I once took a weekend seminar at NalandaWest in Seattle with a wonderful Tibetan teacher, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, author of Open Heart, Open Mind. Rinpoche has a down to earth, humorous way of presenting the teachings, filled with personal anecdotes.

This is Part 4 of a series of posts called, “Everything That Distresses You.”  This series will be especially helpful for helping you to actually enjoy, and deal creatively with, the challenges that being around family can bring mentally, emotionally, and physically.

If you want to make yourself miserable, here’s the quickest way to do it: get worried about what other people think of you. Just by turning our attention outside, we can begin to imagine that others are judging us harshly.

My primary experience as a teacher has long been in the field of hypnotherapy training. Hypnotherapy is often considered a somewhat esoteric field, but it is one that is quickly gaining more exposure as a credible, and often preferred, means field of therapeutic work.

Most of us came of age in a culture that robbed us of a healthy, clear awareness of our True Desires. In a competitive, dog-eat-dog world, we are fed the idea that satisfying our desires means depriving others of fulfilling their desires.

How can you be your authentic self and embrace the ecstasy of Eros, the highest form of love and relationship?  What do you do when you realize you can’t escape feelings of unworthiness through drugs, sex, rock-n-roll, or material success?