Mental Healing Using the Law of Cause and Effect

The Law of Cause and Effect Explained

By Cathy Eck

The Law of Cause and Effect Was Lost

My work is usually the last resort for people.  When traditional problem solving methods don’t work, the ideas of the ancient world start to look attractive.  In truth, it should be the other way around.  The ancient teachings should the first resort because we have nothing to lose by trying them.

Humans have been tragically programmed to fix the effect of problems.  The law of cause and effect has been buried in the sands of time. I first discovered the law of cause and effect as an entrepreneur designing computer systems.  The diagram above demonstrates the typical flow of information through the computer.  It seemed obvious to me that fixing a computer system required repairing the input first and the processes second.  It seemed utterly stupid to fix the effects.  Yet company after company wasted unbelievable sums of money fixing effects.  When I appeared and fixed the input, people acted like I just walked on water; I saved them huge sums of money.  I simply applied the law of cause and effect.


Healing with the Law of Cause and Effect

Let’s apply the law of cause and effect to repairing our bodies.  Lets say that a woman has a serious rash on her arm.  A doctor would prescribe something to fix the rash, a cream or pill; medicine fixes the effect.  The doctor might ask, “How did you get the rash?”  The information they obtain might lead to a better diagnosis or a more natural cure.

Asking how supplies a physical cause, but the law of cause and effect demands that we find the mental cause.  The ancients said that in the law of cause and effect, all is mental.

The law of cause and effect works best with why questions.  “Why did you get the rash?”  This question leads our subject backward in time.  Her first answers might be superficial like, “I needed to weed the garden.”  If she lets the superficial answers go without ruminating about them, she will find a deeper layer.  “I needed to get out of the house.  I wanted to find peace of mind.”  And if she goes deeper, she finds:  “I need to get out of this marriage.  My skin crawls when I’m with my husband.”  Now some might say that she’s found the cause.  Our subject needs to leave her marriage.  We’ve moved from effect to the program or action (the center of our diagram above), but we are not yet at the mental cause.


Following the Why

So we keep going and shift the question, “Why does he make your skin crawl?”  This is the perfect shifting question because of the reference to skin.  “He looks at me like all he wants is sex.  He acts like I’m there to serve him.”  The conversation is still about him and what he does, so we need another why question to turn the corner and get back to the real cause, which is always in our own mind.  We are not milking the law of cause and effect for all it is worth until we are at our own mental cause.

“Why does his look bother you?”  “I feel like my only value is to please him. I feel unloved for who I am.  I can’t say no.  I can’t get him to understand how I feel.”  The answers point to a superficial relationship, a perfect metaphor.  A skin rash has a superficial appearance of something much deeper.

Now that she has found a mental cause, she can look for why she has those beliefs.  They all feel bad; so none of them are true.  She can ask, “Why do I feel unloved for who I am?  Why can’t I say no?”  She might remember a past memory, or another belief might pop up.  The key is to keep asking why like a treasure hunter looking for the chest of gold.  You know you’ve found the gold when you see how you created the situation, and you realize that it was all an illusion, a mental construct.


Don’t Wallow in the Answers 

The reason people don’t find the cause is that they get emotionally caught up in the answers.  They stop the hunt too soon.  We must remember that the emotions we feel remind us that we are following a chain of lies.  When we think false beliefs or thoughts, we get emotions.  As we let go of the beliefs, the emotions dissolve.  When we let go of the cause, the emotions will completely disappear because  they are no longer necessary.

If our subject blames her husband, she won’t go any deeper.  She will never find the cause.  She’ll want to talk about her victim status and about her husband’s asinine behavior.  She must we willing to let go at each level and keep following the chain of beliefs.

When she finds the mental cause, she must let it go too.  If it is truly the cause of the relationship issue and the skin rash, then all the problems in that chain will start to repair themselves.  Her husband might change, or he might ask for an amicable divorce.  Her body’s natural healing mechanism will kick in, and her rash will start to disappear.  She might notice that she finally feels loved and heard.  The results will be that which is best for all concerned.  Letting go puts us back on our true path.

In the ancient world, this was true healing. It was permanent healing that never needed to be repeated.  Best of all, anyone can do it.  It works for all sorts of problems.  It costs nothing.  According to the ancients, when you use the law of cause and effect, nothing is incurable or impossible.


Click here for more on the Law of Cause and Effect. 




Escaping the Double Bind or Catch 22

By Cathy Eck


Mango and the Double Bind

In the mid-1990’s, Chris Kattan played the flamboyant Mango on Saturday Night Live.  As you can see, Mango verbally tells Garth Brooks to get away; but when Garth Brooks does as requested, he pulls him back with his animal magnetism.

Garth Brooks is clearly confused; he wants to get away from Mango, but can’t.  He obviously can’t come toward him and leave him at the same time.

When I first saw this skit, I thought it was hysterical.  Like most great comedy, it exposes the shadow reality that people usually deny.

Mango demonstrates the double bind, which is a highly emotional and challenging dilemma.  A person (Garth) receives two conflicting messages, and one message negates the other.  A successful response to one message results in a failed response to the other.  The receiver is stuck in lose-lose.

You might know this experience by another name, the Catch 22.  It is the situation that you just can’t win.

Double Bind -- I don't get no respect

Usually, one message is external and the other is internal or unspoken. We don’t see the conflict, but we feel it.



Coping with the Double Bind

In order to cope with double bind messages received from others, most people learn to ignore their feelings.  They train their minds to listen to people’s words and blindly obey.  Others, especially children, find themselves in unexpected trouble because the emotional pull of the unspoken message is stronger than the verbal request.

A symptom that we’ve been caught in the web of another’s double bind message is that we wonder why we behaved or reacted as we did.  We might say something like, “I just wasn’t being myself.”  Sometimes the other blames us for the conflict; and yet, we can’t see how or why we were the cause.

Most of us have our first double bind experience in early childhood.  That sets the stage for many more such experiences throughout life.  These memories feel unresolvable because we just can’t find the cause.


Both People are Confused in a Double Bind

Understanding the cause of the double bind is key.  This can be tricky.  Mango clearly knew what he was doing, and he was the cause.  But he hides his wacky hand motions when Garth turns around; he doesn’t want to be exposed.  It is unlikely that Mango would be willing to admit to his purposeful manipulation; Garth Brooks was right to walk away.

Politicians and slick sales people send out multiple double bind messages in their conversations; they purposefully confuse you so that you will ignore their conflicting data and do what they want.  They have no intention of admitting that they are the cause.


The Innocent Double Bind Message

Most of us send innocent double bind messages.  In the cartoon above, the character probably doesn’t realize that he’s sending out a double bind message of “I get no respect.”  He probably blames the people who don’t respect him for being ignorant, rude, or not honoring his authority.

This double bind can be fixed if the sender takes responsibility for their confusing message.  They have to recognize that they are seeing the mirror image of their message in the other; then they can let go of the causal belief in their own mind.

If we are blaming another for our unhappiness or our lack of fulfillment, we are sending a double bind message.  We want the person to love us, but we don’t believe we are worthy of their love.  We want the job, but we don’t really want to work.  We want our children to get along, but we believe that all children fight.  Our minds are full of internal double binds.  We waste our life trying to manage them, hide them, and leap over them.


Receiving the Double Bind

What if we are on the receiving end of the innocent double bind message?   The sender believes they are being crystal clear when their message is actually double bind.  This is very common.

First, we have to get our own mind clear because the double bind message has probably confused us.  There is a causal belief within us that got us into this situation; letting that belief go is our work.

We find our own causal belief by looking at why we are in the situation, and more important, why do we believe the sender?  Often, they play the role of authority figure in our life.  We might be married to the sender; or we could be their child or their employee.  We have a belief in our mind that we must believe them, please them, or make them happy.  And we can’t succeed.  For the receiver, the cause is rarely about the message; it is nearly always about a win-lose or dominance-submission relationship.

When we are clear, we can sometimes help the other to see their double message.  If they are willing to let go of their beliefs, then a positive outcome can be achieved.  The sender gets rid of their conflicting belief and the receiver can decide to give them what they want (or say no) with clarity.  But if the sender won’t change, it is time to leave our Mango behind.


The Reward is Mental Freedom

Most of us have loads of memories of double bind situations.  They often sit in our mind wrapped in guilt or shame.

We can resolve the double bind memory by re-experiencing it in our mind.  It isn’t easy; and if you are not experienced with this, I recommend you do it with the support of a friend or mentor.

Clarity comes when we can see the message that was sent and the message that was received.  Even if the other person is long gone from our life, we can free our own mind by letting go of our part of the double bind experience.


PS:  I had a best friend years ago that was just like Mango; and I adored her because when I said to her, “Stop being like Mango,”  she laughed.  You see, Mango isn’t bad or even a problem when exposed.  Mango is only a problem when he’s hidden.  


Click here for another article that offers some advice for getting beyond painful memories.  

Cartoon Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane /

Taking Back Our Power, Oprah Style

Oprah at Women's conference

Oprah refers to her Texas beef companies lawsuit experience as a metaphor for life’s trials. She is grateful for the lesson.

By Cathy Eck

Oprah and Taking Back Our Power

While recently watching a clip of the Oprah Show where Oprah won her lawsuit against the Texas beef companies, Dr. Phil shared his perspective.  Dr. Phil was her coach during the trial.  His comment went something like this.  He said that she was constantly questioning herself and wondering why the beef people thought what they did.  She was unable to be herself.

Oprah said this was a very confusing time for her.  She was used to saying whatever she thought, having the last word, and just being herself.  She was not used to shutting up and holding back.

Dr. Phil pointed out that everything changed when Oprah finally realized that she had done nothing wrong.  The win came when she knew, not believed, that she was not guilty.  In short, she remembered who she really was.  Oprah demonstrated the art of taking back our power.  Oprah said that she learned an important lesson from that trial, which she considered a metaphor for all of life’s trials.


Letting Go is Taking Back Our Power

I love that example of learning the art of taking back our power, because I have this conversation with people all the time.  Letting go is all about taking back our power.  Oprah returned to her real self because she realized that her false self was lying.  She didn’t affirm for days that she was her real self.  She didn’t visualize a win.  She got that the beliefs of the others were false; and she dropped them from her own mind.  That caused her to have all the power, and the trial came to an end.

This is exactly why we let go.  The false self either gives our power away or takes it from others because it has no power of its own.  Our True Self, on the other hand, is all powerful all of the time.  So when any one person returns to their True Self in a situation, the outcome is always win-win.  (Remember that it is a win for a false self to lose because now it has a chance to let go.  If the false self wins, it perpetuates the wrongful thinking.)

Over and over again, when people let go, they discover that all the crap that happened to them was only the result of their beliefs, their false self.  They had gotten caught in a false self give and take relationship or situation.  When they let go, they can see that they never did anything wrong, nor could they ever do anything wrong.  Their True Self is still in pristine condition.  And when the false self disappears, our True Self’s perfection fills the vacuum.


False Selves Love to Be Right

People, like the Texas beef companies, often try very hard to convince themselves and others that what they believe is true or right.  They will go to extreme lengths to be right because they see right as powerful.  Since we don’t agree with them, they figure that we must be wrong.

It is in those moments that we must discriminate.  They are teaching us how to stay true to our Self.  If we can see their beliefs as false, then we begin taking back our power.  If they convince us to believe them, they will win because their beliefs label us bad or wrong; and our power fades when we feel bad about ourselves.

So when we lose our knowing, our True Self, our power, how do we get it back?  We have to keep letting go of the beliefs or thoughts that are holding us hostage.  We have to stop believing the one who wants our power even if they are an authority figure in our life.  They can only trap us in their web if we have a belief that allows them to be right in our mind.  Even though the authority or perpetrator looks like they have the power, we are actually in control.  We just need to focus on our mind and keep it pure and clear.  Then we start the process of taking back our power.


Tricks to Discrimination

There are many tricks to regaining our discrimination and taking back our power. Often I think back to an earlier time when I didn’t have their belief in my mind.  The comparison helps me discriminate.

Other times, I notice that their belief is not win-win for everyone, so it is not true.  Sometimes, I look to see if their belief has a payoff.  This also indicates it is false (following the money often provides conclusive evidence of a belief).

Of course, the best evidence of a belief is how it feels. Beliefs normally feel bad, but some people feel good when they win because they have numbed themselves to the awful feeling of seeing another lose.

The moment we remember who we are, we begin taking back our power from any situation, person, or organization.  In fact, our True Self can’t have opposition so it can never lose.


Click here for another article that talks about discrimination and ethical manipulation, which is a ridiculous notion.  

photo credit: calvinfleming via photopin cc


Just Laugh At It: The Healing Power of Laughter


Rabid Dog

It was my dream of the big black dog that taught me the true power of laughter.

By Cathy Eck


Just Laugh At It

Many years ago, I had a dream with an important lesson that I’ve never forgotten.  In this dream, I was standing in the barn where my daughter kept her horse.  A big black dog with huge white teeth came toward me.  He was even frothing at the mouth.  I was terrified.  The dog was ready to bite me when I heard a voice in my head that said, “Just laugh at it.”  I started laughing at the dog.  At first, it was kind of like faking it until I made it.  But then I found the true humor, and I really cut loose.  The dog turned and walked away.

I thought that I understood the dream until I tried to apply it in other aspects of my life.  It was so much easier to laugh at the dog in my dream, where I didn’t take things so damn serious.

People in my life had trained me not to laugh because they said it hurt their feelings.  They thought I was laughing at them.  But I wasn’t laughing at them; I was laughing at their baggage.  I knew they were not their baggage; but they didn’t.  Sadly, many people think they are their beliefs, their baggage, and their memories.  I believed them when they said I was hurtful, not realizing that their misery was wanting my company.


Finding Our Inner Comedian

My dream caused me to take a closer look at comedy, and to challenge those who felt I should not laugh at people’s false selves.  Really good comedians take the edge off of reality.  In fact, the best jokes are born from reality.  Our world is filled with false authorities who think they are right and intelligent.  But they are actually giant collections of stupid beliefs, most of which are highly outdated or overrated.  Comedians expose the beliefs that just aren’t true.  And often the authority is not very happy that they are the brunt of their joke — remember Sarah Palin and Saturday Night Live — it was funny because it was so real.

Comedians also give us permission to find our own point of view.  Great comedians help us remove the curtain from the Wizard; they take the authority out of authority.  Often, they expose the naked truth.

We can learn from comedy where our own wounds exist.  Wounds show up in jokes that we just can’t laugh at because we find them too offensive or too personal.  When we can’t laugh, we are taking the situation too seriously.  Sometimes, we can’t laugh because the person is showing us a reality that we thought we were doing a damn good job of hiding.  Either way, comedy is still doing us a favor if we take in the lesson.

When we can’t joke about something, we aren’t being authentic.  Something is hiding; and that is never good.  I remember when Obama was first elected.  The comedians didn’t joke about him for awhile, and I wondered if we were in big trouble as a nation.  If you can’t laugh at an authority, you blindly obey them.  Laughter and freedom go hand in hand.


Laughter Dissolves False Authority

Our outer authorities take up residence in our mind when we believe them; they become our inner authorities, our beliefs.  Laughter dissolves our inner authorities.  The critical voice can’t mock us when we laugh at it.  The voice that tells us that “we can’t have or do what we want” shuts up when we laugh at it.  The voice of “shoulds” disappears when we see it as lacking in power through laughter.

When we can’t laugh at something, we’ve given our power away to it.  And that was the message of the big black dog.  Through laughter, I reclaimed my authority, my power.  And once I was back in power, the dog did what I wanted it to do.  I was not controlling the dog or willing the dog.  The laughter restored my true Self, my true inner authority, which made everything right.

When I was a little girl, I was much wiser than I am now.  I laughed at everything.  I remember being called midget and four eyes in school and laughing so hard that I could hardly stand it.  It was just funny for someone to make up a name for you; you get to laugh together.  But somewhere along the way, the lightness of laughter turned in to the gravity of seriousness.

I started to believe others who couldn’t laugh at themselves.  I started to be timid about making jokes because I didn’t want to be mean.  But the little girl in me knew that you can only insult a false self, and quite frankly they need to be insulted.  The true Self simply uses the situation as an excuse to laugh or grow or find intimacy in a new place.  I’m slowly digging that little girl out of her grave one laugh at a time and remembering the real joy and freedom in laughter.

Want to read more about the black dog and humor, click here to read Our Seventh Sense:  Humor.

True and False versus Good and Evil

The Matrix as a symbol of the illusion

Our minds work in binary just like computers. Quantum physics teaches us that we are, in fact, the creators of our experience since we decide whether our thoughts are simply waves or solid matter.

I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see. I’m going to show them … a world without rules or controls, borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you…… The Matrix

By Cathy Eck

In the Beginning, There was True and False

In the beginning, humans were mentally wired to understand the difference between true and false.  If they thought something true, they felt good.  If they thought something false, they felt emotions.  They would let the false thought go, and they were back on track.

It was just like that hot and cold game that you may have played as a child.  This game of life was very easy.  Everyone lived in the Garden of Eden.  Everyone’s mind and emotions worked like a perfect navigation system.  There were no losers.


The Game Change to Good and Evil

But then there was a game change.  It is a mystery why this game change occurred.  Most of the myths and legends say that some people wanted to win at the expense of others.  They had a desire to create a powerful elite group that had it all.  The state of the world today leans toward that explanation.  But it is also highly possible that these people just wanted to spice up the game of life; and once they changed the rules, they got in over their heads.  The game of good and evil was invented; and our mental wiring was slowly transitioned to support good and evil (the false self) and forget our original design (our True Self).

In the Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, God only makes good.  There is no evil.  In Genesis, Chapter 2, God has a new name.  A name change means something important.  This is not the same God.  But most readers skip over that huge glaring clue, mostly because they were told to do so.

God #2 always has an opposite; he is the God of duality, of good and evil, and other games such as win-lose or superior-inferior.  He is the God of the false self.  That is why he judges, punishes, and gets jealous.  The True Self God just loves unconditionally.

God #2 was a carry over from the Pagan sky Gods (like the Greek God Zeus).  If you ate the apple, you entered the new game just like Neo took a pill to enter the game in the Matrix.  In God #2’s game, good and evil are equally matched players; and the trick is that you don’t know for sure what is good and what is evil.  Good and evil changes depending on your culture, status, or religion.  Good and evil are two sides of the same coin; you can’t separate them.  You try to be good, and you get nowhere.  That is how the game was designed.  The ancient masters called this being stuck in the illusory world.

The perfect true-false navigation system no longer worked.  In the good and evil illusion, you felt good when you made others happy or followed the rules; and you felt bad when you followed your heart or did what you love.  You felt good when you worked hard, and bad when you played or worked smart.  You felt good when others are happy, and guilty when you put yourself first.  Your once perfect navigation system became stuck in a circular loop.

You heart’s desires could now only come true if you had enough willpower to win the good and evil game.  But winning that game is still at the expense of others, and truly good people will unconsciously lose so that they don’t harm others.


How do you get out?  

We have to exit the game and return to the world of win-win.  We stop playing the good and evil game, which means that we stop following other people’s rules.  We stop trying to be good or rejecting evil because that doesn’t work.  We mentally drop the game and follow our heart, the voice of unconditional love within.

Every time we reject a belief of the good and evil game, our True Self does a little victory dance.  When the illusion of good and evil becomes false in our mind, it loses all of its power.


The Ancient Initiates and the Apocalypse

The ancient initiates spent years learning how to defeat their own false minds.  This is not a Saturday afternoon project; it is a way of life.  They understood that the apocalypse, or battle of good and evil, was a mental battle.  It is the final battle that we all must fight to win our mind back and return to Eden.  The end of the Bible brings us back to the beginning, when our minds and hearts were pure.  The apocalypse is nothing more than the end of the illusion of good and evil.  But we won’t get there by fighting others or willing others into submission; we get there by turning our will inside and fighting our own inner battle.


Want a little more, here is The Ten Biggest Lies Ever Told.  Enjoy!

How Do You Know If It Is Unconditional Love?

Unconditional love honors our differences.

Unconditional love always honors our differences.

By Cathy Eck


Unconditional Love Is Normal

After speaking on a cruise ship, a woman came up to me and said, “I’m sorry if this is a stupid question, but can you please explain unconditional love.  I don’t think I’ve ever felt it or even thought it was possible.”  I wanted to cry because unconditional love should be our normal state of being, not some weird phenomenon that occurs only when Venus eclipses the sun.

Unconditional love is the raw material of our True Self.  You can’t pretend to be unconditionally loving.  You can’t learn unconditional love.  You are it.  But most people have forgotten that they are unconditional love because they’ve been plastered with papier-mache beliefs since birth.  We have to break through that paper mache  cover in order to find our True Self and live from unconditional love.


Unconditional love monkey and bird

Conditional love wants our differences to disappear. Unconditional love finds harmony in our differences.


Most Love is Conditional

Most love is conditional.  That is because we often use our emotions backwards in relationship.  When we feel emotions with another, we are in false love or what is often called chemistry or romance.  Emotions are a signal that we are a false self match to this person.  Unconditional love feels like peace; and often people find unconditional love and turn away from it because it feels boring.  Unconditional love is complete; it doesn’t need another to be whole.

Letting go of our beliefs about another is the road to unconditionally loving them.  The goal is not to get the other to unconditionally love you, it is for you to unconditionally love them.  Then you give them their freedom, even if that means they don’t want to be with you anymore.  Sounds hard, but it is truly worth it.  You end up with the right people in your life, and your relationships become mutually supportive and calm.


An Initiation Test

Here is a test that comes from the ancient mystery school teachings.  It was used to force initiates to become unconditionally loving.

Imagine a composite person in your mind standing before you, your own personal terrorist.  They have all the most horrific qualities that you could imagine in a human being.  They are blocking the exit from the initiation chamber, and you can’t leave until you love them unconditionally.

Take one disgusting quality of your terrorist, and you can even label it.  (Enjoy it now, I don’t usually let people label anything).  Now remember that they are unconditional love so this quality that you see is not who they are.  It is an illusion.  Notice that the quality doesn’t feel good.  Witness the emotion in your body, and keep reminding yourself that they are not that label.  The quality that you see is only a facade; it is not true.  If you don’t feel any emotion when focusing on that quality, it is probably because your mind is being right that they are what you see.

Letting go begins the moment you know that what you are thinking is not the truth.

You know when you have reached the place of unconditional love with that quality when there is no more emotion.  The picture in your mind of the terrorist will often change.  It will usually soften a bit.  Keep repeating this for each horrible quality you see in the terrorist until you feel nothing but love for them.  The ancient ones said that when you free the terrorist, the terrorist will free you.  This isn’t easy; so be kind to yourself if you don’t make it out alive.  Remember, it is just an exercise.


Is Your True Self Running Your Life?

The ease in doing this exercise shows you just how much influence your True Self has over your false mind.  The more you are in your false self, the harder it will be to let go.  The false self doesn’t like to let go, but it must listen to our True Self.

For a harder challenge, bring real people into the position of guard, and test your skill at letting go of your beliefs about them.  Often, we have a tendency to keep people we know on the hook.  So watch out for that.  And when you are really brave, put yourself in the guard position because the person we often love the least is our self.

In truth, all of these people are our own reflection so as you do to them, you are actually doing to your self.  When you can’t find a terrorist to guard your exit, you’re FREE.


Let me know how it goes.  Post a comment or write to me.  I’m always interested in hearing results even if the terrorist killed you.

Want a little more love?  Here is a link to an article on the Huna Golden Rule.

Getting Beyond “I Can’t”

I Can't

I CAN’T are two words that often sneak into our mind pretending to be true. But they always indicate a belief.  We can let the belief go, and I CAN’T disappears.

By Cathy Eck

I’m Stuck, I Can’t Find a Belief

People usually call me when they are really stuck.  Quite often their minds are saying “I can’t” over and over again without them noticing.  The words are so familiar that when our mind speaks them, we listen.  We don’t see that we are expressing a belief.  We are sure the words are true.

People will say to me, “But Cathy I really can’t.  I’ve tried everything.”  They have tried everything, except the one thing that works.  They have not tried letting go of the I can’t.


An “I Can’t” Exercise

So here is an exercise:  Write down the words I Can’t on a piece of paper.  Now allow your mind to complete whatever comes after the I can’t.  Write as many answers to I can’t as you can think of.  Keep going until you are empty.

Now read the list back while watching your emotions and your body.  See if any of the answers that you wrote feel good.  They shouldn’t feel good at all.  In fact, they should feel horrible.  Remember your emotions are saying that you believe what you wrote, and everything you wrote is a lie, a belief.  Not one thing that you have written is true; you have found a whole bunch of beliefs.  And you now know what to let go to move forward.  You are no longer stuck.


If you feel like it, share your favorite “I Can’t” in the comments below.  You can pretend it is confession!  

Don’t know how to let go?  Here is an article to get your started…Letting Go of a Belief

photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography via photo pin cc

Time to Come Out of the Closet

Get Out of the Closet

Are you hiding your gifts and talents?  It’s time to come out of the closet and express yourself.

By Cathy Eck


Most of Us Need to Get Out of the Closet

You don’t have to be gay to be stuck in the closet.  Most of us have some aspect of our life that truly needs to come out of the closet.  And often, the very thing we keep locked up is our most precious gift or talent.

We often hide the best aspects of our True Self because we fear judgment, which causes us to turn our gift into a curse.  We use all of our energy to hide it from others.  We develop a superficial persona to put a nice wrapper on our secret curse that would make us too different, too successful, or too special.  We wonder why we feel unexpressed and bored with life.  We wonder why we feel unworthy or like we don’t belong.


Why Do We Do This?

Often when we first expressed our gift, we were labeled crazy or weird.  Sometimes people just couldn’t figure out our perspective  — we looked abnormal.  But that doesn’t make us wrong, it makes us unique.  And if a therapist or doctor gets too involved, we might end up with a nasty diagnosis.

My friend John’s body had become contorted in strange ways.  He went to doctor after doctor and accumulated tons of labels, including Multiple Sclerosis.  Then one day our horse got sick.  John put his hands on the horse and channeled his healing energy into it; his contortions stopped.  What had been a curse for John for many years turned out to be an unrecognized gift.  John simply had to get out of the closet and claim that he was born to be a healer.  He didn’t have anything wrong with him.  John and I had a good laugh that day about modern medicine.  We played a game of what if…

If you have Multiple Sclerosis, you might be a closet healer.

If you have cancer, you might just be a person who creates change through rebellion.

If you suffer from ADD or ADHD, you might be smarter than your teachers.

If you are hearing voices, you might be a screenwriter.

If you have any label that is not positive and empowering, you might just need to come out of the closet.


Fear of Arrogance

Some people were labeled arrogant when they expressed their talent or gift, or people became jealous of them.  So they hid their gift in the closet.  But that makes no sense.  These people have taken something that God (or divinity) gave them, something that is the property of their True Self, and subjugated it to the rules of someone else’s false self.

Is it really arrogant to express yourself and upset your unsupportive friends, relatives, and authority figures?  Or is it arrogant to ignore your True Self’s talent?  I say arrogance, is not expressing who you are.  Arrogance is putting other people’s false self rules and desires for you above your own True Self’s gift.

So what is the gift that you keep locked up, that expression that the world is waiting for?  It is filled with energy, and it will torture your mind and body if you keep hiding it.  It will make you sick and depressed; and no one will be able to help you.

Your gift can be a point of view.  It can be psychic, artistic, or musical ability.  It can be a certain way of movement or a green thumb.  The possibilities are as unlimited as the people who inhabit this earth.

There are some criteria that prove you’ve found your gift or talent.  Your gift is harmless to everyone.  It brings you joy to think about it, do it, or be it.  It sits in your heart as a desire that will not leave, no matter how much you try to push it away.  It is usually the main ingredient in the best life you could ever imagine.  Do you need any more reason to come out of the closet?


Many great people have had to come out of the closet to express themselves…click here to read about Michelangelo and Sculpting the True Self.
photo credit: Jin_sama via photo pin cc

The Dark Side of Positive Thinking

People run toward the light, the positive, like a moth to the flame

People run to the light and the positive like moths to a flame. Like the moth, they often get burned.

By Cathy Eck


Positive Thinking Often Leads to Denial

Imagine that you have a spare room that is filled with junk.  There is stuff piled everywhere.  Cleaning this room is going to be quite a job.  You stand at the doorway looking at the room, and suddenly you notice one small space that is clean.  You realize that it feels good to look at that tiny space, and so you focus your attention on it.  In fact, every time you look in the room, you ignore the mess and stare at that one tiny, clean space.  Avoiding the dirt causes you to feel good, but you never notice what needs cleaning.  If you don’t see the junk, you will never have a clean room.


The positive thinking movement has given birth to many who like to look at the one clean space while the rest of the room stays cluttered.  It has produced people who are blind to their own dirt.  Such a perspective is very appealing to our false self.  The false self doesn’t want to be exposed.  It is composed of worthless junk, beliefs that keep us from being our True Self.


The True Self Wants to Feel Good All the Time

Our true Self doesn’t just want to feel good only when it looks at the few places in our lives that work.  It wants to feel good all the time, no matter what we are doing.


So if we are going to have a room or mind that is completely clean, we must look at what is dirty.  That doesn’t mean that we should wallow in the negative.  We would not jump in the dirt in the room and sit in it all day — that would not be very productive.  Likewise, worry, wallowing in our feelings, self-pity, or fear are just not effective.


In our very dirty room, we have to momentarily give our attention to each piece of junk, notice that it doesn’t belong in the room, and then remove it.  It isn’t that painful if we know that it can be removed.  And the job is achievable if we remove one item at a time.  Eventually, we are finished with the job.


On the other hand, if we look at the room, notice the dirt, and believe that it can never be removed, we will become very depressed.  We will feel hopeless and want to run away from our problem.  All the willpower in the world won’t get us to clean that room if we are depressed and convinced we can’t do it.  The same is true of our minds.  When our beliefs have cluttered our mind with lies, we can’t see the truth; in fact, we see clearing our mind as unachievable.  We are just not motivated to tackle the job.


Humans are Naturally Positive

We are naturally positive.  Just like our room is clean once we remove all the dirt, our mind is positive when we remove the beliefs that block our True Self.  The way to accomplish what appears like a very big job is to remove one belief at  a time.  Each time we notice a belief, realize that it does not serve us or anyone else, and let it go, our mental room becomes a bit cleaner until one day all that is left is our True Self.


Want to read more on this subject…Read Positive Thinking Versus Letting Go