “serotonin.” The SSRI (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors) anti-depressants for example aim to stop serotonin being lost from the brain and therefore keep you happier. But there’s a real lack of evidence that these drugs help, and even short-term benefit seems likely to be the placebo effect.
The short-sightedness of this whole approach makes my blood boil. I feel angry about it. Very angry. Because MILLIONS of people are being duped into thinking that they need drugs which can only ever MASK an underlying problem… Continue reading “How to beat depression without prescription drugs”
I’m always banging on about the power of habit. Habits are at the root of all outcomes… good or bad because habit is the power that repeats behavior.
But habits can be so subtle and automatic, even unconscious that it’s difficult to see clearly JUST how powerful they are.
So try this…
Get the clock or watch that you look at twenty times a day and stick it in a drawer for 3 weeks. If you want to know the time, you can go look in the drawer :-) You’ll be amazed what happens and the power of habit will be laid bare.
I did this a while back because we were moving some stuff around and the clock had to be moved into another room. This is the clock I always look at when I need to know the time. Continue reading “HABIT POWER laid bare”
Recently, I talked about why we self-destruct. It’s because we want to feel good.
When our lifestyles make us feel bad, we habitually turn to the quick fix. This fuels a never ending downward spiral of self destructive behavior that’s hard to stop…
One day you find life has gone pear-shaped, you’re not functioning, not coping.
And you know… big steps don’t work because by the time you’re not coping, you NEED that fix to even function…
Continue reading “How to stop self destructive behavior — the first step”
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