Wow, how many times have we heard that? How many times have we needed a "manual" to get us through confusing and tough times in life. Wouldn't that be nice?... a place we could go to get definitive answers for what we don't understand... a place we could go that would NOT be dependent upon someone else's advice or our own trial and error method. It would be a place where we could get a solid answer to our predicaments that is right for us, no questions asked. How many times have we tried and failed at diets and exercise programs, then wondered why? How many times have we trapped ourselves into the same bad relationship even though we vowed not to again? How many of us know that probably 90% of our health medical issues can be taken care of for free? How many times have we switched jobs only to find those same difficult people or bosses to work with? Why do we sabotage ourselves? Why can't we quit smoking once and for all? The list goes on forever.

Well, the good news is, there IS such a manual. We were born with it! Now, you just just have to remember where you left it. The bad news is that it doesn't come in book form. That would be way too limiting. I will get right to the point and tell you how to access your manual. But I must first warn you... YOU PROBABLY WON'T BELIEVE ME!!! You have forgotten.

I NEED A MANUAL FOR LIFE!!!

Wow, how many times have we heard that? How many times have we needed a "manual" to get us through confusing and tough times in life. Wouldn't that be nice?... a place we could go to get definitive answers for what we don't understand... a place we could go that would NOT be dependent upon someone else's advice or our own trial and error method. It would be a place where we could get a solid answer to our predicaments that is right for us, no questions asked. How many times have we tried and failed at diets and exercise programs, then wondered why? How many times have we trapped ourselves into the same bad relationship even though we vowed not to again? How many of us know that probably 90% of our health medical issues can be taken care of for free? How many times have we switched jobs only to find those same difficult people or bosses to work with? Why do we sabotage ourselves? Why can't we quit smoking once and for all? The list goes on forever.

Well, the good news is, there IS such a manual. We were born with it! Now, you just just have to remember where you left it. The bad news is that it doesn't come in book form. That would be way too limiting. I will get right to the point and tell you how to access your manual. But I must first warn you... YOU PROBABLY WON'T BELIEVE ME!!! You have forgotten.

I NEED A MANUAL FOR LIFE!!!

Plato wrote a story about people born and raised in a cave. They had a distorted view of reality having to do with only being able to see shadows within a limited field of vision. One person, however, broke free and saw the real world outside. When he came back to tell the cave dwellers about what he had learned, they told him he was insane. They told him his story was too crazy to be true, and he should never have left the cave. And so it is with what I am about to tell you. We have all been living in such a cave for most of our lives. Although we all lived OUTSIDE in the real world when we were born, that's not part of our conscious memory now, and so most of us have forgotten that. How much do most of us really consciously remember about our lives before age five? Not much, usually. That was a different world with very different rules and experiences. That world seems so very far away from us now. The closest we can come to it now is watching a baby or small child and saying things like, "Ah yes, out of the mouths of babes," or "What happened to that innocent world?"

That world is buried in our subconscious, and that is why you're going to have a hard time believing or relating to what I am about to tell you. But know that it is true, and if you're brave enough to go back there, your life will radically change and heal like you never thought possible. So let me go ahead and tell you where your manual for life is.

PLATO'S CAVE

Plato wrote a story about people born and raised in a cave. They had a distorted view of reality having to do with only being able to see shadows within a limited field of vision. One person, however, broke free and saw the real world outside. When he came back to tell the cave dwellers about what he had learned, they told him he was insane. They told him his story was too crazy to be true, and he should never have left the cave. And so it is with what I am about to tell you. We have all been living in such a cave for most of our lives. Although we all lived OUTSIDE in the real world when we were born, that's not part of our conscious memory now, and so most of us have forgotten that. How much do most of us really consciously remember about our lives before age five? Not much, usually. That was a different world with very different rules and experiences. That world seems so very far away from us now. The closest we can come to it now is watching a baby or small child and saying things like, "Ah yes, out of the mouths of babes," or "What happened to that innocent world?"

That world is buried in our subconscious, and that is why you're going to have a hard time believing or relating to what I am about to tell you. But know that it is true, and if you're brave enough to go back there, your life will radically change and heal like you never thought possible. So let me go ahead and tell you where your manual for life is.

PLATO'S CAVE

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IS OUR MANUAL FOR LIFE!

2 LEVELS

Your "Manual for Life" is first hand experience. Remember, at the beginning of this book, we told you that you just have to remember where you left it? Putting it in a book is indeed too limiting. Personal experience is the best teacher in life. Countless quotes have been made about it? Julius Ceasar: "Experience is the teacher of all things." Albert Einstein: "The only source of knowledge is experience." C.S. Lewis: "Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn." Mark Twain: "A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way." Paulo Coelho: "Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience. John Keats: "Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced." Albert Camus: "When you have really exhausted an experience, you always reverence and love it."

I know, I know. Your're probably thinking to yourself... "What are you talking about? I've been experiencing things all my life, and I never saw a manual for life. I've just seen the school of hard knocks." Well, of course most of us feel this way. That's because the world we live in now is the SECOND level of experiencing life. Level 1 exists in the world of a child... that world before five... that world in your subconscious. Experience on level 1 is infinitely more efficient. But, unfortunately, somewhere along the way we had to learn how to "behave," and that ruined it for us. Let me show you what I'm talking about by first showing you level 2 of experiencing life.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IS OUR MANUAL FOR LIFE!

2 LEVELS

Your "Manual for Life" is first hand experience. Remember, at the beginning of this book, we told you that you just have to remember where you left it? Putting it in a book is indeed too limiting. Personal experience is the best teacher in life. Countless quotes have been made about it? Julius Ceasar: "Experience is the teacher of all things." Albert Einstein: "The only source of knowledge is experience." C.S. Lewis: "Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn." Mark Twain: "A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way." Paulo Coelho: "Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience. John Keats: "Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced." Albert Camus: "When you have really exhausted an experience, you always reverence and love it."

I know, I know. Your're probably thinking to yourself... "What are you talking about? I've been experiencing things all my life, and I never saw a manual for life. I've just seen the school of hard knocks." Well, of course most of us feel this way. That's because the world we live in now is the SECOND level of experiencing life. Level 1 exists in the world of a child... that world before five... that world in your subconscious. Experience on level 1 is infinitely more efficient. But, unfortunately, somewhere along the way we had to learn how to "behave," and that ruined it for us. Let me show you what I'm talking about by first showing you level 2 of experiencing life.

Let's take a common example of coming across a rude or difficult person in your life. It might be your boss, a co-worker, a relative, an ex, or their spouse. Let's say they are being very difficult and rude. Your first knee jerk response is usually to be just as rude right back to them. Some people have no problem with just that. They get right back in their face and "let 'em have it." Well, we all know of the complications this creates... fights, bad feelings, misunderstandings, estrangement, etc. Most of us hold our tongue to some degree and try to figure out our next move. We talk to our friends about it and mull it over in our minds until the next time it happens.

The next time it happens, we may or may not be prepared to deal with it. So many times we end up avoiding the confrontation and putting it on hold until the pressure is so great, we end up confronting in a huge way or quitting the job or relationship. Other times we do confront with marginal resolution. We have to go back numerous times to resolve it completely. And even that is not enough as you will learn later. In any case it's taken days, weeks, months, or years. That's a lot of accumulated stress. Let's take another example of just wanting to lose weight. How many of us have gone on diets with the best of intentions, only to find ourselves back at square one sometime later? Why is it we can understand and logically KNOW why we should be eating healthier, but our URGES get the best of us? The reality is we WANT to eat anything and everything but we MAKE ourselves go on a diet. It's usually after numerous attempts and a feeling of "I've had enough" that we either stop dieting altogether or stay on our course permanently using our willpower. Again, that's a ton of stress we are carrying around with us for a long time.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE LEVEL 2

Let's take a common example of coming across a rude or difficult person in your life. It might be your boss, a co-worker, a relative, an ex, or their spouse. Let's say they are being very difficult and rude. Your first knee jerk response is usually to be just as rude right back to them. Some people have no problem with just that. They get right back in their face and "let 'em have it." Well, we all know of the complications this creates... fights, bad feelings, misunderstandings, estrangement, etc. Most of us hold our tongue to some degree and try to figure out our next move. We talk to our friends about it and mull it over in our minds until the next time it happens.

The next time it happens, we may or may not be prepared to deal with it. So many times we end up avoiding the confrontation and putting it on hold until the pressure is so great, we end up confronting in a huge way or quitting the job or relationship. Other times we do confront with marginal resolution. We have to go back numerous times to resolve it completely. And even that is not enough as you will learn later. In any case it's taken days, weeks, months, or years. That's a lot of accumulated stress. Let's take another example of just wanting to lose weight. How many of us have gone on diets with the best of intentions, only to find ourselves back at square one sometime later? Why is it we can understand and logically KNOW why we should be eating healthier, but our URGES get the best of us? The reality is we WANT to eat anything and everything but we MAKE ourselves go on a diet. It's usually after numerous attempts and a feeling of "I've had enough" that we either stop dieting altogether or stay on our course permanently using our willpower. Again, that's a ton of stress we are carrying around with us for a long time.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE LEVEL 2

How many of us have found ourselves not liking our jobs anymore? We know we don't belong there, but so many reasons and fears keep us there. Maybe we don't want to let someone down, or maybe we're afraid we won't find another job that pays as well, or maybe it's too scary to just quit without another job already lined up. The list goes on and on, but the bottom line is we WANT to quit right now but we DON'T. Again, more stress in our bodies on a daily basis. Or how many of us have been in a situation where we have to be around noisy kids? We find it irritating, but we withstand it until we either yell at them or get a splitting headache! Again, more stress. The list goes on forever, from getting up to an alarm clock, to putting up with careless drivers on the road, to having to wait in long lines at the grocery store, or having deadlines to meet at work, etc. etc. The common thread with experiencing life on level 2 is that we never really get a full resolution. It always involves holding in some kind of stress or at least not letting it all out. It might be out of being considerate to others. It might be out of not wanting to get in trouble. It might even be out of not wanting to break the law, but we've learned to contain ourselves until the next round.

And then, when the next round does come along, we find ourselves with an even shorter fuse than the time before. The next round comes, and the next round comes, until we have no more fuse left. Ask yourself if you've been to this place before. It's called "rock bottom." It's a place in your life where you just surrender to all the pain you've been holding and end up collapsing with it. It's a dark place with little or no hope. It's a place where you lose control and just fall into the depression of the whole situation. For some it has to do with coming off of an addiction. For others it's a loss of a relationship or family member. For others it's getting sued or convicted or getting cancer. There's a number of scenarios for hitting rock bottom. Each of us has our own personal way of experiencing it. If you haven't experienced it, you can look forward to it if you stay on level 2! It's there waiting for you. Very few people in life escape it. Now pay attention to this because it's important. Every rock bottom is usually accompanied by a light at the end of the tunnel. (If not, it's because you need yet another rock bottom) Many of us come out of that dark place revived with a new outlook on life. We have new insights and a new appreciation for our lives, and we usually end up behaving in a healthier, more responsible, more self empowering way. It feels great! It feels like a second chance. It feels like it was worth the "near death" experience we just had to go through.