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  • This just in: you’re addicted to the news

    When does too much turn into addiction?

    I am often asked this question in many different forms, about many different subjects.  It usually comes across in questions like am I addicted to work, or money, or candy, sex, alcohol even television.  The list goes on and on.  Society has done a wonderful job of blurring what is really very obvious to most people. In order for something to be considered an addiction the following definition must apply.  You will not hear the definition of addiction talked about in the media.

    Continued use in spite of negative consequences.

    For those of you who read this column regularly you have heard this definition before.  These negative consequences for the 5 major addictions are obvious to everyone who knows the addict.  For the soft addictions the consequences may not be so obvious from the outside.

    Many people would say that a person who makes millions of dollars and continues to build his wealth is addicted to money. Without knowing who this person is and what he is up to with his money, it is not for us to say that he is addicted.  Take for example, the person who works 100 hours a week.  We would judge this person to be a workaholic.  But what if that person is doing what he or she loves to do?  What if the work this person is doing is for a cause that could bring great joy and freedom to large numbers of people?  Do we still say that person is a workaholic or do they now become a saint?

    So if a person likes to come home from work every night and crack open a cold beer,  sit on the couch and watch the evening news is he addicted?  My answer is, “I don’t know, what happens if he doesn’t watch the news?”  You didn’t see that coming?  Really?

    The news media uses fear as the driving force to keep people coming back.  And it works! How does being informed of the murders, house fires, and potential terrorist threats, on a daily basis help us to feel joy?  Do we really need to know what the weather is going to be this coming weekend so we can make plans?  Many people keep a cable news channel on all day long listening to the same 5 stories be repeated endlessly.  You don’t think this is addiction?  Tell me what good this serves in our lives.

    Fear, is the opposite of everything that we are.
    God said that in CWG book one.

    Fear causes tension and anxiety which leads to all sorts of physical and mental health issues. Fear causes the body to enter into the fight of flight syndrome.  While in that mode the body cannot repair itself thus becoming vulnerable to disease.

    Living with a pattern of behavior that creates a mental state of fear qualifies as addicted by definition.  Repeating a behavior that is non-beneficial to our physical health or our mental well being is dysfunctional living.

    Hang on — there’s breaking news — oh no, a carjacking in New York City.

    Yes, this story gets the headlines; one man carjacks somebody in a city of 12 million people and this makes a top story on the 5 pm news?  Why?  What is the end game of this type of reporting?  Is it really just to keep us coming back day after day so they can sell ads?  Why do we not see the bigger picture?  That the majority of humans are out in the world doing good things, living normal, happy lives?  When will we decide take back our reality creation instead of letting someone create our reality based on what sells more advertising for them?

    It is staggering to see what the media chooses to report on when you look at it honestly.  The news is merely another form of entertainment much like professional wrestling. They are going to look for the most sensational piece of news and beat it over our heads for as long as possible.  A sensational plane crash gets 2 weeks coverage at the top of the hour while meanwhile 44 people per hour per day die from addiction-related incidents.

    My wife and I decided a few years ago that we would not watch news unless there was something happening that we felt the need to be informed of.  We also decided if we were going to watch that we were going to keep our finger on the channel button and turn it off as soon as we received the information we desired.  For the most part we get our news through the internet where we can pick and choose what it is we want planted in our head.

    My suggestion to everybody is how much news are you watching?  How is it affecting your life?  Is it helping?  Or is it just filling your head with useless information?

     In June we kicked off our first in a series of CWG on recovery retreats.  A small group of people all shared a life-changing event.  If you are in recovery and not experiencing great joy and freedom or are still suffering with addictions, please consider giving yourself this experience.   Our next retreat will held in San Jose, California, Sept 19 -22nd, 2013.  On October 24 – 27th, 2013 we will have another retreat in Orlando Florida.  Click here for more information on these life changing retreats.

    (Kevin McCormack, C.A.d ,is a certified addictions professional. He is a recovering addict with 26 years of sobriety. Kevin is a practicing auriculotherapist, life coach, and interventionist specializing in individual and family recovery and also co-facilitates spiritual recovery retreats for the CWG foundation with JR Westen. You can visit his website for more information at www.Kevin-Spiritualmentor.com  To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@TheGlobalConversation.com)

  • Given that she is a potential (and highly predicted to be) Democratic candidate for President of the United States in 2016, do you believe it is appropriate for NBC and CNN to each produce documentary films or programs on the life of former U.S. Senator and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton?

  • IS HUMANITY AT THE EFFECT OF CONDITIONS ON THIS PLANET??

    Every event and circumstance on Earth is jointly produced, placed into the collective reality as a collaborative creation of The Collective Itself.  And the tragedy is that The Collective does not know this—or, worse yet, does know this, and merely acts as if it does not.

    The result of this is that most people wind up turning to God at the wrong time….usually after, rather than before, events have taken place or circumstances have been created.

    This is because most people do not know who they truly are, nor do they have an accurate understanding of what their relationship with God is.

    Thus, people think that most of them are at the effect of events and conditions such as conflict and war, financial collapse, political upheaval, violence and killing.  They believe that it is the tiny few who are in power who are creating them, and the masses are left to only endure them. And when it comes to so-called Acts of Nature, even the powerful few are thought to be at the effect of life.

    Whether it’s an act of Man or of Nature, our species is very clear: It’s not our fault. We had nothing to do with it.

     

    FOCUS: The Nature of God and Life/an exploration of critical importance in our time
    PART II of an ONGOING SERIES

    No human behavior has anything to do with global warming (which half the planet continues to deny is even occurring), earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes, raging wildfires, torrential rains, or tsunamis—or the increase in disease among the Earth’s people, such as the growing cancer rate, or the increase in early heart attacks, stroke, and Alzheimer’s.

    No human behavior has anything to do with the dying off of the bees (which, if it continues, is going to have a disastrous effect on pollination worldwide, and then on global food crops), or the increasing toxicity of our drinking water, or the fact that tests show that hamburgers from fast food chains rarely contain more than 15% real meat (and in some tests have been shown to contain only 2% actual meat), or the fact that more than 650 children die every hour on this planet because of starvation.

    When an entire culture refuses to believe that it has anything to do with what is occurring, it cannot do anything about what is occurring. 

    This, in 25 words, is a summation of the present reality on Planet Earth.

    As I have noted in this space before, much of this has to do with our understanding of the nature of God itself. Is there even a being called “God”? What is the true nature of The Divine — and what does it want, need, require? What does it actually do in our lives? How does Divinity interact with Humanity? What is the nature of this relationship? Does it even exist?

    These questions and more will be explored here in this multi-part series titled FOCUS: The Nature of God and Life/an exploration of critical importance in our time, headlining The Global Conversation online newspaper in the weeks ahead.  I hope you will join in the discussion by posting in the Comment Section below — and invite your family, friends, and acquaintances to do the same. Now is the moment for a worldwide conversation on a matter of global impact and universal significance.

    In the months ahead I will bring this discussion right into your home via telephone and video links. Look for that from CWGConnect. In the meantime, join us here for the online print-media element of this exploration.

  • Have you talked with God today?

    With the ending of summer, teenagers everywhere are focused on getting in the last minute trip to the beach, back to school shopping, and savoring the final days of pure laziness. But as we focus on these activities, we often forget the most important of them all: having a direct conversation with God. Period.

    As for those of us already immersed in the God-being experience, this post should serve as a healthy reminder to remain connected to the highest source possible. There is always another mystery, another light, another piece of knowledge to be understood. So, if you understand, please continue to expand and explore your relationship to the Universe and to Divine Oneness.  

    But for those who think that this sounds strange…

    Now, I know that some of us out there have doubts about this whole ‘talking’ idea. Most of us, through whatever religious vehicle that our parents have driven into us, think of God as something inaccessible and far, far, far above our limited understanding. Further, some of us even think that only other highly spiritual people, such as Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, and Neale (obviously), can possibly participate in such a sacred activity. But…..That is a lie. Period.  

    The honest truth is….

     ANYONE AT ANY POINT OF THEIR LIFE CAN TALK TO GOD AT ANYTIME.

    Do I need to repeat that for you?

    We don’t need a median. We don’t need a prophet. We don’t need a preacher. All we need is an enlightened mind, an energized body, an earnest heart, and an elevated soul (thanks again Neale). But don’t worry. It IS easier than it sounds.  

    If you are too instilled in religious anthropomorphism of ‘God’ as ‘The Old Man Judging Us In The Sky’, then think of it as a conversation with the Universe, the Over-Soul, the Infinite Being, the Complete Oneness, or what you feel the deepest connection with.

     If you don’t feel a connection on the spiritual level, you are going to have a problem.

    So it sounds a little (or extremely) intimidating. We often wonder what we would say to God if given the chance, but what will we do when we actually do? Will we say the wrong thing or embarrass ourselves? Will we ask too much and be disappointed? And most daunting…

    Will we be judged for what we asked, and thought of as a lesser being?

    Nope. Not at all. Nowhere even close to that.

     ASK GOD ANYTHING. Really, it’s okay.

    Talking with God – about ANYTHING – is talking from your highest intentions and listening from your sincerest gratitude. There is no judgment, there is just what you choose to create on the deepest and most intimate level possible. Besides being a way to resolve all tension, distress, and worry in your life, it talking to God also simply recreates the all-too-forgotten that there is meaning for everything in the Universe. But to make it easy, let’s take a look at this from the two levels:

    + Talking from Your Highest Intentions: The true Dictionary Definition of the word ‘communion’ is “the act of sharing one’s thoughts and emotions with deep understanding in intimate converse”. There is nothing to fear, there is nothing to hide; it is all a part of infinite consciousness anyways. Unveil your deepest intentions, to God and also to yourself. When the individual consciousness in you speaks directly with the collective conscious of the universe, it is all in the deepest and purest mutual understanding on the most intimate level possible.

    + Listening From Your Sincerest Gratitude: In order to effectively communicate in ANY setting, one must also listen just as deeply as they speak. Open yourself to the universe – even if it means that your current way of thinking may be exposed to be erroneous. To enhance the harmony of life, we must listen for the melody that underlies it all. Being willing to stop our own internal chatter, we also recognize our own gratefulness for everything that the universe has provided us. Whether it was challenges to stimulate our spiritual development or the experience of love in its highest form, we are always in a state of enduring awe. As we communicate with God, our awe for life itself grows ever more apparent.

    So go out there, and have your communion elevated to the highest level. For the majority of people, (Neale and myself included), the easiest form of communication is through writing. Literally, with the salutation, closing, and all the rest. Just try it and see what happens when you start writing back. One thing I have observed from my own Conversations…

    “Writing this weekly column is God living through me, but writing to God is God living within me.”

    Though both experiences manifest our creative talents into the universe, they each let us understand a very different part of ourselves. With artistic expression, we are not always honest with our intentions. With spiritual expression, we remain forever open and truthful with our highest purpose.  Make sense?

    I know this site has been founded by the book series Conversations With God. BUT too many of us still read it and think only of how lucky Neale was to have access to this experience. When we go beyond simply just thinking ‘That’s a wonderful idea…for others to experience’ to ‘This is something that I consciously choose to experience as a part of my daily life’, then that’s when we CHANGE. That’s when society CHANGES. That’s when the human race CHANGES.

     To ONENESS, to BEINGNESS, to LIGHT, to LOVE, to TRULY UNDERSTANDING WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT.

    And really, for the deepest questions in life, who else would you ask?

    (Lauren is a Feature Editor of The Global Conversation. She lives in Wood Dale, IL, and can be reached at Lauren@TheGlobalConversation.com)

  • Seeing what is “not” there

    I would like to invite you to take a little test.  This is not a difficult or complicated test.  And it won’t take up a lot of your time.  It is simply a fun experiment.

    Perhaps some of you have taken this test before.  But maybe there are quite a few of you have not.

    Below is a short video.  In the video, you will see four people wearing white clothing and four people wearing black clothing.  You will be asked to count the number of times a person wearing white clothing passes the basketball to another person wearing white clothing.

    At the end of the video, you will be given the answer so you can compare your findings to the correct number of passes.

    (Please view the video before clicking “read more”)

    I generally consider myself to be a person with a fairly high level of awareness, so I was humorously shocked to find out at the end of the video that I had “failed” this exercise completely.

    And as a result of this interesting awareness test, my mind could not escape the burning question:  If I missed something as seemingly obvious as a moon-walking gorilla dancing in the middle of a small group of eight people, what else might I not be noticing in the world around me as I go about the business of my day-to-day affairs?

    Nearly every day, I drive home past the perimeter of a beautiful state park.  It is a mile-long stretch of lush beautiful trees and other colorful varieties of Florida foliage.  One afternoon, I saw a family of beautiful deer grazing in the tall wispy grass.  It looked like a water-color painting, so peaceful, so natural, so perfect.  Of all the previous days, weeks, and months of me driving home on this same road, sometimes even traveling on it twice a day, I had never before seen any deer.  Ever.

    Well, the next afternoon, during my regular commute home, I intentionally looked for the deer, determined to lay eyes upon this picturesque setting once again.  And to my delight, and surprise, there they were again.  Not the exact same number of deer; there were only two this time.  And not in the exact same location; they were a hundred feet or so further down the road.  But there they were, peacefully grazing in the tall wispy grass.

    And on many occasions since that very first moment, I have seen deer along the side of the road.  But it couldn’t be possible that the first time I saw these magnificent creatures was actually the first time they ever appeared there, could it?

    Of course not.  It was only the first time my awareness included them.

    This experience was revolutionary for me and it stirred up quite a few questions:  What else am I not seeing in life?  Of all the events happening around me, why do some of them come into my awareness and others do not?  Am I consciously choosing this?  Or is it created by something other than me, being placed into the space of my existence?  And the biggest question of them all:  What does this mean?

    Of course, the answer to that bigger question, as I’ve come to know, is one that can only be answered by me as a creation of my own choosing.  For me, it means that there is much more going on here than what I currently see.  It means that when I think I know what I need to know, if I expand my perspective to include more, I will allow myself to experience that I actually know more.  Because I now understand that the way I view life is based upon my perspective.  And my perspective provides the underlying support system which serves to create the reality I ultimately experience.   The truth I hold, the thoughts I choose, and the emotions I experience are all sequentially tied into and foundationed upon the perspective from which I see things.

    So as hard as I might to try to tell someone “how” something is, or when someone else gets frustrated because I don’t “see” things in a similar way, it is important to remember that a thing can only be seen in the same way when viewed from the same perspective.

    We all have the ability to elevate our experience from one of a distorted reality (what we think is happening).  We even have the ability to move beyond an experience of observed reality (what we can readily see happening) and closer to an experience of ultimate reality (what is actually happening).  How do we do this?  By expanding the perspective of the Mind to include the Wisdom of the Soul.  It is from this vantage point that we will be given the opportunity to see without limitations, allowing us to embrace every aspect in our lives, including our relationships with each other, with a deeper understanding of what we have already always known.

    For a more extensive look at the revolutionary Mechanics of the Mind/System of the Soul process, I invite and encourage you to read the book When Everything Changes, Change Everything, which offers extraordinary spiritual and practical insight into what “creating your own reality” truly means.

    (Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation. She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support. To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

  • What to do about a friend who doesn’t keep her word?

    I have a dear friend who, I am discovering, doesn’t keep her word. She says she will do things, but then, if something better comes along, she changes her mind. I have noticed that she does this with new jobs. She gets all excited about them, says they are perfect for her, then within a few months something happens that she doesn’t like and she quits. With me, most recently she offered to house sit and take care of my cats for a week, then after a couple of nights, she changed her mind and never came back. She got a neighbor to cover for her and didn’t tell me about it until several days afterward. Had she bothered to even send me a quick text, I would have told her I preferred to use my regular cat-caretaker, who I had already paid before my friend offered to stay at my house. I’m noticing a pattern here because I know of another woman who was unhappy with her for the very same reason. She makes sure the cats are okay, but doesn’t stay there as she says she will. I am familiar with the old saying that it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind, but is it okay to do so over and over again with no seeming regard of how it affects others? I don’t know whether to call her on this or to just keep my mouth shut about it. Can you offer any advice? … Sandy

    Dear Sandy… I learned a very valuable lesson from my father rather early in life. I had signed a three month contract to do piano bars in Sweden one winter. When I got there I hated it. It was dark and cold and I found the people quite unfriendly, and after two weeks I decided I wanted to come home. I called my dad and told him, and he asked me an all-important question: “Did you sign a contract?” I admitted that I had, and he said, “I think you should honor your agreement.” I realized he was right, and, Sandy, by doing that, I changed the course of my entire life! So many wonderful things wouldn’t have happened had I not stuck it out, and the next month they moved me to a different city and I loved it!

    There is something profoundly important about keeping one’s word. It not only lets others know our character, it allows us to express ourselves in the highest and best way possible. For that reason, it is of the utmost importance to think things through as much as possible, and to listen to our feelings and guidance before declaring that we will do something. If we give our word that we will do something, I think that unless situations really dictate otherwise, we keep it, even when the going gets rough.

    One of Don Miguel Ruiz’ “Four Agreements” that I try hard to live by is, “Be impeccable with your word.” And Conversations With God says that we create on three levels: Thought, Word and Action.  There is great power behind speaking our word. It tells the Universe what our intentions for creation are, and it helps things start falling into place to make that happen. When we continually change our minds, we confuse the Universe about what we choose to call forth. Therefore, being impeccable with our word is not only important in our relationships with each other, it is important in our relationship with God. When we clearly tell God what we intend to do, we consciously co-create with It.

    Now, your question of whether or not to say something to your friend is one that, I’m afraid, you are going to have to decide for yourself. I know that confrontations are difficult for many people, including me. You might want to remember the “Five Levels of Truth Telling” from CWG:

    1. Tell your truth to yourself about yourself.

    2. Tell your truth to yourself about another.

    3. Tell your truth about yourself to another.

    4. Tell your truth about another to that other.

    5. The your truth to everyone about everything.

    You have already taken Steps 1 and 2. Now your decision is whether to implement Steps 3 and 4. Remember, what’s going on with your friend is only your truth about the situation. There are always two sides to every story. Do you know why she changed her mind in this particular instance? Were there extenuating circumstances that prevented her from being able to keep her word?

    The ultimate goal in truth-telling is to clear the air of any negativity and end up in a better place than you were before. It is never to assign blame or judgment on another. The possibility does exist, however, that in telling your truth to your friend, you will cause her think twice before not following through with her word in the future. This could serve to be a boon to her in future agreements, not unlike my decision to stick it out in Sweden in that dark, cold winter so long ago.

    If you find you just don’t have the courage to come right out and talk with her about it, perhaps this Advice column could suffice…

    (Annie Sims is the Global Director of CWG Advanced Programs, is a Conversations With God Life Coach and author/instructor of the CWG Online School.To connect with Annie, please email her at Annie@TheGlobalConversation.com

    (If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to:  Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com where our team is waiting to hear from you.)

    An additional resource:  ChangingChange.net offers spiritual assistance from a team of non-professional/volunteer Spiritual Helpers responding to every post from readers within 24 hours or less. Nothing on the CCN site should be construed or is intended to take the place of or be in any way similar to professional therapeutic or counseling services.  The site functions with the gracious willing assistance of lay persons without credentials or experience in the helping professions.  What these volunteers possess is an awareness of the theology of Conversations with God.  It is from this context that they offer insight, suggestions, and spiritual support during moments of unbidden, unexpected, or unwelcome change on the journey of life.

     

  • Do you think it is possible for a Muslim to write an objective scholarly exploration of the life of Christ and its meaning to humanity? Do you think it is possible for a Christian to write an objective scholarly exploration of the life of Muhammad and its meaning to humanity?

  • A LOOK AT THE BIGGEST PROBLEM
    FACING HUMANITY TODAY

    God is the source of all help to people in the world, but most people are asking God for the wrong kind of help—and even then they often do not turn to God except when it is too late.

    Most people are asking God to change things. They are asking for a change in the situations, circumstances, and events of their lives—not understanding that they are asking God to undo the very conditions that they, themselves, have co-created.

    They are asking God for peace on Earth, and goodwill between all people—while they, themselves, continue to co-create the opposite.

    They are asking God for health, safety, and security—while they, themselves, continue to co-create the opposite.

    They are asking God for everyone to have an equal opportunity for full self-expression, for abundance, and for personal happiness—while they, themselves, continue to co-create the opposite.

    It is true. All the while that we humans send up our prayers to God, we deny that we, ourselves, are continuing to co-create the opposite of that for which we say we yearn. And there is one thing we can be certain of in our relationship with God: God will always give us Free Will, allowing us to create in our collective experience whatever it is we choose to create — even when it violates the spirit of everything we say we wish to create.

    The chief problem facing humanity today is our absolute refusal to accept responsibility for the experiences that we, ourselves, are collaboratively creating.

    What God deeply desires us to do is to allow God to empower us. Yet when we turn to God for the wrong kind of help at the wrong time, it disempowers us, because it affirms our thought that that we are the victims of the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

    FOCUS: The Nature of God and Life/an exploration of critical importance in our time
    PART I of an ONGOING SERIES

    As well, it furthers our thought that we are powerless to alter the circumstance we have created, and that God is now the only one who can help us — if there even is a “God.”

    As long as most people think of themselves as being at the effect of the events or circumstances in their lives, they are bound to repeat them, because they are not aware of how or why those events have occurred.

    This is a declaration, in 40 words, of the precise reason that life is the way it is on the Planet Earth today.

    People are not at the effect of the global events and circumstances in their lives, they are collectively at cause in the matter.

    Every event and circumstance on Earth is jointly produced, placed into the collective reality as a collaborative creation of The Collective Itself.

    And the tragedy is that The Collective does not know this—or, worse yet, does know this, and merely acts as if it does not.

    Much of this has to do with our understanding of the nature of God itself. Is there even a being called “God”? What is the true nature of The Divine — and what does it want, need, require? What does it actually do in our lives? How does Divinity interact with Humanity? What is the nature of this relationship? Does it even exist?

    These questions and more will be explored here in this multi-part series titled FOCUS: The Nature of God and Life/an exploration of critical importance in our time, headlining The Global Conversation online newspaper in the weeks ahead.  I hope you will join in the discussion by posting in the Comment Section below — and invite your family, friends, and acquaintances to do the same. Now is the moment for a worldwide conversation on a matter of global impact and universal significance.

    In the months ahead I will bring this discussion right into your home via telephone and video links. Look for that from CWGConnect. In the meantime, join us here for the online print-media element of this exploration.

     

     

  • I’m a recovering junkie

    (This week’s Addiction & Recovery column is hosting a guest article written and contributed by Audrey Holst.)

    I’m slowly healing an addiction.

    I never thought it would happen to me.  I always thought addicts were people with issues with booze or drugs.  I denied I had a problem for a long time.  But it’s time I come clean.

    I was addicted to my cell phone.

    It was the first thing I looked at in the morning.  My cell is also my alarm so as soon as it went off I already had my phone in hand.  It was easy to thumb through the e-mails that came in overnight.  Browse through my Facebook newsfeed.  Before I’d even gotten out of bed I’d gotten my first hit.  At any point in the day my e-mail made its distinctive ‘ding’ noise I would be reaching to read and answer it.   Any action on my Facebook newsfeed or timeline called for contact, it didn’t matter where or when it happened.  I checked it compulsively.  Even if I wasn’t sure if there was an alert, I’d check my phone.  Before I went to bed at night I’d check and re-check my e-mail.  I’d check my newsfeed.  I’d browse a few pages.  I’d be plugged in until the very last moment before my eyes closed.

    I left my phone at home one day and you would have thought I had lost a limb.

    This may seem silly to some people since it’s such a regular part of our society.  It’s an acceptable addiction because the majority of us indulge in it.  But explain that to a boyfriend that I used to make feel completely de-valued during dates interrupted by “urgent” work e-mails.  Explain those moments spent awake at night because I checked my e-mail right before bed only to find an irritating message that could have been dealt with in the morning.  Explain hours of valuable time lost because I went down the rabbit hole that is going through people’s pages on Facebook.

    Explain this to couples at dinner tables (and I’ve seen them) never looking up at each other, glued to their phone screens.  Explain this to a sidewalk full of pedestrians walking into each other with their faces obsessively scanning their cells.  Explain this to drivers all over the country weaving across highway lanes at high speeds watching the progress of their phone messages more than the progress of the road.

    Just because so many of us do it, doesn’t mean it’s any less destructive to the quality of our lives.  Nomophobia is an actual term first created by British researchers in 2008 to describe people who experienced anxiety when they had no access to mobile technology.  Stress levels soared when people were unable to tap into their phones.

    Some personal side-effects of my addiction?  Unnecessary stress and obsessive uncontrollable thoughts at all hours of the day.  My relationship ended due to lack of intimacy.  Could I say my cell-phone broke us up?  Perhaps not, but it was certainly a huge indicator of my bigger problem.

    What was the addiction really asking for?  I started to dig deeper into this while doing the inner work during my Life Coach training.  I value living an aware and conscious life and I am dedicated to being present.  Being at the beck and call of a small little electronic device was against my major beliefs.  What was I really searching for every time I reached for my phone?

    Connection.

    Every time I picked up my phone I was trying to satisfy the desire for connection, but without the risk that often comes along with it.  In the case of my “urgent” work e-mail interrupted dates, I was avoiding face-to-face intimacy.  It’s so easy to hide behind technology while sharing vulnerable details of your life but to do it face-to-face with a real person makes the experience so much more intense, and any perceived judgement for sharing yourself, so much more harsh.  Every time I answered a work e-mail I felt needed and important.  And who doesn’t want to feel needed and important?  I wanted to be seen and heard and cherished but rather than meet those needs through my personal relationships, I buried myself in the technological ones.

    There is a theory that addiction to cell phone use acts like a “gateway drug” to fuel the search for other substances that keep uncomfortable sensations at bay.  In the past, I drank to deal with certain feelings.  I also made a recent discovery that I use food to squash emotions I don’t want to deal with.

    I’ve gotten to the point that I’m tired of dealing with my own B.S. and avoiding of things that challenge me emotionally.  Time to cut through it and get real.

    Now what?

    It’s an ongoing process, but the long story short of it, I’ve been tapping into my yoga practice to help guide me.  Just like we encourage the body to be uncomfortable in yoga postures as a vehicle for change, there is nothing different about the mind or emotions being uncomfortable in everyday life situations.  I have to be willing to lean into that discomfort.  I’ve done work around my relationship issues with fellow coaches.  I’ve discovered that being connected to nature is another necessary element to ground me and bring me back to a stable place to move from.  I’ve cleaned up my diet and have a much healthier relationship to food.  I’ve been working outside my comfort zone sober and with technology out of reach.

    I still catch myself having ghost thoughts and compulsions of past habits but the pull is significantly less.  My dedication to being aware and conscious is powerful.  I feel more at peace.  More in control of my life.  I feel like a more authentic version of myself.

    Our addictions are actually misguided attempts at self-care.  We engage in them to fill a really important need.  However, addictions don’t address the root problem.  They are like putting a flimsy band-aid over a severed artery.  When it doesn’t stop the hemorrhaging we add more and more band-aids.  Until we are willing to get that artery stitched up, which usually requires asking for help and is often a much harder, and more challenging process than just piling on band-aids, we will continue to bleed out.  I send love to all of us that are on this path.

    Can you relate to this journey?  What did it, or what will it, take for you to heal?

    Audrey Holst is an Inner Wisdom advocate that partners with women that feel unsatisfied by the status quo to reclaim their energy and fill their lives with pleasure, creation, and love.  She facilitates transformation through the healing process of coaching and her years of experience as a Bikram certified yoga instructor.  Audrey teaches at, and manages, Yoga for You, A Bikram Yoga Studio in Dedham, MA.  To learn more, visit her website at www.audreyholst.com or connect with her at audrey@audreyholst.com

  • What do the Pope and a musical have in Common?

    As the entire world has observed, religion took a fascinating and wonderful turn this week with the declaration made by Pope Francis. As His Holiness stated, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”, a new turn has been taken to create a more accepting, more open religious world. And since that utterance on July 29th, celebrations all over the world have taken place to commemorate this wonderful event.

    With such a change of heart from the Pope himself, the question for us remains: who are we to judge anyone’s highest intentions?  

    While a person’s highest intentions may include their homosexuality, it ALSO includes their own faith. As love comes in many different forms, beliefs do as well. In the essence of both love and belief, some forms just work at a higher level for others. In accordance to an individual’s own experience, knowledge, and understanding, their intentions are manifested by who they are and what they choose to believe.

    The core of the problem with all major religions, sciences, governments, and economic systems is the central belief that there can only be ONE right way. And, more importantly, everyone who does not follow that single way is living the WRONG way. Throughout the course of religion, (and even spirituality, in some aspects) different sects have displayed some very unflattering views to other beliefs. But there one thing we forget too often…

    Each faith, in accordance to its highest understanding, attempts to create a meaning to life and a connection to God (or the Universal Being).

    Spiritually, we may not morally agree with the teachings of Islam, the rituals of Hinduism, or the sacraments of Catholicism. As many visitors of The Global Conversation have become aware of their own spiritual path, it becomes very easy to for us to shun organized religion completely. But is we are to truly move in the direction of Oneness and Beingness, we must understand that theirs is not the wrong way, but rather just another way. Just as we have empathized acceptance for homosexuality, we also apply this to religion. As our world grows more and more open to the diversity of lifestyles, we need to open and expand our minds more and more as well. For when we accept, we appreciate, and when we appreciate, we learn far more about ourselves than we would have before.  

    A great example of religious belief and acceptance would be from none other than Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s sensational and inspiring musical, The Book of Mormon (hey, no judgments here!). The musical follows the journey of two Mormons, Elder Price and Elder Cunningham, on their two year mission in Uganda. As the original Mormon text does not connect with the Ugandan people, Elder Cunningham decides to twist the scriptures so that it relates with the all-too-real plights of Uganda.

    While it hardly resembled Latter Day Sainthood in the end, this new faith that these two Elders created brings more happiness, hope, and love of life to the people than they have ever felt before. Though the Elders were highly judged and criticized, they lived out their highest intentions (with comedic effects) to fully and honestly help the people. Though the musical itself is highly controversial, it truly speaks for own ability to judge less, and accept more.

     Ma ha nei bu Eebowai! Or, Thank you God!

    So whether you’re a Latter Day Saint or His Holiness himself, we could use some more acceptance on our paradise planet. The Pope and The Book of Mormon had the same message – for more love and less judgment on the religious level. The less we look at people’s beliefs from the “right vs. wrong” perspective, the more opportunity we have to understand Who They Really Are. And that is when the REAL change occurs.

    When we see the highest intentions in both ourselves and in others, we can ALIGN those intentions into a greater or deeper purpose. This fact seems elusive to many, but becomes very evident once these intentions are explored further and further. In respect of our differences, we CAN share our intentions instead of shun them for their differences.  As the root of all belief, religious or spiritual, is to create a personal connection to something bigger than ourselves, we CAN do it together. Tomorrow IS a Latter Day, and there is nothing stopping us from creating a better world today than our judgments of intentions as lower than what they truly are.

    As Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” So, who are we to judge?

    (Lauren is a Feature Editor of The Global Conversation. She lives in Wood Dale, IL, and can be reached at Lauren@TheGlobalConversation.com)