I don't want you to feel bad, weak, or inferior if you are presently caught in any of these potentially destructive habits. I know the struggle between light and dark--between picking up that cup of coffee or glass of wine or pack of cigarettes and the desire to stop or to never have started. I also know that it is an incredible challenge to change anything – particularly to clear any habit/abuse/addiction that you have had years to get used to and rely upon. I know that it can be done, but it takes greater attentiveness, a gathering of willpower, and the support of our loved ones. I have also seen that it is very difficult to change without a willingness to deal openly with emotions and other adversities that may block our way toward healing.

I do want to inspire and motivate you to change. The first principle for improving your health is to eliminate destructive habits. Even if you cannot fathom at this time doing without your substances completely, at least consider an "abuse break." Try a day or week without caffeine, alcohol, or sugar, replacing them with a new habit – drinking water, walking or swimming, for example.

All addictions are extremely self-destructive (some can hurt others as well, such as alcohol and smoking). When you change that dynamic to self-care – through both your internal healing process as well as with the lifestyle and nutritional guidelines I describe in my book, The New Detox Diet, you will begin to move your body and life towards its highest potential. As you develop more nurturing and supportive habits – eating good food, exercising regularly, learning to cope with stress, and developing motivating attitudes, I can promise you will experience greater vitality, more positive relationships, and improved health.

I have asked my partner, Tara, who is a hypnotherapist, to share some of her insights about what it takes to really change habits from the inner, emotional viewpoint. How can we take our old habits and pull them out by their roots so that we can plant new flowers into our garden of life.

Oftentimes, people seem to be making progress with applied willpower, but after a few weeks or months, emotions and stress challenge them and they revert back to their old patterns. Soon they are stuck again with the same body they were beginning to transform. We can be even more successful at this transformative, healing process if we can address our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions all at once. So, believe that you can change and don't be afraid to meet your challenges head on with the renewed capacity to understand them and clear them from your life.

Good luck on your journey.

Inner Healing with Tara Haas
Spring is known to be a time of rebirthing and transformation as life bursts forth from the earth. And those colored eggs were originally a symbol of the fertility of the Goddess of Spring who has as many names as there are cultures – Ishtar, Oestre, Astarte, Ostarte, etc. The Spring Equinox is a time of balance when light and dark are equal. From there we move forward with the free will of the Earth taking over! According to Dr. Haas, living in harmony with the seasons means that in the Spring we have the opportunity to authentically explore and reclaim our own sacred will and power. If we think about Spring as a time of renewal, it is the time of action and risk taking, of moving our intentions and visions into the world.

This path may require some of us to overcome resistance to change, fear of failure and other doubts whose voices have taken up residence in the deeper recesses of our beings. Identifying these old patterns is only part of the healing journey. To actually change belief systems that no longer serve a healthy psyche requires us to go deeper. As a hypnotherapist, I experience a much more integrated healing transformation for myself when I work at the cellular level where my body holds past traumas, learned behaviors, and negative beliefs. Many kinds of mind/body therapies are successful at releasing habits that we otherwise struggle against, most often with minimal results.

Since everything is rooted in energy, we can choose to either remain in our holding patterns, building up unreleased emotions, or we can find ways of moving and shifting into new paradigms. Exercise, breath practices, affirmations, imagery work, hypnotherapy and energy clearing are just some of the ways to break addictive behaviors freeing up the will to express itself in productive life-enhancing activities. So with Spring modeling rebirth and transformation for us, this is an ideal time to explore the root of our behaviors and step into our deeper power, daring to live more fully and authentically!

Blessed Be,
Tara

A Healing Journey
If you don't have anyone who can help guide and support your healing process, you can use the following suggested guided journey. It is best if you create it on your own, recording it on tape so you can listen to it when you have a quiet moment.

Begin by lying down and taking a few deep breaths, relaxing as you nourish your body with oxygen. Breathe in life force energy and exhale tension. Pay attention to areas of your body that may feel tight or painful. Let your body guide you, and allow messages to come to your awareness.

Ask questions and look for symbols that you can translate into information about your healing. Listen to those inner voices of resistance (the ones that doubt your progress and evolution) and ask that all aspects of your being be reunited for the purpose of balance and wholeness. Let your reward be self-love and self-acceptance. Breathe in healing, nurturing energy and exhale disease and stagnation. Let your energy move through your body, cleansing and releasing anything that no longer serves you.

As you create new open spaces within, begin to affirm that which you do want in your life. You can receive healing on a physical, emotional and spiritual level. Feel yourself becoming alive and powerful and know that these changes can begin to shift within you unfolding over a period of several days, weeks and months.

Know that you can return to this place within yourself any time you wish. Be gentle with yourself as you come back to the present moment, sitting up slowly. Write about or draw any significant images that you may have envisioned.

Blessings on Your Healing!