| Lindsay Lohan was ordered back to jail this past | | | | yet that causes us to act it out in destructive |
| week but evaded a lengthy stint in the cell, | | | | ways. |
| instead staying just fifteen hours by posting | | | | When Paris Hilton went through a difficult time |
| $300,000 bail. | | | | with the law, she was photographed carrying a |
| Struggling with her substance abuse Lohan | | | | copy of Eckhart Tolle's bestseller The Power of |
| commented that it's a "disease." She will | | | | Now. Whether she read it we don't know. |
| unfortunately be supported in this mistaken belief | | | | This is the book Lindsay Lohan needs, along with |
| by many psychiatrists and professionals who | | | | Tolle's A New Earth (the book Oprah made her |
| work in drug and alcohol rehabilitation. | | | | book selection choice a couple of years ago). |
| Substance abuse isn't a disease in the sense of an | | | | Since it isn't generally a disease that grips us when |
| illness, though it does result from dis-ease within | | | | we are addicted to substance abuse, the cure |
| ourselves—the kind of dis-ease that's a lack of | | | | isn't therefore medical. Rather it lies in dissolving |
| felt internal peace. | | | | our pain-body. |
| It's important to be clear that we aren't saying | | | | Self-inflicted behavior that damages us and |
| there's ever an absence of peace within us, only | | | | messes up our life can only be addressed in a |
| that we can't feel the peace we all participate in | | | | lasting manner by recognizing and integrating the |
| because our thoughts and emotions block our | | | | negative emotional charge that drives us. |
| awareness of it. | | | | Thousands have found that the most helpful tool |
| Our center has always been at peace, though in | | | | for this purpose is Michael Brown's extremely |
| most cases we don't realize this and therefore | | | | powerful ten-week Presence Process, recently |
| don't experience it. | | | | republished in a revised edition. |
| It's a very different thing to try to make | | | | As long as an emotional charge from childhood |
| yourself peaceful when you aren't at peace with | | | | remains unintegrated, it will thwart our best |
| yourself than it is to recognize that all of your | | | | efforts to take responsibility for our life, which is |
| anxiety is just a surface phenomenon, whereas | | | | likely what Lohan is discovering. |
| your true and abiding state is one of an unending | | | | As the actress herself explained, "I am working |
| internal peace. | | | | hard to overcome it and am taking positive |
| One requires us to battle with ourselves, whereas | | | | steps." This is all well and good. But until a person |
| the other simply means relaxing into our true | | | | deals with their emotional charge, the best |
| state. | | | | intentions and effort in the world can have only |
| The standard recommendation is that Lohan | | | | limited success. |
| should receive intensified treatment, perhaps with | | | | Even if we are able to kick a particular addiction, |
| a period in hospital, coupled with increased support | | | | an unintegrated charge will show up in our life in |
| from friends who can help her avoid the | | | | some other way—as many who have gone |
| temptations to which she repeatedly succumbs. | | | | through twelve-step programs and rehabilitation |
| The medical paradigm is one way of looking at | | | | can testify. |
| Lohan's addiction. But there's a very different | | | | So many people imagine that if we just alter our |
| understanding that might help the star regain her | | | | thinking, change our beliefs, and set an intention, |
| life. | | | | we can revamp our life. But this is true only up to |
| This entirely different approach is to recognize | | | | a certain point. |
| that her actions are being driven by what Eckhart | | | | In time an unintegrated emotional charge will |
| Tolle calls our "pain-body." | | | | subvert even the strongest person regardless of |
| It's not an illness that drives us but the internal | | | | their willpower. To integrate our pain-body is the |
| pain we are in—pain that's often unrecognized | | | | only truly viable way forward. |