Before you go looking for your limiting beliefs, let’s consider why they exist in the first place. In order to experience life on earth, we have to do so within limits. Without limits, you wouldn’t know if you are a human or a tree. There are great mystical experiences in which you can transcend those limits, remembering that we are one with everything. While those mystical moments are wonderful, so are the experiences of our limits.

Limits create definition so that we can interact with each other. That can be great fun. For example it feels really good to kiss someone. It can also be painful. It can really hurt when you bump into someone. Limits in and of themselves aren’t good or bad. They are simply necessary for experiencing life on earth. In fact, limits can help you to feel safe and that is how many limits are created.

For example, when you were a child you were probably taught that when you cross major intersections on foot, you should do so with the lights. That limit was set so that you would be safe, and it is probably ingrained in your conscious and subconscious mind.

Now let’s say that your daughter or granddaughter just ran out into the street against traffic. I would bet that you aren’t going to think very hard about whether or not you should run out into the street to get her. You might run out to get her without stopping, looking for cars, or even thinking about it. You might very well break through your own limit of restraint and cross against the lights in order to protect her.

However, except in an emergency, you might find that your conditioning to cross with the lights is so strong that you have to consciously break that childhood limit. Let’s say the street is blocked off so you can cross at any time, with or against the lights. You might find it challenging to “break the law that is in your mind.”

When we get stuck because of a limit, some part of us knows we are going to have to go against what may have been keeping us safe in some way. Now the limit creates more danger than safety and we have to recondition ourselves. There can be a lot of internal resistance to that new conditioning, so a part of our subconscious mind keeps the belief hidden.

If you really want to get to those limiting beliefs to set them free, here are some of my suggestions:

1)    Know that the limits were once set for a reason and it may have been a very good one—even a way to protect you;
2)    Be willing to dive into your subconscious realms where those beliefs live;
3)    Be willing to acknowledge that the belief might still serve you in the right time and places; and
4)    Know that changing old beliefs requires risk, and consider if you are willing to give new (reframed) beliefs a real chance.

In my book, The Root of All Healing, I talk about some different ways to help you get to your deepest beliefs, feelings and truths—where those limits live. If you don’t have a copy, you can get one here.

I recommend reading Chapter One where you learn how to become a deeper observer of your own life. You’ll discover how to look at your reactions from a broader perspective. You’ll also read some stories about how quieting your mind can help you uncover your subconscious motivators and limiting beliefs.

In Chapter Three, we explore creativity. Creative activity helps your subconscious perspectives rise to the surface where they can be noticed and interpreted in terms of your life, motivators and choices.

Chapter Five focuses on getting to those deeper truths by learning how to ask questions that will get you there. I especially recommend pages 78-79, where I specifically address limiting beliefs and the problems with over-riding them rather than address them.

In Chapter Four on pages 48-50 I share a personal story in which I used my feelings as a doorway to greater self-understanding. Like me, your feelings are doorways to your subconscious mind and deserve your respect in your healing process.

In Chapter Two on page 24-25, I talk about how trance states can play a significant role in helping you accept new beliefs about your healing. What I don’t mention in the book that is also true is that trance states can also help you get to what you really believe and recognize the limits that may be causing you harm now.

In addition to the book, I recommend downloading a copy of my free report: Beating the Odds: 10 Beliefs That Can Short-Circuit Your Healing. Something there just might trigger an insight for you.

You can bring your limiting beliefs into view. If you are willing to meet them with your compassion and understanding, they are more likely to rise to the surface of your consciousness and allow you to reframe them in ways that will be more helpful to you in your self-healing journey.

The thyroid gland is located on the front part of the neck below the thyroid cartilage (Adam’s apple). The gland produces thyroid hormones, which regulate body metabolism. Thyroid hormones are important in regulating body energy, the body’s use of other hormones and vitamins, and the growth and maturation of body tissues.

Diseases of the thyroid gland can result in either production of too much (overactive thyroid disease or hyperthyroidism), too little (underactive thyroid disease or hypothyroidism) thyroid hormone, thyroid nodules, and/or goiter. All types of thyroid problems in women are much more common than thyroid problems in men.

If you are curious about potential physical causes, here are a couple of articles that I found interesting, though I highly recommend talking with your doctor and doing some of your own research about this:

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/07/large-study-confirms-bpa-affects-thyroid-function
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240760.php
http://www.doctoroz.com/blog/lisa-lynn/3-ways-boost-thyroid-function

I find it fascinating that thyroid problems are more common in women than in men. I didn’t know that when I started writing this article.  If you are an intuitive woman or someone that believes you have some psychic abilities the following insights might be very helpful to you.

Here’s what Louise Hay offers about the metaphysical root of thyroid problems:

Humiliation. “I never get to do what I want to do. When is it going to be my turn?”

Now here is what I heard when I became still and asked about the metaphysical function of the thyroid:

Thyroid is about honoring and acting upon your intuitive impulses. Are you willing to give voice to, and make choices based upon, your intuitive wisdom or what your psychic powers are telling you?

Do you find yourself making choices based upon what you think you should do, rather than what that quiet little voice in the back of your mind is suggesting?

Are you stressed because you have cut off a part of yourself?  Is it possible that you overindulge the machinations of your mind—you know, those endless loops where you try to figure out something that you can’t really figure out?

You don’t have to figure out love, compassion, understanding, or empathy in order to know what a difference these feelings can make in your life. You don’t have to figure them out to know they are important, but what about your intuition? Do you know how important following your intuitive wisdom is for your life and your health?

If you are not recognizing or following the intuitive wisdom coming from your psychic abilities, you are in effect, cutting off a part of yourself.  You are not allowing yourself to do what you truly want to do, as Louise Hay suggests. You may not be allowing yourself to do what is truly in your highest good.

If you are experiencing thyroid dysfunction, you might want to take a look at your relationship to the intuition that flows from your psychic abilities. You might find it helpful to consider ways you could recognize, strengthen and act upon your intuitively guided insights.

A little honoring of your intuitive process just might help you create physical healing for your thyroid more easily. (Keep in mind that not honoring your intuition can also show up in other areas of your body, but if you are having thyroid problems, you might want to explore your relationship to your psychic abilities.) If you would like a little help in recognizing, understanding and acting upon your psychic abilities and intuition, check out my audio course on Psychic Powers and Abilities: Live Intuitively.

Some years ago my doctor told me one of my fallopian tubes was collapsed. She understood I was an energy healer and was supportive when I told her I wanted to do some energy work before doing any further tests that might lead to surgery.

We agreed to give me a month and then I would return to her for another examination. I went home and immediately began using my own sounds, light and love to heal the fallopian tube. I worked on it diligently every day.

I knew that it needed my compassion because it was a response to sexual abuse I had experienced as a child. So I loved-it-up with lots of compassion.

One month later, I returned to my doctor so that she could check on my progress. My fallopian tube was completely intact, and we were both pleased that nothing more would be required.

It regenerated itself in the presence of my love, intention and the gentle space of allowance I created within myself so that healing could happen. It knew what it needed to do. The cells know. Sometimes they just need some love and coaxing to do what they need to do.

One of my clients grew a new heart valve the first time she ever used energy medicine. She didn’t know what to expect. Her intention was that her heart would heal and become strong. Her daily visualization for her heart was about seeing a still pool of water. While she was focused on her heart, she never actually visualized her heart doing anything. Her body’s response to the metaphoric visualization and intention was to grow a new valve so that her heart would be well and strong.

You can read the story in detail at my Sound Healing website: Spirit Treasures http://www.spirittreasures.com/

Whatever your natural healing gift, and you do have one, you don’t have to be an expert about any given organ in order to support its healing with energy.  Here is what you need:

1.    Be able to relax and trust enough to ALLOW healing to occur.
2.    Have a clear intention for your desired outcome.
3.    Be in compassion with yourself as much of your day as possible, especially in your healing sessions.
4.    Be diligent. Use your natural energy for healing 1-3 times per day, every day.

If you aren’t sure about what your healing gift might be, let me know. I will be happy to schedule a Healing Reading for you. The first question I ask when meditating on your behalf is to understand your unique healing gift or combination of gifts in such a way that I can explain it (them) to you. http://misahopkins.com/healing-readings-with-misa/

Then I answer three questions you have submitted to me to help you understand the root cause of your condition—whether it is physical, emotional or spiritual—and what you most need to do in order to get healing results.

Keep in mind, as you engage your healing energy that the cells of whatever organ you are working on know what they are supposed to do. Energy healing is an invitation for them to remember.

If you do this, I suggest becoming a real observer of your reality. (Something I talk about in greater depth in the first chapter of The Root of All Healing.)

You may have had a lot more going on that contributed to your healing than a medication, herb, homeopathic remedy or treatment, though of course if you discovered an approach that worked for you it is important to take note of that too.  In addition, consider the circumstances you created in your life, your diet, exercise habits, emotional well-being, beliefs, relationships and the time you devoted to your healing as variables that contributed to your healing.

Perhaps you only experienced moments in which you felt well or free from pain, or maybe you healed completely from some condition. Maybe you are still healing a condition, but had a few peak moments when you felt better. You will probably find it helpful to ask yourself some questions in order to discover what (out of everything you were using) may have made the biggest difference for you.

What were you doing? What had you done just before you felt better? Had you been watching funny movies? Perhaps you were engaged in creative activities or service to others. Or perhaps you were allowing yourself longer periods of rest. Maybe you were really committed to a special diet and that’s when you felt your best. You might discover you had let go of an old belief and adopted a new one that seemed to help you make some progress. And maybe, a specific treatment really made the difference for you.

More likely than not, some combination was taking place when you felt your best. As an observer of your reality, recall and record what you were doing. If you don’t remember everything, and perceive that you need to have a better understanding, I recommend you make an observational chart for yourself, which is described in Chapter One of the book.

Many of us are challenged by more than one physical ailment. So if you found some relief and healing from one condition, you might find this reflection helpful in determining how you could approach the next condition you would like to heal. If you responded really well to herbs in curing one condition, you probably want to discover what herbs will best support you in healing another condition. Maybe your body loves essential oils or reiki or yoga. Maybe you need someone to help you lay out a regular integrated self-cared regimen. Perhaps you have discovered you simply have to have a certain amount of time every day or week devoted to your physical care, without any family- or work-related distractions.

For example, I know I do best when I meditate every morning, preferably for an hour to an hour and a half. Twenty minutes is the absolute minimum, and only rarely. My body loves energy medicine, so that’s what I like to use first, including healing sounds and symbols. From my meditations and personal sound medicine sessions, I usually get intuitive insights about what else I need—changes in diet, herbs to add, or changes I need to make in my beliefs or behaviors. Or I’ll get an insight about a healer I need to visit. On some occasions a healer will come directly to me, offering his or her help. If the help feels right, I accept the offer.

I know that I need to attend to difficult emotions the minute they arise, in order to keep my psyche in a calm and open psychological space for healing to happen. I need a certain amount of routine to maintain a healthy diet, rigorous exercise several days per week, good water and lots of fresh air. I do my best not to rush my life because that pushes me into illness. I don’t chase after a cure. I open the healing space within me and follow what my body and psyche teach me about me.

Your own best, integrated approach to healing will be unique to you. It very likely will include what you personally need to do for each of these aspects: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. If you abandon any one of these areas, you have abandoned part of yourself, and at some point the result of that abandonment is likely to show up as illness in your body.

If you are a committed observer of your health, you might want to reflect upon any decisions you made that seemed to set you back in your healing, while you are also looking at what helped your healing progress. Then you are in a position to make some choices for the coming year that can make the biggest difference for you.

If you have had a migraine, you know how absolutely incapacitating they can be. As I mention in an earlier article, when I look into the energy body of a person with a migraine I usually see way too much light pouring into the person’s crown chakra. http://self-healingsecrets.com/1234/migraines%E2%80%94energetic-causes-and-and-energy-healing/

This was true with this young woman. I finished meditating with her in preparation for creating her sound medicine CD and found she had too much light flowing through her body and her mind was intensely active. These are not conditions that promote energetic healing from migraines, in my experience, regardless of their source.

I know we live in an age that has come to appreciate the value of “sending light” or “sending healing” (which is usually light-based) to people when they are suffering. For those of us that are healers or compassionate people, it is our greatest desire to see them relieved of their pain. This intention is wonderful.

Yet, if we are not careful, we might actually increase their pain. That’s right. Increase it. I cannot emphasize how important it is to ask the spirit’s permission before sending energy to anyone. They may not need or want the energy at all. And in the case of someone suffering from a migraine, more energy may not be the answer.

In my experience, less energy often helps a migraine sufferer find relief from the pain. So before sending energy, and after you have received permission, I recommend asking for what they need from you. Then give only what they ask for. If you don’t know (can’t sense) what they need, your love for them is plenty. Their own energy bodies will know what to do with your love.

I spent an hour just holding this woman in the darkness and coolness of the primordial womb, so that her mind could quiet down and her energy could slow down—both absolutely necessary for her to be able to receive healing for the aneurysm. Light can speed up the body’s metabolism. At times, that is exactly necessary for healing. At other times it can be exactly what a person does not need.

I’ve used sound and light for over two decades to support people in their healing. During the past 10 years, I have been discovering the incredible healing power of stillness and darkness. The yin nature of ourselves sometimes needs a little help and nurturing, and I am delighted to see the healing responses that can arise from the medicine inherent in this feminine-based energy.

At one point, I guided a woman through a quiet meditation into a dark, still pool of water and within about an hour her migraine subsided. I discovered it worked so well for people that I finally recorded it. For people that run a lot of energy through their crown chakras and have a difficult time quieting down and resting, this meditation has been quite helpful. You can find this CD at my Sound Healing site. It’s the Headache Relief CD: http://www.spirittreasures.com/products.html

If you are curious about how yin energy can be used in healing, I talk about it in greater depth in the article mentioned above.It is equal to light or masculine-based energy in its ability to positively affect healing, when darkness and quiet is required.

How should you focus your attention for healing this year?

Each year has a unique energy of its own. In order to bring the most to your healing intentions, you probably want to align with the natural and cosmic energies of the year. This year is about alignment.

If you are particularly sensitive, you may be feeling the effects of the planets coming into alignment with the black hole in the Milky Way. That alignment completes itself on December 22, 21012. Some see that date in time as the coming apocalypse of human kind, suggesting the devastation of our species. I see it as the apocalypse of the human heart.

Alignment in any form calls us into a deeper experience of our own innate truth. Spiritual truth leads us to the awareness that all is connected and all is love. Love is more than a feeling. It is a vibrational frequency that is free from the limited perspectives that arise from our frail human fear.

If you want to heal this year, consider aligning with the truth that you have a limitless capacity to love yourself and others. You have the capacity to deeply love what you find endearing in yourself and others. You also have the capacity to love what most disgusts you, embarrasses you or the ways in which you feel completely helpless.

When our fears arise in the form of our disgust, embarrassment, or helplessness, we are living in doubt. We doubt our ability to love wholly and completely in the way that the great saints of every tradition have loved. We are telling ourselves that we are less than the true Divine nature in which we have been created, and that is simply not possible. All of us were created in Divine nature and therefore our capacity to love is endless.

If there is one part of your body that struggles, there is a part of you that does not yet know it is fully loved.

How do you find that complete and satisfying love? You meet your doubts and greatest fears with your love.  Does that sound terribly simple? It is simple. The challenge is in wading through those doubts and fears, and summoning the power of your love from deep within the well of your being.

I know. It is so much easier to think that illnesses are only all about the physical body and genetics. It is easier to believe it is completely out of our control, but if you are at this site reading my articles, some part of you believes or knows the same thing I do. We are more than flesh. We are the creators of our reality.

And deep inside what you want more than anything is to discover that limitless potential within yourself. You know the obstacles. You live with them every day, and yet you have the courage to keep moving forward in your exploration of complete healing and ultimately complete love.

This is your unique journey into the unknown. The depth of love you have not yet known (or more accurately, remembered) is one of the most compelling forces in creation. To remember it again, you will call yourself, over and over, to a greater awakening to the vibration of love, knowing that love is the ultimate healing elixir.

Every morning as you arise, multiple times throughout the day and again before you go to sleep at night, you know you have a choice to make—the same choice framed in different decisions you will make all day long. The choice is, “Will I love in this moment or will I give in to my fear?”

How is that different from any other year? The only difference is the powerful planetary alignment we are building up to in December. That means that the more you focus your healing attention on aligning with truth and love, the more you can ride on this powerful energy to help carry you to your healing freedom.

This article from 2010 seems like the perfect focus for healing during the holiday season…

When you are really feeling poorly, it is difficult to feel grateful, and yet it is one of the most important times to count your blessings. Why? When you allow the pain to cause you to be worried or upset, your energy field closes down and it is difficult for any treatment to get through your fears. Gratitude opens the heart and when the heart is open, self-healing energy is most effective.

Gratitude also has a magical way of lifting you out of your discomfort, at the very least—for a little while. Have you ever noticed how it can lift your spirits and take your mind off your pain when you receive a gift from someone that stimulates your gratefulness? Your own experiences can demonstrate the positive impact gratitude can have on your wellness, plus studies are demonstrating that gratitude, or an open-hearted state, can actually improve physical health.

Institute of HeartMath biologist, Glen Rein, conducted a study in which people went into a state of heartfelt appreciation for unconditional love. He discovered that these people were able to affect DNA in a test tube, altering the winding and unwinding of the DNA. Further, they were able to affect their electrocardiograms (ECGs). When they were holding loving or appreciative thoughts, their heart rhythms became more coherent. http://www.care2.com/greenliving/gratitude-affects-heart-and-genetics-study-says.html

If you focus on gratitude rather than on complaints, you are likely to find that you have a more positive outlook on your life.  And this has been studied too.  Robert Emmons, from the University of California at Davis, has conducted studies on positive psychology and discovered that people focusing on gratitude were more optimistic about their future and felt better about their lives. He and his colleagues discovered that gratitude focused people suffering from neuromuscular diseases got more sleep, got to sleep sooner and felt more refreshed in the morning.  http://www.cfidsselfhelp.org/library/counting-your-blessings-how-gratitude-improves-your-health

So what can you do to introduce more gratitude into your life?

Write down what you are grateful for every day.
When you are writing it down you are affirming it twice–first when the event happened and secondly when you write it down.  Write down three to five things. Write at the same time every day so it becomes a part of your regular routine to focus on gratitude.

Keep your language positive.
When you hear yourself start to complain, stop yourself, whether you are complaining quietly inside or outwardly. Stop yourself whether you are putting yourself down or someone else, or a situation.  Focus your attention on the lesson you are learning instead. Then state and feel gratitude for the lesson you are learning.

Give yourself and others the benefit of the doubt.
Most of the time people are doing their best, even if “best” doesn’t seem like enough to you.  All of us are challenged, and we often keep the biggest challenges hidden from view. So let go of your assumptions about what is good enough and give everybody the benefit of the doubt. You’ll feel better about yourself and everyone around you.

Take a gratitude walk.
This is one of my personal favorites. Schedule a time every day to get outside, where you can enjoy the soothing, harmonious nature of Mother Earth. This means putting yourself in the proximity of plants, trees, water, or grass. Breathe in deeply with gratitude for the beauty of earth. Then reflect on everything else you are grateful for in that moment. Do so until you feel at ease and positively charged.

Give thanks for your healing.
Even if it has been a rough day, be grateful for any moments that were pain-free, fun, meaningful, or life giving. If you aren’t seeing a lot of progress yet, you can be grateful for the treatment you are using and for the way that it is helping you in unseen ways. You can write your gratitude in your journal, acknowledge it during your gratitude walk, or include it in your prayers of thanks before your meals.

Find reasons to be grateful throughout the day.
Little moment throughout our days provide lots of reasons to be grateful. A kiss, a hug, sunshine, rain, a pleasant phone call, a cheerful cashier, a good night’s rest, a great movie, a cup of hot tea…you get the idea. Life is full of lovely moments when  you encourage yourself to notice them.

Gratitude is a doorway to heaven on earth. The more grateful we become, the more we enjoy life. Bodies responds to that enjoyment, rewarding us with greater health and well-being.  Gratitude has been called one of the greatest prayers that can ever be said. It is also one of the greatest self-healing remedies.

Some of you might remember the millennium bug. That’s the virus that mysteriously arrived on the scene right before our clocks were going to turn over at midnight 2000.  It was one tenacious virus. I remember half our household (including me) being so sick we all thought we were going to die.

Somehow, I finally found enough energy to use my sound healing to help me and the others in our family recover from its seeming curse. We were finished about one week to two weeks earlier than most people we knew that had contracted the virus. That’s when I discovered that viruses do respond to energy medicine, and that awareness helped me as I began to address auto-immune dysfunction.

Viruses and bacteria have been linked to auto-immune diseases. Here is an article from Science Daily that describes research results from Harvard and MIT that could shed some light on this relationship:

The immune system, the body’s main line of defense against disease, has a critical responsibility to distinguish self-derived proteins from those of invaders like viruses and bacteria. Autoimmune diseases arise when a person’s immune system fails to make that critical distinction and mistakenly attacks a normal tissue… http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110602111444.htm

Are you asking yourself why a person’s immune system would fail to make that critical distinction? There are indications that genetics play a potential role in this, so perhaps some of us came in with a genetic predisposition. With that awareness, you might want to ask yourself, “What is the spiritual root or reason that I came in with this predisposition?”

Let’s take this exploration into the metaphysical root of viruses that attack your body, as I understand it from my recent meditation on this topic. Viruses grab hold when we abandon the self.  In other words, they come in and hang out when we are not attending to our bodies’ health or our emotional and mental well-being. We check-out, so-to-speak, by not attending to ourselves, and the viruses check-in.

Viruses are able to gain entry when you are depleting yourself through stress, poor diet, and not enough oxygenation of your cells. You could think of it as creating an internal environment better suited to the viruses than to your health.

The question you might want to ask yourself is, “What causes you to abandon yourself?”

Now consider that abandonment occurs when you feel defeated in some way or are pushing yourself because you don’t feel worthy. You’ve abandoned your ability to create a balanced, happy life, because somewhere deep inside, you don’t believe that is possible.

Very likely, you have good reasons for that belief, and if you want to heal, you need to find compassion for yourself, and the origin of your perceptions, so that unworthiness can finally be put to rest and worthiness will have a place to take root. It takes tremendous presence of self-awareness and self-love to feel safe in the presence of viruses, and you are going to need to feel worthy of that amount of self-love.

When I created Sound Medicine for viruses, I noticed how the images of loving boundaries kept coming to mind, so much so that I find it best to listen to the CD before I encounter a virus or when the very first symptoms emerge. More than once I’ve stopped viruses from multiplying inside my body because I strengthened myself immediately, and the same has been true for many people that use my Cold and Flu or Virus Defense CDs. http://spirittreasures.com/products.html

If you are up for a really radical, metaphysical approach to viruses, you might want to read this article by Lettie Long.  I’m always curious about love-based approaches to healing and this one got my attention: http://lettielong.hubpages.com/hub/Practical-Metaphysics-1-Overcoming-Cold-and-Flu-Forever

Whatever approach you use, you deserve to feel worthy of a truly happy and joyful life, and that requires lovingly meeting those really uncomfortable invaders, such negative thoughts and feelings. Once met with your deepest love and understanding, those beliefs and their accompanying feelings simply don’t need to hang around any more. That leaves you free to explore what it means to feel worthy, and to create the life and internal environment that feeling worthy can bring.

Metaphysically, Parkinson’s stems from a refusal to engage life on life’s terms. It is based in a fear that as we are, we are not enough to meet the challenges that life offers. According to my intuitive guidance, it is rarely cured because the unworthiness behind the disease prevents people from experiencing total healing.

The person experiencing Parkinson’s is longing so much to be in control that they don’t relax enough to see that life has its own flow and rhythm, with much of that flow working for you, naturally. In order to heal, you need to give over to what is seemingly impossible to do—realize that you cannot and don’t need to control the world around you.

I did not read Louise Hay’s book before I did my own meditation. But here is what she says about Parkinson’s Disease: Fear and an intense desire to control everything and everyone. Clearly, we saw this illness almost identically.

Parkinson’s, and if you have it you already know this, is a nervous system disorder. I discuss the metaphysical roots of damaged nerves in this self-healing article, here at Self-Healing Secrets, and you might find that it provides you with some additional insights. Here is an excerpt from that article: From a metaphysical view, nerves can reflect hypertension—in feelings and beliefs—played out through your physical body. Hypertension of this nature can occur when you are taking on more than your fair share. You could be overextending by demanding too much of yourself physically, emotionally or mentally, or all three.

You can read the rest of the article at: http://self-healingsecrets.com/1247/how-do-you-heal-damaged-nerves/

Let’s put all of these together in a picture. If you have experienced life as being unsafe—as a child, from a past life, or from experiences in your adulthood—you might be profoundly motivated to make your world safe by controlling everything that you can. That pressing need to control is too much demand on your emotions and body. That excessive demand becomes manifested in your body as Parkinson’s. The disease is trying to tell you to stop being so hard on yourself and everyone around you. Your expectations are simply too high, though understandably probably rooted in a desire to be safe.

What you probably already know is that you can’t control everything anyway, but the impulse or drive to control is so strong that you don’t know how to quiet it down. That’s an indicator about how unsafe you probably feel.

So how do you develop a greater sense of safety in your world?

Let me suggest something from my book, The Root of All Healing: 7 Steps to Healing Anything. Consider spending a significant period of time with Mother Earth. Think about where you go when you want to reconnect with life. Do you think about the ocean, the mountains, the desert, a river, or a garden? Do you need to build a greenhouse so that you can experience the plants all year long? Do you need to take a trip somewhere?

You see, the Mother is a profound healer. You can’t control her. You can only fall in love with her and admire her. As you enjoy her you receive her calming influence.  You reconnect with the healing power of her circadian rhythms and negative ions, which I discuss at greater length in my book. As you rest with her, your body relaxes, your emotions soften, you feel safer and you heal. You discover that you can even rest in her unpredictability. You don’t know from day to day whether she will be windy, sunny, raining, or storming, and yet somehow regardless of her moods, with her you can relax and remember that you are a part of her.

She is like a mother wrapping her arms around you in the scent of the trees recently visited by the rain, singing to you through the surging of the water, hugging you in the warmth of the sunshine, and rocking you to sleep as raindrops fall on the roof. She is the ultimate earthly mother, because she is always there. She has after all been here for millions of human beings for thousands of years.

Each one of us is capable of learning how to love life as it is and then to live in trust of the Divine. When that happens, life reflects that trust and the world reflects a sense of ease. If you have not been able to safely trust in your life, you might consider beginning a relationship in trust with Mother Earth.

Addictions are where we go when we are too frightened to witness our own truth, and most of us are hiding from something.  If we weren’t hiding, we’d be spiritually and physically free from any kind of pain.

I like how Louise Hay classifies addiction: Running from the self. Fear. Not knowing how to love the self.

Now remember, these are not definitions about the physical relationship to addictive substances, with an understanding of addiction based on a chemical reactions occurring in the body in response to a substance. This is about the metaphysical and spiritual nature beneath the addiction.  Addiction is place to hide.

When we are under the influence of whatever we are addicted to our lives actually play out in fairly predictable ways. Entire dramas unfold that we are quite familiar with. And while we are dealing with all of the repercussions of our choices, we are not looking inward. Our focus is external, attending to the consequences of our choices. External focus is a great place to hide from internal pain.

If we do stop and look inward, we are often so disgusted with ourselves that we don’t stay in there very long, finding escape once again through our addiction and/or more of the drama we create to avoid that painful place inside of us.

Truth can be darned uncomfortable. Yet, it also is where we find our freedom. The way we find that freedom is by being present to our uncomfortable truths in compassion. When we stop defending our right to be rude, self-absorbed, thoughtless, vindicated, angry, resentful, feel sorry for ourselves, or live in pain and suffering, and instead give ourselves permission to be in compassion with the experiences that have caused us to be in our emotional and physical pain, we begin a journey of freedom from our addictions.

It is the wounded parts of ourselves that become addicted. When the wounded aspects of ourselves are met with our own love, we no longer need to hide. The wounds are treatable and the remedy is compassion.

When you are ready to break free from an addiction and make the decision to be compassionately truthful with yourself, be aware that most of us have spent some significant portion of our lives learning how to avoid our truths. In fact, we get pretty good at convincing ourselves that a tiny bit of self-honesty is enough. We can be slippery, as we slide right past the deeper hurts.

But you can’t find ultimate freedom without deep truth. So, you may find it helpful to enlist someone in your life that you trust to help you stay focused and honest, when you try to slide on by. Good friends know when we are being less than fully truthful with ourselves and they make sure we honor ourselves fully with complete honesty.

So if you know you are addicted to something, you might want to begin by talking to the part of yourself that is feeling particularly vulnerable and scared. Let that part of you know that you can handle the truth, and you are willing to do so for your ultimate well-being. Create safe space for the scared part of you to finally get to speak. You deserve to be heard, understood and loved—even the parts that cause you to feel shame.

Each of us is the result of a planetary history of abuse where we have been abused and we have been the abuser. If we are ever going to end that cycle, we need to understand that abusers have been abused, and the potential to be the abuser or the victim live inside each of us.

We are the ones that can put an end to the struggle, that drama, between the one being abused and the one being the abuser, as it is played out internally and externally. When we are engaged in addictive behavior, we are abusing ourselves.

Many of us can meet the victim within us with some degree of compassion. Finding compassion for the part of us that has the potential to abuse is the greater work, and demands the greatest compassion. It is the abuser within us that we run away from, and try to hide from. And that is the part of us that most needs our love.

Have courage. You have a greater capacity to love than you may realize. Look around you. There are many people that have met and found peace with the victim and the abuser within themselves, and they felt just like you at one time.  The minute you decide to stop running and sit still in compassion, you too will be on your way to finding freedom from your addiction.