There are questions which, depending on someone's current state of consciousness cannot be answered with the rational mind. Trying to rationalise some of the actions of our parents is one of them. From our own personal experience and perspective only, this can prove impossible. As we are missing knowledge and important facts about  their lives, the image we create of them can only be a partial one.

Details of their childhood are missing, or how they were educated or the experiences they went through. The fact that they don't share such experiences with their children does not help us to understand the whole spectrum of who they are. It is not always easy to share our experiences and traumas with others, and for a parent; this is not different. In addition, some parents do not share traumatic experiences that shaped them into who they are, as they have assimilated them and perceived them as normal.

1. Drop the shoulds from your life.

As a young person, you’re told what you should do all the time. You should study hard. You should get good grades. You should take piano lessons. You should go to this college. You should take this job. Should should should. Because we’re told what we should do all the time, we start telling ourselves what we should do to impress the should-ers.

Forget that line of thinking.

Think about what makes you happy, what kind of things will enrich your life and make it feel full. Maybe those are the things you should do.

2. Face down your fears.

Some of your fears are rational, like your fear of poisonous spiders. That’s not a fear you need to conquer. That’s one you should strengthen through repeated viewings of Arachnophobia. But there are fears that can hold you back. Fear of falling in love. Fear of talking to people. Fear of taking on challenges that will grow you. Conquer any fear that holds you back from something you want.

By Brendan D. Murphy
Guest Writer for Wake Up World

“In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.” ~ Eric Hoffer

Kuhn states in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions that the actualization of a scientific paradigm is achieved by increasing the extent of the match between its facts and its predictions, and by further articulation of the paradigm itself: “mop-up work.” Kuhn’s candor is enlightening, as he explains that such work occupies most scientists right through their careers; it is “normal science,” an enterprise attempting to force-fit nature into the preformed conceptual boxes supplied by the already existing paradigm (the Big Bang theory comes to mind). New sorts of phenomena are not sought, and those phenomena that won’t be squeezed into pre-existing boxes tend to not even be seen at all. Scientists generally don’t seek to invent new theories, and they don’t always tolerate the theories of other scientists.

By Dr. Edward F. Group
Guest Writer for Wake Up World

The famous philosopher Descartes described the pineal gland as the “principal seat of the soul.” You’ve probably heard of this gland being the ‘third eye,’ a mystical chakra point residing right in the middle of your eyebrows. Well, it turns out these ideas aren’t too far off. The small, rice-sized, pinecone-shaped endocrine organ known as the pineal gland sits alone in the middle of the brain and at the same level as the eyes.

Pineal Gland Functions

How you think and feel every day depends on the pineal gland. As the producer of the hormone melatonin, the quality and duration of your sleep relies on how well it produces this hormone. This tiny organ regulates your daily and seasonal circadian rhythms, the sleep-wake patterns that determine your hormone levels, stress levels, and physical performance.