Your Innerlandscape holds the images, pictures, sensations, songs and symbols that add beauty texture, and fullness to your life.  It emerges from within the song that you can’t get out of your head, or that puzzling, disquieting dream or the nagging feeling that there is something else you are supposed to be doing with your life. Your Innerlandscape invites you to explore in all directions; above, below and within.  It draws upon your body, your mind and emotions.  It colors with words and images, thoughts and feelings. Accepting and appreciating the changing nature and beauty of your Innerlandscape, gives you access to the secrets of your soul and your purpose in life. 

Listen closely to the words of that song in your mind.  What feelings or memories are enlivened?   Write your dreams in a journal.  Sit still for a moment and breathe into that uncomfortable, nagging feeling.  What emotions or physical sensations emerge? The message may appear with a chronic backache, headache or lump in your throat. The message may create irritability, anxiety, anger or depression.  Perhaps, you may be feeling optimistic and excited, but are not sure where to take your next step.  Emotions point directly to messages you may be overlooking or trying to ignore.   They are signals from your soul that there is something for you to explore. All of these messengers, whether physical, mental or emotional are the invitations into your Innerlandscape. Their messages are not to be overlooked, shelved, medicated, repressed, avoided, or dismissed.  The purpose of life is to understand one’s self and to know happiness.  It is a process, not an endpoint. It is only a fleeting moment before beginning the next leg of the journey.  Do not get attached to any one stopping place, for the journey is ongoing.

 Exploring your Innerlandscape is not a fast and easy task with a clear set of guidelines.  It will take lots of work and lots of play. Dive into the waters of emotion and absorb the messages being sent to you, but do not swim alone.  When you dive, make sure you have a lifeline of supportive, trusted people to share the messages.  When we speak our truth in the presence of a witness, we may hear ourselves clearly for the first time.  Learning to decipher the language of dream and metaphor can allow us a new freedom of spirit and understanding, but we may need guidance to fully grasp the meaning.   Knowing ourselves deeply will make it impossible to numb ourselves with possessions and substances  in order to not dull our pain or dampen our joy.    In this work,  you are encouraged to slow down and pay attention to these messages: be aware of their presence: awaken to the magic already happening in your life.

          The Need to Reconnect

 As a mental health professional, I noticed the number of people being diagnosed with mental illness skyrocketing.  Diagnoses such as autism and bipolar disorder, which had once been considered very serious and rare, were showing up with alarming regularity at ever younger ages.  Medications were being prescribed for all sorts of maladies and symptoms and it in multiple combinations.  While there were certainly instances where medication  was life saving and necessary,  it seemed that normal development and life coping skills were being pathologized and deemed in need of treatment.   At this point, I had to pause and consider the genesis of all this pain.   What was the source of this discomfort and deep lack of meaning  people were experiencing within their lives and families?   Perhaps, there was a flaw in our definition and understanding of normal and happy and functional.  Perhaps, there was not enough time to enjoy the promised American Dream of having it all.  Yes, one might have the job, car home and family, but there was rarely enough time to balance and enjoy all parts of this equation for happiness.  I sensed our deeply creative and abundant society was wasting away into a sense of obligation and duty and that the days of enjoying life and each other were quickly disappearing.  The psychoactive drugs or pain medications that were being prescribed might be effective in addressing symptoms and providing necessary short term relief; but, underneath, something was still amiss: a lack of connection with spirit, purpose, ourselves and each other.  

 As Americans, we are taught to seek things outside of ourselves to make us feel content, happy, and successful. Many children are confused by what happens between kindergarten and first grade.  In kindergarten, you are taught to be cooperative and help others, who are struggling. In first grade, your friends become competitors with room for only one at the top of the class.  Performance is measured against the performance of others as an outside need for recognition and approval drives us forward.  We are conditioned in this quest by schools that rely on standardized tests to judge the effectiveness of teachers and students.  These tests focus on an external learning based on the repetition of memorized facts.  The outer landscape of standardized education leads us away from the inner joy of learning and self-discovery.   Memorized facts get in the way of original imagination.  Tests give no indication of a child's internal happiness or motivation to learn.  Teachers are required to teach to pass tests. Everyone is expected to succeed in this narrowly defined manner; yet, history is peopled with great minds who did poorly in school.

      The cost of our society's dependence on materialism and an external sense of meaning may be our lives and our happiness.  We take greater and greater risks, or watch others do so, just to feel the adrenaline rush; to feel alive.   Workday conversations are riddled with references to human dramas that exist in a weekly television format.  Religiously, people follow TV programs, perhaps, to feel connected to others in their trials, but there is no true human connection and no true life experience.   This vicarious experience does not equate to the risk of meeting your neighbor or lending a hand to a friend in need or being in love.   Mass media is shaping reality into the reality of TV shows which encourage us to watch others act foolishly for great sums of money. Again, the bottom line is cash.  Whose “reality” is this?  If we continue to teach the primary importance of material wealth and success, we will continue to produce masses of people who work only for material security and exchange their valuable life energy for the outer appearance of security. 

     This outward of  material security is fragile and crumbles when you are confronted by tragedy or unexpected loss. Yet, loss is the one constant we all share.  It can be the loss of a dream or the loss of a loved one.  It can be the loss of a concept or a long-held expectation or belief, i.e.  “by 35 I will have done_________”  or “ if I just make this final change I will find my life partner,  or perfect work.”   When these things do not prove to be true, we may feel alone and confused.  When we have lost a dear one, we may feel empty and numb.  At these times of loss and upheaval, there is a crack in the armor of our personality, a fork in the road, an opening, and the opportunity to explore with a new map.   In times of great tragedy, our greater selves emerge. People reach out to help one another and for a brief time connect with the essence of life: love and caring.  During the Loma Prieta earthquake in the Bay Area in 1989, a highway collapsed in a very troubled part of Oakland, California.  Uncharacteristically, for several days there were no murders in Oakland.  Many of the local people were reaching out to help, to be connected, visible, valued and important.  On 9/11 there was a similar outpouring and sense of connectedness for the American people.    This was reality: people being needed and reaching out to other people.  When we are confronted by personal tragedy new parts of ourselves come forth to be seen, felt, heard and acknowledged.  New connections can be made within ourselves. New strengths can emerge.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the true poetry of these words is found within us. It is our duty to bring the beauty forth, share our true selves and know happiness.  We each have a multi-colored palette from which to start a new landscape in this country rich in tone and color and resplendent in its diversity and character.  With so many varied cultures blending together, the possibility exists to create a beautiful work of art wherein each person retains their individuality and is not overwhelmed or made invisible by the neighboring color and tone. Rather, each color would contribute to the subtle beauty of the whole.   Remember the collage art projects of elementary school where you collected objects or cut photos from magazines and assembled them into and new and exciting arrangement.   Each piece retained its unique beauty while contributing to a magnificent gestalt.  This is the task for each of us, our families and America. Many of us do not want to upset the status quo.  We are content in believing our individual actions do not impact the Earth or the global economy. We know we have worked hard for what we acquired and we believe it is up to others to do the same.  If this description is apt, then, this is not a book for you. This book is for those kindred spirits who are longing for something more, intrinsically, knowing that a new possession or a vacation is not the answer.  We know that each of our actions and choices exists within a whole and that a choice made for growth and happiness ripples through the whole and contributes.   Innerlandscape encourages you to engage life's beauty; to explore your own traumas and honor the strength of your soul that emerges from the lessons learned and perspectives gained.

 By sharing my personal and professional work of the last 25 years, I  encourage you to engage with your own life and to appreciate its bold color, subtle nuance, and profound individuality.  Each summit of happiness we attain; each valley of sorrow we explore; each gorge of pain we traverse; each bridge of understanding we build between ideas, thoughts, values and feelings; each and every effort we make towards knowing ourselves and our purpose; all of these bring us an inner peacefulness, which contributes to the harmony and lessening of strife in the outer world.  If we concentrate exclusively on past problems, struggles and fear, we will continue to feel the turmoil.  If we accept our struggles without judgment, as a part of the ever-changing scenery in life, we will have the power to make change.   We will know that each of us matters.  We will know it is not an outer force or group of people that threatens our happiness or our security.  We will know that our internal peace is not easy or static. It is long-lasting and worth the effort.  Inner happiness lasts longer than any adrenaline rush. It lasts longer than a favorite food or a television show.  Happiness does not require great sacrifice or exempt us from enjoying our favorite pleasures and pursuits.  In fact, we may enjoy them with deeper gratitude.  We all know that the good of the whole matters and that rewarding a few with the efforts of many is a losing proposition.   By knowing and honoring ourselves, we will regain the power to know that we are responsible for our own destiny.  We will know for certain that no other person, place, or thing is the answer to our struggle.  We will know ourselves and be home.

 Knowing your Guide

    Before you embark on any journey, it is important to know your guide. The Innerlandscape course is the result of many experiences as a psychotherapist for individuals, children and families for over 25 years, as a mother to a child with a disability, as a wife in a bicultural relationship, as an artist ,as a daughter, as a recovering addict and as a human being.  Each of these roles has it own set of gifts and challenges.  Each of the paths allowed me to experience happiness and pain, denial and loss, struggle and acceptance.  Throughout my journey of self discovery, what I consistently noticed was my desperate attempts to remove myself from the lesson I was involved in at the time.  I wanted to escape the pain, to soothe the hurt, to experience only freedom and joy and not to be bound by the expectations of others or, more critically, the expectations of myself.  I wanted to be everything to everybody and for everyone be happy.  As I wasted away under my burdens of idealism and perfectionism, I failed to notice the perfection within the moment at hand.  I was in search of a different experience without loss or pain.  I felt punished if I were experiencing lack or grief : either God was punishing me for doing something wrong or my previous karmic lifetime was punishing me for something I had long forgotten. I tried, analyzing, medicating, and wrestling with every issue and every pain.  During one period of 24 months, I lost seven friends and loved ones to early deaths and my daughter was disabled by a vaccination.  I had spent years working on my self through psychology and recovery and I  had spent years helping others in need.  I could not understand why this enormous loss should be the nature of my reality.   I noticed friends and loved ones, self included, flocking to the doctors and healers to relieve the pain of stomachs and teeth, headaches and backaches.  We consulted spiritual advisors and psychics of all sorts trying to make sense of an ongoing awareness of pain or emptiness. If we were engaged in recovery, we looked for substitutes to cope with our lives.    I will use my own process to help illustrate the information I am sharing.  In addition to my life experience as a woman at mid-life, a mother, and artist, I was also a practicing psychotherapist for over twenty-five years. It is only through challenging our own beliefs and accepting others that we allow room for personal growth.  It is a delicate balance to hold and honor our vision and accept new information and coloring from the beliefs or viewpoints of another. One of Mom’s favorite sayings, is The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Treat others how you would like to be treated. The reader of this book will also be in relationship with the author. To this end, I will provide a short summary of my growing and learning through the dimensions of mind, body, and spirit, summarizing my personal innerlandscape and how this model evolved.

  At the core of most people, is the wish for happiness.  In order to facilitate  happiness, we must address the body, mind, and spirit.    When people describe joy they often experience a transcendance and ability to see beyond limiting circumstances.  Sensations of bliss or timelessness are often referred to as ‘peak experiences’.  I have found three consistent ways of entering the flow of these experiences in life and the clinical hour: art, meditation and yoga.  These experiences do not result from an excessive use of effort or energy but arise spontaneously as a result of being connected to your spirit a unity with all that is.  Always a bit of the research observer, I have witnessed a deep change in a person's body language and dialogue following a class in art, meditation or yoga. 

 In our workshops, we encourage people to explore their Innerlandscapes through art, meditation and yoga.  Through art, the spirit is allowed to speak. It allows us to co create and explore without restriction.  Whenever I set up an activity at a workshop or community event, I invite people to paint: children approach immediately without hesitation.  Most adults are self conscious and reticent saying, “I have no talent.” “I haven’t painted since school and I couldn’t do it then, either.”  It is sad that an activity so readily embraced in childhood, without judgment or reservation, becomes an area of self doubt and restriction. Kids play. Kids paint.  It is fun and exciting.   In our workshops, there is only creative exploration. Creativity for creativity’s sake: no rights, no wrongs, only discovery.  The universe is and ever- expanding creative space. What is the risk in having fun and co-creating with color and the universe?   Meditation exercises are included in our workshops and throughout this book to remind us to take time for silence and assimilation. These tools expand the concepts of CBT and EBT through conscious practice of observing one's thoughts and allowing them to pass .   Yoga, is the physical exercise that I have discovered can be adapted to all age levels of physical abilities.  It promotes strength, flexibility and focus; desirable qualities for all tasks of life. At its core yoga dose not distinguish the body from mind or spirit and the texts of Ayurveda delve deeply into the issues addressed within our profession.

    In doing the self exploration work of Innerlandscape, we need to look closely at whether we have been honored for our thoughts and visions in our lives.   Our personal truth never involves harm to another.  We are all connected.

Beginning the Journey

    In doing the self exploration work of Innerlandscape, we need to look closely at whether we have been honored for our thoughts and visions in our lives.   Our personal truth never involves harm to another.  We are all connected. Please take a few minutes to consider the following questions.

FINDING SUPPORT
     The inner journey is both exhilarating and excruciating.  Our patterns, habits and values construct walls to keep us safe, to allow us to survive, to enable us identify ourselves in contrast to others.  Your walls once served a very protective and valuable function.  They may have kept the “bad things” out and protected you from hurt.  Now, however, they may be barriers to a deeper understanding of self.   To deconstruct your walls and peek around them can be frightening.  To break through them, with no regard to their function, can be disorienting and dangerous.  There are times when you may need professional guidance from a therapist, clergy or medical professional.    Psychotherapy is immensely valuable for a number of reasons, but having these tools and a trusted friend who will not step on your dreams can be just a valuable in some situations.  A therapist has the advantage of professional training and objectivity. A trusted supportive friend may be aware of your innermost dreams.  A support system is a basic requirement. We need relationships to mirror ourselves.  Trying to do it on your own is like looking too closely into a mirror:  everything becomes distorted.  We need objectivity.  Please have your support system in place to do this work.

      Do not be surprised if the people who know you best react with dismay, cynicism or outright resistance to the changes you are making.  People prefer things to be familiar: if you change, they may have to change in relation to you.  You may reflect parts of themselves and their issues, which they are not ready or willing to see.  It is helpful to have support people who are truly present for you.  Both lay people and professionals in every walk of life, when confronted with their own issues may have a difficult time supporting others whose values differ dramatically from their own. Many people are intimidated by the courage it takes to explore and live one’s innermost desires.  Do not be guided by the judgments of another nor accept responsibility to change another human being.  We each change when our lives no longer work for us: each of us at his/her own time on his/her own schedule.

 It is amazing how often we choose to be close to people who replicate patterns from our childhood.  If your childhood was full of unconditional love and support, this is a very good thing.  For those of us who have had to struggle to find positive support and have not heard affirmations of our specialness or encouragement of our dreams, we might need to look a little further and refine our support systems.  Therapists, particularly of a Carl Rogers type, can be very helpful here.  Rogers was a proponent of being a warm, empathic presence and providing “unconditional positive regard”.   It is important to have someone in your life who can truly listen to you without judgment and without an agenda.  In the presence of this regard you feel a deep sense of connection with self and other.  This does not mean that the person always agrees with you and your choices,  only that they can listen with compassion.

How do you know if this is true? The perfect personal barometer for knowing whether a person or decision is right for you, is your very own body.   Your body is a highly sensitive indicator of your innermost desires.  It is the most up-to-date high- tech instrument we posses for knowing our position in the world.  I refer to it as our CPS, the Cosmic Positioning System.  If you listen to your body and receive its messages, it will provide you with instant information on the proper food for your constitution, your need for rest and activity, whether a particular activity or person is in your best interest and so on. We must listen to our bodies.  Anxiety, a quickening of our heart rate and clenching of our throat, these are all messages probably indicating a poor choice for a support person or life decision.  Many of us experience these anxiety reactions with anyone when first speaking our truth, trying on a new look or taking a first step. The release of adrenaline can excite the courage to move forward, try something new and make a change. Yet, we all know there are certain people who consistently shoot down our hopes and dreams with their advice and purported concern for our welfare.  If another person has not done the work to realize his or her own dreams, it is unlikely he or she will understand or support your quest to realize your own. If a particular person always expresses a great deal of fear or doubt: again, he or she would not be a good choice for support and encouragement.  If you have felt undermined by another’s actions in response to your happiness, this would indicate another poor choice.  These are the folks I call “discouragers.”

      “Discouragers” want to suck the courage right out of you.  They want you to stay the person they have always known, no matter, how miserable you may feel.   They express fear and criticism, if your life choice is different than their version of happiness.  They can be forthright or insidious with their opinions and efforts to awaken or instill self doubt.  They prefer to talk about your shortcomings or character issues rather than discuss or disagree on an issue that may have more than one right answer.  They prefer the world in black and white, good and evil without shading or nuance.   If you do not fit into their worldview, you must be doing something wrong.  There is both a certainty and insecurity about Discouragers because much of their lives are lived in fear.  Fear of the unknown.  Fear of difference.  Fear of the future.  An unwillingness to change and explore is their safety net, the security mechanism, allowing them to imagine that life will be under their control.   Life goes on.  Each of us has the choice to embrace the magic of chance and dare to express our true natures or to stay within the confines of routine and safety.  Discouragers are not the type of friends with whom you want to share your inner work, your Innerlandscape. We can love them and have compassion for their struggles and limitations, while not allowing them to dampen our hopes and our dreams.  Even true friends will say things you may not like, which may evoke anger and defensiveness.  When a close friend or confidante says something to you that awakens a feeling of rage, resentment or hurt, it is important to step back and evaluate where this sleeping monster was hiding. 

 In some instances where you feel an intense dislike or resistance to what is being said, it may be your own personal intrapsychic process being awakened: your own personal Shadow. There is a dark and hidden side to our inner process.  The Shadow is a concept from Jungian psychology, referring to a mental construct in which we hold the unacceptable parts of our selves. The things we do not accept or acknowledge about ourselves.  These issues “lurk in the shadows.”   Through our work we will bring these things to light. We all have blind spots, where we are prone to believing what we were taught without deeper questioning or critical evaluation. These beliefs like our walls usually served a protective function.   You may now have outgrown a certain belief or behavior and bringing it to light will allow growth. Rarely, is anything so dark that it does not diminish in threat or importance in the light of day. It is often the act of keeping it secret and unspoken that generates its power. 

     We all have habitual patterns, for instance, starting too many things at once, not completing things, procrastinating, or putting everyone else’s needs before our own, to name some of my personal favorites. We all have internal voices that whisper from our past.  Those voices question the wisdom of our choices and hold the criticisms and expectations of those around us. 

• Artists never succeed in their lifetimes. 

• If you haven’t engaged your passion by this time, it will never happen.

• You will never amount to anything, no one in our family ever has.

• I could never do that.

• It is better to be safe than sorry. 

• What will you do in retirement? 

• What would happen if everyone thought they had the privilege to be happy and do what they wanted?

• Why write a book, who would read it anyway? 

These patterns, voices, and habits from the past can prevent us from breaking out of our familiar routines to become something greater.  They keep us safe, bound, and confined.  When people confront us directly with these issues, we usually counterattack or retreat into silence knowing something has been touched.  Unfortunately, a simple comment can throw us off track or into self doubt and stagnation. Feel free to take a few minutes and write down the voices of your own shadow, fears and doubts.

Distinguishing Help From Hindrance; Friends from Discouragers

     Friends are distinguished from Discouragers in two ways: Friends know your vulnerabilities and are supportive in your attempts to transcend them.  Discouragers bring up feelings of shame or guilt or fear, emotions that are not tied to the exuberance of your soul, but to the opinions of others. They hold judgments that infer your personal choice is somehow going to ruin the life of another.   In the core of your being, you know the difference between an issue needing examination and an opinion that wants only to hold you back.  Trust your body.  Trust your gut.  When you are on the right path you may experience a quickening of your pulse and a sense of anxiety, but it is a feeling tied to anticipation of the unknown excitement; not a feeling of dread. You have the power to choose a different path right now.  Do Unto Others as you would have them do unto you.

     Happiness does not come at the cost of another person. Friends need to be honest with their own emotional process.  If they feel uncomfortable with your personal truth, a simple statement to that affect is more welcome than an invalidating comment. There are many subtle ways people will discourage you to keep you from disrupting the status quo.  It is possible to have a group of functioning individuals and not have anarchy.  It is possible to set limits with kindness and compassion and not compromise the right to free speech and personal liberty.  People can relate and compromise to function happily and healthily.  Your happiness does not cost another his other happiness, unless that person is are living through you.  In that case, probably, neither one of you is very happy. Doing the work to disentangle your desires will bring greater freedom and happiness to you both. 

      A firm guideline is that your growth and health does not come at the cost of your own safety or the safety of others.  Revenge or self destruction is neither the motivation nor goal in this process.   If your friendships and relationships are not at this point of honesty and support, please do not hesitate to get professional help.  Therapists are often extremely helpful and compassionate in this regard.  Others may choose a minister, priest or spiritual advisor.  This is a gentle, but arduous, journey towards the Innerlandscape of your truth. Recreational drugs and alcohol may ease the pain temporarily, but they are harmful to the body, mind, and spirit and will block your growth.  Drugs, alcohol, gambling, porn, or anything used in a habitual, addictive way will stop you from growing.  The precise age at which you started using these things to solve life’s challenges represents the age where your growth may be stuck. Part of you is frozen in time.  If you are struggling with addiction, please read Chapter III before continuing with this work.

I do not question the contribution of medicine and psychology to healing and a better quality of life, I only suggest a closer look at the disturbing trend away from any personal responsibility for the healing process.   For many people, self included, medication and psychotherapy have been lifesavers.  People need to continue all necessary medical treatments and fully engage in the treatment; so. that it may be of shorter duration and deeper healing. Take the prescription that helps you.  Medicine and access to medical treatment are a privilege and a blessing. There is greater peace in everyone’s life, when someone diagnosed Bipolar takes their lithium.   A natural balancing occurs.  When someone with schizophrenia takes the appropriate medication, the world becomes manageable and less frightening.   Attention Deficit Disorder is relieved by Ritalin; the chaos and rapidity of the mind slow to a speed that makes completion of a task possible and interrupts the vicious cycle of self condemnation and depression. Antidepressants are a lifeline for people, who are in a dark place of despair none of us would willingly enter.   Appointments for psychotherapy, massage, physical illness are all extremely valuable, if they do not become the dominant theme in life.  People, places and things are placed on our paths to help us heal and move on. The message is  to honor your body and its wisdom,  How do you recognize the difference between medicinal and addictive use of a behavior, treatment or substance?    I evaluate whether each behavior or medication allows greater peace and happiness or supports unfulfilling patterns.  I consider each behavior and whether it creates havoc within my life and the lives of others around me. If using this substance negatively impacted the lives of loved ones, then the use was destructive.   Avoiding caring friends or being avoided by them is a signal to stop and reevaluate.    If the drug eliminates self destructive behavior and did not sacrifice  health, it was medicinal and I was grateful for its existence.  If using the substance negatively impacted the ability to live life joyfully and spend time doing things that feed the soul, then its use was harmful.  If there is a medical reason for taking a drug, be grateful that it is available to you and be happy with the magic of its ability to help you thrive.  If you have a more complex issue of drug or alcohol dependence, you need help to recover and move on to new pathways.  Dependence on a substance is like the dependence on a way of being.  There was probably a very good reason it started and you will need time and support to change. 

 How to reconnect

In earlier times, work was directly connected to natural cycles and survival.  You could see the direct benefit of your efforts and there was time for rest: time to think. The tasks were arduous, but there was a deeper connection to the work.  Today, everything has become 24/7; always on and always available.   There is little connection between the work you do and the food you eat or where you sleep, (unless you sleep at your office).  Family times are hurried and haphazard. Children are shuffled from one activity to another in the quest to provide greater enrichment. Yet, we may be sacrificing the magic and timelessness of childhood.  What may be missing as we gear our children for success, is a sense of personal connection and responsibility for choices. Few people pause to consider the source of their comforts, the Earth, from which all the raw materials flow.   Where do the materials come from?  Who made them? What type of thought and energy was put into their care?   I remember hearing Chogyam Trungpa speak in San Francisco.  He encouraged  meditation upon the source of all things and encouraging the audience to consider the color red and where this color whether in paint on our walls or dye in our clothing may have originated.  How many of us think about the materials or work put into the tools we use?  How many of encourage our children to explore their toys and consider the source from which they came?

Technology move us further faster and can connect us to far away lands, but it may also move us further away from our natural rhythm and from honoring the source of all things.  As the mother of a child who was disabled by a vaccination at 18 months of age, I learned to both question and appreciate progress.  Although many physicians across the world praise the wonders of vaccination, there are many others that question the validity of impacting a healthy system.  Many adults , self included,  questioned letting kids interact with computers at an early age; yet,  due o the disability of my daughter, we discovered a wonderful place called the Disabled Children’s Learning Center, which provided adaptive toys and computer programs for kids, who would not be capable of the fine motor tasks required for playing with these items.   We saw our daughter excel in areas where her peers were just beginning to learn.  For a child who is always behind and trying to keep up, this experiences of being on pace or ahead is priceless.  I try to remember, never to say never, to avoid clinging too hard to any thought or belief for it is sure to be confronted and transformed.

The challenge before us is to balance these amazing technologies, medical advances and the world they provide with values, ancient knowing and lifestyles that respect the natural cycle of things and foster a sense of community.  If we focus on our connection with the earth and each other, we can create a prosperous healthier society; so, many people will not feel isolated or excluded from the bounty. We can refuse to be pushed through hoops and be molded into doing, being and feeling things that are contradictory to who we know we are and how we understand our place in the world.

            Self-discovery, exploring one's Innerlandscape, is not easy.  Requisite in the joy of discovery is the work of getting there and the realization of how everything fits together and the knowledge of how our actions or inaction impacts the whole.   Trying to make your truth the only truth cannot be the end goal.  The truth is ever changing.

  In life it is important to have time for reflection on your journey and its lessons.   Please be good to yourself and put aside some time each day to quiet your mind.  MEDITATION : Even 10 minutes twice a day can refresh your perspective.  To engage in the deeper work of this book, try to set aside 1-1/2 hours a week for your own exploration.  Make an appointment for yourself with yourself.  Treat this time with the respect you would give any other important commitment.  Use the time as you would use therapy to push a little deeper and explore a little further.  It is generally accepted that it takes three weeks to establish a new habit.  Yet, anyone who has tried to quit smoking, change their diet, quit any drug or addictive behavior or  exercise more knows that these ‘three-week periods’ can  really add up before the change is integrated on a deep level.  Be patient and persevere. 

This road is not easy, and although many of the tenets are simplistic and true, their implementation and understanding can be arduous.  The best advice is to stay committed.    Change takes time.  It took you a long time to get where you are.   The time required for change or to reaffirm a direction will be much shorter, but it is rarely instantaneous.  After the initial insight and excitement of the honeymoon period, comes the work.  Keep breathing deeply, pursuing and enjoying the beauty of the canvas known as your life. There is a great deal of emotional work to promote each change we make. Be patient.

 Continue to Chapter II Be Prepared: Addressing Addiction, Violence and Abuse

SKIP ADDICTION, VIOLENCE, AND ABUSE ISSUES AND CONTINUE TO CHAPTER III