VIEW OUR Testimonials

Option and Health

Healthy Body, Healthy Mind

Our Belief in Medicine is what makes it Work Read more...

Improving health through our beliefs Read more...

How does it work? The Physiology of Happiness Read more...

We Decide Read more...

How The Option Process can Improve Health Read more...

References Read more...

The Option Process® Can Improve Health

Create a Lifestyle to Support Health and Happiness

Exploring and Letting Go of Discomfort

The work of Candace Pert and other scientists has shown us that our experiences aren’t “just in our heads” but are continually being translated from electricity (the thoughts forming our conscious experience of the event) to chemicals (neuropeptides) and cellular change (as patterns and intensities of neuropeptide receptors change in our cell membranes). Our experiences are stored in our cells and impact our physiological functioning.

One wonderful thing about our cells is that they are continuously regenerating. This means that the storage of experience in our cellular make-up is not written in stone, it is not permanent like a book on a shelf but is continually been re-written by our most current perception of the event. If we keep having the same perception of the event then the event and its physiological memory appear to stay the same – actually it doesn’t stay the same it is just re-written in the same way over and over. When we change the perception of the event (the way we think and feel about it) we then re-write the memory (mental and physiological). This is our most powerful mechanism for change.

Finding a new way to think about past experiences changes the way we feel about those events and the physiological impact on our bodies. It also allows us the opportunity to think about future events in new ways so that as events happen we can create an experience for ourselves that supports emotional and physiological comfort. This is the focus of training programs (such as Calm Amid Chaos) at The Option Institute.

Acknowledging Discomfort Transforms our
Immune Function

Read more...

Building Relationships Boosts Immune Function

Read more...

Health Education through Option Institute Programs Read more...

References Read more...

Construct a Personality to Support Health and Happiness

Personalities are Patterns of Habitual Beliefs

We often think of our personalities as something fixed. As maybe something that developed in childhood or that we inherited from a family member or simply as “just the way I am”.

This is not the case! Our personalities are manifestations of thought-patterns in which we habitually engage. Someone who tends to be nervous, timid and shy is probably engaging in habitual fear-based thinking. Someone who tends to be outgoing, gregarious and fun-loving may engage in habitual optimism.

The personality we see as predictable and stable- “Oh I’m just an anxious kind of a person” - is actually the product of thinking such things as “I’m going to mess this up”, “what if it doesn’t work?”, “they must think I’m an idiot!”. When these beliefs are engaged over and over, every day for months and years they shape a corresponding personality.

This is great news for those of us who wish our personalities were a little (or a lot) different. If our personality is simply a product of the beliefs we engage then in order to change our personalities we can just change our beliefs – the conclusions we have drawn about ourselves, the world and the future.

A Healthy Personality Requires
Health-Supporting Beliefs

Read more...

The Hostile Personality

Read more...

Defensive Personality

Read more...

The Pessimist vs The Optimist

Read more...

Improving Health through Option Institute Programs

Read more...

References Read more...

Health Chart

Download this chart now

Download this chart now

Actual Stories/Actual Improvement in Health

The following section provides stories and testimonials of people who have used what they've learned at The Option Institute to overcome various health challenges in their lives. Please click on the links below to read stories based upon the life challenge being faced.

Getting Off Prozac	Triumph Over Anorexia	Giving Up Grief	Conquering Chronic Fatigue
Overcoming Depression	Overcoming Personal Crisis	Overcoming Illness	Overcoming Chronic Fatique
Overcoming Panic Attacks	Injury	Enjoying Life Despite Illness	Learning To Love My Body

Getting Off Prozac

I have suffered from depression for the last 17 years. For a long time, I thought Prozac was the only solution. I struggled with feelings and judgments of my own self-worth and what I believed I could and couldn’t have. I questioned my role as a mother, a woman, and an African-American, all because I believed that I was stuck with my life and my past and there was little I could do to change it. All the while I was having this internal struggle, I was dealing with the very real illness of my only son, Chris, who was diagnosed with AIDS.

I heard about The Option Institute from a dear friend of mine around the same time I got the news that Chris was dying. Chris had decided to stop taking his medication and allow himself to die. My friend and I had taken seminars together for the past 20 years, so I agreed to join him at The Option Institute for a one week program.

When we arrived at the Institute, it was only 4 months since Chris’s death. I was ready for anything.

The program completely changed how I look at my life. When the teachers talked about how we define reality, I finally understood that we are always choosing how we respond to the events in life and, in that way, we are always making up our own reality through those choices. What a breakthrough that was! I realized that I didn’t have to accept that I would be depressed for the rest of my life and that I could choose to live in the moment instead of the past.

I also realized that Chris’s choice to stop taking his medication was his choice and Chris’s life was his life. Understanding that finally gave me the freedom to accept his illness and his death in a way that 10 years of therapy had not. Not only could Chris rest in peace, but now so could I. I was finally free to live my life as I chose.

As African-Americans, we have blamed history and events for a lot of things. I have always thought we could instead use that same energy to change our destiny. Before I may have felt unworthy to pursue that goal, but, after attending the program, I realized that I could truly make a difference as a human being and I could impact my race without being Dr. Martin Luther King. The work I could do would be important, too.

I enrolled in the Grand Summer Sequence, 2 weeks after my first program. I’m excited about bringing the principles and technology of The Option Process back to the African- American community in any way I can. Today my life is filled with more challenges that I look forward to and a new anticipation of living life on the edge – because a life isn’t a life unless you live it, moment to moment. The most amazing thing is that I no longer feel depressed about my past or my future.

Linda Craft-Smith, Party Planning Director, California

Back To Actual Stories

Triumph Over Anorexia

In 2000, I made the decision to stop being anorexic in an instant – and I have been eating ever since. That transformation happened at The Option Institute.

I started down the path to anorexia 8 years ago. My mother had a stroke and my father had developed diabetes and was about to have triple bypass surgery. I saw this as my own future and it scared me. I decided to exercise and eat healthfully. Although I wasn’t dieting, I lost 12 pounds. Over the next 6 years, I would periodically lose my appetite and drop a few pounds. Once the weight was gone, I didn’t want it back. I felt powerful for being able to lose weight – something most people want but never achieve. My body was the only area of my life where I felt completely in control. In the midst of enormous fear combined with a desperate attempt to feel good about myself, I turned to food restricting and exercise.

Every thought during every minute of every day revolved around food. Despite nagging hunger, I hardly allowed anything to pass my lips. I was so debilitated that just standing up or walking up stairs took all my energy. When I sat in chairs, it felt like my bones were being crushed. At 95 pounds, 5’ 7” tall, I went into the hospital, but despite the treatment, I wasn’t recovering. I was damaging myself through anorexia, but I was absolutely terrified to give it up at the same time. I knew all I had to do was put food in my mouth – hardly a challenge for most people – and yet I couldn’t fathom how that would become okay for me. It wasn’t even okay for me to chew a piece of gum because I didn’t want the 5 calories.

The turning point came for me when someone in my support group recommended the book, Happiness Is a Choice. This book changed my life. The ideas in it seemed wondrous and earth-shattering, yet obvious and attainable at the same time. I decided that taking a program at The Option Institute was my best and only hope for recovery.

In the summer of 2000, I took Grand Summer Sequence. During that time, my decision to eat again came during an Option Process® Dialogue I had with Bears.

Previously, anorexia hadn’t felt like a choice. I was so obsessed and compulsive that it seemed to overtake me. But at the Institute, I latched onto the concept that anorexia was a choice, not an illness or chemical imbalance.

Ultimately, the most significant piece that helped me recover was the attitude of acceptance. In the dialogue, Bears didn’t seem to see my anorexia as bad, wrong, or even sad. I had never experienced anything like that before, and it blew me away.

Since then, there has never been a question of going back to anorexia. During the Grand Summer Sequence, I learned many other ways to feel good about myself and effective tools for handling challenges. I haven’t been to a doctor, therapist, or nutritionist since coming here. I gained 30-plus pounds and stopped exercising compulsively. I am healthy.

After my life-altering experience with the dialogue, I could think of no better thing to do than train to be an Option Process® Mentor/Counselor. I was certified in October 2001; and, at graduation, my father, who is a surgeon by training and a skeptic by nature, told Bears, ‘I want to thank you and this place for saving my daughter’s life.’ Since becoming a mentor, I have been witness to others making wondrous changes for themselves. It is a most precious gift.

I want to thank this amazing place for saving my life and for teaching me how to help others in such a profound and meaningful way. The Option Institute is a special, special place. Thank you!

Abigail Lipson, Counselor, Massachusetts

Back To Actual Stories

Giving Up Grief

They say that the inseparable bond between a mother and her child begins at conception, but I know from my own past experiences that this bond forms long before. I have had six miscarriages. In recent years, each moment leading up to Mother's Day would agonizingly tear at my heart. I so desperately wanted to be a mother, to have a family, to receive a Mother's Day card; the ache in my heart was unbearable. I hid the searing pain of my sadness behind a protective wall of staid composure and a hopeless acceptance in the will of God. Not even my husband knew the depth of my longing. In our mutual grief, there was an inexpressible loneliness and silence that made any attempt at a shared journey nearly impossible. I had read books by Barry Neil Kaufman and been on The Option Institute's mailing list for years. I finally found myself at The Option Institute participating in a program called Optimal Self-Trust. To my shock and eventual gratitude, the program exposed my wounded heart and paved a path to true healing! I had originally come to learn how to trust myself in my work as a grief counselor and find new ways to help others find a way to heal their hearts. Instead, I learned that I had not really healed my sorrows at all, but merely suppressed a longing to be a mother, rationalizing why mine was an acceptable situation.

I suddenly understood that being or not being a mother did not make me more or less of a person. Only my beliefs have this power. My new beliefs have released me to live my life as an expansive soul, galvanized by my mission to make my dream of motherhood a reality.

I now know that every time anyone makes a judgment, he or she experiences a debilitating contraction of the soul - I had absolutely been living with a contracted soul, fearful of reaching for what I really wanted. My own judgments ('I'm too old,' 'I don't have the right,' 'If I fail again, I will die') had sealed my fate, making a seventh attempt at having a child a daunting, fearful and next-to-impossible prospect.

This Mother's Day, I did receive a card - from my husband - who, of his own volition, has likewise made a shift in consciousness. To my amazement, he asked if I would like to try having another baby - this from a man who, a year ago, refused to discuss such a notion. My life has changed! To The Option Institute and to Bears, I say a profound thank you!

Olivia Israel, Grief Counselor, California

Back To Actual Stories

Conquering Chronic Fatigue

After an 11 year losing battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I came to The Option Institute out of desperation, in hopes of just finding some peace in my life. I was ready to apply for disability, and give up my dream and my passion of working with children with special needs. Before I came to The Option Institute, every day was a struggle. I woke up more tired than I went to sleep the night before. I dragged myself through a very much shortened work day, and still would end up with only enough energy to drag myself in the door after work and go to bed by about 6 pm. Many times in the middle of my day I would end up crying. A short trip to the grocery store was enough to wipe me out. I would forget even the simplest things, and my mind seemed like it was in a fog much of the time. I felt like I was in a living hell.

After attending my very first Option Institute week-long program, I was able to climb the mountain on the property, attended classes, went out to eat, went swimming and woke up rested and relaxed for the first time in years. Within the year, I came back and attended the Couples Course program with my husband, and then completed the Grand Summer Sequence. The emotional and physical changes I have experienced and continue to experience each day of my life are nothing short of miraculous. I am fully recovered from an illness many experts consider incurable. During Grand Summer Sequence program, I shoveled rocks and moved logs for 6 hours in a day. I worked community projects every day, and worked as hard as all my classmates. At the end of these days, I was still able to enjoy a night of talking with classmates, walking, and enjoying the Institute and its surroundings. I went dancing with friends. I took trips to visit relatives. I attended every class, and even avoided a cold that was going around!

Now, I work a 40-plus hour week at my dream job helping children with special needs, and still have plenty of energy left with which to enjoy my life. I am pursuing physical activities, such as hiking, biking, and kayaking, and enjoying every wonderful thing my body and mind can do. I have tried just about every other treatment out there for Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome, and I believe that The Option Institute has been the best investment of my time and energy and the results speak for themselves. I have my health and my life back, thanks to the tools I have learned. I know I possess the ability to overcome any challenge that may come along, live any dream I can dream up, and I will do it with strength, energy, and excitement.

Ellen Stanley, Manager/Developmental Therapists, Maine

Back To Actual Stories

Overcoming Depression

By the time I’d reached my mid-30’s I’d achieved what most people would agree was a successful life, a home in an affluent suburb, 2 cars, a swimming pool, a middle management position with a Fortune 100 electronics company and a career on the rise. Then one day my wife of fifteen years told me she wanted a divorce and, when we sought help in family counseling, I learned that my pride and joy, my two sons, felt distant and afraid of me.

I had always taken my frequent angry outbursts for granted. After all, my father, my uncles, my brothers all behaved that way. Naturally I would be an angry person too. But now I recognized that my anger was separating me from everything I loved. It was too late to save my marriage. But maybe I could still salvage the relation ships with my sons. I decided to control the expression of my anger, no matter what it cost me inside.

And it cost a lot. Over the next few years I became increasingly tired and ineffective. My productivity fell. I slept a lot and felt more and more unable to face people, my job, the demands of my life. Finally I was diagnosed with Major Depression. I spent 6 weeks in a prominent psychiatric hospital. The doctors concluded I suffered from a chemical imbalance and prescribed Prozac, an antidepressant, along with other drugs. I returned to work but gradually, once again, slipped into the heavy, tiring existence of depression. My career was on hold, I was incapable of sustaining a relationship, and my sons only said they loved me on Christmas or on my birthday.

Then a friend introduced me to the books of Barry Neil Kaufman and the idea that happiness is a choice. Intrigued, I traveled to The Option Institute for private sessions. During this time I had the opportunity to examine my own vision of life as well as the beliefs and attitudes underlying my anger and depression. I realized that I believed I had no other choice besides getting angry or depressed when things didn’t go well for me. But through the gentle and non-judgmental dialogue sessions, I realized that I did have other choices - that I could treat the events of my life as misfortunes or as opportunities. I chose to do the latter. That decision has transformed my entire life. I stopped feeling bad about myself. I began to have fun. My energy increased. My productivity improved. I started to enjoy my work.

Today I’m no longer on medication. I’m happy, confident, optimistic for the future. My career has taken an exciting new turn. And my relationship with my sons has never been better.

Recently my oldest son failed to return some expensive stereo equipment he’d borrowed. When we finally spoke, he became tense and defensive, already anticipating my customary angry explosion. But! did not feel anger. Instead I discussed the incident in a firm, yet loving manner. At the end of the conversation, my son said 'I love you Dad.' It wasn’t Christmas. It wasn’t my birthday. Through the miracle of learning to choose happiness and love instead of anger, I had regained the most valuable relationship in my life.

Richard Magan, Computer Sales Manager, Massachusetts

Back To Actual Stories

Overcoming Personal Crisis

I am writing this to express my gratitude to everyone at The Option Institute. One year ago I attended a one-week program. I came with a failing marriage, fibrocystic breast disease and battling depression like I’d never experienced before. I felt like I was reaching for a life preserver in an ocean of high waves. I left feeling like I could walk on water.

Now, almost a year later, my life has definitely changed. My marriage is more honest and accepting than it has ever been. The lumps in my breast are smaller and, at times, totally gone. The scar from the surgery (I had to remove a lump six months before coming to The Institute) had healed outwardly, but was constantly sore and large under the skin. When I dressed the morning I left The Option Institute, it was the first time it didn’t hurt to raise my arm.

As for depression, I can’t think of any reason why I would choose to feel that way again. I experience life fully now; I don’t just live it.

I’ve even started my own business! But the greatest miracle for me is that I really like myself. This is a new experience and it feels too wonderful for words! Thank you for teaching me to be good to myself. Thank you for helping me see that there is nothing wrong with me. Thank you for showing me that happiness is a choice. The Option Institute helped me find a way of living that I’d dreamed of, but believed was impossible.

Debbie Watehall-Gates, Bookstore Proprietor, Texas

Back To Actual Stories

Overcoming Illness

Although I am writing this during the Christmas season, it is not a Christmas card but a thank you note. I have just gone through the most difficult months of my life. In October I had a six hour surgery in which three cervical fusions were done, a process requiring a graft from the hip bone. What was intended to be a short hospital stay stretched into weeks. Those weeks included two allergic reactions and two major infections, necessitating dressing changes so painful that if I were to rate them on a scale of I to 10 they would be a 15. This process was done six times a day!

The remarkable thing is that I got through it all happily. That is why I am thanking you. The ideas presented in Bears' books, and that I was exposed to during programs at The Option Institute and which I continued using at home were what helped me make it.

The manner in which those ideas were presented was especially meaningful. Somehow the Institute staff members did it so that I felt I could take a tremendous risk and, at the very least, try.

Things aren't over yet. I'm still in a brace and there is another surgery coming up. Even after that, the muscles may be permanently damaged. However I have a real sense of hope and freedom. I've realized that my happiness does not depend on the outcome of my medical treatment. I can choose what I want to be, how I wish to feel and what kind of life I wish to have.

Beth Q., Teacher of Handicapped Children, Oklahoma

Back To Actual Stories

Overcoming Chronic Fatique

How can I begin to express my gratitude for what I‘ve learned through The Option Institute and Fellowship? There have been so many ‘miracles’ for me! Here’s one. Several years ago I came home from a stressful trip abroad, and returned to work immediately. Soon I felt the gentle hand of a colleague shaking my shoulder. ‘Karen - wake up!’ I had fallen asleep literally with my face in my work. I went into the ladies room. Imagine my surprise when, hours later, I awoke to find my head propped between the wall and the roll of toilet paper! I ached all over. Something was dreadfully wrong.

Home, in bed, I waited for this ‘flu’ to go away. 3 days, 5, 10, 20 days. It didn’t go away. No matter how much I slept, I always felt exhausted. I was dizzy, burned with a constant fever, couldn’t concentrate, had blurred vision, hurt in every joint and muscle.

When I could, I began dragging myself from one doctor to another trying to find out what this mysterious ailment was. The doctors were frustrated and angry with me because they couldn’t pinpoint the problem. They referred me to psychiatrists because it was ‘all in my head’. I began to doubt my own sanity! Finally, one kind doctor diagnosed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a ‘new’ disease that was coming to be known in the media as 'the flu that doesn't go away'. There was no help that the medical profession could offer at this time, except antidepressants.

I didn’t want antidepressants, though I certainly was feeling depressed! I wanted to feel alive again! Would I ever be able to dance, to walk a country road, to simply move for the joy of moving? I knew I’d have to find ways to help myself.

At last, after five months, the fever subsided and I returned to work, in spite of the pain that still pervaded my hips and knees.

It was at this point that I learned about The Option Institute. The fact that it was nicknamed 'A Place For Miracles' cap turned my imagination; did I ever want a miracle! I signed up for the Happiness Option Weekend.

During this program I was assisted to explore my feelings and beliefs about the pain in my body. How did I feel about it? I hated it! Then why did I have it? I didn’t know. Was there something I was afraid that would happen if I didn’t have the pain? Wow! Yes! I was afraid if I didn’t have it, I might allow myself to get exhausted and stressed out all over again, and wind up where I‘d been five months before, flat on my back, unable to move! After all, I’d heard so often that people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome usually have deep relapses, losing all they have gained.

So, the pain had a purpose! Once I understood that, I changed my entire vision of the situation. I chose to see the pain as a friend. I could even welcome it and be open to learn what it was trying to tell me. I decided to try out this new perspective.

I returned home after the weekend. An amazing thing happened. Within a few days, about 80% of the pain disappeared! In choosing to love and trust my body, instead of drugging it and trying to push the sensations out of my experience, I began to feel alive again!

To think that if I hadn’t found The Option Institute, I could have ended up like so many others with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - depressed, exhausted, and in pain for years and years! While others are still learning to cope with chronic illness, I feel I’ve actually been transformed into a new person. Transformed from a person who could barely walk into one who dances, does yoga and Tai Chi, gardening, and in the winter even skis. Truly, I feel I‘ve created the miracle I was searching for; I am so grateful!

Karen Ryder, Therapist, Rhode Island

Back To Actual Stories

Overcoming Panic Attacks

Seven years ago, in the midst of leading an extremely active life - a life that included traveling, rigorous dance training, and a full-time commitment to my writing - I developed what the doctors and the media called 'panic attacks'. The symptoms of these attacks were considered classic, but to me they never seemed classic at all; all of it seemed unique and freakish - not being able to swallow at times, the frequent dizzy spells, a heart that raced so fast I couldn't breathe. Before I went to The Option Institute, I believed what the experts had told me - that this was a condition I would probably always have and that tranquilizers would be the best treatment. Based on this belief, I stopped traveling and dancing for fear that too much activity would increase my heart rate, and that this would feel like - or bring on - a panic attack.

A psychologist had once told me that it would take time - even years - before the cause of the attacks could be uncovered and released. But, after just one session at The Institute - a session that, in fact, did not have a psychological approach, or more focus on much of my history - I felt more of a 'release' than I had felt in years. Through a series of questions that gave me an opportunity to change my beliefs about my fears, and this 'condition' - I started to see changes in my physiology. My panic attacks were coming on less and less and, after continuing with dialogue sessions, I was able to stop using medication. The finale, for me, came after I participated in a one-week program at the Institute called Revitalize Your Spirit. That week was filled with exercises, lectures, and dialogues - all of which focused on love, acceptance, and the pursuit of happiness. Since that time, I have not had one panic attack. I am traveling again, taking exercise classes, and am able to write with more focus and ease, all because the Institute has helped me to put my faith in love and find the peace that comes from faith. These are God's principles, and whether or not you believe in God, these principles are at the heart of freedom. My gratitude to Barry and Samahria Kaufman and The Option Institute Staff is enormous.

Lorraine W., Freelance Writer, California

Back To Actual Stories

Injury

Throughout my childhood and teenage years my greatest pleasure and satisfaction always came when I expressed myself through physical activity and athletics. I was passionately involved in horseback riding and delighted in my abilities at skiing, dancing and sports. Then, at age eighteen, my world seemed to come to an end. I suffered a severe and painful back injury. The doctors told me the condition was irreversible and that it would probably continue to get worse. Their prognosis: atrophied muscles, fused discs, arthritis, constant pain and limited physical activity, Furthermore, they warned that, if I ever became pregnant, I'd probably have to spend months in bed.

I attended high school graduation an a stretcher and, when I entered college in the fall, I wore a full body, brace and took my exams literally lying on the floor. Four years later, I was still in chronic pain, taking medication and crying myself to sleep every night. There seemed to be no escape. I was miserable.

Then my mother recommended an Introductory Weekend at The Option Institute. During this program we were guided, in the most gentle and non-judgmental way, to understand the impact of our beliefs on our feelings as well as our physical health. I realized that I had some basic beliefs which were really worth questioning, beliefs I had carried around with me since my first back pain. The first belief was that I must always lie down whenever my back cramped up. The second was that I believed that I was going to be in pain at all times for the rest of my life. And the last was that I had to be sad when I felt pain, because otherwise, it might mean that I didn't care about myself.

With the help of The Institute's program, I was able to change these beliefs to form a new sense of trust in my body. The Program helped me to listen to my body's cues and respond without fear. As I did, I began to stretch and exercise - and laugh. I found within a new determination to learn about what I could do to help myself. I was no longer condemned by someone else's prognosis. As I continue to use the methods I learned at the Institute, I have replaced my constant sadness with an awakening sense of hope and joy.

For the last four years, I have been pain-free. Once again I am an active person and have resumed horseback riding, as well as skiing and other sports. And just last year I gave birth to a healthy, nine pound daughter. During my pregnancy I continued to attend aerobic classes right up to my due date. I never had a single backache. For someone who was told she would spend the entire time in pain and in bed, this is certainly a miracle.

And I not only have a healthy body and a healthy baby, but I am happier and more content than I have ever been in my life. All of these amazing changes have occurred as a direct result of my work with The Option Institute. I am so very thankful!

Laurie P., Therapist/Mother, Massachusetts

Back To Actual Stories

Enjoying Life Despite Illness

About 3 years ago my daughter set up a Son-Rise Program® for her younger son, who had been diagnosed with autism. This was my introduction to The Option Institute and a philosophy that has not only sown the seeds of hope and possibility for my grandson, but has created new horizons in my own life. As I played with my grandson and observed him relish his world with abandon, supreme focus and an enviable zest for enjoyment, I knew there was more in store for me! I too focused for the first time in my life on my own happiness rather than trying to keep others happy, or keeping myself miserable as I had done in six years of psychoanalysis! This was something rather unusual for a 75 year-old retired doctor, just-divorced for the second time and facing a chronic and debilitating illness. Somehow it seemed easy to maintain a state of bliss cushioned with my grandson in his playroom. So I came to the Institute for the two programs, including Empower Yourself, with some degree of cynicism that I could really achieve similar goals for myself in the real world. Even though my advances with myself have been slow, they have been lasting and empowering, and I continue to grow and change, despite facing new challenges in my life. Instead of achieving, I now engage and enjoy. Instead of judging, I now love and connect. Instead of looking for answers outside myself, I now tap my own wisdom and experience. Instead of finding faults, I celebrate strengths. Instead of lamenting the past, I now look to the future for solutions.

My health has recently deteriorated, and at first I felt quite depressed and alone in my physical pain. However, I recall with great excitement my time at the Institute as a way of calling forth all my inner reserves and comfort and focusing my energy on my healing, rather than my illness. I am excited to be here, alive and living each moment to its utmost possibility. Thank you, my dear friends at the Institute, for helping me embrace my life rather than struggle against it.

Aziz Kazi, Retired Medical Doctor, United Kingdom

Back To Actual Stories

Learning To Love My Body

I used to think I was fat and unattractive, and I was unhappy about not being in a love relationship. These things felt like the end of the world to me and I would cry about them. Then I came to The Option Institute and the entire way I saw the world changed. I realized that judging myself and complaining wasn’t changing anything so I had to look at myself differently. I have since come to love every inch of my body and feel really good about being alone. I’m also looking forward to the possibility of having a fantastic, sustainable love relationship! I am finally ready. Thank you.

Abby Rappaport, Son-Rise Program^® Child Facilitato, Israel

Back To Actual Stories

Press Articles on Happiness and Health