If you're going to do it, learn from it

You've probably heard the expression "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade." Well, Dr. Peebles has sure taught a lot of people how to make lemonade over the years. He never sees our lives and experiences as "wrong" or "bad." Instead he says, "There are no mistakes, only growth."

Living in this often very opinionated and judgmental world can be so difficult. People lambast one another for political, religious and sexual preferences. Even food preferences, or whether you choose paper or plastic at the grocery store, or bring your own bags, becomes an issue with some people. We're too fat or too thin, too tall or too short. I even had a man standing behind me in the bank comment on the fact that he felt my hair was too blond! Unfortunately, as the world judges us, we often become our worst judge, comparing ourselves with with unattainable body images, feeling ashamed because we prefer a good juicy burger over a quinoa salad, feeling ashamed about our job or financial status, and hiding our mystical beliefs from our Christian families, friends and co-workers. There are endless ways in which we can choose to feel badly about ourselves.

What I love about Dr. Peebles is that he points out the beauty and purpose in everything in our lives, no matter whether it is good, bad, or ugly. He weaves together the seemingly pointless, or frustrating events of our lives in a way that makes sense. He will tell someone who has been born into a violent, loveless family, that they chose that path because their family taught them how to sense into life, to become empathic and intuitive by having to "take everyone's emotional temperatures" every day, just in order to survive. He explains our journey with compassion, and from the perspective that this is a school called planet earth, and everything we do and experience in a given day is just another classroom teaching us about how to give and receive love. We are all going for our PhD in Love.

At our Open Session last month, Dr. Peebles spoke to a woman who very vulnerably presented herself in front of nearly 100 attendees, telling her story of addiction, sobriety, and relapse. Dr. Peebles' response is a classic example of the compassion and love that he shows for everyone, speaking to her from a place of non-judgment. He takes her back into her childhood and explains the reasons for her experiences, as if was just a natural part of the roadmap that she chose to follow in this life, and he even hints as to how the story will evolve over time. I am always amazed at how, no matter how dark our lives may seem, he can go inside of a person and find the light for them again.

Here is her question and Dr. Peebles' response. Enjoy.


Q: After I got out of college a few years after my battle with drug and alcohol addiction...and what happened is I've had lengths of sobriety, five years, two years, etc...and when I'm in  alignment, what I feel is in alignment...I am able to speak at high schools, prisons, jails, universities. I recently had a relapse, and I feel as if I've thrown it all away.

Dr. Peebles: No you haven't, you really haven't, not at all. What you are doing is really normal. Build upon that. You had a relapse; so that's what happened, so now you can speak from a place that knows. You're not standing there teaching as someone who's a know-it-all, "I've been there, and I'm all clean."  You're teaching from a realistic perspective here. And you can still stand up in front of them and say, "I had a relapse and I really doubted myself as to whether I was worthy to come back to talk to you again because of that." One relapse does not make the person, my dear, and we want you to be kind to yourself. You are a beautiful spirit and you've done nothing wrong ever.

And part of the reason for your so-called addictions and such (as you call them here; we don't like the word ourselves, because it's just something that you experience...you don't have to be addicted to anything), it's a choice you made, and it is wonderful because of the things that you've learned from it, and because of the very fact that you are willing to go into the darker spaces on behalf of other people who have been there too, and to come back out and to share with them that there is still light in the world, and there is still hope, and "don't give up."

You can go in and have these experiences and learn from them. If you're going to do it, learn from it. You're a mystic my dear, you are sensitive, you're empathic, you are sympathetic and all of these things have been with you since you were a little, little girl and it was very hard to feel the world because the world around you was rather tight and restricting. But with drugs and alcohol you felt free, and you felt like, "Finally, finally I can open up to these other dimensions, and I have an excuse!" And, you can still do that and you don't need the drugs to do it. You can still, my dear, open up to those dimensions with your spirit because the places the drugs take you are real, they're not fake, they're not chemistry, they are sometimes interplanetary, inter dimensional and you just wanted permission to go there, through meditation, prayer, even trance, perhaps.

But my goodness gracious, my dear, there is no one in this entire universe, except for a few human beings, who are going to end up judging you because of what you call a "relapse." You are a beautiful spirit my dear, you go forth, continue teaching, the world needs you. God bless you indeed.

We love you my dear, very, very much and thank you for the lives that you are touching and changing and for the lives that you will save, God bless you indeed.

[Audience applauds.]

Beautiful, my dear, and that was for you...that beautiful applause.