FHU - How to Conquer Negative Emotions - Preview the Book (3 of 6)

another way of saying this is that you are burdened by
your past. Unless you learn how to respond properly in the
present, you will continue to let the ugly world get inside
you and build on that past. And without self-control, that
is the only kind of future you have.
        Respond wrongly to pressure just one time—and what
aggravates you has got you. Your mind and body must go
on responding slavishly until you find the Truth that makes
you free.
        You are not alone in your dilemma. The wrong emotional
response to all sorts of pressure is currently making
everyone sick and depressed and driving all of us into conflict
with ourselves.To solve the pressure-caused conflicts,
people turn to drink, tobacco and drugs, legal or illegal.
        Look at it this way: your reactions, being compulsive,
have become a subtle form of obedience, and emotional
obedience is really a form of slavery. Behind the cruel
and relentless pressures that zealous people apply to you
(sometimes in the name of good) is a selfish motive that
compels you to be like it and to go along with it—to sin,
in other words. Because it has upset you, you are out of control
and not living your own life. No wonder you feel guilty
and depressed.
        Because no one has cared enough to teach you how not
to respond, and because you have not yet discovered this
vital secret, life now seems meaningless, hopeless, and
depressing. You have worried, but worrying has made
matters worse.
        All your sexual, family, and business problems arise
directly from your failing to respond in a right way to what