“Don’t get this game,” my sister warned me, “it will ruin your life.” Well, my life wasn’t ruined like 13-year Lucas Chan, who spent $4300 on the notorious Candy Crush game in one marathon session.

It’s one of the healthy outlets for me to distract myself, come down from stress and chaos, from screaming kids, messy kitchen, homework projects, piles of laundry.

But in order to allow myself to escape into this virtual reality, I need to trust/control myself that I won’t spend too much time and money, and I’ll use this a break, not an escape. As a doctor of Natural Health, specializing in the mind-body connection, I know that there’s a root cause for this need to escape. So I have to know my reasons: What am I escaping from? When I feel overwhelming anxiety, I know I need a break, and if I go for a run or cuddle with my cat and play Candy Crush, I’ll come back with a different perspective on my family. But in order to know how to not let a break become a great escape, I need to be aware of the core emotion that driving me. So I ask:

Is there too much going on and I feel powerless and out of control?

These breaks can be opportunities to:
Shift gears from overwhelm to being at ease.
Remind myself that I am a mature, smart, resourceful adult who can handle my
family.
Know that I don’t have to do everything right now, that I can choose to take a break and do things because I want to, not because I have to.

So go ahead, indulge in your favorite game, whether it’s Candy Crush or list others because some distractions are actually appropriate. And you can demonstrate to your family a healthy, appropriate ways to deal with stress or overwhelm. All from playing Candy Crush. Who knew?

Not knowing what to do, I just sit there, staring at my daughter.
“Wow, there’s no sky here… just an opening with a trail of colors swirling
upward,” she says after a minute, her closed eyes darting from side to side, following
her vision.
I look up – the ceiling is intact, thank God.
“It’s so magical here… so colorful and bright… fresh, pure, the smell of
spring, like after a rain… I know! It smells like my Britney Spears ‘Believe’ perfume,”
Jessica lifts her face, as if basking in sunlight. “I am so free!” she giggles
happily. “I am dancing, twirling… nothing is stopping me here.” I find myself
jealously biting my lip. “Oh, Mom,” her voice melts into a melody of delight, “I
am inside the rainbow… one step lower than Heaven!”
My daughter may be floating in the company of cosmic big wigs, however
what comes to mind is childhood psychosis: visual and auditory hallucinations,
extreme feelings of euphoria – all classic signs of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
But then I wonder, what’s the difference between psychosis and spiritual
experience. Is there one?
Chapter 9
Surprise at the bottom of the subconscious mind

“I go over Jessica’s simple explanation of how it’s we who attach all the meaning
and interpretation to everything that happens to us, and how these become
our unconscious beliefs – lenses of perception through which we look at life.
Hundreds of those lenses, in fact, created over many years, distorting the sacred
truth within. But if I am the one who has sentenced myself to these mental
conclusions, at some point in my childhood, then now, as an adult, I have the
choice to conclude something else. Something which will allow me to taste the
delicious sweetness of my well-hidden authenticity. And when this part of me,
my authentic being – maybe even my spirit – takes over, my thinking will leap
to a higher level.”

Chapter 15
Jessica, me, and the Palm Tree Fairy

Blog of Wellbeing: Mystical visions…shocking premonitions. The stor…: http://bookdaily.com/book/4305052#7uJ5tOx2yZUK4kDk.08