‘Our subconscious mind determines the quality of all our life experiences’!

Most of us believe the only way we can change our lives, such as breaking habits, changing careers, moving, relationships, etc, is by hard work. But what if you could change your life and everything around you, by your mind, your brain, the way you think and look at things? … Journey inwards and discover the keys to your empowerment… Gain insight into health and well being, the nature of consciousness, and expanded capacities of the human mind?

Quantum physics now shows that your life is a reflection of your perceptions and beliefs. The majority of what we hold to be true is held below the level of our conscious awareness in our powerful subconscious mind. Quantum physics is a leap forward in creating shifts of consciousness towards wholeness, unleashing greater human capacities, and gaining a deeper understanding of the mystery of consciousness. Go beyond the power of intention, affirmation, positive thinking and will power for lasting change!  But How?  How do we make possibilities a reality?

I am working from the premise (s) of Quantum Physics as applied by such people as Deepak Chopra and Amit  Goswami PhD;  such documentaries as “The Secret” and “What the bleep…” and other ‘New Age” ideas that suggest that we create our own reality!  Or as they used to say in the old days “attitude is everything”.  I am interested in how some people overcome things in their lives and others succumb … to habits, addictions, bad experiences or circumstances.

In today’s society (Western) we are subject to the effects of rapid change and the influx of technology and information unparalleled in history.  Whereas we have overcome many of the debilitating diseases of previous centuries relating to poverty and hygiene (typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis etc which may still be found in the third  / majority world) we are now facing an increase in disease related to stress and autoimmune overload; heart disease, kidney disease, cancer and mental illness.

The increasing threat of environmental destruction and global warming is also causing people to look at their lifestyle, needs and desires and evaluate with more awareness how they want to live and who they want to be.

I am interested in how people are deciding to deal with stress and change in their lives and the move towards are more balanced lifestyle through spirituality, alternative healing, exercise and meditation and preventative medicine. 

This has come about through my experiences living in a small, town on the north coast of NSW where many people have chosen to live after leaving major cities like Sydney; and my mother’s involvement with such modalities as NLP and Psyche K (Kinesiology), her preference for alternative and energetic healing (homeopathy and acupuncture) rather than allopathic medicine. 

Then in the holidays I reside with my father in the heart of the city where people’s lives reflect a frantic pace and enslavement to mortgages and materialism.  In both social settings I observe young and old people relaxing and unwinding through the use of alcohol. 

I myself am in the midst of experiencing the stress and anxiety of the HSC which at times feels overwhelming.  I have been experiencing sleeplessness, anxiety, inability to concentrate, headaches and depression.  I want to work but find myself watching TV, shopping or socializing with friends to alleviate the pressure … which feels good when I am doing it, but then I feel worse afterwards.  Why can’t I do what I need to do to get the results that I say I want?  Part of my methodology will be a personal examination / reflection of some sessions and techniques I employ to try and reach my goals and change my behavior.

I will also employ other qualitative and quantitative methodologies to assist me in my research. I plan to organize a focus group of 3 adults with alternative interests to gain qualitative data and assess the attitudes and values they express.  I will conduct a questionnaire to gain quantitative data and statistics to gauge interests of those in my immediate community and to identify trends and make judgments as to whether these people are predominantly following a traditional / conservative course in their lives or actively trying to shape their lives.  I will undertake interviews with various experts in the fields of alternative healing, psychology and sociology to gain a professional insight into the topic.

My PIP will address the relevant and up to date information and understanding we have on the workings of the subconscious mind and the efficacy of alternative therapies in dealing with the dis-ease of the C21st.  I am hoping that it will also assist me in my journey towards adulthood and beyond.






PART ONE :  YOUR BELIEFS BECOME YOUR DESTINY

 “Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny"                               Mahatma Gandhii


                                                           HOW DO WE CHANGE OUR BELIEFS?

 
“If the structures of the human mind remain unchanged, we will always end up re-creating fundamentally the same world, the same evils, the same dysfunction"                                                                                          ( Eckhart Tolle, “A New Earth”, p22)

 The possibility of changing our selves for the better, of transformation has been the message of great spiritual teachings for millennia so why is our world so full of madness and destruction?  Why do so many people find it near impossible to change?  A lot of spiritual practices seem at best … completely useless!  Modern spiritual guru Eckhart Tolle believes that it is impossible without “a shift in consciousness” by finding “the goodness that is already in you”, that “truth within yourself”, and a “transcendence of thought” and “connectedness with the whole” a realization of the illusion of form !!

Already the language of spirituality is doing in my head. Too many paradoxes, too many contradictions, I want answers! 

I am going to remain in the world of form, the world of duality and look at practical ways to facilitate change; but then I guess they will only work for you if you believe they will! 

I am going to initially look at the work of Robert M. Williams, M.A., the originator of PsycheK who believes you can change your beliefs at the level of the subconscious mind and through integrating the brain hemispheres.

The premise is based on decades of research known as “Brain Dominance” theory (or Split Brain research) which indicates that each hemisphere of the brain tends to specialize in different functions and processes.  The left hemisphere is logical, analytical, male, ordered, specific, time bound, ordered, individual and extrovert whilst the right hemisphere uses emotions, intuition, synthesizes, female, spontaneous, deals in wholes and relationships, is time free, identifies with the group and is introvert. 

It may be our natural birthright to utilize both sides of the brain but it appears that life experience and cultural influence trigger a dominance of one side over the other.  In an emotionally charged situation (or trauma) the brain stores the memory (belief, value and attitude) for future reference in the subconscious mind and people then automatically over identify with one hemisphere of the brain when faced with similar life experience.   Experiences in the early years of our life may continue to influence our behavior and action even if we are unaware of them.

Studies in neuroscience suggest that as much as 95% of our consciousness is actually subconscious (how they measure this scientifically I don’t know), and these beliefs create our perceptions which colour everything we do.  It appears we re-act to new situations based on old memories formed when we under 7 years of age.  In NLP and PsycheK these are called limiting beliefs, for example:-

“ I can’t ask people for help because I know they can’t support me”

“ If people really knew me they probably wouldn’t like me”

“Nothing I do is ever good enough, no matter how hard I try”

“No one really cares about me, my opinion doesn’t matter”

These negative beliefs and perceptions may reflect reality and in fact create reality by establishing limits to what we believe we can achieve.  As Henry Ford said, “If you believe you can or if you believe you can’t … you’re right!”

So how do you change these limiting beliefs if they exist in your subconscious?

 In the 1980’s author Louise Hay put out a book “You can heal your life” which was basically a book giving the reader “Positive Affirmations” to repeat verbally, out loud and, she recommends, to yourself in front of the mirror.   It was important that the sentence be in the present tense and positive; “ I am centered and energized by changes in my life” etc.  Some people had good results but others lost heart if they didn’t feel immediate or quick changes.  A lot of scientists at the time dismissed her as a crackpot but twenty years later she has been given more respect because of studies in Quantum physics.

Many people (like me) probably wondered:

How do you know if your subconscious mind has “got it” or it is still just affecting your conscious mind?

We have new insights and intellectually (consciously) agree but they may not make their way to the subconscious mind which seems like a stubborn child prone to resist change, even if it is positive.

Before I inform you of the ‘how’ of PsycheK - which purports to communicate with and change the subconscious (and super conscious mind) through protocols called “balances” which create an identification with both brain hemispheres

i.e. a “whole brain” state which is ideal for eliminating resistance at the subconscious level ! I will introduce you to the work of Bruce Lipton, Ph.D. Cellular Biology ( www.brucelipton.com).

Dr Lipton’s research is based on the premise that DNA is NOT the fundamental cause of physiological or behavioral outcomes but that our subconscious beliefs actually determine which DNA is chosen as the foundation stones of our physical body and our psyche. 

This is the opposite conclusion drawn by research scientists in this field who suggest that our bodies are biochemical machines programmed by genes; that out strengths or abilities or our tendency to a particular disease or character traits were preprogrammed into our genes and reflect our hereditary.

“By 1985 I realized that rather than being controlled by our genes, our cells are controlled by their perception of the environment.  I formulated the hypothesis that the “brain” of the cell was actually the cell membrane.  … My theory on the control of our cells by our perceptions was substantiated in two major scientific publications.  This pioneering research presaged one of today’s most active areas of investigation: epigenetics, the science of how genes are controlled by the environment and – more importantly – by our perception of that environment.

 This new perspective on human biology does not view the body as just a mechanical device, but incorporates the role of mind and spirit.  This breakthrough in the science of biology is fundamental to healing, for it shows us that when we change our perceptions or beliefs we send totally different messages to our cells.  In effect, we reprogram them.  This new biology reveals why people can have spontaneous remissions or recover from injuries thought to be permanent.

 The body represents the cooperative effort of a community of fifty trillion single cells.  While every cell is an independent entity, the body’s community accommodates the wishes and intents of its “central voice” – the mind and spirit”

                                                                 ( Dr Lipton’s foreword to “The passage of change” by Nancy Marie)

 He goes on to say :

“ Our principle source of stress is our mind, which really consists of two separate minds – the conscious and the unconscious.  The conscious mind is the thinking you.  It is the creative mind that expresses free will.  Its supporting partner is the subconscious mind, a data base of programmed behaviours  … it is not the seat of reasoning or creative consciousness.  It is strictly a stimulus- response devise”

 
In the everyday process of living our senses in fact absorb an awful lot of information.  Our conscious mind is not capable of processing such vast amounts of information -  40,000,000 bit per second – it can only handle 40 bits per second  and only has a short term memory of 25 seconds.  The subconscious mind on the other hand has long term, permanent memory capacity and processes the information, filtering what information is not necessary to deal with a situation so that the conscious mind is not overwhelmed.  The subconscious determines what is pertinent, has meaning or value according to current beliefs. 

In a new situation the subconscious searches its data banks for a similar past experience to determine the appropriate action or reaction.  A signal is fed to the brain in the physical body or psyche producing compulsions, habits and tendency’s of emotional or physical behavior:-

1. Outside stimulus / info/ environmental signal / situation
2. Info registered by brain and mind
3. subconscious deletes, distorts, interprets information according to beliefs (filters) and decides meaning, value (perception)
4. Sub conscious sends response or reaction back to brain
5. Brain sends messages chemically and electrically to the body for emotional and/or physical response/ action
6. Experience – conscious mind justifies reaction or makes adjustments and overrides reaction.

Strangely enough our conscious mind operates mostly in the past or future mode (worrying about the future or going over the past) and comprehends figurative and abstract ideas, contemplates change and creates new goals, intentions and discernments.  The subconscious mind operates only in the present (even though it stores everything) and comprehends through the senses, literally; it resists change and supports the status quo.  Most importantly it operates according to programming and physiological functions, and this is how it can be changed.

Everyday we make thousands of choices, free will choices that can become habits.  These choices are limited in availability because of the subconscious which can blind us to what is available, or attach such meaning to a choice that it feels …  safe / natural / compelling, to choose even a destructive choice. 

For example it is out of my “comfort zone” to be here at the computer.  I feel compelled to procrastinate and do something else, anything else but this, something I enjoy.  I am overcoming ingrained, bad habits to complete my HSC work!  I feel there is part of me that could do excellent work but I have been unable to fully commit to hard work and delaying gratification.  I feel as a seventeen year old girl that my interests, enthusiasm and energy are driven by hormones, emotions, mood … I should be out having fun with my friends … this doesn’t “feel” natural!

At last the “HOW TO CHANGE” conclusion of this chapter!

PsycheK, which is a combination of Educational kinesiology, NLP, acupressure, hypnotherapy and other “psycho-spiritual healing systems; was developed by Rob Williams, MA.  The basic tool is muscle testing. 

Muscle testing is a bio feed back mechanism that communicates with the subconscious.  It works like a polygraph or lie detector.  When we make a conscious statement which conflicts with what the subconscious holds to be true, an individuals stress level increases. A delayed or disrupted neurological signal produces a “weak” muscle test.  This binary system -  no stress / stress or true / false, allows us to determine whether the subconscious is holding any particular belief expressed as a statement.  It is accurate and effective because the subconscious controls all motor and muscular activity.

 For example my problem may be anxiety, I don’t want to be anxious so I identify how I want things to be – “I want to be calm and confident” .  I change this into a present tense belief statement that the subconscious can understand … by changing “ I want” to “ I am”.  I muscle test to see if my subconscious believes me, a weak muscle indicates that I’m lying  so I have to do a “ balance”.  PsycheK has two basic balance protocols that require quick easy physical  procedures, which may be felt instantly or evolve over a period of hours, days or weeks.  With my problem I may feel instantly better but still have to carry out certain rituals to stay calm … meditation, exercise etc.

There are numerous alternative methods that promise relief and results but some people search different modalities until they find something that suits them, that works for them.

My research indicates that there are necessary criteria to make change lasting and real.  I will examine this in the next chapter.
PART TWO : THE CATHARSIS OF CHANGE – CHANGE AIN’T EASY!

“Positive core level change… can be cathartic.  It is also a fascinating journey where each breakthrough is more amazing and fulfilling than the last.  Catharsis need not be painful – you are the creator of your experience…”
                                    (“The management of evolutionary change” by William R. Harris published by Centerpointe Research Institute, 1990)

Catharsis: “ A purifying release of the emotions or of tension by bringing repressed material to consciousness”

                                                                                                (Webster)

                        “The process of freeing repressed emotion by association with the cause, and elimination by abreaction (free expression).”

                                                                                               (Australian Oxford Dictionary)

Why is lasting change so difficult to achieve?

For many people the process of change involves painful catharsis; upheaval, intense emotional and mental stress and physiological symptoms; back ache, head aches, insomnia, depression, chronic fatigue etc, when familiar and habitual patterns are confronted consciously.   Sometimes things get worse before they get better. Sometimes it all seems too hard, but as one healer told me;

“You can anticipate more pain associated with the change itself than the current situation which is causing you pain … maybe it hasn’t got painful enough yet! (to change) but emotional and physical pain can be seen as indicators that you are on the wrong path… there is always a push towards growth for the better in a human being and the human race and there will always be an opportunity for growth and change.  The higher self (or god or the authentic self…) will nudge a person in the direction of positive change.  This will be expressed subtly at first but if a person continues to resist change the circumstance, or situation will become more pressing, more demanding until they listen, heed their inner guidance …  and it could be more traumatic or end up where they have no choice but to change.”

                                    (Julia Wilson, Doula and author of “Blissful birth”)

As a doula and midwife Julia sees birth as massive change in the parents’ life.  Many women experience pain and fear and she encourages the mother to view birth and especially “Transition” as being “about surrender and faith; let go and trust”

Looking at the Questionnaire of 100 random local inhabitants of a small town it appears that many people of all ages experience stress and difficulty with change.

 Most people viewed themselves as being mainly positive, “half full” people”, only a few (15%) admitted to being pessimists.  Some of those who described themselves as optimistic also declared themselves to be using prescription drugs, drugs and alcohol and professional assistance (78%).

Young people added to the list of stressful experiences under other , writing such things as; body image, diet, boyfriends, friends, relations with parents, school, exams and tests.  As they were limited on other experiences they labeled getting their driving license and learning to drive as highly stressful, whereas older people looking back and relating that to other experiences did not remember that as highly stressful. 

Young people also listed many ‘bad habits’ including TV, food, caffeine, gossip, shopping and smoking.  Older people did not admit to any form of gossiping, sex bad habits but many did admit problems with food, exercise, caffeine, money and relationships.

Those who were in tertiary education or TAFE, experienced stress with their studies and debt.   Those with young children rated mortgages and unemployment as highly stressful.

Those people in the 30 -39 and 40 – 50 age bracket mostly identified divorce and custodial battles as highly stressful (some gave these a 10).  Other events that came across as highly stressful were debt and death.  Some of these rated children as both low and high stress!  Moving was stressful for some but not for others.  A few with school age children rated school fees as moderately stressful (rating it a 6 or 7)

I only spoke to a few elderly people, in the 50 + group, three over 60 and only one over 70.  I found them difficult to approach if I didn’t know them.  The ones I did speak to were all very positive and full of life.  One still struggled with smoking cigarettes but the others did not believe they struggled with any bad habits. 

Individuals from all age brackets remembered high stress with accident, illness and death.  All ages ticked drugs and alcohol, talking to friends and leisure as ways of dealing with stress. Only 10 people did not tick drugs and alcohol as ways of dealing with stress and change.

Older people ticked that yes, attitude is everything, young people were mostly unsure.   22 people ticked NO, but did not elaborate.  46 people ticked alternative medicine, 19 people ticked professional assistance and 11 people meditation as ways of dealing with stress and change.

It is hard to make any concrete conclusions from these results.  It would be impossible to measure how honest people were being, what issues they were aware of consciously and which they were unable to deal with at that time.  I don’t feel that I had the confidence or experience in interpreting the data that I collated or its statistical relevance. 

Some of the people who did the questionnaire elaborated on the questions to me and a lot of the more interesting information came outside of the set focus questions and questionnaire and I was unable to record, but recall as anecdotal.

What is clear, to me, is that everyone experiences stress and difficulty at different stages of their lives and often need help in dealing with stress and change, whether it is professional, alternative or illegal.  Most people want to be happy and deal with life’s events in a way that makes them feel they have some control.

Professionals that I spoke to all believed that before any change can be achieved there must be an awareness and desire to change.  Unless there is a full commitment to change people can remain in a transition stage or go backwards for an uncomfortable period of time. 

People must consider the possible outcomes and the time and resources to allocate, as any change in one aspect of life often affects all others.  Relationships may also change as an outcome of changing any part of you.  Friends and family may not react positively to a new you, they may find the change unsettling.

Those I spoke to involved in energetic healing also believe that quick fixes, hyped transformational weekends or miracle cures can also give people a false perspective on working through change.  Some people may experience instant transformations and rapid changes but most natural healings take at least 3 months to complete, and change is often a process that requires repetition and practice for a new way to become habitual or feel comfortable.  It can be compared with practicing a musical instrument, but forget practice makes perfect… the goal is progress not perfection.

Pip Wilson, author of “The Feel Good Manual: Feel better, think better, act better”, suggests that he aims to be 95% happy,

“But I won’t aim for 100 percent, because I still have a brain, and I live in the real world. Shit happens to me just like it happens to you… some people do not want to be happier.  They are in a comfort zone of misery that gives them some rewards.”

 Paul R. Scheele, “Natural Brilliance; overcome any challenge …at will” calls the comfort zone a ‘stuck state’, or  “an inability to learn or make progress”, this is because people find themselves pulled by contradictory forces.  Part of you wants to push forward the other is afraid of failure.  The physical, mental and emotional systems “oscillate, push and pull and your potential is frozen or stagnated,

“No matter how bad things are there is a secondary gain or some pay off, to the present situation’

This idea is also expressed in the Declaration of Independence “ … and accordingly, all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”

Another difficulty that seemed to be recognized was that the majority of people are not aware of what they really want, they feel weighed down by conditioning, up-bringing and the wrong use of our “biphasic” design.  Everything is determined by its opposite and choosing to operate at either end of the continuum gets us stuck, when we need to be able to react flexibly across a range of situations.

“The phrase I can’t is the most powerful force of negation in the human psyche … the phrase I can, will replace negation and point the way to new levels of achievement.

                        (pp23, 24, “Natural Brilliance”)

This is reinforced by Rex Sikes, founder of IDEA seminars,

“what stops most people in their tracks is a small mental packet of energy.  It is called a thought.  They think ‘I can’t.’

Procrastination is a solution to oscillation that sometimes makes things worse,

“Every time we procrastinate, we oscillate.  We may want to achieve a goal, but we also want to avoid the pain of doing what it takes to achieve it.  The more we avoid doing what it takes, the deeper we mire in our problem state”

                        (pp24, “Natural Brilliance)

So it appears everybody experiences these states that make change difficult.  As Julia Wilson expressed that in the birth experience there comes a point where you have to let go and trust.  This is where people experience the most difficulty how can they surrender to life when they don’t trust “it” or themselves?

In our society we are conditioned to place our trust in “experts”, men if we are female, the Government, celebrities, a supreme being whom we can’t see, anyone who is bigger, smarter, sexier, more popular, more confident, better educated or stronger.  To surrender to change requires having some faith in yourself.

“Before we can become truly happy, we need to believe that we are of equal value to anyone in the world, and we need thoroughly and radically to eradicate any vestige of belief that we are less that others, or less worthy of happiness than others.”

                        (p27 , The Feel Good manual.)

It has been said by Plato, Shakespeare and other philosophers that it is imperative that you know yourself (and that might take a lifetime).

No seite ipsum – know thyself and you will know the universe and it’s gods!

And that takes us to the last chapter.  Change must come from within.

CHAPTER THREE: TO BE OR NOT TO BE?  EAST OR WEST?  WHAT DO I  REALLY WANT?

 “Genius does its own thinking; it has confidence in its own exploratory findings, in its own intuitions, in the knowledge gained from its own mistakes.”

                                                                                                                                                                                          Buckminster Fuller
                                                                              CLARIFYING THE CHANGE YOU WANT.

In the West we focus on setting goals, ticking off our achievements and moving on to the next one.  We are influenced by our parents, encouraging us to study or behave a certain way, at school, through the media, our peers and generations of history.  Our cultural conditioning determines our status in society, our goals and aspirations. 

Sometimes it feels like we don’t really know why we are doing something.  Is it because everybody else is?  Is it really as the papers and the TV tell me?  Am I really enjoying this? What do I want to be when I grow up?  Why do I feel unhappy?  Why am I stressed?  Why do I feel anxious?  What do I really want?

Our society is so busy, fast, stressed, always doing but never getting to where we want to be.  When they do accomplish their outcomes and goals people often express emptiness, a sense of un-fulfillment, or the need to move onto the next outcome  … and then we will be happy!

“Goals are the things that you do, whereas the real result is a state of being.  The doing is a means to an end.”

                                                (p32. Natural Brilliance)

Most people are unaware of the goal behind their goals.  People may be pressed to examine the motivations behind their goals, the real goal that they may not be conscious of, the core goal – which turns out to be “a core state of being”.

“Once guided through a process of examining their inner motivations, people recognize that the goal behind their goals is the achievement of a core state – an experience of full aliveness.  They express it as ‘beingness’, ‘completeness,’ or ‘okay-ness’ … the only way to fully be is to experience yourself as a human being, not as a ‘Human doing’.”

                                                (p33. Natural Brilliance)

In my Questionnaire it appeared that young people were less likely to think deeply about themselves but liked to act spontaneously, in the moment, get into trouble without thinking of the consequences and were concerned with being popular, attractive to the opposite sex and getting through school.

As people get older and experience more difficulties in life, and especially in middle age when they realize they have lived half of their lives and maybe things have not turned out as they expected, that they start to really think about being conscious of change and paradoxically be in control of their lives, create their own lives and also surrender to life and be grateful for what they have. (or they get set in there ways)

Elderly people look back on their lives and either feel regret or acceptance of their lives.  The older people get they seem to be less concerned with superficial things, but everyone seems to have some form of stress whether they are happy with themselves or not.

Those people who practice meditation or regularly exercised, especially a discipline like yoga, reported feeling calmer and more at ease with themselves and their lives.  Other people found positive living habits like eating good, healthy food, being creative and taking time to relax made them fell more in control of their lives or (paradoxically) that they were “in the flow”.

Possibly the best way to approach change is to balance creating your own reality, setting goals and going with the flow, tapping into the energy that we cannot explain but have a hint of in the writings that form Quantum physics.

A better term might be co-creating your own reality.  If we all connected, everything is a possibility, the world we react to is an illusion, the sun doesn’t set, matter is not solid, we construct time and space, chaos is part of evolution etc … then the only place to find answers is inside ourselves, to change at our own pace, to learn from our mistakes, keep moving, rest, think positively, ask for help when we need it, trust our intuition, stay healthy, spend time with family and friends, try different things until you find what works for you …

I am back where I started!  Back at the paradox of being a human being.  It seems you must be comfortable with paradox and opposites and change.  If you resist you create negativities.  If you think negatively you attract negativity.  You may as well decide to be happy because life is change and growth and the only person you can know and change is yourself.

“By passion for the pairs of opposites

By those twin snares of like and dislike

All creatures live bewildered, save some few

Who quit of sins, holy in act, informed

Freed from the opposites and in fixed faith

Cleave unto me.”

 The Bhagavad Gita

I started working from the idea that our thoughts control our lives but it seems that the mind, body and emotions are all interconnected.  We may create change by doing something physical that affects our emotions, which affects our thinking.  Going for a walk, laughing, eating healthy food can affect our thinking.

It seems that understanding how the mind works and the role of the subconscious means that a lot of what we think and feel is trapped in our physiology, in our bodies, and we have to somehow get it out into the open so we can grow and evolve in a positive way.

Being clear about who you are and what you want seems another key and sometimes that takes life experience and time.

As a seventeen year old girl I feel like I don’t know exactly what I want, especially in the area of my future career.  I am interested in psychology but don’t feel ready to go to university straight after school (which is what my father wants me to do).

I find it hard to motivate myself with school work because a lot of the time it seems irrelevant and boring.

Since I was a little girl I have wanted to do modeling and I find that I am more disciplined when it comes to exercising and eating right.  I started going to the gym this year and at first I was disappointed with the slow changes.  It took about three months to really notice a difference in my body.

I still struggle with my emotions and relationships.  Like most of those (teens) who completed my questionnaire I am still finding out about myself, exploring different situations and people.

In my home I have been exposed to various ideas, eat organic produce, get given homeopathics over conventional medicine and lived through my parents divorce seeing one parent actively changing the other become more set in their ways … so I guess for me becoming an adult and taking responsibility for my life and who I want to be has just begun.