Who Is Your Master?

You're a slave and don't even know it.

According to Websters dictionary a slave has two prominent definitions. The first states the following: "A person held in servitude as the chattel of another. The second definitions goes even deeper. It states the following: " One that is completely subservient to a dominating influence."

Addiction does just that. It becomes your task master and you become its slave. Addiction requires that. Complete unadulterated devotion, worship, and servitude. It requires great sacrifice and even then it is not satisfied. It says that you must do everything and anything to feed its appetite. It's cravings are more fierce than the largest grizzly bear, or the mighty lion. Because of our servitude we abide by whatever addiction asks.

We never count the cost. We never think of what we are losing in order to feed this domineering force. I have seen mothers forsake their children and sacrifice that righteous bond for a needle in their arm. I have seen fathers sell everything they own including their very soul to keep the high for just a little longer. Addiction does not care. It says that there is nothing above it. It is no respecter of person. It wants to kill everyone the same. It holds you in its clutches until it takes your life. Even then it wants more. It will carry on to someone else seeking their souls as well.

Wow we are slaves and don't even know it! We don't see the condition that we are truly in. We have become N.U.M.B. This acronym stands for Not Understanding My Behavior. When we are locked into the grips of addiction we become desensitized by it. We don't understand what our behavior is doing to ourselves, or those around us. The drugs create a box that keeps just it and ourselves locked in and chained together. To begin the process of healing we need to come to terms with our condition. We need to own it. "Look at what my life has become, look at what I have done." When we recognize it, and own it, we can begin to change it.

Yet how do we get to that point of cognitively recognizing our condition? When do we become aware or awake. I have seen parents lose their children to the system. Even that would not trigger that light bulb of self-realization. That look at my world. Look at the reality I have created. I have made a mess of things. That didn't do it. I have seen several people overdose and thanks to the life saving Narcan administered by a police officer lived to see another day. Even then that would not do it. So what does? What brings a person to that point of self realization and the yearning to change? It takes brokenness.

Brokenness comes when you become sick and tired of being sick and tired. The unfortunate reality is that some never get that opportunity. My own uncle died from a drug overdose in 2015. He was only 39 at the time. According to toxicology he had tried Fentanyl for the first time that night he died. It was determined that he died from a toxic mixture of Morphin and Fentanyl. Since that time there has been thousands who have died nation wide from drug overdoses. Thousands who never found the victory that comes in brokenness. See when we are broken, it does not show that we are defeated. It shows that we are set for a comeback.

Everyone loves a good comeback story. A tale of someone beating the odds. Someone who has overcome adversity to find victory just on the other side. That can happen even when your locked in the bonds of slavery to addiction.

In 1831 there was the Nat Turner Rebellion. It was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia. During this revolt the slaves led by Nat Turner turned on their masters and eventually killed from 55 to 65 people. The slaves had become tired of their condition and treatment and rose up against their masters. We must come to that point as well. See there is a righteous anger to be found within the arena of brokenness. It is that anger that motivates us to make the necessary changes to begin recovery. We can't just recognize the problem and leave it to sit and become like cancer. Malignant and continuing to spread. We must become equally as aggressive to beat our master as we were to serve him. It is important for us to remember to use our anger in positive and creative ways to overcome the task master of addiction. It is not an easy path to take but it is one that leads to absolute victory.

When we realize that our life has become unmanageable we have taken the great first step to lasting recovery and complete healing. Now you have called out your enemy. You see him for the first time clearly. Now it is time to break free, and say I'm not going back. Addiction though does not let go quietly. It puts up a fight. It runs after you. It stalks you around every corner waiting for just one moment of weakness. It is important to find those you can lean on while on the path to recovery.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Who-Is-Your-Master?&id=9693174

Life Lessons - The Secret of Positive Perception

For many years I went through tough times and I became driven to find out why these things were happening to me. This became one of my life's greatest challenges. I was so stuck in a victim mindset of why me, that I almost missed out on life's greatest lessons and tests that were being presented before me. Little did I know, that I was in preparation for my advancement. At that time it felt like I was living in hell. The perception I had of my experience then was not great, I was more focused in the negative, full of fear and looking for someone or something to blame and take responsibility.

Then one day I discovered that I was not the only one going through tough times, there were many others going through tough experiences too. Even though their experiences were a bit different to mine, they were still being challenged to the core, so this gave me comfort knowing that the tough journey was not just for me. Due to this understanding I began to give myself permission to come out of the victim mindset that had me in a mental prison for many years. You see all of us have to go through some tough times at different periods of our lives and nobody really knows why we need to have these experiences. This then causes us to ask ourselves what we can do about it? Most people get stuck here, because of this question. You tell yourself that you don't know what to do which basically is a recipe for mental bondage that then leads to the victim mindset.

What you choose to do here will define the path that you will follow. Lets take an example. Have you ever felt like you were a victim of any circumstance? What follows that mindset is a spiralling down into negative emotions you will start to feel helpless, hopelessness and pretty quickly you are down in the dumps? This is very common to most of us, we have areas were we are adamant that it's beyond our understanding, so it's easier for us to make the assumption that it's somebody's fault, so when you start to think like this it makes you lose your power over what's happening. Once you get in that state of mind or belief it's very hard to come out of it, you will need something much more powerful than that state of mind for you to be free.

At this point many are asleep, so they need to wake up from their slumber. When you wake up something changes, you become aware of how you have been playing small and have become a victim. Once you are aware of this you open a door for your perception to change. The journey of being positive starts here and this experience is what I call a shift into a new way of thinking. This transitioning time of transformation is usually slow but well worth the wait.

We all know that transitioning is usually a challenging time as you are working on letting go of the old so that the new can set in. Most of us find change very difficult to deal with as by nature we often fight against any change, because we prefer to sit and dwell in the things that we are familiar with which is otherwise called the comfort zone. In the comfort zone most of us dwell there for very long periods, what we don't realise is that change is going to happen anyway whether we accept it or fight it. So it is usually good to go with the flow instead of resisting and fighting. For you to accept the change and be in flow with it you need to have a positive perception of the circumstances that you are going through.

The most challenging question that many people ask is how to stay positive? Generally we are creatures of habit we find just changing one thing out of our usual pattern rather painful but it is consistence, endurance, persistence, perseverance and patience that usually brings the greatest results.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Life-Lessons---The-Secret-of-Positive-Perception&id=9288717

How to Leave Your Guilt Behind

Everyone has had different experiences with guilt.

In my experience I focused on my behavior and became aware of myself enough to realize the things that would or did make me choose to feel guilty.

Yes I said choose to feel guilty. All of us are in control of the way we feel and yes I realize that many of us at one time or another may have given our control of how we feel to someone else.

The first part of leaving your guilt behind is to become more aware of self. The more that I became aware of my feelings and was able to determine why I felt the way I felt, The better I was able to understand myself. As I came to more of an understanding of myself. I am able to identify the feelings, I like to call them vibrations guilt, shame, fear, worry, doubt. They all fall into the same bucket for me and I don't pay much attention to them.

They are all feelings that once I start to identify them and realize why I am choosing to feel this way. These feelings no longer control the way I feel or perceive my reality.

Anyone can do the same by becoming the observer. The observer of you. Take a look at your life as if you were someone else. Attempt to allow your critic to take a rest. Watch yourself in wonderment as maybe an admirer would look at you. There is no need to judge yourself at all. Exploration is for fun and learning!

As I learn to explore myself more and become the non judgemental observer. I am identifying the guilt in my life and as I see the places in my life that are changing. I express gratitude for the opportunity of life.

I now have discovered that as I learn more about myself, I am able to see life in a new way. As I keep expanding so do the opportunities to share my experiences with others.

I get up everyday and choose to be happy. Yes it can be work some days! Take control of your mood or it is taking control of your life. Make a list of all the reasons for you to be happy. I do not always look to the outside world for signs that I am happy.

Where I find happiness I do not find guilt, I believe that you will find the same.

Create a Freedom Lifestyle

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Leave-Your-Guilt-Behind&id=9275943

Work Stress - Dealing With An Overwhelming To-Do List One Task At A Time

Many of us experience overwhelm in our lives. The good news is that it can be overcome. One of the ways in which we can do this is to become aware of how we focus our attention.

Many of us use a to-do list. The master list of everything we have committed ourselves to accomplishing. Dr Pedram Shojai, former Taoist monk and doctor of Chinese medicine, talks about us having numerous windows open on the desktop of our lives.

However, how we interact with the to-do list (those open windows) can go some way to determining the extent to which we feel overwhelmed.

Looking at the whole list can do one of two things:

A) It can freak us out because we are thinking we have no idea how we're going to complete all the items on the list, or

B) We see each item on the list in its own right, we know why it's on the list, we've established that it's our task and no-one else's (it can't be delegated) and we have some notion that we can deal with it successfully

Overwhelm can come about when we are in state A, and as a result we're becoming stressed out about the length of the list.

Overwhelm can be eased by:

Prioritising the list, starting from the top and dealing, with full focus, with one task at a time. This, by default, means that you are putting down (actively de-prioritising) all the other tasks on your list until you've completed the one at hand. This may sound simple, but it is profound. The reason? All we have is now, this present moment, and the more focused we are the more effectively we work.

We become anxious and overwhelmed when we are engaged in one task but thinking about all the others we have yet to complete. This dissipates our focus and dilutes our effectiveness. As a result, tasks take longer to complete because we are not 100% engaged.

We also tend to switch between tasks. This may feel like a better use of our time but our focus becomes compromised. When we're interrupted we find it difficult to get back on track if we're focused on two or more tasks, and in the end the tasks simply take us longer to complete.

So when you're faced with an overwhelming to-do list, take the time to prioritise it, start from the top, work your way down and ensure you focus on one task at a time.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Work-Stress---Dealing-With-An-Overwhelming-To-Do-List-One-Task-At-A-Time&id=9354996

Body Language: Can Trapped Emotions Define Someone’s Body Language?

 
         

When it comes to the words that someone uses, there is the potential for one to cover up what is really going on. Here, one can say what they think they should be saying or what sounds right. And while another person can take this as the truth, it could be just a half truth or a complete fabrication.

This is why it is important for one to look at what else this person is communicating. And one of the biggest sources of information is what their body is giving off. While this can be manipulated just like words can be to cover up what is taking place, it is a lot harder to do.

Unconscious Communication

While the mind can be monitored and kept under control, the body is a lot harder to control and this is because it has a mind of its own. Another name for the body is the unconscious mind and body language often goes on unconsciously.

And people generally read body language unconsciously as well. Meaning that their mind may have one idea about someone and their body or intuition could have something else to tell them.

Vital

So as body language plays massive role in how one comes across, it is going to be a vital element in understanding what another person is saying. It is also going to be important for one to be aware what their body language is, in order to come across as they want to and to make the right impression.

Focus

The next logical step would then be for one to place their attention on their body. To become aware of what their body is doing during certain satiations and how different environments affect them.

And as there are plenty of books available on this subject, it is not going to take too much effort to understand body language. Although one may have been unaware of how their body has been reacting for their whole life, it’s not as if they are trying to understand a foreign language.

So within a short amount of time, big improvements can be made. At first it is going to seem strange and as time goes by, it will be a lot easier and then it will become natural and something they don’t even need to think about.

Mind Over Body

This is a clear example of the mind controlling the body. And if the body is causing one to come across as closed, submissive, nervous or shy, then this is going to be seen as the right thing to do.

What it can also lead to is one overlooking the reasons as to why their body is responding as it does. These reactions could be seen as insignificant and that one just needs to force their body to change.

Results

To simple change one’s body language is going to cause one to come across differently, that can’t be denied. And as a result of this, other people are generally going to respond to them differently.

For some people this will be enough and before long it will feel congruent. And yet for others, changing what their body does won’t make much of a difference. For example, some people may find that their whole life has been transformed, as well as their relationships.

Other people may find that their life hasn’t really changed and that how they truly feel is just being covered up and repressed. So on the outside they might look the part or they could come across as incongruent and yet on the inside they feel like a fraud.

The Solution

Through taking on another person’s advice or through their own conclusions, one could just carry on with what they are doing; with the belief that they will feel different through repetition and that others will soon recognise this difference.

Another option would be for one to get in touch with their body and to see why it reacts as it does. One is likely to see that there are certain patterns in regards to how their body responds around people.

Examples

So one could find that they close up when they are around the opposite sex or just when anyone gets too close to them. Being around big groups of people or when one is in public could also have the same affect.

Trapped Emotions

The reasons one’s body is responding in these ways is not necessarily because of what is taking place externally, but because of how one’s mind is interpreting what is taking place. And what is taking place externally, is then triggering certain emotions internally.

So though one feeling as they do, their body is then doing what feels comfortable. If one feels vulnerable or fearful, then they are naturally going to cross their arms for instance. These emotions could have been trapped in their body for many years.

And what these present day circumstances are doing is reminding them of what happened all those years ago. Their mind may have forgotten all about what happened, but their body remembers.

Postures

One could find that their head is generally tipped forward or that their shoulders are rounded. Now, one approach would be to lift their head and to push their shoulders back. But, what this doesn’t do is look at why their body is doing this.

And the reason they do this could be to protect their heart. Not only does the heart have a physical use, it is also where feelings of grief, sadness, loss, rejection and abandonment are held. So if one were to be carrying trapped emotions there, then having a closed posture would be normal and feel ’comfortable’.

Awareness

When one does have trapped emotions in their body, they will need to be released. And as this happens, one will find that their body language changes naturally. This can be done with the assistance of a therapist, healer or a trusted friend.

http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/body-language-can-trapped-emotions-define-someone-s-body-language