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How can we change our perspective to reduce anxiety?

Charles: We are very anxious as a species. And because we are all anxious, we think it’s normal. But in fact, anything that we can do to bring down that anxiety is going to be very healthy for us, will bring down the diseases, will make us  more fulfilled in life and so on. And that’s just the comfort of making your life a little bit more predictable.

Dr J: But what about the concept…like let’s say there were earthquakes in Italy the other day. And everybody says, “Yeah, I saw it on Twitter” and they don’t think anything of it. But really our existence upon his earth is dependent upon each other. The earth is not a solid mass, it is a living, breathing organism. We are all in the web of life, so it’s really about a higher concept.

What is your frame of reference?

Charles: Yes. If you were to try to monitor every situation that happens across the earth, you would go insane! You don’t have the capacity to really understand, comprehend and digest everything that’s going on. Well, we were never meant to process everything like that. Now, you can take a situation like the earthquakes in Italy and take different approaches to it. “Oh my God, this could happen to me!” OR “This is not me. I don’t care. I’m going to be totally oblivious to it.” OR “I am so grateful for what I have, and that this has not happened to me, that I’m going to appreciate my life a little more, hug my children more, say ‘hi’ to my neighbour. I’m going to appreciate and value my life more.”

Dr J: Right.

Challenges are going to come

Charles: Now, there are many different ways you can come out of a challenge. It all depends on your frame of reference. So no matter what happens in your life, as you said earlier, no matter whether you believe in God, you don’t believe in God, whether you have a good life, you don’t have a good life, whether you are spiritual or not, whether you’re well-grounded or not…none of that is going to change what’s going to happen in your life. Challenges are going to come. So it’s about how you deal with them. And the more you are capable of dealing with challenges – the more, for example, spiritual you are, the more grounded, the more fundamentally strong you are – the bigger the challenges are going to be.

Dr J: Exactly.

Charles: Because the little challenges are not going to bother you. You’re not even going to think of them as challenges because you are capable of working through them. So it’s the big ones that are going to stop you. And you’re going to ask yourself, “Why is this happening to me? I feel I’m spiritual. I believe in you, God. So why is this happening?” Because that’s life. And when you look at it from the perspective that it’s a bad thing, that’s your problem right there. It’s the fact that you think of it as being bad. With any challenge that can happen, there are a lot of beautiful things that could come out of it. No matter how horrible it might be right now.

 Listen to the full podcast

The post Something bad happened to me. How do I change my perspective so I feel better? appeared first on Charles Hanna.

KMET1490AM – Los Angeles

Host: “You see why I had to schedule him. He was amazing. His testimony was real. It was deep. There were no excuses. What an amazing story. He was meant to live. He was meant to live to tell this story and to do that book.”

Hear the full interview

Partial transcript from this powerful interview:

Charles: I guess my first dabbling with drugs was with marijuana. But when I really fell into trouble was when I tried to dabble in cocaine. And that was back in the early Eighties when it first got introduced into North America. And ironically I grew up in a family where we did not touch anything so I was always very careful about doing anything. And at the time we thought it (cocaine) was a safe drug, only for the affluent to enjoy. And lo and behold, it wasn’t safe. And it exposed underlying issues that I had, and it developed into a full-blown addiction that I almost died from.

Aaron: Wow. So…was it like a life-and-death type situation where you were spared that?

Charles: I will tell you, when I finally stopped, which was almost 28 years ago – I am 6′ 1″ and at the time I weighed 127 pounds.

Mia: Whoa.

Charles: So I looked like a prisoner of the concentration camps. I came near death on several occasions. And I was very lucky to survive. And even at the end when I was going through the recovery process, I was quite aware that I might not make it, no matter my best efforts. And a significant change happened, which made me look at life very differently. A lot of lessons were learned and gave rise to the book eventually.

Aaron: Wow. See, this is what I always talk about, right Mia? Whenever we talk about those that have been addicted.  And the reality is that anybody can change…I always say that they can change, but the question is…some people don’t want to change. And it gets to a point where they HAVE to change.

Mia: Okay, how long were you using this?

Charles: About 8 years.

Mia: Whoa. About 8 years. How did it affect your surroundings – your family, people you came in contact with?

Charles: Well, you know, when I first started out I was at the height of my success. I was a businessman at the time. I had a corporation that was one of the fastest growing in the country, in Canada. And I was doing well on every score. I was making a lot of money. I came from very humble beginnings but I became very successful. I had lots of friends, I had lots of people that respected me, I was well-recognized in the industry, I was married, happily, I had a beautiful child. I had everything to look forward to. And this was just a means of having fun. And lo and behold, it started to become difficult to stop, and when I wanted to stop to be able to do events such as open houses and so on, I found myself incapable. And I had no idea what I was dealing with. I had never seen addiction before. And through a series of trying every possible way to control it, I just kept on going deeper and deeper and in the process I systematically lost everything in my life, including relationships, including my ability to function. And even my sanity, in the end, out of complete exasperation and not being able to do anything about it.

Aaron: Now here’s a question I have. When it came to the ending and recovery from that, what did you do to help diminish that addiction?

Charles: Well the thing about addiction – and what I talk about in the book, and what it taught me – is that there is an underlying cause for it, and it’s something that I refer to as a Perception Disorder. It is something we develop very young, in the way we look at life. We look at life from our perspective, so if a child for example is hurt, they might feel very insecure and afraid. And if they’re not nurtured properly, they might grow up feeling alone and exposed and become afraid and try to control things and push away certain things and so on. And it kind of multiplies through life. And people that have that extreme condition grow up in life wanting to have extreme control of everything in their life. And if something happens that affects that, they kind of fall apart. And that’s what I did. I had never seen it until I was in my twenties – when this happened to me. I was suffering from something – an abandonment issue that happened to me as a child – that I was not even aware of. So when you’re in the stage of having the active phase of addiction, your mind plays tricks with you. At the addiction stage, it’s now an extreme form of perception distortion where it’s almost nature’s way of getting rid of the disease – to isolate you and kill you. To get rid of you.

Hear the full interview

The post KMET Interview – How Perception Disorder Causes Addiction appeared first on Charles Hanna.

Listen to the full interview here

Drugs. Alcohol. Addiction. September is National Recovery Month. In this gritty and honest interview, talk show host Chad Benson asks Charles Hanna tough questions about addiction
And Hanna unflinchingly describes the path that led him from business success into severe cocaine addiction.

“At that time we had no idea that it was as dangerous as it is,” admits Hanna. “This was when cocaine first appeared in North America. And I did not expect it to be harmful in any way. But I’ll tell you, my addiction probably started the very first time I did it. I just loved it that much.”

Benson asks Hanna to ‘take us down the path of when you started to realize that you needed cocaine every day, and that this was becoming an issue’.

“First of all, I didn’t start doing cocaine because I felt lousy,” says Hanna. “It just made me feel much better. But as I continued to use it, my addiction to cocaine started to take hold fairly quickly. And it got to the point where I had big events for my company. And I couldn’t stop. I thought stress was the cause. So I tried several things; Like, I asked people to help me. Or I would take time off. And then I started to blame it on this and that. I couldn’t stop it. It just got worse and worse and my relationships deteriorated, my marriage was falling apart, I started to have these incredible resentments. And I could not get out of it. The more I tried – it was like quicksand – I got deeper and deeper into it.”

Everybody knows somebody who is dealing with addiction

Or perhaps they have battled it themselves. And they know what addiction can do to lives. It tears apart relationships, it tears apart work lives, personal lives, financial security. How did Hanna’s addiction take over his life?

“We would do several grams a day,” says Hanna. “And we would do that several days in a row. So the last time I did cocaine, I almost died. I did it for five days straight without sleeping, and hardly eating; I was 6′-1″ and I my weight was 127 pounds.”

What was the underlying cause of his addiction? “The irony of it is, it started to happen when I was at the height of my success. And I had everything I’d ever dreamed of: money, success, popularity, admiration – I was well-recognized in the industry, I was very happily married, I had a beautiful child, I had everything to look forward to. But when I look back, these things didn’t really make me happy, which I thought they would. And that confused me, because those dreams are what had been driving me up until then. So finally, when I had all those things – and found that they didn’t give me any pleasure – I was lost.”

Listen to the rest of the interview as Hanna describes the miracle of perception that allowed him to start his recovery.

Have you experienced addiction? How has it affected your journey?

The post Addiction – The Chad Benson Show appeared first on Charles Hanna.

Listen to her interview with Charles here

Do you have questions?

What is going on in the world today when the old ways of doing things no longer work? When all of our achievements don’t give us the lasting satisfaction we hoped for, what do we do?

What is a ‘spiritual life’? How can I look at my life with a new perspective (without taking mood-altering substances)?

Why are we really here?

The world is changing and the pace of life is accelerating. How can we use spirituality to deal with the dissatisfaction we feel in our lives?

How can we create a new, more fulfilling life for ourselves?

Our society seduces us with values that don’t satisfy us; how can we avoid losing ourselves to that seduction?

How can we use challenges to set the direction for our lives?

Right now I’m going through a tough time: how do I know I’m going to be okay?

It’s like I’m numb and feel like I’m missing my life; what can I do to feel more engaged, inspired, tuned in?

Do I have to lose everything before I can see feel connected in this world and find my purpose?

Is life a miracle or a burden?

How are we all interconnected?

Listen to her interview with Charles here

Dr. Jeanette offers wellness/personal advocate/consulting services to provide a sounding board for you to talk about your current health situation and help you formulate solutions that will lead to a more vibrant, higher quality of life. Find her professional biography here with additional information on her two other websites:

www.mypersonaladvocate2.com and www.outoftheboxhealthcare.com.

The post How to Have a Fulfilling Life – Dr. Jeanette Gallagher appeared first on Charles Hanna.

Listen to the full interview here

Charles describes how the childhood deaths of two of his sisters created a deep fear of abandonment that led to depression in adulthood and the subsequent cocaine addiction that nearly took his life.

Interview Summary

What is ‘perception disorder’?

Charles: Perception disorder is the way we tend to look at life, judging everything in terms of it being good for us, or bad for us. Everyone of us has their own way of looking at the world, and their own distortions come through whatever lens they’re using.

An example of perception disorder would be if your partner says, “I really need to go and talk to a friend of mine, alone, and get some advice.”

So you might react to that with a thought like, “Well, doesn’t she respect MY opinion? Is she going to talk about me? Is she not happy with me? Does she not trust me?” It may have nothing to do with you and chances are it doesn’t, but because we see everything in terms of what it means about us, our perception disorder makes us react.

And there are many such examples. But the bottom line is that when a parent does not talk to the child about his feelings, that child develops his sense of identity not really knowing where he stands in life.

And as the child grows she becomes more insecure and tries to control her environment because she doesn’t want to feel hurt.

But the more you try to control your environment…and we all know you cannot control it…the more anxiety sets in and the more you feel fear and anger. And this robs you of being able to enjoy life.

How is addiction an extreme form of perception disorder?

Charles: Perception disorder comes in varying degrees. There are people that have extreme perception disorder where they are practically paranoid or very angry or very fearful. And I think in that extreme – where you might have 10-15% of the population – it manifests itself in addiction and other compulsive behaviour. And most people see it as “Oh, it’s just alcohol abuse or drug abuse.”

Whereas the fact is, that’s just a symptom or a manifestation of it. The underlying perception disorder that caused the abuse is still there and will continue to be there. And if you were ever to stop drinking or doing drugs, it would still be there, even worse than before.

That’s why any recovery has to be supported by a complete change in the way you look at your life.

The rest of the population that doesn’t have addictions, still suffers from perception disorder to various degrees. For example, people may not have addictions but they’re just not happy. They’re either bitter about life or angry or they have a lot of enemies, or they don’t take care of themselves. Even smoking a cigarette is an indication that something is wrong there.

And then there are others that may seem normal and they’re living a ‘normal’ life, but there isn’t that excitement about life, that joie de vivre that people talk about. And that is also a case of being robbed based on a lesser degree of perception disorder.

So we can ALL benefit from a correction to our perception disorder.

What technique can we use to achieve a higher state?

Charles: One of the best ways is to connect with a lot of people. Just being open to a lot of different suggestions, being humble, and aerating your brain, talking about your inner thoughts.

It’s very important to develop a group of friends that you trust intimately, to be able to talk about your innermost feelings and secrets and desires.

Their feedback allows you to see the world from other people’s perspective and that balances and minimizes your own perception disorder. So you tend to correct yourself. You see you did something wrong, you clean it up. You prevent yourself from doing it again. And bit by bit, you’re making yourself lighter because you’re not accumulating all of these feelings that result from your own perception disorder.

Listen to the full interview here

WS Daily is CKWS-TV’s fast-paced live 5pm show featuring exciting guests, intelligent and relevant talk, news, current local and national affairs, celebrity interviews, viewer interaction, thrilling contests, surprise guest co-hosts and visits around southeastern Ontario.

The post CKWS Television – What is Perception Disorder? appeared first on Charles Hanna.

Listen to the full interview here

“We didn’t pay for our lives,” says Hanna.  “We have no control over when or how we are born. We don’t own ourselves. Rather, we are entrusted with life, so we have a cardinal responsibility to take care of ourselves and nurture ourselves. The most important person that you need to help in this world – is yourself. And it is a full-time job.”

What daily habits help with self-care?

Hanna describes how we need to take care of ourselves in many of the same ways we care for our children. We make sure they have enough rest, they eat well, they learn, they do their best. We need to do the same for ourselves too.

The most important way to take care of ourselves is physically. And there are four ways we can do that.

1. We need to get enough rest. A lot of us don’t get enough sleep, and sleep is the most important part of removing toxins from your body, repairing damage, balancing hormones.
2. The second most important part of our physical self-care is nutrition – what you put in your body. You need to invest the time to really understand and research what is the best nutrition and diet for yourself, and follow a routine for it.
3. The third aspect of it is that you have to stay very active – physical activity is something that has been with us through our entire evolution on this planet, and today we drive cars, we ride escalators and elevators and we don’t have to travel very far – we communicate online – and we’re robbed of the opportunity of pushing our bodies the way they need to be pushed to stay healthy.
4. And the fourth component of this type of self-care is simply checking on yourself. If something feels wrong, if you hurt somewhere, make sure you pay attention. Especially as you age.

Key Concepts from this Interview

• After taking care of your physical well-being you have to take care of the mental and spiritual aspects of your life. And I think that we’re all born with a deficiency, and to one extent or another we suffer from what I call a ‘perception disorder’. We look at life from a very self-centered perspective. We look at everything in terms of “Is it good or bad for me?”
• And we fail to realize that we are part of something much bigger. There’s a larger perspective, a much bigger universe that we are part of. And we’re just a fleeting second in terms of the span of our existence. When you understand that, you start realizing that you cannot take things as personally as we do.
• The things that are good about us – they’re not to our credit: we were born with them. And our shortcomings our not our fault. They’re not something for us to be ashamed of or to be angry or upset about. To help us to gain that wider perspective, we need to be healthy spiritually. And the way to do that is you have to connect with people a lot. People from all walks of life. With different opinions. Because the more you do that, the more you see the world realistically, and the more you have a prized group of friends that you can share your intimate thoughts with, and aspirations and fears. And they can help you put things in perspective.

Listen to the full interview here

The post Knowledge for Men: How is Your Self-Care? appeared first on Charles Hanna.

Listen to the full interview here

In conversation with KMZU Missouri host Shelby Flynn, Hanna explains how tragedies in his early childhood led him to develop rigorous self-reliance and determination.

Fortunately, these qualities allowed him to build a business empire. Unfortunately, the results didn’t make him happy. In fact, he plunged into depression and addiction.

Now 28 years sober, Hanna shares how a change in perspective literally saved his life and gave him the strength and structure to emerge from his dark night of the soul.

In addition, Hanna discusses the obsessive behaviours that run rampant in our population, and the reasons that these ‘perception disorders’ exist.

Do you have a perception disorder?

Maybe you’re wondering if you have a perception disorder. Hanna offers these questions to listeners to help determine the extent of their own potential perception disorder:

• Do you feel like you’ve been unlucky and that things never go your way?
• Do you have many resentments?
• Do you hold grudges?
• Do people constantly disappoint you?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, chances are, you’re suffering from a perception disorder.

Do you ‘own’ your life?

Hanna’s personal philosophy revolves around accepting that our lives don’t really belong to us; life is a gift we’ve been given. We didn’t pay for it. And in fact, it’s worth more than we could ever pay for it. Our miraculous abilities to see, to feel, to love, to sense the breeze on our skin – all these are part of the gift of life.

And we’re responsible for taking care of ourselves and this gift we’ve been given.

Toward the end of the interview, Hanna discusses the ways we need to take care of our physical, mental, and spiritual health in order to fulfill that responsibility for taking care of ourselves. And that’s something so many of us tend to ignore as we move through our busy lives.

Listen to the full interview here

The post KMZU: How Perception Disorder Causes Addiction appeared first on Charles Hanna.

Listen to the full interview here

“We are born with incredible gifts that we take for granted: our health, life itself, the ability to love, to connect with other human beings,” says Hanna.

But he’s learned from his own experiences that events in your upbringing can rob you of your ability to trust and value the gifts of life. And as you grow into adulthood, NO amount of success or fame or power or money is going to compensate for that.

Hanna feels that early loss or emotional trauma is likely an underlying cause of fatal addictions. He cites Whitney Houston, Phillip Seymour, Michael Jackson, Prince.

“We puzzle over how they could sink so low when they seemingly had so much going for them. Something robbed them of their ability to connect with the world,” says Hanna.

Something deep inside was undermining all of their success and status.

Hanna explains how tragedy touched his own childhood with the deaths of two of his sisters (aged 6 and 3). Of course his parents were devastated and inconsolable. His mother was on suicide watch. In the face of their anguish, Hanna grieved alone, becoming more and more isolated and confused.

Dr. Leslie comments that science has recently shown that the grief a parent feels on losing a child never diminishes for the rest of their lives. They must continue through life managing intense grief that never dissipates.

For Hanna, his parents’ preoccupation with grief left him feeling that he couldn’t trust anyone to be there for him, so he taught himself not to connect with, or depend on, anyone.

Denial: the devil’s foothold

Decades later, Hanna had achieved everything he’d dreamed of and more. But a series of events in his life triggered that deep-seated fear of abandonment he’d experienced in childhood. He began toying with cocaine and rapidly fell into the habit of lulling his newly exposed pain with drugs.

How can a person move through pain that deep in order to heal addictive behavior?

“I will tell you, I could not think my way through it,” says Hanna. “My mind only took me deeper into anger and resentment.”

Then, when he had lost all hope, a miracle occurred. An accident of perception allowed him to see the truth that addiction was possessing him, taking over his clever mind and using it against him.

Listen to the full interview here

The Dr. Leslie Show is produced in North Carolina by Bridge Holistic Healing and can be heard on BlogTalkRadio, iTunes, WSIC 100.7FM and TuneIn Radio.

The post The Dr. Leslie Show: Addiction is a Disease of Perception appeared first on Charles Hanna.