Thoughts come from our minds. They also come from our one shared Mind. This is because there are different kinds of thoughts that emerge from different areas of our being. Let’s explore them one at a time.

Ego Mind 

In the realm of awareness where we think we have individual minds with private thoughts, we have an ego mind that thinks separation thoughts and floods us with certain ideas about life, reality and where we fit in the world. What is an ego? There are many descriptions and definitions of this term. From Freud’s early development of psychoanalysis to modern times, the ego shows up with multiple meanings. I like this definition from the Urban Dictionary: “The ego is the part of you that defines itself as a personality, separates itself from the outside world, and considers itself (read: you) a separate entity from the rest of nature and the cosmos.”

All addiction is the grasping, attacking and complaining of the ego with plenty of dramatic flair, done in order to maintain its very survival. Every rush of every high you’ve ever had on drugs or addictive behaviors came from your underlying addiction to remaining a separate entity, a “you” that exists apart from the fabric of Life.

The Family Soup 

From your first breath, you were taught to separate. Even before you were born, the process began. The ego-thoughts, emotions and physical health of your mother influenced your body as you grew in her womb. The voices of your father and other family members and the interaction between them also prepared you to cope with birth and your early life.

When you were born, you arrived into a very specific “family soup” that had many influential flavors in it. Some examples include the religion, culture, race, socio-economic status, geography, sexual orientation, mental health, and physical health or distress of all of the members of your shared family. There’s an excellent chance that there were some bitter flavors of dysfunction in your family of origin, due to the interaction of all of these factors. I feel that the most important ingredient of all is the spiritual maturity of your elders. If one of your parents, grandparents or primary caretakers had the capacity to guide you spiritually as you grew, you had a better chance of finding your direct connection with Spirit more easily (and that guidance could have been through silently loving you unconditionally, not necessarily through religion). Maybe you didn't get that, and that's OK. I didn't, either. Forgiveness is a spacious place that accepts you where you are, with everything that has happened.

All of these ingredients in your personal family soup play a powerful role in your awakening journey and because everything is connected, they have an essential place in the birth of your addiction process as well. We will explore this more in future lessons of this course.

Divine Mind 

In addition to our ego mind, we all participate in the Mind of our Creator. Even if you are agnostic or an atheist, I feel this is still the case. I might have just lost you with that last sentence. If so, as an experiment, I hope you’ll stay with this course to see what you can get out of it, even if it seems crazy or inaccurate to you. 

Connection with our Divine Mind is a gift that always brings clarity, strength, joy and purpose. Learning to open up to its wisdom is the main activity we are given as souls. As I see it, there are two ways that Spirit offers its communication of the Highest Light. One is through creativity as the light comes to us in bursts of insight and intuitive, artistic joy. All great and wondrous masterpieces, large and small, come to us through transcendent creativity. True inspiration is divine inspiration. In this way, we receive.

The other way Spirit offers us blessings is in the opportunity to serve others, nature and the wholeness of being. When we give, we experience joy and soul satisfaction. Both giving and receiving melt and merge in deep communion with our One Source. Aaaaahhh...it feels so good!

We must realize the temporary nature of this human reality. We’re just flapping in the breeze, with nothing to hold onto! Everything that is physical – our bodies, our homes, our careers – eventually slips away. Addiction comes from a desperate grasping for security, yet there’s nothing in our clutches. Even a mountain erodes in time. Our bodies don’t last, and we know that someday, we will fly away from this world into the Mystery beyond it. What we leave behind is our legacy.

What legacy do you want to offer to this world?