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TV detective Adrian Monk has brought obsessive compulsive disorder to the country's collective consciousness in a lovable, humorous way, but it's no joke if you're one of the 2.5% of the people caught up in it yourself. If you are one who feels compelled to endlessly repeat actions, such as washing your hands, or unwanted thoughts won't let you go, it's not funny. The Mayo Clinic (Mayoclinic.com) says these "ritualistic behaviors may literally take over your life." Those are the compulsions - impulses to do particular things. There are also the obsessions. Again, according the the Mayo Clinic "You have distressing unwanted thoughts or images that don't make sense to you. These thoughts or images keep coming back espite your efforts to ignore them."   It leaves little room in your life for anything else. What causes obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)? No one's sure. Theories include changes in your body's chemistry, learned behaviors, low levels of serotonin, or even strep infections. According the web site: Suite101.com, treatments include psychotherapy, particularly, cognitive-behavior therapy, and medication, primarily certain antidepressants . They may mask symptoms, but also present negative side effects. Cognitive therapy tries to change thinking and beliefs; behavior therapy "teaches the skills needed to gain better control over one's behavior." One approach exposes you to things you fear. The thought behind this is that you will grow accustomed to the feared thing, and learn to deal with it. There is no known cure, though some therapists claim good results. What is hoped for is that treatments will bring OCD under control to allow you to live a more normal life. At Grace Healing Arts we don't want to only manage symptoms: we seek to find underlying imbalances that create such conditions of confusion of the mind. (See related article below on Forget About It.) Grace Healing Arts physical, mental, spiritual, emotional Divine Therapies OCD sufferers search for stability in ritualistic performances, whether they realize that's what's happening or not. The mind, looking for stability, latches onto particular thoughts and doesn't let go. But that's not where true stability lies. When we get too caught up in thinking the mind whirls from one thought to another unendingly. We can get caught up in intellectual ramblings forever; one thought always leads to more. For those that experience OCD, those thoughts, instead of leading to others, will loop back over the same thought process again and again. We get stuck. Being caught in the never-ending loop of obsessive thought can be like being stuck on a never ending roller coaster. Just when we think we're about to disembark, our train speeds up around a corner and plunges in a dizzying drop that we're totally caught up in. When the train comes around to the stopping point again, we're clinging to it so tightly we miss our opportunity to leave. If we had control over the situation we would certainly get off the train. We don't seem to have control, and over time, we cling ever tightly to those obsessive thoughts, because they seem like the only steady thing in our lives. Thought alone is never going to bring us the stability we desire. Whether we are caught up in one intellectual argument after another, or are caught in a continual loop, it won't give us an anchor to hold onto. Thought changes. It's like being caught on a sand dune during a storm. Sands beneath our feet shift, leaving us at Nature's mercy. We often put our faith in concrete, touchable things, in relative existence. In truth, it's all illusion. Everything in the relative changes. Constantly. Shifting sand. True stability is found on more subtle levels. We all know there is a source that underlies everything; everything we see, feel and touch comes from it. Everything we see, feel, and touch is ever changing (unstable) relative life. The source is non-changing (as stable as you can get) Absolute. Most recently  quantum physics has called it the Unified Field. Until we find a way to regularly contact that Source and get that steadying influence in our lives, we'll always be trying to balance on shifting sand. How to do it? The Divine can help if we open and allow it.  The Divine has one foot in the relative and one foot in the Absolute. Regularly connecting with the Divine, helps steady us because of the grounding quality the one foot in the Absolute brings. Pray. Open to the Divine, and allow Their presence in your life. Meditate. I recommend Transcendental Meditation. It's a profoundly effective path to the stable Absolute. Meditating helps to open our hearts to our good, as well as many other benefits. Look for stability through that open the heart instead of relying on thoughts. The heart is a gateway to the Divine. We're very head oriented today, letting the head lead, reasoning out the do's and don't's. As soon as we've latched onto one idea that seems good, here comes another to further confuse us. The heart is not so easily confused. Let the heart lead. In addition, try Grace Healing Arts' FORGET ABOUT IT, for a solution that works from that very refined level where the unchanging Absolute manifests to the relative. Obsessive compulsive disorder is integral to Monk's plot line, but it's not nearly as much fun when we're the sufferers. Leave it to the television writers. We can create a far more stable, satisfying future for ourselves with a few subtle shifts of consciousness.

Grace Healing Arts P.O. Box 82 West Stockbridge, MA 01266 413-232-7715 Email To Order by phone, call 413-232-7715. All major credit cards accepted. Tinctures come in 1 oz. bottles. Massachusetts shipping addresses: 5% sales tax will be added. Note: these therapies are to be used in addition to and not instead of professional health care. You are your own responsibility. Grace Healing Arts only offers these Divine Therapies as a gift. How you use them is up to you. These products do not replace regular professional health care; nor do they (or we) diagnose, prescribe, or treat any specific disease or discomfort.

Grace Healing Arts 413-232-7715 Please note the statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. © 2007 Grace Healing Arts. All rights reserved.