Today’s world is reaching a crisis point, and while many of our social structures are still intact for this moment, there will come a time when major changes will need to occur in the way we are living our lives on a day to day basis. This bold statement is shared not to create alarm and fear, but rather to awaken a sense of responsibility within all of us. This awakening has already begun, and most people are now aware that our current way of life is causing harm to the precious Earth we live on. The question now for many of us is … what can I do?

Our lives are already chock full of challenges. Just managing the day to day realities of life is for many of us a full time job. The growing complexities of life that have developed from the accelerated pace of change can at times feel overwhelming. We hear news reports of natural disasters, wars, poverty, disease, environmental pollution, and a seemingly endless number of new challenges … the amount of overwhelm can cause us to numb ourselves, and shut ourselves off from the realities that are happening around us.

How then do we help our struggling world? What can we do? The answer to this question lies within our hearts, and is much bigger and more important than we may realize. There are certain obvious things that we can do on a daily basis to conserve energy, recycle, and be more environmentally conscious. Thankfully, more and more people are stepping up and creating change in their daily habits in this way. This helps a great deal towards beginning to reverse the cycle of abuse to the Earth and lack of respect for her resources. There is a larger change that needs to happen however, that is at the root of the world’s problems. It is one that we all participate in unless we choose not to, and this has to do with our consciousness.

Consciousness? How can that affect the world situation? You may be wondering just how changing our awareness can affect things. Isn’t that in the realm of the metaphysical, for people who wear robes and chant and do strange spiritual practices? Dearest ones, taking responsibility for our consciousness is not just for those with a spiritual awareness. Our consciousness affects the world we live in, whether we are aware of it or not. The thoughts and energy we put into the world have an impact, and our consciousness creates the actions and choices we make on a daily basis.

Just how did the world get into the state that it is in now? It all started with where our collective consciousness has been. Humanity has been involved in developing our individuality, and in experiencing the world of physical reality without much attention to the larger whole of which we are a part. This was a necessary step in our evolution, but now times have changed. We’ve gone as far as we can in developing our individuality and unique identities.

Unfortunately, as we’ve explored our individuality, we have made choices that do not take into account the affects that our actions have on the larger whole. We’ve chosen to use energy resources that are finite, and that cause pollution of the Earth. We’ve chosen farming practices that remove the essential ingredients from our food, in favor of mass production. The lack of nutrients from our food has increased our health problems, but our healing practices have attempted to fix the symptoms without addressing the root causes. We’ve chosen to pursue individual wealth that brings prosperity to us and our families, but leaves the majority of humankind suffering in poverty and starvation.

All of these challenges we now face started with a consciousness that had forgotten our essential connections to the larger whole of life. We are divine beings that entered into physical reality in order to learn, and now at this crucial time in the evolution of humanity, we are beginning to learn how to reconnect with ourselves, with each other, and with the Earth. We are beginning to learn that our thoughts create our reality, and that what we think and feel matters as much as what we do.

One of the great spiritual truths shared with us by all spiritual teachers and religions is that we are all connected. We are a part of God, who lives within us. In the same way, all others in our world are equally a part of God, and are an essential part of the essential whole of life. Therefore, if we harm another, we ultimately harm ourselves. If we prevent others from receiving what they need, we limit ourselves because we are constricting the free flow of God’s light and life force.

These concepts are not new, but they have been mostly in the background of human consciousness, which up until this point was focused on pursuing more individualized goals. Times have changed, and now the only solution that can be found to the problems of today’s world is to work together, and to reconnect ourselves with our divine eternal nature as souls.

When we are no longer separated from the divine source of all light and love, our relationship with ourselves and with others changes. We are no longer alone, seeking to get our needs met, and competing with others who all are trying to get their needs met. Instead, we go within to connect with our hearts, to understand who we are, and what our purpose is for being on the Earth at this time. Each soul is present on the Earth for a reason, and when we discover and fulfill that purpose, our life makes a positive contribution to the world and in the process our own needs are met and fulfilled.

When we realize that our consciousness matters and has an impact on others, we take responsibility for our thoughts as well as our actions. Are you holding a grudge towards someone in your life? With an awakened consciousness, you realize that holding on to this grudge is creating a blockage in the free flow of light and love in your life, and you take steps to heal this pain you are carrying. You may not be able to let go of the pain right away, but your intention to let go, rather than to hold on, opens up the energy of healing. In the larger network of human consciousness, you’ve just created a small pocket of light and love, which enters the atmosphere of the Earth and strengthens the love and light present in the world. This small pocket is like a candle, which lights other candles that it comas into contact with.

On the other hand, if you choose to hold on to your anger, blame, judgment and so on, the emotions you are holding onto contribute to the cloud of negative energy that is present around the Earth during this time. You feel entitled to be angry, and refuse to budge. You may even act out your feelings and create disharmony or even harm to others. In this way your choice contributes to this very same energy pattern which is prevalent in so many of today’s world conflicts and wars. Anger, blame, judgment, entitlement, and the unwillingness to compromise are all fed by the daily thoughts and feelings of others.

Do you see the choice you have each day, and at each moment? Your consciousness either adds to or detracts from the presence of love and light on the Earth. The love creates a feeling of harmony, and of possibilities and hope. The love opens up new possibilities and ideas, and can help us find creative solutions to the world problems.

You are a part of this love, and your daily choices can support and strengthen the many positive actions of change now happening in the world. In this way your daily life can change the world, and can help others to awaken, heal and contribute positively as well. You are blessed to be present at this monumental time in the Earth’s history, with an unprecedented opportunity to grow, learn, heal, transform, and to participate in creating a New Earth.

Gambling addiction is a growing problem for people all across the world. Whether it is gambling on sporting events, horse races, table games, or the increasingly popular poker games, the result can be the same. Certain people can gamble all day and it will never affect them. They will never feel like they are losing control no matter how much money is won or lost. Then there are the problem gamblers. They are usually good people, but they turn into degenerates when it comes to gambling. Most of their issues are either competition based or money based and their problems can become extremely large if problem gambling is not checked.

Compulsive gamblers who suffer from gambling addiction have as difficult a time with their condition as people with smoking, alcohol, or drug addictions. It doesn’t matter if they are winning or losing, either. Gambling addiction can make people feel just as terrible when they are up as when they are down. It is when those gamblers hit rock bottom that the real problems occur, though. When money is owed to different sources, people will do just about anything to get it. This can lead to crime, dishonesty, and a whole host of social problems that will simply compound the problem gambler’s awful set of circumstances.

There are not a whole lot of cures for gambling addiction. One cannot just go into the store and purchase a pill to kill gambling addiction. Instead, mental issues must be worked out in order for a person to shake the habit. Hypnosis has been proven to be a good remedy for gambling addiction. Hypnotherapy is not just something that they portray in the movies. It is a real treatment for many problems that people experience such as addictions.

Like most hypnotherapists, I have been using hypnosis to stop a bunch of different problems. Most commonly, people come into my clinic in search of help for different addictions like smoking and alcoholism. Recently, I have been taking on more cases for gambling addiction, though. With the raging popularity of poker on television and gambling in general, there are more people who struggle with gambling addiction. When it seems like all hope is lost, that is when hypnotherapy can work the best. If you are struggling with a gambling problem or any other issue and you think hypnosis could help, then you need to get information on the process and begin to change your life, today! It’s the best decision you can make in getting rid of your gambling addiction.

In order to be able to love purely and steadily we need to understand how our reality is created A major obstacle to pure and steady love is our confusion about who is responsible for what happens to us and how we feel about it. This confusion is caused by two mistaken perceptions:

1. That others cause our reality. When we believe this, we feel pain, bitterness, anger and hate when we do not have what we want and need.

2. That we are the cause or creators of others’ realities. This leads to feelings of guilt, shame, fear, bitterness, self-rejection, anger and hate, when others do not cooperate with us to as to create the positive reality we believe they must have in order for us to be successful and worthy as the “creators of their reality.”

Such beliefs lead to co-dependent relationships that are much more susceptible to disappointment, bitterness, guilt, pain and of course conflict. Love requires that we take total responsibility for our reality and allow others to take responsibility for theirs.

Love relationships naturally thrive on caring for each other and helping each other as much as possible. It natural that we will ask for help and will loving offer help the others. But we cannot create their reality and they cannot create ours. Much love is lost when we blame others for the reality we ourselves are creating as well as when we blame ourselves for the reality they are creating for themselves.

How then do we create our personality reality?

The ability to love requires that we arrive at an even higher level of perception were we can understand that there are universal laws governing all that occurs in this universe. Scientists understand this in relationship to the physical and energy realms. Few however have totally understood this in terms of consciousness, mind, spirit, human will and fate.

All religions embrace the concept that spiritual laws govern all events in the universe according to a hidden wisdom and justice that is often difficult for us to understand. Spiritual philosophies teach us that all of creation is designed to facilitate the evolution of the soul, and that all that happens to each of us is exactly the stimulus we need in order to move forward in that evolutionary process.

Another spiritual precept is that each soul – personality is the sole creator of its personal subjective reality and that no other can create or be responsible for our reality. And in turn we cannot be responsible for or create others’ realities.

Here are some factors that intertwine so as to create the matrix of our subjective personal reality.

Creating Reality Through Interpretation and Projection

1. We create our subjective reality by the way in which we interpret behaviors, situations and events. Unfortunately we often do not perceive what is there, but actually what we have been programmed to believe is there. It has been shown in scientific experiments that we have difficulty seeing what we do not believe. Our belief system works as a filter that subjectively and selectively interprets whatever is perceived in ways that corroborate what we already believe and ignores what we do not.

For example is we believe that others will reject us and do not love us, we will interpret their actions as a form of rejection and lack of love for us even when that is not the reality. We have all been surprised by people who have misinterpreted our actions and believed that we had motives and feelings that we never had.

We do the same. We project onto persons and situations motives and dangers that simply are not there. When we do so, we experience fear, pain, bitterness, creating unnecessary unhappiness for ourselves and others.

We, however, may find that we have differing and often conflicting beliefs creating a confused reality. It may be useful here to discuss the various forms of belief systems. I would like to hypothesize some different categories of beliefs.

a. Emotionally Charged Impressions – These are not so much beliefs as “impressions”, which are imprinted on the mind during traumatic experiences. The mind then identifies this particular stimulus with this emotionally charged feeling, and when we think of it, we feel fear and other emotions. We do not go through thinking processes here such as analyzing, evaluating and coming to conclusions. This kind of “belief” has a strong “emotional charge” but no actual inertia or mass, because it is not based on observations and facts, but rather on one or two intense experiences – which of course – are not representative of reality.

b. Mistaken Childhood Conclusions – These are usually mistaken beliefs about a reality in which we perceive ourselves as weak, wrong, unlovable and to blame for just about everything that happens around us such as our parents anger, absence, unhappiness, indifference, divorce, illness, death etc. We falsely interpret that we are unworthy or unable and that others will always behave towards us in ways that we experienced in childhood.

These first two categories are usually repressed in the subconscious mind (shadow, inner child – whatever you prefer) because of the pain and confusion they produce. We suppress them so that we can focus and function in our daily lives. They are encased in an “energy membrane” much as our body envelopes a sliver or cut in our skin in order to prevent it from poisoning the rest of the body.

Although these “beliefs” are repressed so that we do not feel the unpleasant negative emotional-energy charge associated with them, they are activated whenever we come into contact with or think of the specific stimulus. They generate fear, emotional withdrawal and often aggressive behavior. They also create psychosomatic illnesses. They control our reactions to events, situations and persons.

Because of their repression and subsequent isolation from our conscious mind, these first two belief systems do not evolve as we do. They remain in their original state regardless of our evolving logic, reasoning, new experiences and spiritual faith. Unless we engage in inner psychological or spiritual work, they receive no new data.

The third category of beliefs is our:

c. Evolving Conscious Belief System:

This is our conscious belief system which, as it processes new data, reevaluates its perceptions of reality seeking to make the adjustments necessary in order to understand the truths behind the phenomena we observe.

This is actually evolving in only some people. Many have stopped processing new data and thus have remained with the same conscious belief system for many years and will leave their bodies with it.

This belief system understands that we are safe, secure, good, worthy and capable. It also realizes that we are not in danger from people, heights, cars, insects, dogs, cats, elevators, airplanes etc.

The facts available to it cause it to realize that its fears are unfounded. It realizes that our self-worth has nothing to do with what others say, think or do.

Yet we continue to experience fear and its resulting emotions due to our previous two categories of beliefs, (Emotionally Charged Impressions and Mistaken Childhood Conclusions) which are isolated from and usually stronger than our Evolving Conscious Belief System.

b. Our Spiritual Intuitive Faith constructs our fourth category of beliefs. These beliefs are usually based on faith rather than proof. We feel that what we believe is true. In addition to being affected by others’ spiritual beliefs, we also experience inner awakenings or revelations in which we just “know” that something is true.

The last two conscious categories of beliefs are usually weak when confronted with specific stimuli, which awaken our first two repressed categories. We may have total faith in our immortality or in divine wisdom and justice, but when confronted with stimuli that awaken our Emotionally Charged Impressions and Mistaken Childhood Conclusions, the power of these later two often temporarily overshadow our faith and logic.

We have simultaneous multiple beliefs, which are working at different levels creating conflicting emotions and reactions to events and situations. We can simultaneously feel love, peace, hurt and anger because our various beliefs are creating different internal realities.

To be continued.

(From the forthcoming book LOVE IS A CHOICE, by Robert Elias Najemy)