People ask me what are my credentials that I know happiness and success can be assured. Well, for a good part of my life, I was very unhappy. I have a very good formal education, including an MBA degree, and I expected to be very successful, but I was, in my own opinion, a failure. In my youth, I was emotionally abused by my mother and sexually abused by a neighbor, Russell Donnelly, and I grew-up to become an angry, abusive adult. My first marriage and relationships were failures and I was far from successful in the corporate world. All I could envision was a future that would continue to spiral downward. I finally reached that point of ‘dissatisfaction to action’. I was determined to do whatever was necessary to turn my life around.
I began my journey by seeking professional help. My therapist, Carol Caputo, used Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in my treatment. It’s important to know that I was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Obsessive, Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) My therapist suggested that I see her twice a month. Being obsessive, I told her “If twice a month is good, then I’ll see you weekly”. After a few months of therapy, I didn’t feel any better so, being obsessive, I started reading self-help books in addition to going to therapy. After many more months of continued unhappiness, I was getting desperate for change, and I thought “Maybe God’s the answer”, and I started studying all the major religions. (For a succinct summary of the major religious principals, see Oneness – Great Principals Shared By All Religions by Jeffrey Moses). Then one day, it all came together. I had resolved my basic emotional issues by integrating them, and was able to see them from a more positive viewpoint (my mother suffered from her own sexual abuse issues as an teenager, and the neighbor was a very sick pedophile). I was no longer the victim of abuse, but the survivor of abuse. I was ready to change. It was my obsession to change that enabled me to learn how to ’be the observer’ of my thoughts and emotions and start my journey toward happiness and success. I realized it was all in my way of thinking! I was negatively interpreting what was happening around me and to me. I understood I had conditioned myself to be negative by my negative thinking. ( See the video Understanding Neuroplasticity ) Being OCPD, I was obsessing on negative thoughts ( I would ruminate ), and that was causing my unhappiness and failures. That’s when I started my new obsessive journey to condition my thoughts to be positive through ‘positive thought training’. (See the video Condition Your Emotions To Be Positive ) Today, I’m a very happy person who is very content with my life and relationships. I feel blessed to be living this happy experience at this stage in my life’s journey. So, it is because of my own personal experience that I know happiness and success can be assured through ‘positive thought training’.