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The Mind-SkinConnection

COURSE TRANSCRIPT

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Section I / Lecture 1

In 1985, a Harvard professor of medicine, Herbert Benson, traveled to northern India to study a group of monks that he was told had some kind of ability to control their physical bodies. He put these monks in a room that was four degrees Celsius (which is really cold). The monks were dressed in just a very thin garb. While sitting down, the research team placed ice cold sheets of fabric across their bodies. To Benson’s astonishment, the monks were completely un-phased. Typically, any one of us would be shivering uncontrollably and probably even die. But these monks were not only un-phased but, after about an hour, they handed back the sheets completely dry with steam coming off of them!

I don’t know about you, but if you’ve ever tried to dry your clothes on a cold day it could take 24 hours for the clothes to dry. The monks dried them in one hour using their minds. Benson’s team was amazed; they’d never seen anything like this. And the reason the monks did this kind of silly exercise was to show us that our perception of reality is not necessarily accurate and that the power of the mind is much greater than we think. So over the next four to five weeks, I’m going to be teaching you how to use the power of your mind to cure your acne and create clear skin. Why? Because you’re absolutely good enough. And I’m going to tell you that over and over again throughout this course… You are worthy of having completely clear skin.

222 E. 93rd St. New York, NY 10128

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Section I / Lecture 2

When I was living in New York City in my early 20s, as an actor, I got really inspired by the stories about these monks. I decided to take a trip over to Bodhgaya, a city in the center of India where Buddha reached enlightenment, and learn how to meditate. I practiced Vipassana meditation, and it was amazing. It’s something that you’ll see traces of in Think Clear Skin’s Meditation Technique, which you’ll be learning later on in the course.

When I came back to New York City, I felt a lot better; I felt centered. I’d learned how to be more aware of myself and equanimous. But I still hadn’t cured my acne. And I had some questions. For example: “Can you cure acne completely or is it something that’s hereditary?” My second question was, “Can you eat whatever you want and still have clear skin?” This was important to me as an actor because, unless you’re Brad Pitt or Jessica Chastain, you can’t really control the food you eat on a film set. Craft services present a certain meal every day and you have to eat it unless you want to be a spoiled brat. And I didn’t want to become a spoiled brat. I didn’t want to try and always control my surroundings.

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The third question I had was, “Can you feel the full range of your emotions and still have clear skin? As an actor, my job is to feel all of my character’s emotions. Your character might feel angry or maybe your character is stressed out, or upset… or afraid. And your job is to feel those emotions unless you want to be a soap opera actor and just fake it. But I didn’t want to be a soap opera actor. I wanted to be the real deal! And I’m sure you can identify with this in your own lives. I know that, in some of your relationships with friends, your partner, your boss or with family, you sometimes get stressed or angry about something. That’s totally normal. And you don’t want to worry about having a skin reaction, a breakout, or some cyst develop just because you’re angry or stressed. These emotions are part of life. And the last question I had was, “Can you create everlasting clear skin?” I wanted to have sustainable results. That was really important to me.

After experimenting for over 12 years with over 40 different healing modalities, and studying with some great teachers of both Eastern and Western philosophies, I was finally able to arrive at a single, easy-to-follow method. It took some of the best things from each of these different modalities and answered these four questions I had; questions that I think are probably important to you as well. So, I’m excited to share this information and technique with you.

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It’s important to know a few things before we start. First of all, be patient with yourself; that will only help the process. The second thing that’s important to note is that there are two requirements for the meditation practice to work effectively. Firstly, you need to build the right mental framework before you practice the TCS Meditation. We’ll be spending the majority of the course going over the framework so you have a strong foundation. Secondly, when you do practice the TCS Meditation, practice it with honesty and conviction.

There are five sections to the course. After the intro in section one, sections two through to four will cover reprogramming your core beliefs, releasing your blocked emotions, and dealing with some of the, what I call, normal voices in your head. These ‘inner selves’ include the inner critic and your essential self (AKA: your true self). We’re going to leverage some of these natural voices to help with the healing process. Lastly, I’m going to rehearse the meditation practice with you in section five. From there, you’re going to master it and transform yourself. You’re going to transform your inner world and your outer world. You’re going to create clear skin and develop some really genuine, sustainable and powerful self-esteem. This will help you avoid the ups and downs that really suck and come with acne.

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Section I / Lecture 3

We’re going to go over a little bit of scientific data. It’s potentially very exciting. If you are a little unsure about certain words or concepts, just be patient. I think you’ll eventually understand the concept. If it doesn’t fully hit you now, you will get it later on. Bruce Lipton, a famous American biologist and former researcher at Stanford University, made a really important discovery while cloning stem cells. Lipton found evidence that we are not controlled by our heredity and our DNA, proving that we can actually re-write our genes.

Lipton took one stem cell and cloned it thousands of times, creating thousands of replicas of the same stem cell. He then divided these stem cells into three peach tree dishes, with each dish having a different environment. In their respective environments, the cells in the first dish became fat. The cells in the second dish became muscle. And the cells in the third dish became bone. This means that the fate of these cells was not determined by their DNA, but by their environments. Basically, this means that, when you put cells in a healthy environment, the cells become healthy. When you put cells in an unhealthy environment, they become unhealthy.

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You’re probably thinking “this is really interesting, but what does it have to do with my mind and body?” …Well, our bodies have approximately 50 trillion cells. In your body, the environment for your cells is your blood chemistry. And your blood chemistry is largely impacted by the chemicals that your brain emits. Now, what do you think your brain chemistry is influenced by on a daily basis? What’s changing the chemistry of your brain? What is the environment that’s influencing your brain’s chemistry?... It’s your perceptions of life; it’s your thoughts and your beliefs. Ultimately, it is our beliefs and our perceptions of life that are creating the environment for your cells and creating your cellular health, not your DNA.

Great. Let’s take some of this cutting-edge scientific information and start applying it right now to clearing your skin. The first thing I’d like you to do is take out a pen and paper and write down one or two pages, describing what you want your clear skin situation to look like. Think about the details of your new life with clear skin. Be clear. Be specific. And also be ambitious. Break the status quo you have in your mind. Whatever you think you don’t deserve – that you’re not worthy of, and all that bullshit – throw it out the window.

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I want you to have the same things I’ve been able to accomplish, such as being able to eat what I want and feel whatever emotions I want, but I also want you to personalize your own vision. You’ve probably thought about how you want clear skin, but you probably haven’t thought much about the details of what that looks like. And why not? You should. You’ve thought a lot about how you don’t like your pimples, and how you don’t like when this happens or that happens. I understand. We think a lot about the negative stuff. But I want you to put the same amount of your creative energy into envisioning the positive stuff.

Remember what Bruce Lipton’s research proved; our thoughts manifest our reality with our cellular health. This means that your cells are listening and they’re responding! So, this is a really important exercise and a great first step. Now, after you’ve written out your desires in one or two pages. The next step is to go back through it, identify the pieces that are the most essential to you, and edit them into a final paragraph. Leave out everything except the points that excite you the most and are most meaningful to you. Put your Clear Skin Vision aside somewhere safe and review it throughout the course for inspiration and direction. When you’ve transformed your skin and your life, you’ll also have a souvenir to show how far you’ve come. When this day comes, remember to pat yourself on the back for manifesting this reality. You used your own mind to create clear skin, which is very self-empowering!

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Lastly, notice how your mental and physical well-being changes when you start writing down these thoughts and feelings, compared to how you felt beforehand. This is just a small example of how powerful your thoughts and beliefs are in the present moment. Cool. Well, I want you to know that… you’re absolutely worthy of and deserve clear skin. Stay patient and keep at it.

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Section I / Lecture 4

There are two levels to the mind. You probably know this already, but I want to repeat it anyway. There’s the conscious mind and there’s the subconscious mind. Neuroscience shows that the subconscious mind controls 95 percent of our beliefs and our thoughts. That explains why there are a lot of people who, myself included (I was this way for many years), will try different diets, nutritional plans, exercises and medicine, and not see any improvements or lack sustainable results. They sort of go around and around like a mouse in a wheel because they’re using their conscious mind to try to fix the problem. And again, the conscious mind is only responsible for about 5 percent of our thoughts and our beliefs.

Remember, the 50 trillion cells in your body are responding always to your dominant mindset; to whichever beliefs are the most dominant in your mind. And the most dominant beliefs in your mind are always in the subconscious mind because, again, the subconscious mind controls 95 percent of your programming. A lot of the beliefs that we have in our subconscious mind are programmed by the age of six. The Jesuits have a famous saying: “Give me a child until the age of six or seven and he’ll be in the church for the rest of his life.” That’s a profound statement. They’re absolutely right. Those first six or seven years of your life are when you receive the bulk of your programming at a subconscious level.

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So how do you change a bunch of beliefs that you’re not even aware that you’re having, and were programmed to have before you were six years old?… I will tell you the answer. The first thing you need to know is that having acne actually has some good news. The good news is that the answers are written across your face. The pimples are signals from your subconscious mind. They are an expression of the beliefs in your subconscious mind. So you have the clues. Now, we just need to figure out exactly what beliefs need to be reprogrammed.

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Section II / Lecture 1

Louise Hay, an American motivational author and founder of Hay Book Publishing, had cancer and reversed it after six months by using an intensive regime of visualizations, positive affirmations, psychotherapy and diet. All of these things are very powerful. In Think Clear Skin’s method, we will be using positive affirmations and visualizations, but we’ll also focus on releasing blocked emotions, role-playing and meditation. Remember, meditation is what I learned in India? So, a little bit of that is getting sprinkled into the technique.

You’re going to focus more on changing your beliefs than your thoughts. According to the famous neuroscientist, Deepak Chopra, human beings on average have approximately 60 to 80 thousand thoughts per day. Do you really want to try to change 70,000 thoughts? No, right? We’re going to focus instead on the handful of beliefs that are causing the main issue. I want you to imagine for a moment that your mind is a map of a major city. It’s as if your thoughts are all of the side roads and the little streets, and your core beliefs are like the highways; that handful of highways that interconnect all of the small streets for the city. For now, we’re going to focus on the highways (beliefs) because they are more powerful and influential than the small streets (your thoughts).

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At the same time, I don’t want you to totally disregard your thoughts because, at different times in the process, it will help you to be aware of the thoughts you’re having. If you get triggered by a certain issue that comes up in your day and you get frazzled, start dwelling, or obsessing over a situation then your thoughts can help. You can grab hold of a certain thought that you’re having around the situation and follow it back down to the belief that’s at the core of the issue.

After Louise Hay reversed her cancer, she wrote a book called “You Can Heal Your Life”, which became a New York Times bestselling book, sold over 50 million copies, and was translated into over 30 different languages around the world. The book is based on thousands of case studies with people who were self-healing illnesses around the world. What she discovered is that, with each illness she observed, there was a corresponding thought pattern or an underlying mental cause. She concluded that there is a universal pattern of thoughts or beliefs for each illness. For example, with asthma, her conclusion was that the mental cause is that asthma sufferers feel smothered by love. They got too much love and feel suffocated by it. In the case of acne, her conclusion was that the cause has to do with self-acceptance and disliking yourself.

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I experimented with this mental cause and used the affirmations she suggested, but it didn’t create everlasting clear skin. Again, I wanted clear skin that was sustainable, without all of the vicious ups and downs. I noticed that there were other acne sufferers who approached their acne with the affirmations Louise Hay suggested and hadn’t gotten the results they wanted. So, for the next five years, I continued with my self-experimentation, researching case studies and learning from healers.

I soon realized something as I went a step deeper. All of the people who were healing their own bodies with their minds and presumably healing cancer, chronic pain, and all sorts of other symptoms, claimed that self-acceptance and self-love were determining factors in them healing themselves. Therefore, I knew that self-acceptance and love had to be part of the equation for curing acne and creating everlasting clear skin. But that was just a common denominator. It wasn’t the specific beliefs that caused acne. Because as you and I know, and other people who have acne know, it’s a very specific issue and it comes with its own specific sort of negative effects and emotional effects that other symptoms don’t share.

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After 12 years, I eventually found the three core beliefs that cause acne and, when reversed, cure acne. I like to call them the Triangle of Clear Skin Beliefs. These three beliefs that existed in my subconscious mind also matched up with the three biggest beliefs that acne sufferers were struggling with in my research. The three beliefs of the Triangle of Clear Skin Beliefs are being seen, being free and being powerful. The reason these three things go together is that… for example, imagine that, as an acne sufferer, the part of you that is uniquely you, your essential self, is like an animal that’s trapped in a cage and it can’t get out. Being powerful is the key that opens the gate to the cage. Freedom is like the action of opening up the gate. And being seen is like the action of stepping out of the cage.

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Section II / Lecture 2

Research shows that the majority of adults with acne suffer from the issue of not being seen. This includes having to stay home, avoiding dates, calling in sick from work, avoiding eye-contact with people, and other ways of hiding themselves. I can relate because this is something that I struggled with a lot. I spent days sleeping during the day, only coming out at night and avoiding plans. ‘Being seen’ is the first belief and sits at the apex of the triangle.

At a deeper level, such hiding has to do with a need to hide your essential self – the part of you that’s uniquely you – from the world. The acne is a symbol of that hiding. Unfortunately, shame is the emotion that is tied to hiding. Shame is an emotion that tells you that ‘there’s something wrong with you’. If you look at statues where the figure is expressing shame, they are usually covering their face with their arms. You will learn to overcome this emotion when you learn to release your blocked emotions in the following section, but it’s important to know that it’s not a big deal. Even if you do feel shame, don’t feel ashamed of feeling shame – that only makes it worse. It’s like the great American poet, Robert Frost, said, “The only way out is through.” So you’re going to have to feel your shame, but don’t worry… we’re going to do that in the meditation practice. I’m going to give you some tools that are going to make it easy, refreshing and actually kind of enjoyable in my opinion.

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Research shows that the second issue experienced by the majority of acne sufferers, which is associated with the second belief of freedom, is entrapment. It is common for acne suffers to feel trapped, controlled and ruled by their acne, hence the second belief in the Triangle of Clear Skin Beliefs: freedom. The third issue that the majority of acne sufferers struggle with has to do with a feeling of hopelessness and despair. It’s as if all they can see is darkness and no way out, hence the third belief: power.

Freedom and power lie at the bottom two corners of the triangle, because these two core beliefs work together to help you be seen (at the apex of the triangle). In order to cure your acne, you must believe subconsciously that you can do what you want, not the acne. And you must believe that you have the power to do what you want, not the acne. At a deeper level, having your daily decisions, weekly decisions, or even your monthly decisions governed by your acne, is really a sign of your essential self being controlled and disempowered.

This is a predicament that is probably resembling a controlling and disempowering environment from the first six years of your life. Remember, your subconscious beliefs are programmed in those first six years.

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There are elephants in India that are raised from a very young age with a rope around their neck and the other end tied to a pole. When the elephants become adults, the rope is removed from their neck and the elephants still remain by the pole. They never go anywhere because, even though the rope is physically gone, the rope still exists internally and is a very real experience for them. The elephants won’t go anywhere because they believe they’re still tied to that rope. If your essential self was controlled or disempowered at a very early age then, as an adult, even though those influences are gone, a part of your mind may still believe that there’s a “rope” tied around your neck. This is why returning you to your freedom and your power is crucial for you to be seen by the world fully in your friendships, your dating life, your career, etc. In the words of Johnny Cash, “It’s time for you to get out your rusty cage and run.”

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Section II / Lecture 3

I want to do a short exercise with you. Wherever you are seated, close your eyes for a moment. How does it feel to believe that you are completely seen, totally free to do what you want, and are very powerful?... Do you believe it? What kind of resistance do you feel? Where do you feel the resistance in your body? What thoughts are coming up into your mind?... Now, I want you to affirm to yourself, “I deserve to be completely seen, totally free and very powerful.” Repeat it two or three times. And focus on the word deserve… Good! Now slowly open your eyes.

You might be feeling some resistance to believing that you are completely seen, totally free and very powerful. If so, don’t worry; that’s normal. Remember these are the beliefs in your subconscious mind that need to be reprogrammed. And in order to do that, we really have to go through the meditation process to do it effectively and deeply. But it’s good to sort of take stock of how you feel, to judge what resistance there is, so you can get a sense of what those beliefs mean to you.

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We need to clear out a few of the cobwebs that are surrounding your potential Triangle of Clear Skin Beliefs before we move forward. These cobwebs include the smaller limiting beliefs that are kind of “protecting” your Triangle of Acne Beliefs. These limiting beliefs include your limiting beliefs about diet, your limiting beliefs about exercise, your limiting beliefs about medicine, and perhaps your limiting beliefs about self-healing. The biggest limiting belief, the “all-star of all limiting beliefs,” is that you are not worthy (AKA: you don’t deserve). This is a huge one that we’re going to go through because, without feeling deserving of the three beliefs (in the Triangle of Clear Skin Beliefs) your mind won’t accept them, no matter how much programming you do.

If you’re having some limiting beliefs about self-healing and don’t believe it’s possible, there’s a few things you can do. The first thing I recommend is that you read some stories with firsthand accounts of people who have healed themselves using their mind. The second thing you can do is investigate your resistance to self-healing. Why don’t you believe that self-healing is possible? Is it a belief that Western doctors are the only authority figures on your health? Is it a fear of the unknown? Is it a fear of vulnerability? Perhaps you believe it’s possible for others to heal themselves, but that it isn’t possible for you to heal yourself. Why is it possible for other people to heal themselves but not you?

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Again, I invite you to look beneath the resistance and ask yourself some questions. As a rule of thumb, resistance is a good sign because underneath your resistance there is always a lesson to be learned. You may investigate and decide you have to take a step back or maybe you have to take a step forward. Maybe you need to put this course aside and take some time to reflect. Or maybe you need to dive right into the next module. Whatever you do, it’s important to have a positive belief about self-healing.

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Section II / Lecture 4

Medication is an amazing human invention. It has saved billions of lives and also extended our lives. It’s a wonderful thing. However, oral treatments and topical treatments for a lot of acne sufferers cause dry skin, skin irritation, mood swings, and often make their symptoms worse. Medication is really best used for emergency situations because, again, the root cause of acne is in the subconscious mind. If you are on medication, that’s fine. But I recommend that you gradually come off the medication over the next one to four weeks throughout the course. If you’re on acne medication while doing the TCS Meditation, then you will have two ideas that are conflicting with each other and you’ll be sending mixed signals to your subconscious mind.

I love diet and nutrition. I studied them for many years. I love goji berries, chia seeds and I’m obsessed with fresh ginger. However, I also like to have cheeseburgers every now and then, some beers and also ice cream. I love ice cream. I love ice cream all year around, and I’m sure there are certain foods that you love.

There might be foods you love because they are nostalgic and connect you with your childhood, your culture, or certain family traditions. And you don’t want to abandon those foods just because of acne! They have great memories and great value attached to them.

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Plus, there are other foods you probably love that are “not good for your skin.” Remember, the root cause of acne is in your subconscious mind and the only way to cure it is with your mind, not with diet. Now, with that said, diet and nutrition are great ways to support your skin. Diet is not a great way to cure your skin, but it’s a great way to support your skin.

One of the pitfalls that I fell into for many years, and I know from my research that a lot of acne sufferers struggle with as well, is going from using medication to using diet/nutrition to clear skin. And you go from being controlled and ruled by your acne to being controlled and ruled by your diet. You cannot cure acne this way because the second belief in the Triangle of Clear Skin Beliefs is having the ‘freedom’ to live the life you want, not the life that your diet (or acne) wants you to have. Ultimately, a balanced diet is healthier for you than a perfect diet.

Regarding exercise, you probably go to the gym (or wherever you exercise) and see other people who are sweating, working out hard, and not breaking out. They’re not having any kind of reaction with their skin. What gives, right? Well, you deserve that as well. And you will have that, in part, by overcoming any limiting beliefs about exercise.

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Remember, the root cause of all your pimples is in the subconscious mind and the only way to cure it is with the subconscious mind. Is it possible that you don’t believe you’re worthy of being able to exercise as much as you want, sweat as much as you want, and still have clear skin? If so, then we have to work on that; you feeling worthy and deserving to work out. Again, you are absolutely good enough and worthy of being able to eat what you want, take medication in emergency situations only, exercise in whatever way you want, and still have clear skin.

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Section II / Lecture 5

A major effect of acne is low self-esteem but, in reality, it’s low self-esteem that is causing the acne and the acne is making the low self-esteem sink to even lower levels. This creates a vicious cycle which I know about because, in my 20s, I struggled a lot with low self-esteem, depression and even suicidal thoughts. It can really feel like hitting rock bottom where it’s like living in a room made of stone, without a mattress, without clothes, without sheets and nothing (or anybody) to comfort you. It can be lonely. It can be confusing. And it can keep you disconnected from others and the world.

What does low self-esteem have to do with the triangle of clear skin beliefs? Let’s define low self-esteem for a moment. Low self-esteem is having low self-confidence in your self-worth. Having high self-esteem is having confidence in your worth. In order for you to program the Triangle of Clear Skin Beliefs, it will be crucial for you to feel and believe that you are worthy (and deserving) of these three. Brene Brown, a professor at the University of Houston Graduate School of Social Studies and a three-time New York Times number one bestselling author, has an amazing TED talk that relates to worthiness. It’s one of the most watched Ted talks in the world, with over 30 million views. You’ll find a link to it in your assignment for this lecture (Section III / Lecture 5).

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Brene has researched human connection for the past 15 years. In one of her case studies, she discovered something very important. She divided people into two groups; the first group contained people who were experiencing connection, love and belonging in their lives, and a second group that was NOT feeling connection, love and belonging.

After a lot of interviewing, she found that there was one determining factor that distinguished the two groups. There was one thing that was preventing group two from feeling connection, love and belonging, and that was allowing group one to experience connection, love and belonging. The key factor was that group one believed they were worthy of connection, love and belonging. Group two didn’t believe they were worthy of connection, love and belonging.

It wasn’t the number of hardships that they were having. Each group was going through roughly the same number of hardships as the other. They were both suffering from the shit that life throws at us. It’s the same with the Triangle of Clear Skin Beliefs. It’s really going to come down to you believing that you are worthy of being seen, free and powerful. If not, these beliefs will always be just outside of your grasp.

Great. Now you know what the Triangle of Clear Skin Beliefs are and you know that you have to feel worthy of them. But how do you get this feeling of worthiness?

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I struggled with not feeling worthy for a long time. It was hard for me at first to believe that I deserved such things as being seen, being free and being powerful. NOT feeling worthy also prevented me from feeling love and acceptance. Eventually, I had a breakthrough. I had an “aha moment”; I had an epiphany where I suddenly got it. I sort of figured it out; how to be worthy.

If you try to change a belief from “I’m not worthy” to “I’m worthy,” you’re operating under the assumption that you are not worthy and it is something you have to change. But in reality, you already are worthy. You already are deserving. It’s not like other beliefs. For example, when you’re a child, you may not have gotten unconditional love or experienced power. Naturally, you have to change those beliefs in order to feel that you are loved and that you’re powerful. But the thing about being worthy is that it’s always been there.

Being worthy (or deserving) never had to be taught to you. It doesn’t matter if somebody (your parent or someone in your life) said you were worthy or not; you have always been worthy of these things. You have always been worthy of the unconditional love. You’ve always been worthy of being powerful and being seen. You’ve been worthy of freedom since you came into the world. Nobody can change that. But one thing that happens is that, at a certain point, we start looking for it outside of ourselves.

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We start looking for ways to feel worthy (and deserving), of things like love and power, outside of ourselves. Advertising preys on this forgetfulness that we have. The problem with always seeking it outside of yourself, through acquiring possessions or through achievements, is that the more you do that, the more you forget that you already are worthy and deserving.

The process of feeling worthy again is a process of remembering and becoming more aware that you already are worthy (deserving, good enough, etc.). In conclusion, feel free to use any positive affirmations or meditation of your choice to feel worthy but, whatever you do, always set the intention of REMINDING yourself of your worthiness. You have to trust that it’s already there. And that you’re just remembering it.

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Section III / Lecture 1

Acne is a vicious cycle. It’s not the pimples that hurt the most, but the emotional pain. When you’re looking in the mirror and see a red swollen cyst on your face, it doesn’t matter how much positive thinking you’re doing, some uncomfortable feelings come up and your positive thoughts go right out the window. That’s because you not only have subconscious beliefs but you also have emotions that are subconscious.

In order for your mind to process new beliefs, it needs emotional catharsis first. It needs to feel the old emotions released. You have to clean out your emotional pimple before you can clean out the pimple on your skin.

There are three ways to release an emotion that’s blocked in your subconscious mind. First, become aware of the feeling. Secondly, feel it. And thirdly, remain equanimous (don’t judge it!) The essence of Gautama Buddha’s teachings can be boiled down to one simple attitude: awareness and equanimity. In other words, to be aware and not react simultaneously. That is the attitude we apply to releasing our blocked emotions, with one extra ingredient and that is feeling the emotion fully.

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Embrace your emotions and don’t be scared of them. Honestly, I know that for some people feeling your emotions can be a bit scary. It was for me at first. On a fundamental level, your emotions are just energy-in-motion. That’s it! We call these different emotions anger, sadness, shame and guilt, developing all these ideas about them. We judge some as good and some as bad, but really they are all just energies.

The major blocked emotions that cause acne are anger, hurt, fear, shame and guilt. Of course, there are many variations within each of those major emotions, such as disgust, rage, fury, irritation, sadness, loneliness, terror, and a lot of other shades. It’s very important that you treat all of the emotions equally. Don’t be biased toward any of them. Try your best to overcome any stigmas that might exist in your family, community or culture around feeling any particular emotion.

Sometimes a culture accepts one emotion and rejects another, or a family member is OK with you feeling this emotion, but never feeling that other emotion. Try to overcome these judgements and stigmas. It’s your job to treat them all equally.

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Paul Ekman, numbered as the 59 out of 100 most sighted psychologists in the world, is famous for studying human emotion. Ekman discovered that there are six major emotions felt by all human beings around the world. The same major emotions exist in cultures that are Westernized and also in cultures that don’t have any access to media and would never have any way of knowing what other peoples’ facial expressions look like. It’s a universal experience to feel the major emotions. Everyone, on some level, is experiencing these emotions, whether they know it consciously or choose to show them. So again, embrace all your emotions equally because feeling them and releasing them is one of the keys to clearing your skin.

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Section III / Lecture 2

Let’s practice releasing blocked emotion on a very small scale. It should feel a little rejuvenating. Wherever you’re sitting, I’d like you to close your eyes for a moment. Think about something that’s coming up in the next 24 hours which you feel a little bit of tension about. Affirm to yourself the positive outcome that you would like to occur. For example, if you have a meeting with your boss and you’re worried he is going to fire you, repeat a couple of times, “My boss is happy with me and I am keeping my job.” How does it feel?... probably a little bit better. Maybe it doesn’t fix the situation, but let’s say you feel a little bit better.

Now, I want you to try a second approach. Keep your eyes closed. Meditate on the same situation that’s coming up in the next 24 hours and, this time, feel whatever emotions you feel about it. Feel the good, the bad and the ugly. If you’re feeling anxiety, or you’re feeling a bit of fear, or anger… whatever it is, feel each emotion one at a time and remember to be aware, feel it and not judge it. Good.

Let each feeling transform into another feeling if another feeling wants to come up. Let the feeling expand if it wants to expand or be subtle if it wants to be subtle. Keep feeling your emotions around the situation until they pass and you feel empty.

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Now, affirm the positive outcome again that you want from the situation and repeat it a few times (example: my boss is happy with me and I am keeping my job). When you’re done, slowly open your eyes. How do you feel? What was the difference between thinking about the positive outcome right away versus releasing your feelings and then thinking about the positive outcome? I bet you felt better and more confident about the positive outcome after you got those nervous feelings off your chest and out of your system. On a larger scale, this is how you’ll clear your skin. First, we clear out those emotions, nerves, anger and fear. And then we change the beliefs.

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Section III / Lecture 3

Releasing blocked emotions can actually be refreshing if it’s done effectively and you’re embracing all of your emotions equally. Nonetheless, sometimes you may experience some resistance to feeling certain emotions. That’s quite common, don’t worry.

One of the tools that Think Clear Skins’ meditation uses to help bypass this resistance from the conscious mind is Repeated Questioning. Essentially, you repeat a very simple question to yourself and wait for the subconscious mind to give you the answer. In the case of releasing blocked emotions, the question might go something like, “How does it feel to be rejected and criticized for being very powerful?” You then wait for the feeling to surface. Your subconscious mind will present you with some of the blocked emotion every time you repeat the question.

When the feeling rises up, you simply take the three steps of being aware, feeling the feeling, and not judging it. When the feeling passes, you repeat the question, “How does it feel to be criticized and rejected for being very powerful?” And then, again, you wait for the next blocked emotion to surface. Again, feel and release the emotion. You simply repeat the process, taking your time until, at last, you arrive at what I like to call empty.

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Arriving to empty feels exactly the way it sounds. It’s like emptiness, but in a positive way; like a clear, open field of space that makes you feel calm. If a feeling surfaces that is vague or subtle, that’s okay. Feel the vague, subtle feeling and ride it like a wave. See where it leads you. It might transform into a tsunami of rage and fury, or it might transform into a heavy feeling of shame. Or this subtle feeling might just kind of diffuse, dissipate and pass away.

If you feel uncertain or confused, that’s OK as well. Feel the uncertainty in the confusion. These are also feelings and can lead you to deeper emotions. Hell, even boredom is a feeling that you can feel and follow. Each feeling may or may not lead to the next emotion until you arrive to empty. Again, being empty is a very distinct state of mind (and sensation) that you will know when you arrive there. You will just feel neutral, calm and emptied.

If you go fishing for emotions and you catch the “mother load” of emotions, there are a few things you can do. The first thing is, focus on feeling the emotion inwardly. Feel the emotion acutely with the laser focus of a surgeon. The second thing to do is, remind yourself to embrace all of your emotions as being positive.

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The only emotions that are negative are emotions that are unfelt; all emotions are positive when they are felt. Even love or joy becomes a negative emotion when it’s unfelt and blocked. In fact, it’s better to feel and release anger (appropriately) than it is to block joy. Again, it’s the blocking of an emotion that’s negative, not any type of emotion in and of itself. Ideally, what you want to do is arrive at a place in your emotional body where you can feel and release (appropriately) the full spectrum of emotions. Joy, anger, hurt and sadness are just energies in motion.

The third thing that I recommend, when an emotion is associated with a painful memory, is to use EMDR. It’s a simple hearing tone (other formats are also available) that alternates back and forth between your left and right ear. It creates bilateral stimulation to your brain. It’s surprisingly simple and rudimentary, but the benefits are profound.

EMDR helps your brain, in a natural way, to process painful memories and consolidate them. I love it because it reduces the intensity and vividness of memories that your conscious mind might otherwise try to resist. There is a free app available with EMDR if you’d like to try it out. Great! Those are the three things you can do if you ever encounter what feels like the “mother load” of blocked emotions. Nice work so far.

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Section III / Lecture 4

What’s really cool about releasing your blocked emotions is that you are expanding your self-awareness. You’re starting to really discover your essential self. Your self-awareness is really cool because it leads to self-empowerment. And the more empowered you become, the more you can start consciously creating your reality. I’m excited for you!

With developing your self-awareness also comes the responsibility of forgiveness. You want to expand your forgiveness (toward others) at the same time as you expand your self-awareness. When you release some of these blocked emotions from your subconscious, you might find that you feel some uncomfortable feelings toward somebody close to you. You might feel angry toward them, hurt by them, or saddened by them. That’s okay (and quite normal). Nobody is perfect. It doesn’t mean you have to end the relationship with them and it doesn’t mean you have to even tell them about your feelings. It’s like what Tony Robbins says, “Forgiveness is something you do for yourself.” Forgiveness is the releasing of resentment, anger and other blocked emotions that you feel toward a person and the acceptance that follows.

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The process of forgiveness benefits the health of your body and your mental well-being, because you’re no longer holding on to the resentment (which is toxic when blocked). One of the ironies of forgiveness is that it’s actually easier than you think it is. I spent years trying to forgive people and couldn’t achieve it. What I later discovered is that forgiveness happens automatically when you release your blocked emotions around a certain person and/or issue. You’ll find that, once you get that anger out, and other blocked emotion out of your system, suddenly you’re not really mad at them so much. Now, it’s easier to talk to them.

You’ll also start to see both sides of the picture a little bit more. Once you’ve gotten that stuff off of your chest, you grow more empathetic and compassionate. You start to see things more clearly once you release the emotion.

The other benefit of forgiveness is that you really help all of us and you start helping the world. When you’re in a more positive state of mind, you start affecting all of us in the world more positively with your words, actions and vibration. So set the intention out there to forgive, but then let it happen automatically. Trust that it happens automatically with releasing your blocked emotions. And remember that forgiveness is something you do for your own health and benefit. It’s something that’s going to help all of us and will ultimately help your relationships as well.

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Section IV / Lecture 1

The same way we play roles in our external world we also play roles in our internal world. For example, in your outer world, you may play roles as a sibling, a boss, an employee and also switch to a role as a son or daughter. Similarly, in our inner world, there are different roles we play (whether we’re conscious of it or not). We may play the role of a critic to ourselves and then switch to a role as a cheerleader to boost our morale. We might also play the role of mentor to ourselves when we have to take a big important life decision.

The secret sauce in Think Clear Skin’s technique for curing acne is taking advantage of these natural roles we play in our inner world. Let’s practice connecting with these three selves for a moment. Close your eyes. Wherever you’re sitting, try to separate yourself from your ego; the part of you that cares about what other people think and thinks that it is better than other people. Instead, move toward your essential self – the part of you that feels worthy as it is and doesn’t have to compare itself to anyone.

This is the part of you that is the purest part of you; the part of you that is uniquely you. Connect with the part of you that knows what it wants and has its own truths. Feel yourself sitting as your essential self.

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Now, shift into the role of your “aware self” – the part of you that is grown up. This part of you is mature, objective and neutral. Your aware self doesn’t pick sides but instead watches and observes. Can you feel the difference between your essential self and your aware self?

Good. Now, shift toward your “higher self” (or your spiritual self). You may have a lot of experience with your higher self or not much, which is fine. You may refer to your higher self with another term, which is fine as well. In any case, you know your spiritual self on some level. It’s part of you that feels a connection with all of the universe and with a higher power. This is the part of you that is very knowing and wise. It’s also the part of you that loves you unconditionally.

Notice how your higher self feels, compared to your aware self and your essential self. These are three very distinct roles you have within you. Great! Gradually open your eyes. Notice how natural these roles came to you? A lot of times we play these roles unconsciously without knowing it. What’s really important, before moving into the meditation, is that you separate these three roles from your ego.

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You will never build true and sustainable self-esteem with your ego because your ego is always comparing itself to other people. Relying on your ego for your mental well-being means that your self-esteem and your self-confidence are always going to be going up and down, up and down. It’s simply too dependent on what other people think.

Going forward, focus on building the self-esteem of your essential self; the purest part of you. Help your essential self to feel and believe that it’s powerful, free and seen. This way you will have genuine unshakable self-esteem. Your aware self and your spiritual self are going to be the parts of you that help your essential self to absorb and retain the Triangle of Clear Skin Beliefs. Awesome! Let’s move on to the next lecture!

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Section IV / Lecture 2

Your essential self is the part of you that is uniquely you and carries all of your unique preferences, desires and personality. Deepak Chopra describes the essential self (or the true self) as the part of you that is certain about what it wants, is stable, at peace and full of love. I’d like to add to that and say that the essential self is the part of you that also comes out when you feel really good about yourself and trust the people that you’re with. This part of you might come out when you’re on the dancefloor or in your living room with your closest friends.

Your essential self is really important to get in touch with and is going to be sort of the central character of your meditations. The skin, if you think about it, is a barrier between your inner world and your outer world. And as we’ve talked about, the issue of hiding and being seen is one of the most important issues for people with skin acne. Hiding, at a deeper level, has to do with hiding your essential self from others and from the outside world, therefore, it’s especially important to get in touch with this part of you.

Yes, having a cyst and not wanting to be seen because you popped it (and might cause scarring) is an understandable reason for hiding. That stuff is really embarrassing and is a reason to kind of hide. But the cyst is really symbolic of the essential self that can’t be seen.

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It’s also really important that you trust your essential self. I don’t know what you were told about your essential self when growing up in school, by teachers, society or religion, but your essential self is inherently good. You can trust it. You don't have to worry that, if it’s seen, it’s going to do something wrong, bad or hurt somebody. Under the right conditions, when your essential self is loved and respected, it aims to be in harmony with the world and wants to do good things.

It’s very rewarding to trust the intention of your essential self. The more you trust your essential self to come out and be seen, the more you’ll notice that it’s actually a super fun, loving, (maybe funny), warm-hearted part of yourself. The more you bring it out, the more you’re going to love sharing it with the world. Awesome!

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Section IV / Lecture 3

While you’re programming your Triangle of Clear Skin Beliefs, releasing blocked emotion and leveraging your inner selves, you will most likely encounter your inner critic. This is the voice in your mind that typically says destructive and negative things about you and to you. You may notice that this critic is modeled after an authority figure from your past, and that’s natural. The role of the inner critic, in general, is natural. It kind of helps to have a part of your mind that helps you to judge what is right and wrong in different situations.

A healthy version of your inner critic might be, for example, when you’re reviewing something that you wrote, such as an essay. Your healthy inner critic can help you constructively criticize your own writing or your friend’s writing if they need feedback. That is an example of a healthy approach in our critic at work. But sometimes, the inner critic can also be unhealthy and it can tell you that things are wrong or bad when those are things that are actually good for you and would take your life to the next level.

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If you notice your inner critic is modeled after a certain parent figure, teacher, an older sibling, or someone else from your past, then remember to try and forgive that person in your outer world. Recognize that, whoever this authority figure was, they were seeing life through the prism of their own experiences and they were judging your actions based on what they thought was right and wrong. So again, always opt for forgiveness. And second of all, be patient with yourself when you encounter your inner critic. It’s not going to become a completely healthy inner critic overnight. It’s going to take a bit of work for it to become more healthy.

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Section IV / Lecture 4

Your aware self is the part of you that is aware, objective, and can stay neutral, even when it’s surrounded by emotions. Your aware self is the part of you that you become when you get into an argument with someone and you need to go into another room to cool off. It’s also the part of you that you embody when you chose to sleep on an important decision. And that’s the part of you that makes very centered decisions, which you can live with. Your aware self is going to be very handy in your meditations when you are conjuring up blocked emotions from your subconscious mind and confronting limiting beliefs. It’s going to help to have this aware part of you there in the mix to help navigate your emotions and stay focused.

The spiritual self is the third inner role you will embody. It took me many years to reconnect with my spiritual self because of some loss that I experienced in my life. I stopped trusting spirit and thought that it didn’t exist. Eventually, with meditation and practice, I was able to reconnect with it. I realized that my spiritual self (and God, Goddess, the Source, Universal Intelligence, or whatever you want to call it) never left me. It was me who left it for a certain period of time while I needed to reflect and re-examine things. And it was still there when I came back, completely loving, accepting and understanding.

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The important thing is that, however you connect with your spiritual self, I just encourage one thing. Try to connect with a divine power that has both masculine and feminine energy. If you have an image of God as an old white man with a white beard, you’re probably missing out on half of the benefits that spirit and divinity can offer you.

Masculine divinity and feminine divinity both offer really unique benefits. The gift of protection that a masculine deity (or a God) can give you is unparalleled and the kind of love that a feminine Goddess (or deity) can give you is also unparalleled. So why not receive the benefits from both? Have the protection of a masculine deity and the love from a feminine deity. There are religions in the world that embrace both gods and goddesses so it’s not an esoteric or obscure concept. Many people in the world believe in a feminine goddess. I ask you to at least try to embrace it. Personally, every time I refer to God, I always refer to God and a Goddess.

One of the benefits that your higher self can bring you is an all-encompassing feeling of unconditional love and protection. That’s really hard to get from other places in life. This is really unique, special and really helps when you’re reprogramming your subconscious beliefs.

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Your spiritual self helps your mind feel loved and protected unconditionally, even when it takes on such new beliefs as being seen, completely free and very powerful. It’s important for your essential self to know that it is loved unconditionally. Even if a certain relative, friend, someone else in society, or a teacher won’t accept you for taking on these new beliefs, you will always know and feel that there is a higher energy that’s always going to accept you. Ultimately, your higher self creates a safe and loving environment for your new beliefs to be programmed in.

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Section V / Lecture 1

Great job. You now have the mental framework for manifesting clear skin. Let’s dive into the TCS Meditation technique that will help you cure the root cause of your acne.

For the first few weeks, focus each meditation on one of the beliefs in the Triangle of Clear Skin beliefs. Each of the core beliefs is important. Getting to know each one individually before combining them will help you understand their respective roles in maintaining clear skin. When you feel ready, start meditating on all three beliefs at the same time. And remember to embrace all your emotions as equal. They are just energy-in-motion and the only way to release them is to feel them. Let it flow.

If you need to shorten the meditation for any reason, make sure you affirm your new belief with steps 4 and 5 before finishing. You are opening yourself up and becoming vulnerable in order to release blocked emotions in steps 2 and 3. Always strengthen yourself with a positive mindset before returning to the outside world again.

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Step 1. Close your eyes and connect with your Aware Self. Turn on EMDR (optional).

Step 2. Use Repeated Questioning to call up blocked emotions toward others. Relate the question to one of the beliefs in the Triangle of Clear Skin Beliefs.

A. For example, ask: “How does it feel to be rejected for being very powerful?”B. Be aware of what emotions surface and just feel them (without reacting to them). C. Repeat the process until no more emotions surface and you feel empty (in a good way).

Note: Feel free to add other words that reflect your feeling of rejection more accurately. If you feel that you have been criticized, abandoned or abused for being powerful then insert those words instead of “rejected” or add them to the word “rejected”. For example: “How does it feel to be rejected and abused for being very powerful?”

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Step 3. Use Repeated Questioning to call up blocked emotions toward yourself.

A. For example, ask: “How does it feel to reject yourself for being very powerful?”B. Be aware of what emotions surface and just feel them (without reacting to them). C. Repeat the process until no more emotions surface and you feel empty (in a good way).

Step 4. Affirm your New Belief with help from your Spiritual Self.

Affirmation: “You deserve to be very powerful. And we love you and protect you unconditionally.”

Affirm each word, one at a time, with each breath. For example, inhale and affirm the first word in the affirmation. Exhale. Then inhale again, affirming the second word in the affirmation. Continue affirming each word with each breath until the affirmation is complete. Your breath is regulated by your subconscious mind and is, therefore, a powerful tool for connecting directly with it.

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Note: Feel free to add more positive words to the end of your affirmation; just keep “love” and “protection” in there because they are fundamental for healing. For example: “You deserve to be very powerful. And we like you, respect you, want you, love you and protect you unconditionally.”

Step 5. Affirm your New Belief with help from your Aware Self.

Affirmation: “You are very powerful. And I love you and protect you unconditionally.”

Again, affirm each word, one at a time, with each breath. Note: Feel free to add more positive words to the end of your affirmation; just keep “love” and “protection” in there because they are fundamental for healing.

Step 6. Gradually open your eyes.

When you are ready, open your eyes slowly and collect yourself. Feel free to go about your day as usual. Remember to be patient and heal yourself one meditation at a time. Give your mind and body time to adopt the Triangle of Clear Skin Beliefs fully.

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Section V / Lecture 2

Congratulations, you have learned how the subconscious mind can be used to cause acne or cure acne and create clear skin. You’ve also learned how to reprogram your subconscious beliefs. You’ve learned what subconscious beliefs create acne. You’ve learned how to release your blocked emotions. You also know how to consciously work with your three inner selves. And at last, you’ve walked through the technique. By this point, I’m sure you’re a pro and will do a great job with it. You have all of the mental framework and tools that you need to create clear skin.

As your Clear Skin Vision manifests itself and becomes a normal way of life for you, your vibration is going to rise. You’re going to attract new people, situations, events, possessions and places into your life that reflect your ability to be seen, be free and be powerful. It’s going to be really exciting. Now, remember, as that happens, continue to forgive. It’s always really important to forgive. Second of all, maintain your self-awareness no matter how exciting things become and how much your life (and skin) improve. There’s always going to be other issues in your life that you’ll want to improve and self-awareness (especially with your emotions) is going to help you a lot.

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Embrace diet/nutrition. Embrace exercise. Embrace other spiritual practices. But use your diet, nutrition and exercise to support your skin. Don’t rely on it to create your clear skin or to create your mental state. As you know, that comes from using your beliefs and emotions. Select the diet and exercise routines you prefer, while remaining the one who’s in control of your life. When you’ve gone through this process, and used the meditation, you will be able to eat what you want. You’ll be able to slip on your diet and still have clear skin. You’ll be able to workout at the gym, sweat all you want and have clear skin.

Cool! I’m attaching some supplemental materials in the Manifest Clear Skin Workbook. It covers a few more important issues that I didn’t really have time to fit into the course. I’m really thankful that we have been able to connect through this course. And I wish you an amazing transformation on your journey to having everlasting clear skin.

Your mind is so powerful. And you absolutely deserve this.

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“The most important healing…realizing who you are. The healing on the outer level is fine, but it’s not the essence of healing.” -Eckhart Tolle