Here is something I believe you will find useful… an overview of the journey towards spiritual awakening and what lies beyond.

Awakening To The Infinite – A Map Of The Authentic Spiritual Journey

Leave your questions and comments below.

Enjoy!

Shafin

Being in a positive and inspired state of mind most of the time is a skill. It requires focus, determination, work, persistence and above all the willingness to do whatever it takes no matter what.

Being inspired is a choice. Being unhappy is a choice. Being productive is a choice. Being miserable is a choice. If you do nothing, you get what most people get: a mixed bag of daily experience filled with inspiration, unhappiness, productivity and misery.

If you make a decision to be consistently inspired, consistently productive, consistently happy… and take it like any skill you have learned in life like driving, or cooking, or playing guitar… you can be a master of it. You don’t become a skilled guitar player by admiring Mark Knopfler once in a while, you don’t become a star employee by just hanging about in office, and you don’t achieve mental emotional mastery by just doing random things in life. You decide, make plans, work towards it each day, and eliminate all obstacles on the way.

Being happy is not complicated. But you have to realize the mind boggling obvious: it’s something you have to commit to. Happiness is not a state of mind that we catch from the ether, nor is it a lottery some people are born with. It is something we either earn through realization of our worthy goals, or something we feel when we focus on the right stimuli (a sunset, a laughing baby, great music), or something we experience when we are in presence of the right people. Being happy is not complicated but being consistently happy is what requires work and planning.

Plan your happiness. Do what needs to be done. Remember, only a happy person can make someone else happy. Don’t be so lazy that you can’t even be happy. You owe it to your friends, family, loved ones and above all else: yourself.

Question From A Reader:

Dear Shafin,

I have found your website a few months ago and read a lot of your articles, which are quite amazing.

I never did have the time to write about a specific problem of mine and i would appreciate your opinion about this. I heard actually so many different opinions about a lot of people and i guess i poisoned my mind.

I am involved for two years with a kind of on and off and on and off relationship, and i feel i cannot leave from this situation. This person has now idea of what he wants and the truth is a lot of things have gone beyond any boundaries. It’s a situation where i got lost and feel i lose my self and there are times i cannot recognize me. The other day i texted him and said “listen, i think it’s best for both of us to sit down and talk, in order to find a healthy track” and his answer was “it’s a good idea but i can’t this week, maybe sometime next week”. I think i have postponed things for a very long time, and the truth is i have been very patient for so long.

I sat down and thought about everything:

The fact that we are not right for each other because there is a bad vibe between us, he is very negative sometimes, does not know what he wants and cannot make a decision. Unfortunately there i one thing that keeps me going back, and i am ashamed to say it, and i don’t know why i keep doing it. It’s the “sexual part” that i really do like but that’s just it, nothing else!

I really want to move on, i don’t have regrets about the two years i have been with this person but i think that this story has reached to an end.

But how, it’s like i need something to shake me, cause i want to stop thinking about him most of the time. It’s like he has this power over me. Many times i tried to leave from this situation, but it was he would come back or i would go back.

I have my own house, a really good job that pleases me, i have no problem of my looks or the person i am in, i love my family and friends and i am always there for them when needed. But i also like my privacy sometimes, to read my books, make a nice meal and enjoy the moment, etc…

I would so much like to hear from you,

Thank you,

S***

Answer From Shafin:

Dear S***

Let me try to give you a simple explanation to your situation:

1. You are right you do need a shake up for you to move forward. We humans are like that. As long as we can remain in the realm of understandable (our comfort zone) we keep doing what’s NOT working over and over and expect different results. Crazy, I know. But that’s how we are. I’ve been there too; sometimes I catch myself even these days!

2. Here is the biology behind your situation (bear with me here, it will make sense):

When we are in love with someone and we are having sex with them, here is what happens in your brain…

First, the part called Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) lights up and releases dopamine (the feel good neuro-transmitter for motivation and reward). Dopamine is addictive and intoxicating. Its presence makes us giddy with pleasure, which is why the lack of it also makes us irritable.

Now it doesn’t stop there. From VTA, the next area that activates is the Nucleus Accumbens (NAc), the area for intense pleasure and also anticipation of pleasure. Over here men get a huge shot of testosterone and Vasopressin (I’ll tell you what happens with those in a bit) and women get flooded with estrogen and oxytocin.

Testosterone makes men aggressive. Vasopressin makes them territorial and protective of their mate and turf. Estrogen on the other hand makes women all feminine and loving, and oxytocin is the bliss chemical that makes them float in pleasure and bliss.

Now here is where the magic happens… (pay attention here)

After NAc, the next section that activates is the Caudate Nucleus (CN), which is the area of the brain that memorizes the look, feel and identity of the person who is giving the pleasure. The more pleasure you get from this person, the more regularly you get the pleasure, the more chiseled he gets in your long term memory.

What does that mean? It means you will not only seek this person over and over for giving you your shot of dopamine + oxytocin but also you will reject others from coming close to you. Why? Because your brain has memorized the identity of the one specific person from whom it wants its drugs from. It’s nature’s way of increasing our fidelity.

So what is the solution? To solve any problem you need to understand it first. Understanding a problem is 50% solving it. So now you know that your body is addicted to the happy drugs that it believes it can get only from this one person. You need to change that. It’s not going to be easy but at least now you know why it’s happening.

My suggestion:

1. Start dating other people, even though you will probably not like it first. Remember the brain is stuck on this one guy. Let it be. Ignore it like a pebble in your shoe. Its there, nothing you can do for now, so just dance.

2. Remember when you’ll try to stay away from him you will feel a tremendous pull. Normally you’d think its love for him or you miss him. Now you know you are actually missing the dopamine. Your brain is craving the happy drug to feel good. Distract yourself in times of this withdrawal syndrome. Go watch a fun movie. Go out with friends. Eat some chocolates, they cause dopamine release in the brain. Eat almonds, same thing, not as quick as chocolate, but same effect.

3. Go for a vacation somewhere far away if you can. And DO NOT talk to him on the phone while you are out there. Meet new people.

4. Be creative and figure out your own solution, now that you understand the problem a bit better.

Finally, before I end today, here’s a bit of good news for everyone: in a week or two I will be launching a totally free video course called “The Psychology of Attraction”. It will be a crash course on attraction, seduction, evolution and much more. Look out for my email that should reach your inbox sometime in the next couple of weeks (fingers crossed)   Also if you want to ask any specific questions on this topic, write it in the comment below, I will take the top questions and answer it in the upcoming video course.

Till then, spread the love and make this world a little better today!

Shafin

Shafin de Zane, CHT, MH, MNLP
Hypnotherapist, Author, Spiritual Coach
www.redefineyourreality.com

Question From A Reader:

Dear Mr Shafin

I am H***, this my second email to you. This time i just want to ask some question to you. I hope you are willing to answer my question.

I once read an article that says to change the sub-conscious mind we have to master meditation, affirmation, visualization and emotional anchor. And my question is about those things.

Since you have provided guidance on meditation so I’ll ask about affirmation, visualization, and emotional anchor.

My first question about the affirmation. How to make affirmations work?

The second question about visualization. What exercises should I do to master the creative visualization?

The third question about the emotional anchor. What exactly is emotional anchor and how to do it?

Those are the things I wanted to ask, I am waiting for a reply from you.

Regards

H***

Answer From Shafin:

Hi H***

Good questions, all of them relate to the power of positive thinking. Let me get straight to it:

First, how to make affirmations work?

Simply put, affirmations are repeating a given sentence or an idea over and over in your mind or out loud. One of the most famous affirmations in history being: “Everyday in every way I am getting better and better” by the French psychologist Emile Coué.

The idea behind affirmations is based on the principle that any idea exclusively occupying the mind turns into reality, as long as the idea is within the realms of possibility. For example the father of affirmations himself (or at least the father of the most popular affirmation) Coué used to say that “curing our troubles require a change in our unconscious thought, which can only be achieved by using our imagination”.

I am personally not a big fan of how affirmations are done traditionally. Why? Because I like using leverage. Leverage means doing more and more with less and less. Saying over and over “I am rich! I am abundant! I am healthy!” seems to me like a waste of time; especially for people who are not rich, abundant and wealthy. It creates an emotional incongruence that has every chance of backfiring. I don’t believe in unrealistic positive thinking. And saying something over and over that you actually don’t believe to be true will only diminish all your faith on yourself and on the affirmations you are using.

So what do I do? I usually spend about 1 hour each day meditating and mind programming and I rely upon a combination of tools like hypnosis, meditation and yes also affirmation but in a different way. I use affirmations that are universally true and not just hopeful thoughts. My affirmations read like this:

“I now think about success, future goals and contribution to this world most of the time. Whenever I find myself indulging in negative thought patterns, I consciously decide to focus on what is good and exciting.”

Here is another one…

“I know the very first step for attaining success is being totally clear about what I want. Happiness is not a random event; happiness is the step by step realization of my chosen goals in life. I choose to be happy. I choose to know what I want from life. And I choose to gradually work towards attaining my goals everyday.”

(By the way, both of the above affirmations are from my Dream Manifestor program that is probably one of the most powerful mind programming tools ever released to public.)

So how to make the power of positive thinking work for you? Focus on a positive thought, but don’t try to fool your brain. Your conscious mind is way too weak to fool the entire psychosomatic system into something that is not even close to truth.

If you are sick and wish to be healthy, focus on universal health affirmations. An example could be: “as I exercise and eat healthy each day, my body heals faster and faster every day”.

If you are poor and wish to improve your financial status, focus on affirmations that are both true and goal oriented (as opposed fantastic hopes).

See the affirmations above? They are not just nice thoughts but embedded within them are real actions that can actually help you do things differently. That’s where the power of positive thinking comes from. Not saying happy words till the cows come home, but actually doing things differently as a result of having those positive thoughts. No matter how many “self help” products tell you your thoughts alone can change your reality, take this from me… unless you DO things differently, nothing ever will change.

The universe does not grow by thinking happy thoughts alone. It grows by evolution through constant adaptation and growth of its constituents. “Think happy thoughts inside but keep doing the same things over and over outside” is like “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (Shakespeare said that by the way, not me). It’s a clever little marketing message that sells. Suddenly all lazy people around the world have new ideology to hold on to: think positive thoughts and that will solve all your problems. Of course positive thoughts are essential but it’s not sufficient. If you keep DOING what your have always DONE, you will keep getting the same results you have always gotten. You need to change your thoughts but more importantly you need to change your habits and actions.

If you are already nodding your head in agreement, do yourself a favor and read every word on the page below (even if you have read it before). What I am saying will make more sense then.

http://www.redefineyourreality.com/dreams-do-come-true.htm

Okay next question…

What exercises should I do to master the creative visualization?

Visualize long term future, that’s the most valuable advice I can give you. The more you can look into the future while maintaining your grounding in the present, the more mature and intelligent your decision making will be.

Once again, I do not suggest you visualize unrealistic dreams coming true. I know, I know, they said in The Secret that if you visualize cheques, you will keep getting more cheques. Ermmm… here is a bigger secret: it works in the beginning, gets your hopes up, then stops working altogether and gets you supremely confused. Why it happens that way is a much more complex topic that I cannot accommodate here right now. But it does and therefore the whole wealth built with pure mind power remains exactly there: in the mind!

To put it simply: visualize realistic goals you can actually achieve within a reasonable amount of time. In other words, never visualize anything that you are not in control of.

Don’t visualize becoming a billionaire if you are a struggling poet; visualize getting your first poetry book published first.

Don’t visualize winning a lottery, ever, because there is nothing in the world you can do to raise your chances of winning (unless you have cracked the formula of course, in that case please let me know about it too… just kidding!).

Don’t visualize winning a marathon if you are overweight by 50kg and never ran a mile in your life; visualize instead reducing your weight by 20kg and jogging everyday for the next one month.

You get the drift right? Visualize what you can achieve. Don’t visualize anything that’s so big that you are pretty sure to fail. Never visualize anything that’s left to pure chance.

Next…

The third question about the emotional anchor. What exactly is emotional anchor and how to do it?

Emotions are the most addictive drugs known to man. Remember that. If you can anchor a positive emotion to an action, you will keep repeating that action automatically. Here’s what that means:

Emotions are nothing but release of hormones and other “neuro chemicals” in your brain and feelings are what your body feels due to the presence of those chemicals. If you have cortesol released, you feel stressed. If you have adrenaline, you feel the rush of flight or fight response. If you have dopamine, you feel the happiness of reward and achievement. If you have vasopressin, you feel territorial. Got it?

Now if you can anchor, that is to say connect a given action with a given emotion, and if that emotion is positive, you will keep repeating that action to experience that emotion over and over.

Let’s say you watch the TV and it’s your habit to also eat some chocolates when you watch the tele. Eating the chocolates releases dopamine in your brain and thereby anchors that state with watching television. If you repeat this a few times you actually literally get addicted. Why? Because, I told you, these happy brain drugs are highly addictive.

Usually we get a huge surge of dopamine release when we are close to someone we are in love with. Which explains why we get so “addicted” to them! When we have an orgasm, our brains are flooded with oxytocin, the bliss chemical, which is why we are so blissfully happy right after an orgasm.

Anyway, the bottom line being, if you can anchor a happy emotion with a productive action, you can very quickly turn it into a habit. How to do that?

First choose an action that you want to turn into a habit. Let’s say its jogging everyday. Now make sure right after you jog, or when you are jogging, you reward yourself with something highly pleasurable to you. This will anchor jogging with that pleasurable experience (if you do it right). The key here is to be consistent. If you reward yourself one day and stop for the next 1 week, then your anchor will break, remember that.

On the flip side, if you can keep repeating that action and rewarding yourself for 21-28 days consistently, it will very likely turn into a habit and you will be able to feel that happy emotion (that originally was triggered by the pleasurable reward) just by doing the productive action itself.

This in essence is the idea behind emotional anchoring (very close to classical conditioning).

That’s it for today. I hope you understand a bit more on the power of positive thinking and how to use it more effectively in your life. Do keep writing you guys! While I can’t answer everyone, as you can see, I do try

Have fun and keep smiling!

Shafin

—
Shafin de Zane, CHT, MH, MNLP
Hypnotherapist, Author, Spiritual Coach
www.redefineyourreality.com

Question from a reader:

Hi Shafin,

I am a little confused about something. I am an alcoholic/addict in recovery for 2 years now. I am doing the twelve step program. I have been working to my very best to deal with all my old stuff and letting go and allowing healing.

I come from a family of alcoholics and addicts and DEPRESSION. I have been suffering from this most of my life (now I know where it comes from!). I have always trusted God to help me heal. When I came into recovery, I stopped my anti-depressants (mood-altering stuff). I feel that I need to work through all this on a clean truth level. But it has been VERY very hard for me and even with my recovery I eventually ended up after the two years in a fetus position on my bed not able to deal with the depression any longer and the suffering that goes with it. I weighed 42kg with pains all over my body – sick and wounded.

I have been prescribed ant-depressants again after I decided that I cannot accept that I have to carry on suffering like this-life has just been hard enough for me. BUT I DO NOT WANT TO USE THE PILLS!!! I just feel that maybe I am addicted to this suffering and pain and I just want to stop it.

Please give me some suggestions on your thoughts.

Thank you so much also for the inspirational info from you always.

M***

My Answer:

Dear M***

Before I say anything on this topic, here is a little legal disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor so you should not listen to anything I have to say

Now let’s down to business:

If you want to understand why and how people get depressed and what to do about it, you have to understand exactly what depression is and how people get there. Depression is NOT an illness that is caused by a viral attack or something, it is an advanced stage of a spiraling journey that you only reach after crossing a few other stations first. The key to dealing with depression naturally and in a holistic way is ensuring that you don’t begin the journey, of if you already started, don’t cross the stations, or if you have reached “depression city” already, to get on the train and start going back to where you started. Alien speak? Don’t get depressed (pun intended), I’ll make everything clear soon.

Depression is an emotion. What is an emotion? Emotions are our body’s way of storing pain and pleasure in our mind. Reptiles and birds (as far as we understand) do not feel emotions. Why not? Because the part of the brain that feels emotion only developed in the mammals. They (reptiles and other lower level animals on the evolutionary scale) respond to the world by instinctive reactions to physical pain and pleasure. We humans on the other hand have developed an emotional brain that feels not only physical sensations but happiness, sadness, anger, fear, loneliness etc in our minds. These are called emotions.

Why did we evolve to feel emotions? Because they are our bodies guiding mechanism to help us take the right steps in the right direction. Got that? This is very very important: emotions are our body’s way of motivating us to take the right steps in the right direction towards a healthy happy life. Remember that as we move forward.

Now there are 3 levels of emotions we feel:

Primary emotions: Happiness, anger, sadness, loniless, fear, guilt etc.

Secondary emotion: Frustration

Tertiary emotion: Depression

Now here is how we are designed:

Our primary emotions are all messages that guide us in a specific way to carry out some specific actions. I’ll give you one example: anger is the message to seek fairness. That’s it! It’s very simple message that is biologically hardwired into us so we can seek equity.

People say anger is bad. I say anger is neither good nor bad. It’s simply a message. A message to seek fairness. At any given circumstance, the only reason a person will feel anger is when he or she perceives unfairness being done to either himself or someone he cares about or something he cares about. (Of course there are other pent up convoluted forms of anger that has nothing to do with the present moment but coming from somewhere in the past, but essentially it is still a call for fairness).

(If you want to learn all about emotions and how to interpret each of them and use them in your life to live a healthy, wealthy and prosperous life, I suggest you get my book Redefine Your Reality where I cover this topic in much more detail.)

The key point to understand here is that anger is an emotion and emotions are messages. Messages designed to help you take some specific action in specific circumstances.

Here is another one: loneliness. Loneliness is a specific message that motivates you to seek quality human company. Getting a goldfish does not work in solving the situation.

So what happens if you keep ignoring the message that your body is sending to you for a prolonged period of time? You enter the secondary level of emotion: Frustration.

What is the meaning of frustration? “What you are doing is NOT working, please change your ways.”

If you manage to ignore frustration for a significant period of time, you enter the final stage of depression. What is the message of depression? In this stage your body is saying to you… “I can’t do this anymore! I need a break, I need it NOW!” In this stage, the body stops trying, it goes into a state of rest, gives up on everything and simply sleeps.

Let’s take a look at an example:

Imagine Bob. Bob just got divorced from his wife who was everything in his life. She was his best friend, his conversation partner, his wife, his buddy.. everything. After the separation, Bob naturally began to feel loneliness. What did Bob do? Well, just like all sensible individuals, he went to the local pub and tried to drown his sorrow with alcohol (this wasn’t sorrow by the way; it was a message, a message called loneliness that had a very specific solution). This sort of behavior is called “distraction”. You can easily substitute alcohol with food, or work, or even making money.

The thing with distraction is that as long as you are distracting yourself, you are able to blot out the negative emotion you were feeling (that’s why we choose specific “distractors” that work for us) and feel happy. Unfortunately when the distracting behavior is completed, you wake up and usually feel twice the amount of negative emotion that you were originally feeling. This is the body’s way of pushing you towards a healthier lifestyle.

What does Bob do? Well, he goes out every evening and drinks even more, since he is feeling double lonely these days. As this continues Bob ends up in a rut! He feels lonely, drinks, wakes up to feel even more lonely, drinks more.

After a while, as part of our natural design, the body triggers the secondary emotion of FRUSTRATION. What’s the message again? “What you are doing is not working, do something else.” It’s a call for creativity. Typically when we are in this level, everything feels like its not working. We are somewhat irritated all the time.

So now Bob is lonely AND frustrated. What does he do? Well, he drinks more; because that’s the only way he knows how to feel better.

Now as Bob is stuck in this rut of feeling lonely-frustrated then drinking more and more to feel better, his body chemistry is going completely haywire. Also as you can imagine, if he has a job or business, how that is suffering by this time, which will compound on his feelings of anger, frustration etc. So not only now he is going to feel natural frustration and loneliness, he is also feeling other chemical induced lethargy and general lack of happiness.

If he continues this for a while, Bob will finally have abused his body so much that he will begin to feel the tertiary level of emotion: DEPRESSION. So what is the message of depression again? It is “I need a break, I need it NOW!” The general feeling associated with depression is “nothing in the world is worth it; all I want to do is sleep.”

By this time, the body has stopped trying to motivate you any further to take action in the right direction. All it wants is to stop the abuse that you’ve been inflicting upon yourself.

At this point, we usually decide to visit the divine beings in white coats amongst our midst called… doctors. They tell us we need to go on Prozac or something similar which are known as SSRI’s (Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). What are these? Well, in layman’s terms, they are designed to stop you from feeling depression by allowing more serotonin (the happy drug) in your brain. In Shafin speak: these are drugs that mess up your natural bodily intelligence by chemically interfering with your brain.

What happens now? Well, Bob, who is already depressed and pretty much an alcoholic, recovers a bit with the SSRI, at which stage the body takes him back to frustration mode because it gets confused into thinking that things have become better naturally. This makes Bob start drinking again because that is the only way he knows how to handle this situation. This brings him down to becoming depressed again… and after a while he is finally left with one of the two choices:

a. Become clinically depressed, where depression spreads to all over his life and is no longer localized into the original problem of loneliness anymore (which means even if he were to get himself a great partner right now or surround himself with many great friends, it still wouldn’t work). Or,

b. He becomes totally dependant on drugs, where he basically becomes incapable of feeling natural emotions anymore and therefore severely limited in life. (Of course life goes on, but as you can imagine, this person begins to walk on thin ice where every other occasion becomes a potential reason for breakdown.)

So what is the solution? The solution is realizing:

a. Dealing with depression is not going to be easy. You should not expect it to be. Be prepared to get ask for help from everyone around you. And when they try to help you, LET THEM. Don’t chase them away by being ashamed or feeling guilty.

b. To deal with depression you will first need to allow your body to heal from all chemical poisoning that has been done on it. This may take a while. And sometimes the temptation to give in will be overwhelming. You will need help here. Make plans for getting as much professional help as you can afford. Suggestions are: go for a meditation retreat, check into a rehab, go for a prolonged mind body healing retreat etc. If those are not an option: alert your friends and family your plan of action and ask them to help you as much as possible to stay on track.

c. Dealing with depression is not a final solution; it is simply a symptom that needs to be addressed before you can go to the root cause of the problem. Go see a psychologist, the type that do not prescribe pills but work with you on your overall life situation.

d. Dealing with depression becomes EXTREMELY difficult if you are constantly eating junk food, drinking all kinds of chemically altered drinks like coke and pepsi etc, not taking care of your physical body by exercising, and one of the worst of all… if you are glued to the TV watching all kinds of bad news or action movies. Go on a vegetarian or vegan diet. Fast at least once a week. Meditate. Drink plenty of raw vegetables and vege smoothies. Exercise regularly. Run if you can. Get plenty of fresh air. Register for a yoga class if possible. Surround yourself with all kinds of motivational and positive sources of entertainment and educational materials. Do not touch even a drop of alcohol or similar mind altering substances. Oh, I almost forgot my favorite… no cigarettes.

Finally here is the good news: let me assure you, dealing with depression is EASY if you are ready to face the very uncomfortable truth that you are hiding from and refusing to take action about. That is how you got here. In the beginning there was a simple situation that required your action. Life was calling you to do something about that situation. Your body needed you to take some specific action. You may remember it, you may not. But if you keep taking the steps outlined above, very soon you’ll have enough clarity to realize what it is that you need to do.

I wish you all the strength and clarity on your journey of awakening!

Lots of love,

Shafin

Shafin de Zane, CHT, MH, MNLP
Hypnotherapist, Author, Spiritual Coach
www.redefineyourreality.com

Related links on the web: Dealing with depression Depression Symptoms Depression Treatment

Question from a Reader:

Hello Folks,

And hello Shafin! My question and response is some what short and straight to the point. It’s basically this: Once a person has gained a very high level of enlightenment about many of the important things in life. Where does that place such a person in regards to everyday life?

He or she still has to work a job, they still have to eat food, maybe have a release for sexual, mental… or enhancement. So while still living in this meat suite, where do the enlightened go from here, and how does this enlightened individual make life count productively while still be subject to the wheel of Samsara, birth and re-birth (life and death)?

That answer could be the real “secret” of the ages.

Theo

My Reply:

Hi Theo,

Strictly speaking, there is no enlightened person, only enlightened activities people do. Some do it more than the others. But no one becomes “permanently enlightened” simply by figuring out some cosmic secret. It’s not a degree you earn; it’s a state of being you need to work pretty hard to maintain.

Nowadays enlightenment is popularly portrayed as some sudden state of rapture usually accompanied by luminous shapes and a profound unity consciousness. True, this is enlightenment; but just like all candles (or for that matter stars) require energy to keep shining light into darkness, that state of unity consciousness also requires energy to stay that way. And that energy comes from constant spiritual discipline and focus.

Now here’s the biggie: it’s actually EASIER (in a very ascetic way) to maintain this so called state of enlightenment in a monastery or up in the mountains far removed from the challenges of modern life! It’s tremendously harder to serve the world in an enlightened way when you have to live in everyday world of mortgage and credit cards, school homework and divorce lawyers. But it is here that we learn the hardest of the lessons. It is here in the every day life amidst people we grow the fastest. Why?

Because it’s ALL God. God is not only found somewhere in Himalayas hiding in a temple, nor in a thousand year old church somewhere in Ireland. God is everywhere and interacting with us through everyone. God is here and now. God wears 10,000 masks. And some of those masks include your mother-in-law, ex-husband, tax officer, boss, brother, sister, lover…

It’s so much easier to stay enlightened when you don’t have to fall in love so madly that you could die for the other, only to be scarred so badly that it hurts to even breathe. Its so much easier to be enlightened when all you have to worry about is your own robe and a rice bowl – yes its simple and its difficult to attain this level of simplicity, but its easier too – its so much harder to act with perfect enlightened attitude when you have to deal with traffic jams and politicians, have a family to feed, children to send to school, and want to take them on a little vacation once in a while so they may smile and grow. Its so much harder because there are so many challenges that come on the way.

Now I am not saying there is anything wrong with the monastic life or people who dedicate themselves to a life of simplicity and strict spiritual pursuits in seclusion. Those choices can be compared with going to school or university. Sometimes we need to study for many years in seclusion or in an institution before we are able serve the world in a bigger and better way. Depending on how much you want to study you may take 5 years or 30 years. But it’s important to realize that it’s not significantly better or worse to be a monk or a stock broker.

You can be a monk or a yogi for all the wrong reasons (fear of dealing with the challenges of the world) and obviously you can be a police man or stock broker for all the wrong reasons too (being driven by never ending hunger for money and power). Both are valid in their own way. But when you live a life of seclusion, it’s definitely easier to maintain a state of rapturous unity consciousness of perfect love and compassion.

I remember hearing a story in a monastery in Nepal (where I lived for a month last year): the story is about this great yogi who lived in a remote cave all alone for 27 years. Finally he was discovered by the village people nearby and they started to offer him food once in a while and he’d give them teachings sometimes. Soon his name became famous and many people began to visit him regularly from villages all around the place. Everything was fine until one day someone invited the guru to come down in the village carnival in the valley below to impart his wisdom. Nobody really expected him to accept the invitation but the great guru said yes.

So it is after 28 years of seclusion, meditation, discipline and devotion, the great guru came down to the village carnival… and then something happened!

Because many people came to the carnival and some of them did not have any idea who the great guru was, there was commotion all around him and mistakenly someone bumped into him and he fell to the ground. Angry, the guru got up and yelled “Do you not know who I am?” And the moment the words came out the great yogi realized his mistake. He asked forgiveness and moved along.

He taught many people in the carnival and when it was time for him to leave, a disciple asked him where he would go now, back to his cave? Could he not stay just for the night in the village?

To this the guru answered, “The days of being in the cave is now over. I realize that my true learning will happen here among the people. It is here that I shall learn what I truly need to learn.”

And so the guru began to live within the people, learning to adjust to the struggles of everyday life, discovering all the hidden aspects of his self that he could not see all this years in the seclusion of his cave.

This story reminds me of a simple truth: God is not just the light, but also the darkness; not just the pleasure, but also pain; not just success but also the failures; not just life but also death. There is nothing that God is not. And I feel that living within people is one of the most effective ways to practice the discipline of remembering that simple truth.

Here’s a quote I read a while ago: “God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly, not one.” Opposites are part of this physical reality; you can’t have light without dark…

Remember: it is the people that cause the greatest “dis-harmony” are the ones that teach the most profound lessons as well. Something I think is valuable to remember on our ever increasing quest to ONLY attract the “positive”. Remember, on a magnet, you can’t have the positive without the negative. No matter how many times you try to chop the negative off.

So coming back to your question “where do the enlightened go from here?”, the enlightened goes no where really but simply realizes that after all has been said and done, its all God, all perfect, all One, despite the seeming two-ness and apparent broken-ness. So where do you go when you are already there? You don’t.

You simply do what you do but never put anyone out of your heart. You play your role in this drama with all enthusiasm and seriousness but you NEVER forget the truth. It’s all One. It’s ALL God. We are ALL in this great journey together. The bad guys are serving the perfect role and so are the good guys. All the obstacles and disappointments in life are nothing but guidance for us to fulfil our chosen destiny, to learn all the lessons we are here to learn in this life time, to be all that we are destined to be.

All the wars and the cruelty, all the disease and the poverty, are simply calls for the heroes to rise, for the warriors of light to awaken and unleash their magical powers, for the timid princes to slay the dragon only to fulfil his destiny to serve as the great ruler…

But here’s a question that the enlightened never forget to ask: “How would the heroes realize they are heroes if the villains never challenged them to arise?” Who then, are truly the heroes? The ones who get all the kudos for slaying the dragon? Or is it the dragon who served the role of the bad guy so the hero could become the hero?

The enlightened do not go anywhere or do anything special. They neither fervently seek the light nor do they remain inactive in the darkness. They simply do what they do – in their monasteries or stock markets, marriages or nightclubs, serving the roles of patriots or dictators, saving lives or killing many – but they never put anyone out of their hearts. They see the unity beyond the illusion of material separation but they act with perfect compassion and empathy. They serve the world but not with the illusion that right now is anything but perfect. They do what they do, wherever they are – prisons, hospitals, carnivals or battlefields – but they never put anyone out of their hearts.

They remember this simple truth – Love is the recognition of God in the other.

And in the end… it’s all Love.

Shafin

—
Shafin de Zane, CHT, MH, MNLP
Hypnotherapist, Author, Spiritual Coach

Take 2 minutes to contemplate on each of these little facts first:

In October 1999, the world’s population reached 6 Billion, which is double that of the year 1959 (the doubling occurred in 40 years). The world’s population is currently increasing at the rate of about 80,000,000 per year (about 1.2 %). The current world population is 6.8 Billion (March 1, 2010).

Source: http://globalwarming.sdsu.edu

Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from sea-ice loss.

Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/

In the developing world, more than 1.2 billion people currently live below the international poverty line, earning less than $1 per day. The United Nations Development Program estimates that the basic health and nutrition needs of the world’s poorest people could be met for an additional $13 billion a year.

Source: United Nations Development Program

The cost of war for Iraq and Afghanistan alone is over $970 BILLION!

Source: http://costofwar.com/

According to Rainforest Action Network, more than an acre-and-a-half of rainforest (an area the size of two football fields) is lost every SECOND of every day. If present rates of destruction continue, half our remaining rainforests will be gone by the year 2025, and by 2060 there will be no rainforests remaining.

Source: http://www.savetherainforest.org/savetherainforest_007.htm

We are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to deforestation. That equates to 50,000 species a year.

Source: http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm

When I think about the world today, I find myself losing hope every once in a while. Are we going to make it at all? Look at the world! The worst form of virus has infected this planet, a virus that multiplies astronomically, kills anything and everything that can be killed, destroys or alters all else, does not even kill for hunger or survival but sometimes out of sheer fun of killing… and here’s the strangest bit: it kills its own kind and even itself! The virus is called human. And it is about to destroy the very planet it lives on.

Can you imagine this planet 50 years into the future from now if the human race was wiped out today? For one there will be no pollution, no greenhouse effect, no bulldozers and no nuclear bomb testing, no rapid destruction of rainforests, no billions of animals being killed every single day for food and fun. How will earth look like 50 years from now if all humans ceased to exist today?

Now imagine how the planet will look like 50 years from now as we continue ravaging our mother earth, raping it and killing everything that comes on our way. Can you imagine? Can you see the difference?

I was watching the movie 2012 the other day. Just like most Hollywood movies, this too distorted the ancient Mayan prophecy beyond any distinguishable form (In Mayan astrology, 21st December 2012 is nothing but the beginning of the 5th great cycle that will last for another 5000 years or so. It has nothing to do with the end of the world but simply the end of an age and beginning of a new one. It does predict upheaval and gradual change in global consciousness, for the better, but not the end of the world.). However did make me think about something else…

The movie 2012 showed that due to unfavorable aligning of planets in our solar system the earth’s core becomes unstable which causes massive earthquakes and giant tsunamis that wipe out the entire human civilization (or something to that effect). While this is as likely as Spiderman showing up in New York saving orphans from a burning tall building, I believe it’s entirely possible for the Earth to wipe out majority of the human race (if not all of it) through some epidemic or other unknown means. Why not?

Nature in its own intelligence maintains balance by creating and destroying. Why should planet earth remain livable for us humans when all we are doing is destroying the planet and every other living being that lives on it? In our blind arrogance we think we are the ONLY beings that have ANY rights whatsoever to live. We kill just because we can. We destroy trees, mountains, rivers, lakes, islands, oceans, even the atmosphere just because we need more space for our offspring or need machines for our convenience. Everything that comes on our way is wiped out, murdered and turned into paper, meat or leather. Things that don’t come on our way initially, dies too because we destroy everything in the surrounding environment that was necessary to sustain life. Everything dies because we need food and space for our virus race.

There was another movie I watched a few months back and it was called “The Day Earth Stood Still”. In this movie an alien race comes over to do one thing: kill human race. There is a scene in the movie where the representative of the alien race (played by Keanu Reeves) is having a talk with the Secretary of Defense of USA. When the Secretary asks him why they were doing this, he responds by saying something like: Look you don’t have a choice! Either humans die now and the planet gets to live, or humans live for a while longer and you all die along with the planet. You don’t have much of a choice.

Really if you think about it, isn’t that the situation right now? If we live and keep multiplying, EVERYTHING dies. If we don’t, things get a chance. So why shouldn’t mother earth wipe us out through some global catastrophe? Why should we be allowed to live? Why should we prosper at the expense of everything else?

The Mayan prophecies tell us that everyone who is here now has a responsibility. Our planet will be renewed or destroyed. It is our choice. If we choose to awaken, if we choose to see, if we take responsibility and develop wisdom, compassion and love, we will survive. If not, we will not. This is a very difficult but special time. We are going towards a new age where a great fight between forces of light and darkness will ensue; in fact it has already begun. Teachers around the world are awakening more than ever. But the forces of darkness are very strong as well, much stronger right now than the forces of light. Even the teachers who are awakening get seduced by the darkness at times. This time the darkness has manifested in its most seductive form: material success. It casts its powerful hypnotic spell on anyone who is a little unaware. And in this sleep state (hypno=sleep), we forget everyone and kill and rape our own mothers, sisters and brothers.

Look at the world in its ravaged form… global warming, holes in the ozone layer, destruction of forests, industrial pollution… earth is our Mother and this is what we have done to Her. Look at all the billions of animals dying everyday, they are our sisters and we feel NOTHING, not even one drop of tear as she cries her last cry of help before the knife opens her throat. Look at the countries being bombed at wars, children being born with various illnesses due to chemical poisoning of our medical industry, poor getting poorer, elderly having to beg… these are our brothers and there is not a damn thing we can do to stop this madness right now. Even if I set myself on fire in front of CNN and BBC and they covered the story in great detail on prime time, it still wouldn’t matter. Our sleeping race will go on chopping off the next tree, chicken, cow, etc and go to bed tonight flooding their veins with “legal drugs” that control blood pressure, sleep, heart disease, diabetes, mood disorder, depression, etc etc. That’s how powerful the sleep is.

So what do we do then? What is the solution? Are we going to survive at all?

I don’t know. I really don’t know what you are supposed to do. What I know is what I am going to do. I am going to keep writing and keep telling whoever will listen to me to awaken. I will tell my friends and my family, I will tell my students and co-workers that what they are doing is KILLING the planet along with everything else that lives on it. I will tell them to stop killing animals and to stop being so arrogant. I will show them ways to heal themselves and to develop compassion for, before anyone else, themselves first. I will tell them to meditate and to study like a mad person. I will protest actively whenever I see a mindless killing of an animal or injustice to a fellow human being. I will do whatever I can so when I go to sleep tonight I will know even one person or animal has breathed a little easier because I have lived today. That’s what I will do. Do you know what you will do?

Here’s what I have to tell you: Love yourself. Love yourself and you will be able to love everyone else. Be unafraid to speak the truth. In our overwhelming fear of disrupting our comfortable nightmare of unfulfilled desires, we are suffering every single day. Remember: to give up the smaller things for the bigger things in life is not a sacrifice, it’s a bargain. Give up your status quo of numbed suffering for a world of peace and harmony, love and joy. Let us heal the world, let us heal ourselves.

We live in a time where each one of are born with a very important spiritual duty. Our duty is to awaken and help others awaken. There is no more time to dilly dally or play. It’s time to get serious! The world needs YOU… not the sleeping, confused, arrogant, self centered, materialistic you, but the YOU who with unbearable compassion decides to dedicate his or her life to healing this planet.

I know today I have neither been very inspirational nor very optimistic. But sometimes all you can do is express your frustration and anger with your loved ones. All you can do is share your feelings with those who matter. Today is one of those days. I have nothing fun and exciting to tell you. But I am simply here to share with you the heaviness of my heart and the pain of our Mother who needs all Her sons to come to help.

Awaken my brothers and sisters. Awaken… before it’s too late. Spread the message! Carry the light to the darkest corners. Do what you can do TODAY, don’t wait, don’t think, don’t justify. The world needs you. Your Mother needs you. Begin right now…

Shafin
—
Shafin de Zane, CHT, MH, MNLP
Hypnotherapist, Author, Spiritual Coach
www.redefineyourreality.com

This post is taken from chapter 34 “The Gift Of Love” of my newly updated book Redefine Your Reality. To read the full chapter, you can purchase the book here

Here’s one of the most difficult challenges we all face on the spiritual journey: remaining open and staying connected to the present moment. It is hard to explain, harder to remember and hardest to practice within the chaos of worldly affairs. But it is the key to freedom, the essential ingredient for all revelation, the link without which all secrets become useless head knowledge.

Remaining open to the present moment means transcending your ego mind. It means going beyond the identity you have assumed in this life time and becoming bare naked… nameless, identityless, roleless, limitless. It means coming out of the prison of intellect into the open sky of the infinite. It means letting go of control over the how and the when. It means becoming the witness of the perfection that is unfolding right here and now, without judgement, without preference, without trying to squeeze the ocean into a drop that you can hold in your hands. It means letting the ocean merge into the drop and watching the drop explode into the ecstasy of infinity. In other words, it is being fully present here and now and loving every moment of it!

When you are open and connected with the present moment, with God, with another human being, you go beyond the limits of your ego mind and merge with the ocean of the boundless One. In that moment you are no longer bound by the socio-cultural-economic-religious-family programming of this life that has created your framework of belief system, the paradigm of your life, the filter of your understanding. In that moment you are ready to experience the bliss and the joy of being one with the Universe – the One Song.

The Sufi poet Rumi once said “Love God or love another human being, but if you love deep enough, you will know Love.” Falling in love with another human being is one of the most potent opportunities to experience this bliss without having to spend twenty years in meditation or under the tutelage of a realized guru. When you are truly in love with another human being, all separation dissolves away, even if for a few days or minutes when you are in the arms of your beloved, and you go beyond your ego mind experiencing “We” for the first time in your life.

This We, which is a unified being that is the combination of the lovers, is very real and is capable of great accomplishments, if you are able to remain connected for a substantial period of time that is. Remember, true love is not wanting another person, it is recognizing yourself in the other person, it is becoming one with the other person. True love is that awareness where you realize that no separation exists. It is not you loving him but there is a We now, which is the unity of your being. That We is love.

But typically, that We-ness fades after a while, the desire remains, the craving remains, the insatiable feeling of wanting to spend time together remains, but the We-ness fades after a while (in most cases). After a while, it becomes me and her. It becomes…

“I love you so much, why do you not love me back in the same way? Why are you thinking about something else even when we are together?”

“I love you too. But there are other things in life you know. I had a bad day. My boss is giving me problems. Our friends also need our attention remember? We can’t be selfish and focus only on ourselves…”

“Yes but I don’t feel your presence anymore like I felt before. Its like you are here but not here.”

“But I am here. I don’t know how else to make you happy. Do you want to go grab a drink? Maybe if we go out more often you’d feel better?”

“You don’t understand.”

The We-ness has faded. One has gone into the prison of the ego mind, the other is taking time to join. Now it has become “I… love… you” rather than we ARE and all other explanation is superfluous. We ARE and we are floating in love, connected ALL the time, feeling each others heart moment by moment, every moment, as we grow together towards the end of time. We are one, serving as one, growing as one, loving as one, hanging out with friends as one, attending parties, funerals, tax filings and grocery shopping as one. When we make love, it isn’t me making love to you, stuck in my head of either “am I having enough fun?” or even “is my partner having enough fun?” but “Look! Your body is making love to my body and we are experiencing both our bodies as we enjoy the blissful ecstasy of bodily pleasure as ONE.” You are no longer stuck in your own body having pleasure or trying to give pleasure, but you are simply experiencing the mind blowing juiciness of the present moment as We and feeling the bodies writhe in ecstasy…. In that moment, together you are ready to experience God, because in that moment when you are no longer stuck within your ego mind role of “me against them”, but you simply are, you get a very powerful glimpse of what it means to be One with God.

But then again, that We-ness fades and we get carried away by the worldly affairs of trying to make a living, raising a family, dealing with traffic jams and politics… we slip into the sleep of separateness, into the roles and functions, into our endless quest of trying to become a “human doing” rather than a “human being”.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. There is a better way of living this precious human life. While that way of living can be a bit difficult to master, it is so much more fun, satisfying and fulfilling…

Read the full chapter by buying Redefine Your Reality

If you have already purchased the book, get the newly updated version from your download page. If you lost your download page or it has expired, drop us a line at ryr.customer [@] gmail.com mentioning the email address you used when you made the purchase.

Today I’d like to discuss something that’s very dear to my heart, a topic that is very sensitive for most people for many reasons but one of the primary reasons being: religion. It’s tricky to talk about it and it’s even trickier to follow through because of the very heavy programming that has been done on us since birth. The topic is: eating animals for food or fun. I have tried to stay away from talking about this topic for a long time but I feel now its time.

If you are already feeling a bit queasy about this, I’m afraid you are not going to like me very much today. I’m not going to be very gentle about this, so please feel free to skip this if you think you are not ready for some radical non-sugar-coated talk. And if you are comfortable or even excited, prepare for some major learning, shifts in your mind and maybe even get ready to become a vegetarian for life.

Before I get into the topic let me touch on something that human beings in general are very concerned about: suffering. One of the most profound realizations I have had on my spiritual journey is that human race as a whole is extremely scared about suffering, is willing to do whatever is necessary to avoid suffering (to the extent of killing thousands of their own kind), but generally clueless about what brings about suffering. Think about it.

All human beings want happiness, health, wealth, freedom, love, peace and success but entirely ignorant about what causes these things or the opposite of them: suffering. Here’s the strangest bit: as a race we have programmed our own minds to such an extent, we cannot even see the cause of suffering even when it’s slapping us right across the face. We keep doing the same things over and over and expect different results. You know what that type of behaviour is called? Insanity!

Let me give you an example: every day we wake up, drink coffee, turn on the tv, watch the news about violence and separation, on the way to office pick up the newspaper, read some more stories about struggles and wars, spend our entire day running the rat race – competing against each other, come back home, drink some alcohol, watch an action movie that shows (in the most hypnotic way) how violence and struggle is glamorous, go to sleep, repeat the whole thing the next day… and expect to have peace, abundance, health, love and freedom in our lives!

It makes no sense but that’s exactly what we, maybe not specifically you, but as a race are doing everyday. The result? Look at the world today…

Coming back to what I started off on, human beings are terrified of suffering, but clueless about what brings about suffering. Its like running around in complete darkness touching a hot stove now, falling into the ditch a while later, spilling boiling water after that, an electric shock following that… absolutely clueless what we are doing, where we are going, messing up our lives even before we could start… with debt… massive debt… financially, environmentally, inter-personally, and most importantly karmically.

So here is a bit of a rude awakening… how long are you going to stay blind to the fact that you are eating dead animals that have experienced the pain of death? How long are you going to pretend that that nice chicken thigh that you bought off supermarket is just “lean meat”? Its not lean meat my friend, its flesh of a sentient being that once lived on this earth, had emotions and feelings, enjoyed freedom and love, and was mindlessly murdered for your eating pleasure. How long are you going to give into the temptation of eating a rib eye steak with mushroom sauce with a bit of fois gras on the side? Have you ever looked into the eyes of a cow that was about to be slaughtered? Have you seen the throat being slit open? Are you still going to tell yourself “but I thought it was done humanely!” How would you like to have your loved ones slaughtered “humanely”?

Here is the problem with eating dead animals (apart from the fact that you are killing helpless sentient beings just like you and me) regardless if it has been killed for you specifically or not: you inherit the pain of death that it has endured. And this pain is a karmic debt that you will have to balance. There is no way out of this.

Now you may ask, how is a cow or a tuna fish a sentient being? Well, here is the only difference between you and a tuna fish, its level of cognitive processing capacity. It cannot analyze, rationalize, communicate or study in the same way that you or I can, but then neither can a human baby. We don’t eat it just because it’s helpless, do we? A tuna fish has many capabilities that you or I cannot even dream about, but they are different capabilities. And it definitely feels the same pain as you or I would feel if a hook pierced through the soft flesh of our mouth and pulled us up in the air. It feels the pain but it cannot communicate in our language. It feels the pain but we are too blind and arrogant to see it. And really what am I talking about, if we can’t see the pain of a cow or a goat being slaughtered, how can we see the pain of a tuna fish. Some people ask me, when I tell them to become a vegetarian, “but you must eat fish right? It’s not meat!”

So once again, here is the spiritual problem with killing animals and eating them: you are inheriting the pain of death that will reflect in your own life. Take a HONEST look at your life, if it’s filled with disappointments and broken dreams, emptiness and dead ends, struggles and fight, here is one powerful contributing factor that maybe causing it. Stop killing sentient beings and stop being the direct or indirect cause for it and watch your life turn around. Yes, there may be years of negative karma to be balanced, but the hands of the Writer who writes our script is strict but infinitely generous. Reverse the process today, balance out some debt by contributing to sustaining life and eliminating pain. You will be surprised by the miracles that follow. All it takes is a shift in our consciousness.

If you believe in reincarnation, here is a Buddhist concept that you may find helpful…

In Buddhism it is said that each of us has had countless past lives before we were born into this one. And in our countless past lives, every single sentient being has served the role of our father, mother, enemy, lover etc. Which is why in Buddhism, all sentient beings are called Mother Sentient Beings: they have been your mother at some life time in the past. Try to remember that the next time you are picking up a roast chicken from the supermarket.

Now you may not believe in past lives and you may not believe in karma. You may still be stuck in your ego mind prison of name, bank account and job description that you have created in this life time. That’s fine Mr/Mdm Asst. Executive Vice President, I know all this spiritual talk sounds all gibberish to you but surely you care about the food that’s not only making you overweight and ugly, but also killing your children by slowly clogging up their coronary arteries. Wouldn’t you be interested in knowing what food is slowly washing away the calcium from your bones and thickening your blood with insoluble fat? If you don’t care about the “dumb chickens”, you must surely care about your own chance of dying one fine foggy morning from massive cardiac arrest without being able to spend those free air miles to Bahamas…

For those of you who need a little more convincing about the medical aspects of eating animals vs becoming a vegetarian, about what food is truly a balanced diet, what food can actually KILL you and your loved ones and what food can heal you and help you live a healthy, lean, thin, energized life – I know of no better teacher than Dr Klaper of the Institute of Nutritional Education and Research.

Dr. Michael Klaper has been a physician for 37 years and a vegan since he was 34 years of age. Among many other interesting posts, Dr. Klaper has served as advisor to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (N.A.S.A.) project on nutrition for long-term space colonists, so you know you are learning from a professional here. A gifted teacher, humorous lecturer, and the author of successful books and video’s on cholesterol-free nutrition, Dr. Klaper has contributed to the making of the award winning PBS television production, “Diet for a New America.”

Here is a funny quote from Dr Klaper that I love: “Nobody has ever been found face-down 20 yards from the Burger King because they couldn’t get their Whopper in time.”

So sit back, relax and enjoy this fantastic, information filled, paradigm shifting 1 hour lecture…

I hope this gets you to think and seriously reconsider not only your own diet choices but also that of your family and loved ones. A small shift in your consciousness can create a ripple effect into all eternity, touch lives in unknown places through undreamed of ways. The world needs your help today. Do something about it. Become a vegetarian. Stop killing sentient beings.

Here are some free resources for making your transition to becoming a vegetarian easier:

Great vegetarian recipes

Another free vegetarian recipes site

I hope you will spread the word around and share this with as many people as you can in whatever way you can. You never know whose life you will end up saving.

With lots of love,

Shafin

Shafin de Zane, CHT, MH, MNLP
Hypnotherapist, Author, Spiritual Coach
www.redefineyourreality.com

Today I have a very special gift for you. Something I believe has the potential to really change the way you live life. Something that has the potential to not only change your life but change the world. Not everyday I am this excited about one of my own work. But I am today, and I hope you will find as much joy and value listening to it as I have serving as the messenger.

LIVE PERSONAL SESSION RECORDING (Right Click And Save Target As / Save Link As)

As you will see, its a live recording from a personal session I was conducting with one of my students from the UK. What transpired this day was something I didn’t plan, neither did I realize the value of, until it came through. As you will notice from the recording, both myself and Archie (the student in the recording) were profoundly moved. And with his kind permission I am now offering you this little gift we co-created.

Enjoy, share with your loved ones and do leave a comment.

Lots of love,

Shafin
—
Shafin de Zane, CHT, MH, MNLP
Hypnotherapist, Author, Spiritual Coach
www.redefineyourreality.com