Informative Articles

Does Your Life Lack Meaning?
Vera sought out counseling with me because her doctor advised her to discover the emotional causes of her chronic fatigue. Vera, a successful stockbroker, was in a loving 18-year marriage. On the surface, everything in her life was fine. She had enough money, friends, and a good relationship. Yet Vera awoke each morning battling fatigue and depression.
David sought my help because of chronic feelings of inner emptiness. David is very successful in his manufacturing business, has a good marriage and two adult children. Like Vera, everything seemed fine. Yet the feelings of inner emptiness drove David to overeat, overspend, and indulge in porno on the Internet.
While both Vera and David were successful in their careers, neither loved their work. They worked to make money, but their work had little meaning for them. Yet when they looked inside, neither could discover what did have meaning for them. Both reported that they had never experienced a sense of meaning in their adult lives, and that the emptiness and depression had been with them since adolescence.
As I worked with Vera and David, it became evident that each had made a decision early in their lives to shut down their feelings to avoid the deep pain of unbearable loneliness. Vera shut down because she was unable to tolerate the loneliness of her mother’s behavior toward her. Her mother would say she loved Vera, but Vera never felt her love. Instead, she felt her mother energetically pulling at her, trying to suck the life out of her. As a very sensitive child, Vera could not tolerate this confusing experience, so she put her feelings in a box and decided to live out of her head instead of her gut.
David, also a very sensitive child, shut down because he was unable to tolerate the loneliness of being with two emotionally unavailable empty parents, and the loneliness of rejection from peers.
As adults, both Vera and David were still shut down from their feelings. They were still afraid of feeling the pain of loneliness – a feeling that is actually an everyday fact of life. Loneliness is present when your heart is closed or another’s heart is closed, or when there is no one with whom to share love. Loneliness is the primary feeling when we want to connect with another and the other is unavailable. If you were completely open to your feelings, you would feel moments of loneliness

throughout the day. However, most people never feel this feeling and are completely unaware of it, because the moment there is a twinge of emotional pain, they move instantly to various addictions and addictive behaviors, such as substances, activities, thoughts, shame and blame. Yet when we shut out pain, we also shut out joy and a passionate sense of purpose.
Pain and joy are in the same box. Vera and David could not discover what has meaning for them and what brings them joy while keeping a lid on their feelings. And the very act of keeping a lid on their feelings was creating their depression and inner emptiness.
Imagine that your feelings are a child within. If you ignore this child – by ignoring your feelings – this child feels abandoned. Our refusal to feel and take responsibility for our own pain is an inner abandonment and results in anxiety, depression, and/or inner emptiness.
It is our child within – our feeling self – that has the blueprint for what has meaning for us, for our passion and purpose. Each of us comes to this planet with a deep purpose to express, and when we don’t express this purpose, we end up feeling empty and depressed. Yet we cannot discover this purpose when we keep a lid on our feelings.
Learning to manage the pain of loneliness is essential to discovering your passion and purpose. There is no way of managing loneliness without a deep and personal connection to a spiritual source of love and wisdom. We cannot manage loneliness from our mind alone.
You will find deep meaning in your life when you decide to open to and learn from your feelings of loneliness rather than continue to shut them down. And you will open to these feelings only when you do not feel alone inside due to experiencing the love and wisdom of your spiritual Guidance. Opening to Divine Love and opening to your feelings will bring you the fullness, joy, passion and purpose that are the yearnings of your soul.

About the Author

Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is the best-selling author and co-author of eight books, including "Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By You?" She is the co-creator of the powerful Inner Bonding healing process. Visit her web site for a FREE Inner Bonding course: http://www.innerbonding.com or email her at margaret@innerbonding.com.

Tags: drugs, gambling, eating, sex, food disorders

Informative Articles

Do You Have Creaky Joints?
Regardless of your age, you could have Arthritis. In North America over Fifty five million people suffer from this debilitating disease.
Arthritis is an inflammation of one or more joints. It is characterized by pain, swelling, stiffness, deformity, or a diminished range of motion.
 
The most common types of Arthritis and their symptoms are;
 
Osteoarthritis; the symptoms are, stiffness, and pain on joint motion. Usually this comes on gradually and occurs after the age of forty.
 
Rheumatoid arthritis; the symptoms are joint stiffness upon awakening; this usually lasts for a couple hours, also swelling in the finger and wrist joints. This usually affects people between the ages of, twenty five to fifty.
 
Spondyloarthropathies (including psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Reiter's syndrome) this group of disorders tends to affect the spine, causing pain, stiffness, inflammation, and changes in body position. This usually affects people between the ages of twenty and forty years of age.
 
Gout; The symptoms come on quickly with extreme pain and swelling. It usually affects people over forty years of age.
 
Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis; the symptoms are joint stiffness, often in the knee, wrist and hands. It can also involve the organs and the nervous system. It usually affects children under eighteen years of age.
 
If you have this disease here are some of the choices available to you.
You can take pain killers, steroids or anti-inflammatory drugs, and manage the disease, or you can use holistic products, and cure the disease.
You can learn more,

visit The Arthritis Foundation at www.arthritis.org.  Knowledge is power and life style diseases are curable!
 
You can change your lifestyle and be good to your joints.
Here are 12 life style changes that will help your joints and the rest of your body.
*Lose weight
*Turn off the T.V.
*Eat well
*Add color to your diet, fruits and veggies
*Eat a diet high in protein, eliminate refined carbohydrates,
white bread, white pasta, white rice and potatoes.
*Visit the salad bar when you eat out
*Keep a food journal
*Cut down on caffeine intake; no more than two caffeinated drinks a day.
*Take calcium, vitamins and minerals each day. All supplements should be a high quality, liquid plant extract.
*Cleanse your body of impurities, to learn more about cleanses refer to www.herbs4health.net click on The E book “9 Steps To A Healthy Vibrant Body”, Chapter three “Cleansing The Body”
*Eliminate the bad stresses from your lifestyle
*Address any addictions in your life, smoking, alcohol, or drugs
*Get plenty of exercise
 
Many people feel that having some form of an arthritic condition is inevitable; they feel it is part of aging. This is not true; many people who practice a holistic life style are free of this disease for their whole life. Our life style determines our health, if you have led an unhealthy life style, you can change your lifestyle, rebuild your body, and you too can have a healthy vibrant
 
______________________________________

About the Author

I am Jane Kriese, I am the web master for the site, www.herbsforhealthstore.biz,

Tags: shopping, gambling, food disorders, compulsive behavior, drug and alcohol

Informative Articles

DO YOU HAVE ACHY JOINTS?

Regardless of your age, you could have Arthritis. In North America over Fifty five million people suffer from this debilitating disease.

Arthritis is an inflammation of one or more joints. It is characterized by pain, swelling, stiffness, deformity, or a diminished range of motion.

The most common types of Arthritis and their symptoms are;

Osteoarthritis; the symptoms are, stiffness, and pain on joint motion. Usually this comes on gradually and occurs after the age of forty.

Rheumatoid arthritis; the symptoms are joint stiffness upon awakening; this usually lasts for a couple hours, also swelling in the finger and wrist joints. This usually affects people between the ages of, twenty five to fifty.

Spondyloarthropathies (including psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Reiter's syndrome) this group of disorders tends to affect the spine, causing pain, stiffness, inflammation, and changes in body position. This usually affects people between the ages of twenty and forty years of age.

Gout; The symptoms come on quickly with extreme pain and swelling. It usually affects people over forty years of age.

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis; the symptoms are joint stiffness, often in the knee, wrist and hands. It can also involve the organs and the nervous system. It usually affects children under eighteen years of age.

If you have this disease here are some of the choices available to you.

You can take pain killers, steroids or anti-inflammatory drugs, and manage the disease, or you can use holistic products, and cure the disease.

You can learn more, visit The Arthritis Foundation at www.arthritis.org. Knowledge is power and life style diseases are curable!

You can change your lifestyle and be good to your joints.

Here are 12 life style changes that will help your joints and the rest of your body.
* Lose weight
* Turn off the T.V.
* Eat well
* Add color to your diet, fruits and veggies
* Eat a diet high in protein, eliminate refined carbohydrates, white bread, white pasta, white rice and potatoes.
* Visit the salad bar when you eat out
* Keep a food journal
* Cut down on caffeine intake; no more than two caffeinated drinks a day.
* Take calcium, vitamins and minerals each day. All supplements should be a high quality, liquid plant

extract.
* Cleanse your body of impurities, to learn more about cleanses refer to www.herbs4health.net click on The E book “9 Steps To A Healthy Vibrant Body”, Chapter three “Cleansing The Body”
* Eliminate the bad stresses from your lifestyle
* Address any addictions in your life, smoking, alcohol, or drugs
* Get plenty of exercise

Many people feel that having some form of an arthritic condition is inevitable; they feel it is part of aging. This is not true; many people who practice a holistic life style are free of this disease for their whole life. Our life style determines our health, if you have led an unhealthy life style, you can change your lifestyle, rebuild your body, and you too can have a healthy vibrant body.

© Jane Kriese

Please feel free to use this article in your Newsletter or on your web site. If you use this article, please send a brief message to let me know where it appeared: mailto:janes-store@telus.net Thank you.

This article may be reprinted in newsletters and on web sites, with resource box included

If using this article, please send a brief message to janes-store@telus.net

http://www.herbs4health.net
janes-store@telus.net

Would you like to have a Healthy Vibrant Body?
To learn more, sign up for Jane Kriese's
Herbs For Health Newsletter at;
www.herbsforhealthstore.biz

About The Author

I am Jane Kriese, I am the web master for the site, www.herbsforhealthstore.biz.

I am a business woman, author, wife and mother. My passion is the holistic world. I love to study, and write articles, about holistic cures for life style diseases. It is exciting to educate people, and watch as they change their life style by, introducing holistic products, and new habits, into their life. Many of these people have healed their bodies. The holistic world is full of hope and joy, and I believe with effort we can have a healthy vibrant body.

janes-store@telus.net

Tags: shopping, drug and alcohol, drugs, sex, eating

Informative Articles

Do You Have A Food Addiction?
Everyone from time to time gets a craving for a certain type of food. Sometimes we just crave something to eat. No real reason, other than to eat. Sometimes this can be because you are bored, or because you seem something suggestive about food. How many times have you seen a television commercial advertising burgers and it made you want one? This is healthy. We all do it. Hell, I'd say that we probably do this several times per week. Did you know, that you can be addicted to food? I know that sounds a little weird, but it is true. How can you tell if you are a food addict? Sometimes it might not be as easy as you think. There are many things that might come in your way of knowing if you are a food addict. You might be depressed or in an emotional downward spiral that will tarnish your ability to see what is going on. Over a period of time, you will be able to tell if you have an eating problem. If nothing else, you will see it in your waist line. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out.
What foods are addictive? Well, that is a hard answer. There is no hard answer on what is addictive. It is like saying what is more addictive, beer or whiskey. Though there are a few foods that are extremely addictive.
Caffeine.
We all know that this is addictive. I'm sure if you are a coffee drinker, you know how you get the shakes in the morning if you don't have your coffee. Is coffee addiction bad for you? It depends on how much that you drink. If you are drinking a few cups a day, I don't think that it is harmful. If on the other hand you are drinking several pots per day, you have a problem. Even though it is addictive, you can control the amount that you consume. Unless you have a very addictive personality. If this is the case, I would suggest that you avoid coffee and other caffeine containing products all together.
Sugar.
This is addictive. We try not to think of it as being so, but it is. It is addictive because of the jolt of energy that it gives us. If you haven't had your daily truck load of sugar and you feel tired, worn out, cranky, you are going through withdraw. Did you know that heroin addicts that are going through withdraw consume large amounts of sugar? It is said that sugar helps ward off the cravings of heroin. Sugar is one of those things that is hard to avoid. The best thing that you can do is avoid candy and

other sweets. You will digest some sugar, but if you avoid those things, you will cut out a big portion of your sugar consumption. You should also avoid sodas. They are loaded with sugar.
Carbs.
This is one thing that people will get frustrated at me over. I do think that carbs are addictive. For the same reasons that sugar is addictive. The best thing that you can do is avoid eating too much bread and pasta. That is the best way to avoid getting addicted to carbs.
I'm not saying that if you are addicted to carbs you will be like a junky. What I am saying is, that you will become dependant on them. I think that many people are addicted to carbs and don't know it. It isn't something that we think about when it comes to addictions. What should you do if you are a food addict? If you can control it, you should do your best to do so. If you are the type that has a strong will, it shouldn't be too hard.
The problem is, most of us don't have a strong will when it comes to addictions. We are a race of addicted creatures. I'm beginning to think that most of us are addicted to something. No matter if it is coffee, cigarettes, booze and so forth. If you don't feel that you can control it, you need to go to your doctor. You need to tell him what is going on. Don't be ashamed to talk to him about it. You should be more ashamed of yourself if you do nothing about it. After you talk to him you should look into finding a support group for people who have food addictions. Your doctor will probably point you to a therapist. The therapist will know of a support group you can attend. If you aren't to point that you can talk openly about such a thing in person, you can find support groups online. They are free to use, meaning they don't charge any money. You will begin to find out what treatment and other things are available. These are people who fight what you are going through every day.
Don't be ashamed or afraid. Most of the changes in life are things that are hard to do. This is no different.
For More Information On How To Lose Weight, Please Visit www.natural-stamina.com/LoseThatWeightFast.html

About the Author

Alex Sharp is the founder of Natural Stamina.com, a program designed to help men with all issues of their life.
For more information on weightloss, please visit www.natural-stamina.com/LoseThatWeightFast.html

Tags: addictions, sex, stop smoking, compulsive behavior, eating

Informative Articles

Do You Enable?
We all have behaviors, tendencies, patterns, and the keen
ability to recognize any and all of them. However, when
we become so accustomed and engrossed in them, how do
we know we are enabling someone else’s negative
behaviors?
It can be sometimes difficult to come to this realization,
because it is has been such a seemingly normal way of life
for a designated period of time.
Characteristics that you accept and are willing to ignore in
your interpersonal relationships that yield dark
consequences, somehow put the offender you enable high
upon a pedestal, while you struggle to remain vertical.
Surrender….
You will surrender your values when you enable someone
else to practice their ill-fated behaviors, because you fear
some form of backlash, whether it be distance, abuse, living
up to their great expectations, or upsetting their seedy
addictions.
Your future is tied directly to theirs, your self-progression
is like shadows that block the sun, yet you seem to
continually turn your face to reality, only to enable another
day.
You are not worthy!
Much of our lives we are consciously or sub-consciously
injected via family, friends, society, or self, that we are
simply not equal to others and consequently not worth as
much as others are.
This false assumption is reinforced by the behaviors we
enable and allow. Therefore, the cycle comes full circle
constantly until it is broken….and you are the only one who
can break it!
Relief…..
One day in the future, you receive a magical key that
unlocks the doors and the cuffs that bind your hands
together. The sun beams effortlessly across an icy blue sky,
the birds are more audible, your purpose and focus
suddenly have more clarity then ever before. You have
reached your personal nirvana!
That place in the future is not that far off and that key
resides inside you!
This is especially true, as long as you can understand that
not condoning their behaviors is the only way out.
This means that their next drinking binge and you calling
their work the following morning, only to lie about their
inability to show up, or defending your kids’ actions when
they are obviously wrong, has to stop!
You are worthy and your self respect will generate inner
strength to confront this and any other demons that cast
long shadows onto your life.
Asking yourself in your most logical voice if it is a healthy
behavior you are allowing, will bring you the answers you
seek. Subsequently, understanding that you as the enabler

is
as unhealthy as the enablee is an excellent place to start a
discontinuation of enabling. Although what do you do with
the person you are enabling after you realize this?
Options……
You do have them, and exercising them would be your
immanent next step. You can express you displeasure that
these behaviors have gone unnoticed for too long and that
it is detrimentally affecting the relationship, so it therefore
must stop!
Moreover, you can verbalize this in a heart to heart
discussion, and in understanding the need for your personal
mental health, give them an overdue ultimatum.
Separating yourself from this environment should be
indicated if: You receive a flat-out no in your attempts to
let them know that the enabling is going to discontinue and
their behavior is, also. If they refuse to receive any type of
treatment for their problems or addictions. If the effect of
their negative behavior is obviously polluting any children.
Note: When children are in the picture, normal and
unaffected, much thought must be given before breaking up
their home and often should be put off until they leave the
comforts of home.
This may sound like living in an internal prison, however,
the health of any child must be paramount! A sacrifice for
the betterment of any children cannot be overstated.
In addition, it would inevitably yield the relationship more
time to mend, as you continue your attempts to work on
eliminating your enabling, and assisting your partner’s
problematic behaviors to discontinue.
The main point to understand is that enabling someone to
cyclically delve into their poor behaviors and addictions
must be recognized with your own clarity and logic; then
immediately discontinued in order for you and your
relationship to maintain it’s health.
So ask yourself, is enabling worth it?….Undoubtedly you
will come to the realization, it is most definitely not.
–by Brian Maloney-ValuePrep.com
Want to improve your personal values?
Get high-quality-relationship advice
from a 'Logical' standpoint.
Visit Relationship Advice and Help
**Attn Ezine editors / Site Owners**
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety
in your ezine or on your website as long as
you leave all links in place, do not modify
the content and include our resource box
as listed above.

About the Author

Brian Maloney is a writer who specializes in developing peoples values and morals to help individuals better understand themselves.

Tags: gambling, drugs, drug and alcohol addiction, addictions, stop smoking

Informative Articles

Diet and Fitness, Winning Tactics For Weight Loss
Tell me, does this describe you? 'I tried a zillion diets in fits and starts and was never successful.' Just going on a diet will not give you a complete healthy persona. I finally paid attention to what everybody was saying, but I was too lazy to do.

I added exercise and fitness to the equation. We also need to stay fit as well as diet to lose weight. Our true wealth is our health. Isn't it worth your time bring it into peak condition and maintain it? Diet fitness is all about an accurate mix of diet and an appropriate fitness program.

This basically includes three levels of consideration:

1. Balance-A balanced diet must contain carbohydrate, protein, fat, vitamin, mineral salts and fiber in well proportionate quantity. Carbohydrates are the source of energy so these play an important role in balanced diet. Intentional inclusion of all foods from fruits to vegetables and meats to grains.

2. Moderation- portion control, small quantity at regular intervals. I had to laugh when I heard the results of a 5-year study costing millions of dollars the government ran to find out why the population of the US is getting heavier. The results…they determined we eat larger quantities! 'Super Size it!'

3. Variation - wide variety in foods,means higher chances of complete nutrition. And variety in your workout routine means a greter chance of sustaining it.

It is a well-known fact that poor diet leads to diseases, like obesity, even cancer and heart disease. The link between diet and physical fitness has well been established and recognized as a science in itself. It's the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity. How do you balance diet and fitness? What changes in your diet and fitness regimes will prove to be the most beneficial ones?

These questions may have been on your mind for a long time but you didn't know where to start. I let the paralysis of analysis prevent me from getting started for a long time. I wanted the 'perfect' fitness plan. My advice? Just get started

anywhere, but get started. There are the solutions at your doorstep. First and foremost, you need to ensure that the diet you are on, supplies you enough strength and energy to carry out the fitness training which means:

The basic fitness diet should:

1. Have a wide variety of foods– wholegrain breads and cereals for vitamins and minerals, leafy green vegetables for iron fueling, fruit for adequate fiber, lean meat and Fish (lowers cholesterol and helps prevent cancer) and low fat dairy products.

2. Enable you to have optimal weight and energy to carry out daily activities with ease.

3. Enhance quick and complete recovery during exercise.

4. Supply enough fluids to have maximum hydration. 5. Provide both short and long term benefits and ease of maintenance.

When the above criterion is satisfied, you can confirm that you are on a diet that is not starving you or running you the risk of malnutrition and weakness. Fitness programs can include not only basic gymnasium but modern techniques like dancing, aerobics and yoga for variety and fun. If it is enjoyable it will be easier to maintain.

Make no mistake about it, fitness regimes help you speed up the process of loosing weight along with the diet. That is the key, the magic diet accelerator. So eat healthy, exercise and be wise!

Bill Urell reviews only the best diet and fitness plans, tips, and articles that promote healthier lifestyles. Visit us by clicking: Weight Loss and Diet Plans and claim your FREE E-Cookbook, as a welcome gift.
About the Author

Bill Urell is an addictions therapist at a leading residential treatment center. He teaches healthy life styles and life skills as a component of holistic addictions treatment. His websites cover areas of professional and personal interests. To learn more about healthy lifestyles, diet and exercise visit: http://www.Online-Weight-Loss-Resources.com

Tags: addictions, drug and alcohol, compulsive behavior, smoking, food disorders

Informative Articles

Devoted to Loving
The following article is offered for free use in your ezine,
print publication or on your web site, so long as the author resource box at the end is included. Notification of publication would be appreciated.
Title: Devoted to Loving
Author: Margaret Paul
E-mail: mailto:margaret@innerbonding.com
Copyright: © 2003 by Margaret Paul
Web Address: http://www.innerbonding.com
Word Count: 991
Category: Emotional Healing
DEVOTED TO LOVING
by Margaret Paul, Ph.D.
I have counseled individuals, couples, families and business partners for the past 35 years and authored eight published books. All this experience has resulted in the development of a profound healing process, called Inner Bonding, which anyone can learn and use throughout the day (free course available - see resource box at the end of the article).
If you were to become aware of your thoughts throughout a day, you might discover that much of the time you are either judging yourself and others, or you are thinking about how you can get what you want and avoid that which you fear. The wounded, fearful part of us, whose purpose is to create a sense of safety, spends much time and energy trying to figure out how to have control over being safe. To this frightened wounded part of us, being safe means attempting to have control over our own feelings, over others and over the outcome of things.
If you think about how often you have truly felt safe in your life, you will see that most of your beliefs about how to create safety are false. All the addictive ways we try to control to create safety - our blaming anger, withdrawal, compliance, resistance, as well as substance and process addictions such as food, drugs, alcohol, sex, TV, gambling - not only alienate us from others, but also disconnect us from our spiritual guidance. Our only true sense of safety lies in knowing that we are not alone, that Spirit is always with us and always guiding us in our highest good.
How can we create a true sense of inner safety? One way is to practice the 6-step Inner Bonding healing process. The purpose of the Inner Bonding process is to create a loving Adult self – an aspect of us that is connected with a personal source of spiritual guidance. This powerful Adult self can heal the fears and false beliefs of the wounded part of us, our wounded inner child, and allow our creative and loving essence – our core Self – to emerge.
While part of the job of the loving Adult is to create a sense of safety for the inner child, this is not the primary purpose of the loving Adult. The primary purpose of the loving Adult is stay open to learning about what is loving to oneself and others. In being focused on what is loving rather than on getting what we want and avoiding our pain, we naturally create safety as one of the outcomes. If you were to spend your thinking time asking how you can give to your inner child and to others, and then taking loving action in your own behalf, you would feel very safe. When our focus is on giving instead of on getting or avoiding, then we consistently discover ways to give to ourselves and to others. When we are giving to ourselves,

bringing the love, wisdom and strength of Spirit down to the level of our feelings, which is our inner Child, we are no longer dependent on getting love from others in order to feel safe and lovable. When we are giving to others, we do not alienate them. Instead, we create a loving environment that invites others to share love with us. Thus, the outcome of thinking about and taking action on how we can give to ourselves and others is that we feel safe within and safe with others.
For example, if you are going to a party where you do not know anyone, and you are thinking, "What if no one talks with me? What if no one likes me? What if I end up alone? How can I get people to like me?", you will likely feel anxious. But if, instead, you think, "What can I give? I can give my smile, my acceptance, my caring, my understanding," you will likely feel empowered.
We each have a choice each moment to think about taking and avoiding, or about giving to ourselves and others. Which choice we make determines how we feel. The moment we choose to give, Spirit comes rushing into our heart and we then know God. Until loving is more important than whether or not we are rejected or controlled by others, we will not be truly devoted to loving.
The Inner Bonding process is based on the concept that there are only two intentions possible in any given moment: the intent to learn or the intent to protect. The intent to learn means that we want to learn about what is loving to ourselves and how to take full responsibility for our own feelings of pain and joy. The intent to protect means that we want to avoid responsibility for our own feelings through some kind of controlling behavior – controlling others or ourselves through the various addictive behaviors mentioned above.
In Step One of Inner Bonding, we choose the willingness to feel our pain and take responsibility for it. In Step Two, we move into an intent to learn about how we may be causing our difficult feelings and what false beliefs we are operating from. In Step Three, we dialogue out loud or in writing, as a loving Adult, with our inner child to learn about our fears and false beliefs and about how we are treating ourselves that may be harmful to us. In Step Four, we open to learning with our personal spiritual guidance, asking for the truth about the false beliefs and the loving action toward our inner child. With practice, you can learn to access the guidance that is always available for all of us. In Step Five we take the loving action we are being guided to take, and in Step Six we evaluate how we are feeling as a result of the loving action.
Practicing these six steps will eventually transform your life through the development a powerful loving Adult self.

About the Author

Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is the best-selling author and co-author of eight books, including "Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By You?" She is the co-creator of the powerful Inner Bonding healing process. Visit her web site for a FREE Inner Bonding course: http://www.innerbonding.com or email her at margaret@innerbonding.com.

Tags: gambling, eating, drugs, drug and alcohol, sex

Informative Articles

Depressed? It’s Gotta All Be Our Parents’ Fault!

A newspaper article from the Associated Press a while back reports that scientists say they’ve found a gene (CHRM2) that’s linked to alcoholism and depression. An expert from another organization says that if these preliminary findings hold true that it will provide another “potential target for developing new drugs to treat depression and alcoholism”.

Well, I’m excited now… Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m sure there are many, many people who came into this earthly existence so hard-wired with these tendencies that the proper drug or combination of drugs would be extremely beneficial. And common sense along with some basic observations over the years has shown that folks from alcoholic families tend to be alcoholic just as people from depressed families tend themselves to be depressed. Some of the reason of course, is genetics. We take the cards we’re dealt and play them out the best we can.

However, you can about bet a nickel or two that not all of the 7.9 million alcoholic American adults nor the 18.8 million suffers from depression (stats from the article) will be able to honestly lay the blame for their affliction on their genetics. We all know that environmental influences - family and everything else we’ve ever experienced - play just as large a role in determining our lifestyles, thought patterns and belief systems. Permanently overcoming these types of influences though, generally requires behavioral modification, not just physiological intervention.

Unfortunately, over the past few years, the treatment of disorders such as “depression” has followed closely in the footsteps of weight loss. We humans have naturally tried to take the easiest possible path – the one which requires the least effort on our part. Take a pill, wear a gadget, and “poof” we’re happy as skunks sucking eggs and skinny as a fence

pole to boot.

We all should know that this isn’t necessarily the way life really works. Sometimes we just gotta bust our behinds to change things around. Even some of the things that have been influenced by genetics can be successfully combated to a great extent through modifications of our thought patterns – and subsequently of course, our behavior.

A parting thought then I’ll climb down off my soapbox. (That danged cardboard and Elmer’s glue never has held up for very long anyway.) If you are one of world’s adults who are burdened with alcoholism (or other addictions) or severe depression, please get professional help now. Connect with someone or a group of people who can help you learn why you are the way you are today. There are reasons that are specific to your personal situation that you need to know about so you can make the changes it takes to start to step away from your problem. And don’t be surprised if some of these changes involve some potentially major modifications in your thought processes. It’s just a logical part of the healing and personal betterment process. So just go for it! Now! There’s a wonderful happy world waiting for you!

About The Author

Gene Simmons, through NuPathz.com, provides an easy reading self-help blog, articles, quotations, thoughts and links along with affordable self-help and self improvement books & materials - all designed to help folks find the road to a more enjoyable lifestyle, to pass on some of life’s “secrets for survival” in a chaotic world & offer a few smiles along the way. It's a down-to-earth, simple approach to discovering a better life. You can visit Gene at http://www.nupathz.com/.

gene@nupathz.com

Tags: chemical addition, sex, stop smoking, food disorders, drug and alcohol

Informative Articles

DEA Busts 4600 Online Pharmacies: A Word of Caution
Copyright 2005 David Altfeder
In September 2005, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) shut down more than 4600 illegal online pharmacy web sites and arrested 18 people who ran those sites. The illegal pharmacies shipped a range of medications to consumers without a valid prescription, including hyrocodone, promethazine cough syrup with codeine, phentermine and Xanax.
The DEA investigation, known as Operation CYBERx, also netted seven luxury cars, 2400 checks and money orders from customers and several boxes of cash. According to the DEA, the drug traffickers averaged more than $50,000 per day in profits through direct sales and through affiliate sales. They even sold cough syrup with codeine out the back door of their warehouse.
DEA Administrator Karen P. Tandy said, “Operation CYBERx puts out of business alleged cyber criminals who were selling powerful narcotics without legitimate prescriptions to anyone with a computer and cash. These high-tech drug dealers were fueling addictions by selling the very drugs intended to prevent and treat ailments—not inflict them. Just as important, this Operation makes more Americans aware that buying prescription drugs from these rogue websites is illegal and dangerous.”
It is important to differentiate between illegal pharmacies which dispense medication without a valid prescription and legal online pharmacies. A legal online pharmacy requires a physician to make an independent medical judgment about the appropriateness of the prescription request. If appropriate, the physician writes a legal prescription. The best of these pharmacies caution their patients to use their service wisely.
If you are considering a purchase from an online pharmacy,
- Avoid any pharmacy which offers codeine (hydrocodone) or other

narcotics
- Avoid any overseas pharmacy
- Avoid pharmacies which are hosted in China, Russia and other foreign countries. A recent report indicated 20% of medication shipped from Russia is counterfeit.
- Examine the web site. Is it a pure sales site? Sites with news, articles, and health advice are more likely to be legitimate, long term businesses.
- Avoid purchasing from any site which has sent you an unsolicited email advertisement (Spam).
- Avoid pharmacies which allow you to order any quantity of medication. Legitimate pharmacies limit the quantity of medication you can order and limit the frequency with which you can reorder.
- Exercise caution. If you have a new health problem which you do not fully understand or which has not been evaluated by a physician, see a physician first. For example, if you wake up with a major headache which you’ve never had before, don’t order pain medication from an online pharmacy, go to the emergency room instead.
Are there any conditions under which it is OK to order from an online pharmacy? While no formal standards have been developed to guide patients, there are certain conditions under which a purchase from an online pharmacy appears to be safe. For example, If you have been treated for a medical condition by a physician and you periodically have to reorder the medication, a purchase from an online pharmacy can save you the time and expense of a visit to the doctor’s office. Even in this case, periodic re-evaluation by your physician is wise.
About the author:
David Altfeder is owner of http://www.deepdiscountpharmacy.net. He has written a series of articles on health, medicine and pharmacology.

Tags: addictions, drug and alcohol, sex, drugs, chemical addition

Informative Articles

Cure Your Addiction
how to permanently quit addictions!!
I am a reformed alcoholic. I am a reformed chain smoker.
I am an ex-fat person. I am also not selling anything.
My only wish now is to help people by passing on my
knowledge; I guess this sounds too good to be true.
When you have really nearly died a few times, money
takes on a sort of reduced role in your thinking.
Make no mistake about it, we are all going to die,
even you will die one day. When you are young this
seems a long long way away, I'm fifty now, and it
sure seems a little closer to hand than it did.
So it makes sense to make the time I have left
quality time, free of drink smoking and obesity;
after all it is easier to get older if you feel fitter,
than if you are ruining your body daily.
I wish I had started earlier in life, YOU CAN.
You may think I have superhuman will-power to
quit drinking and smoking (and gambling and all
other excesses). To a certain extent that is true;
I have a great deal of will power, but I also have
a method, a way of thinking, which helps.
For some reason, and it may have been a good
 one at the time, you have a craving, an overpowering
addiction. You love something more than you
love yourself at the present time.
Think "myself or my health."
In this "New Labour" "Tony Blair" type world,
certainly in Britain, everything is explainable in terms
of something else more convenient. It doesn't detract
from the plain fact that the Emporer really hasn't got
any clothes on at all. In short, it's not stretching the
truth, it's really a very big lie(s).
This is what you are currently doing to yourself,
you are living out a lie in order to placate yourself,
in order to make what you are doing palatable.
What you are really doing is killing yourself a
lot quicker, and a lot more painfully than is
really necessary; and by and large no-one gives
a damn whether you do or you don't;
they are too busy with themselves to really and
truly bother about YOU. By and large this is correct.
The few people that possibly do care either havn't
a clue how to help, or are simply hampered by the
realisation that it is only YOU who can cure it.
There are really no excuses:
If you are drinking too much you are a pain of a drunk.
If you are smoking too much you are a pain of a smoker.
If you are gambling too much you are a liability,
just as you are if you are on drugs.
You probably nodded to all these, and felt agreement,
so why don't you realise that you are putting an intolerable
 strain on the people around you, to say nothing of the
strain on the Health Professionals.
WHY?
Because you are too self-indulgant to stop for a minute
enjoying yourselves to see if you are bothering other people,
too wrapped up in yourselves to care about others.
There is no magic formula to giving up an addiction:
You stop doing what it is that is costing you, and every
 one around you a fortune. You stop paying out what you
havn't got on things YOU DON'T REALLY NEED.
To break that down further, in order to do this you will
need to changeyour whole way of life, permanently.
Make no mistake, if you are really and truly HAPPY
with what you are doing, then fine, go ahead and do it,
but acknowledge that most things you really enjoy
overdoing kill you slowly, and painfully, and most things
 done to excess bring attendant guilt.
Stop reading now if you don't want to quit for good and
all or else you are wasting someone else's bandwidth who
has what it takes when you have not got the moral fibre.
What it takes is a modicum of will-power combined with
a hell of a lot of common sense. I have had a lot of addictions,
I am an excessive natured person. I find the first step in
losing any of them is to look at them as a phase I have
grown out of. I have matured to such an extent I no
longer need their crutch to carry me onwards.
Generally speaking, most addictions are to make up
for or act as a distraction from the world as it is.
We have to learn to face up to life instead of running
away from it, and hiding behind false barriers built
up on the shaky foundations of fleeting happiness
bought at great actual and mental cost via addiction.
We have to move on and grow up and mature;
Much as we ourselves look at kids and feel,

"that's wrong, but they'll grow out of it in time".
And they usually do, don't they, because they see
that long-term they are better off without doing what
 they are doing.
Why don't we tell them at the time?
Because we know they'll tend to do the opposite,
and that only they can learn to be wise in the fullness
of time.We can but advise, and sow the seeds.
Thus it is with ourselves.
We have established that we can expect NO HELP
FROM OTHERS. Why should anyone else help us
anyway, it's our problem. If someone came to you with
"Ive got a terrible problem with my lawyer, and my cat isn't eating, my mother-in-law is being funny and I've got
the results of my x-rays tomorrow" you might well be
a little concerned, but I bet your first thought would
really and truly be "how can I get away as quickly as
I possibly can without causing offence? ".
So why the hell should others be expected to listen to you
bleating on about helping you to quit your problem.
IT'S YOUR PROBLEM.
Also you will never stop doing anything you really LIKE
DOING. You have to really want to stop for good and ever,
not just when you attain a certain level, because you will
only gradually go back to what you were before, a PAIN.
If you hear an alcoholic say after a year off the booze
"I'm ok for a pint now" what do you REALLY think
will happen if he/she has a pint/short??
You know as well as I do.
So really you have to :
a) Realise it is just you that matters and does anything
b) realise you have to really WANT to quit
c) Realise no-one else is going to do it for you magically.
d) realise that it was a phase you had to live through
e) realise that it will definitely kill you, very very painfully
f) realise that you will have gained from your descent into hell
There are many ways to quit addictions for different people.
If you are reading this they have probably all failed.
Wrong.
YOU HAVE FAILED.
MOST of the methods work if you WANT them to work.
I suggest that you treat it as a phase of your life, and
you have learned from this phase and wish to move on
and prove to everyone that you aren't stupid. Because
anyone who knows that something is killing them
and alienating people, and still does it, is stupid;
has not learned one iota from what they have done
have not progressed one jot in their mindset.
Water, pure little tap water, fills you up and
is needed more than you think. Eighty per cent of
the human body is water, so it makes sense to drink it.
This is a good start to purifying your body and mind.
Drink a few litres a day. And KEEP BUSY.
Remember, I make zero money out of this article,
but it is probably the best common sense you'll ever
read.
Most articles you will read have a hidden agenda,
TO MAKE MONEY OUT OF ADDICTED PEOPLE.
If you quit forever, they'd lose your
money in the future, wouldn't they?
They plan on you quitting EVERY YEAR.
Why not just do it ONCE; I sure as hell would not
want to quit smoking and drinking on a yearly basis!!
WHAT I GAIN:
I just get to have a few more people visiting my website,
if you stop for a second or two to read this article,
as I get a kick out of getting visitors from all over the world,
and seeing my site visitor numbers rise.
I guess you could think of it as an obsession,
or a phase I'll probably grow out of in time!
But it is also very nice if you can help people, and I've
been places you really do not want to go, and had things
done to me you really and truly WOULD NOT LIKE.
I SHOULD BE DEAD, I am not.
We all KNOW what we should and shouldn't be doing
by and large, and no-one can make a difference but ourselves.
It is a sad fact of modern life that everyone expects to be
able to do what the hell they like and then someone will
bail them out at the last minute.
Fact is, if you don't quit, you'll die young, in pain and alone.
YOUR CHOICE, YOUR LIFE,
but you WILL die sooner than most.
http://www.stiffsteiffs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
Now I know why people PAY for domain names!!
Isitebuild - professional site building info
 
This man's site will teach you how to set up
your website whilst slimming!!
malco may 2003

About the Author

Reformed Alcoholic/Chain smoker.

Tags: eating, shopping, food disorders, drugs, compulsive behavior