Later in life, I actually refused great opportunities because of an unconscious fear that I'd either get criticized for it or have what I worked for taken away from me. I've spent years working on overcoming the unreasonable feelings of guilt and fear, and have made great strides in that direction. However, whenever something nice happens, I feel an automatic flinch, instinctively waiting for the other shoe to drop.

A few months ago, I re-read Catherine Ponder's "Open Your Mind To Receive," and this time I really read the affirmation that said, "I have a Divine Right to the best." This shook my inner world. Although I'd recognized this idea before, to actually say it out loud and accept it inwardly short-circuited all those old ideas. Since everyone has a Divine Right to unlimited good, then my good doesn't take anything away from anyone else. It validated my right to have what I desire.

The concept that there is enough good for everyone, and everyone has the same access to it is one I've accepted for a long time. The problem is that acknowledging it intellectually and accepting it emotionally are two different things. Accepting my Divine Right to the best trumps all the inner critical voices and silences them.

The reason for this is that the Universe has more authority than childhood messages. In our childhood hierarchy, God/the Universe/the Infinite has far more power than what parents, caregivers, teachers, or any other human authority says. When a person is in therapy, and the therapist contradicts what a parent asserted to the patient, the adult patient believes the therapist because they have more authority than the parent of long ago.

The old, negative message has emotion attached to it, whether it's sadness, fear, shame, guilt, or anger. But once an adult can reassess the message, and maybe have some powerful validation that the message was false, then they can release the emotions and their consequences.

Although I'd spent years chipping away at the guilt, reevaluating the idea and getting validation that it wasn't true, I still hadn't been able to completely get beyond it. However, once I accepted this new concept, it undermined the old criticisms because it came from a higher perspective and held much more power than the misguided people who had convinced me that I didn't deserve anything.

Answer: Congratulations on wanting to change your life. Self-hypnosis can help you change a habit or quit something, but it takes dedication and commitment on your part. For instance, I've had many smokers come to see me, saying "I really don't want to quit. I want to want to quit." In this case, they don't have the commitment to stop smoking. They want a magic pill that will make it go away. Self-hypnosis makes the process of changing or quitting easier, it doesn't make the choices for you.

Whatever it is that you want to change, you could decide what it is that you want instead of it. You could use an abstract, like greater self-respect or pride, or you could substitute something more concrete, like a carrot stick or green tea. Once a day, in self-hypnosis, you imagine the desire for 'whatever' transferred to what you really want, and imagine yourself satisfied and delighted with the new substitute or abstract. Then, during your waking hours, whenever you think of the 'whatever,' you say to yourself, "No, I don't do that anymore. Instead, I'm choosing ...."

The change won't happen overnight, and you will have to dedicate yourself whole-heartedly to letting go of the habit or making the change, no matter what happens. And you may have to practice your self-hypnosis up to three times a day in the beginning.

This book explains Universal principles in a very basic and understandable way. Although I'd deeply been immersed in metaphysics for years, it wasn't until I read the chapter on "Details," that I finally grasped how it's not up to me to figure out how things need to happen. It's the Universe's job to determine that. This concept was explained in just the right way for me to finally get it. When I did, it seemed that all I'd learned about this idea fell into place.

This is just one of the fundamental principles of metaphysics that the author explains. There are some exercises to help define your purpose, discovering what you love, acceptance of feelings, and more. While it's written to explain the principles very simply, at the same time it goes very deeply into metaphysical laws. This is a book to take your time to read, absorbing each chapter before going onto the next.

To read more about it, click on the book image to the left.