There are several things that must occur for one to gain cont rol over
his mind and body. First, one must make an effort to understand and
trust the mind and body. Today, the Westernized world has estranged
itself from these two entities and relate to them via drugs or some
other third party.

Liken, if you will, yo ur body unto a car. Your mind serves as You, that
is the person who relies on the car for transportation. If you are like
most people, you use your car everyday and would feel desolate if you
were not able to use your car to go buy groceries or go to work.

Alas,without a properly working car you would be unable perform many of
the functions to survive effectively in this world. You could get by of
course, with taking the bus or walking (these are not bad ideas by the
way but stick with my analogy here). In short, you would not be able
to get a whole lot done everyday if you had to walk or take the bus 20
miles to work, then 5 miles to the grocery store and then 12 miles to
take the kids to school.

The same is true for our bodies. If we are
constantly performing at weakened energy levels, we cannot
accomplish what our divine spirits are here to do.
So how do we come to understand our bodies so that we can always be
at our physical and mental maximum? Well, we must establish a
relationship of trust with our mind and body. You trust that your car,
truck, bus or bicycle will get you to work everyday. Why do you trust
this vehicle?

Because you see constant social proof that vehicles are
trustworthy. There are freeways and crowded parking lots that attest to
the trustworthiness and reliability of cars.

What social proof do we have that one can trust and should trust the
body? It’s lacking in the world my friend. That’s what my book aims
to accomplish: to re-instate a form of body-trust within our society.
How do I know that this body-trust is non-existent by and large in the
Western world?

First of all lets look at how we treat (that is look at)
mal conditions. Doctors and pharmaceutical companies essentially
experiment using the scientific method to see what will and will not
treat a condition. I emphasize treat because these groups do not aim to
cure mal conditions.

Also, it is acceptable for other mal conditions and
side effects to accompany the treatment.
The perfect example of our distrust and distance from the human body
is the placebo effect.

The placebo effect is a phenomenon in scientific
experiments where one group of participants with ailments is given a
drug that may or may not treat a condition. The other part of the
group, suffering from the same condition, is given a placebo, or sugar
pill, to treat the condition at hand.

Both groups are told that they have
been given a new drug that may improve their mal condition or disease.
Well, at the end of such studies, typically 20% of the people who
took a sugar pill see an improvement in their condition. Twenty
percent is a significant number that attests to the power of the mind to
dictate how the body will react.

Meanwhile, there are times when 10%
or fewer of the participants who received the trial drug see an
improvement in their conditions, possibly having the side effects of
course.

If a sugar pill can be more effective at treating a condition than
an expensive drug, we all should give greater consideration to the
power of the mind and our words to heal us than to drugs that promise
to treat and offer side-effects for dessert.
When trial drug participants receive the placebo, some of these
individuals are telling themselves, “This drug will make me better.”

These placebo participants are telling themselves, “I believe in this
drug. I believe this drug will heal me.” Furthermore, these patients
most likely genuinely want their condition to go away. They have no
use for their unhealthy state and want to move beyond this condition.

Thus, the body only has the choice of obeying what the mind tells it to
do, so the patient sees an improvement in their condition. These
patients really did not need to take the sugar pill.

The participants
could have meditated on the fact the body was healing itself.
Deepak Chopra, M.D. writes in his book “Journey Into Healing”:
“In mind-body medicine, any explanation has its roots in an
earlier stage, in moments when the immune system was
weakened by a negative mental influence.”

I offer this quote not to persecute persons with acne as having brought
acne upon themselves through their actions. The sentence is present to
attest to the potency of our words and actions. You can perhaps recall
several instances where mere words changed your state of mind and
mood.

For example, if your boss says, “You did a great job this
morning, take the rest of the week off as a mini paid vacation”, or if
your best friend says, “You look fabulous! Tell me your secret for
looking so great!” these words are more likely to put you in a great
mood.

Your energy level will probably rise along with your
confidence level, and you may smile. All of these signals send a
message of health and joy to your body. And mere words generated
this whole series of reactions.

On the contrary, if you have received a comment such as, “You’re face
is messed up” as I have before, your response may be toxically
negative. Having heard such a destructive remark, you may begin to
feel sad, worthless and think of yourself as an unattractive person.

Meanwhile you are sending your body all of these messages of ill
health. And your body will manifest what you tell it to create.
Remember, you are always the master of your body. As such, you
should respect the body while giving it only the commands that you
want it to fulfill.

It may sound as if I am just saying to be positive. We are aiming for
something deeper here. One, how do you respond to acne and two,
how do to respond to the actions of others with respect to your acne. In
brief, the question is:

How much power over your state-of-mind and
mood do you allot to acne? This question is not simply about acne but
your overall quality of life.

Do you allow a pimple to ruin your day? Once you see a pimple on
your face what are the words that you tell yourself and your body?
Does it go something like: “Oh no, not another zit!” Why do these
annoying things happen?

I have awful skin!” Well, your body is
recording all of these statements so that it can process them and obey
your orders which were: To make more zits because you do not
understand why you have them in the first place and to make the skin
look awful.

The body is extremely patient and obedient. If you will not
heed the messages it gives you, the body will return the messages
again and again. If you want your body to do something different, give
it something different, tell it something different, put it somewhere
different.

It is as simple as this. You are the master, and the body is a
most loyal servant. Command as you will.
Now, knowing that the body is our best friend, how do we go about
decoding the messages of acne? First, you start to acknowledge your
body as an intelligent being.

Next, you begin to talk to you body in
terms of the way you want it to respond to you. Then you listen for
your body to request you to do things a little differently.
Lets move these steps into a real scenario.

It’s 7am, you just woke up and now you’re gazing in the mirror. You
look closely over what’s there. Then bam! A zit. Now, you are Mr. or
Miss “I listen to my body”. You react in a calm fashion and slightly
reflect on your life in the past two days and what you expect to arise in
the coming days. Your wondering may include the following thoughts:

• “Oh, I’m just so nervous about this job interview today.”
• “Johnny really pissed me off last night when he didn’t call.”
• “I can’t believe Rachelle says I’m fat, she’s ugly.”
• “How am I going to pay that credit card bill? I am so overwhelmed?”
• “I think I might be allergic to cheese, that’s all I’ve been eating lately.”
  “The weather’s changed a lot recently, I don’t know if I’m comfortable
  with it.”

If your thoughts are not like any of those presented above, the point is
to simply understand what’s been going on in your head because the
body has been listening. The zit could be the manifestation of nervous
energy or discomfort with a few of the things you’ve been eating. You
have to be honest with yourself and ask what have you been putting in
your body mentally, physically and spiritually.

I have designed a chart so that you can better organize and perhaps
realize what has been going on with your body and life and how it has
translated into an acne message.

How do you talk to yourself in the following situations? Under the
category that best describes yo ur response mode, add the words that
you would use to talk with yourself during this situation. Please note
that agree also implies that you can accept the comment as something
worth looking into. Disagree, implies that the comment is
unacceptable and you will not consider reflecting upon the comment as
something useful.

Response options

• I agree and give thanks
• I agree and get a little more arrogant
• I disagree and say “Thanks” anyway
• I disagree and do not claim the comment

Situation

• Someone gives you a compliment about your work performance.
• someone criticizes your work performance.
• someone gives you a compliment on your appearance.
• Someone criticizes your appearance.

Response to the comments of others:

OK, now that you know how yo u respond to others, you need to know
what it means to you.

When someone tells you something positive
about yourself can you accept it as the truth, or do you doubt that you
are completely capable of delivering something wonderful such as
doing an outstand ing job on a task or looking spectacular?

If you cannot accept praise, talk with yourself so that you can and do
embrace compliments. We all need praise; this is why spiritual
literature urges people to lift their voices up in praise. Praise generates
a creative energy.

That is an energy that promotes the fulfillment of
one’s purpose. We praise our God and thank God for creating life and
keep faith that God’s works will continue to bless our lives.
The same applies to each of us on a spiritual level.

We need to praise and uplift ourselves so that we can go on to do our divine works on
this planet. Our divine work may be to be a wonderful mother, lover,
or painter- works of divinity are limitless.

When you receive praise from another, you need to be able to allow
this praise to push you forward, to further energize you. With respect
to acne, give your body the message that it is healthy and making the
world more pleasurable for others, that your body is doing a wonderful
job. Then your body will continue to perform as you wish.

Likewise if someone offers to criticize you, you need to decide how
you wish to channel the energy of her comments. For instance, if
someone claims that your skin looks awful you can choose to respond
in several ways:

• You can kick the person’s ass, this would be pointless however.
• You could curse the person and attempt to further degenerate
  them with sly comments-again useless.
• You could hope the grace of the Universe enters this person’s
  mind so that they could see beyond the superficial- a
  productive gesture.
• Or you could allow that person’s energy to stay with them and call
  on your own body to send a surge of healing energy through your whole being- a very effective response.