HOW WELL DO YOU LOVE? DO YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE FULLY? With Guest, CARMEL GREENWOOD Substance abuse – How Faith and Hope works
SMITTEN BY FAITH ISSUE # 0009 OCTOBER 2nd 2021
This week’s article is about giving hope to young people and families shattered by the scourge of substance abuse; how faith and love are indispensable in prevention and recovery. And, there was only one person I could have asked to be my Special Guest to write about this. This is the best-selling author, psychic and my AMAZING friend, CARMEL GREENWOOD. Carmel has a heart and laughter as big and vast as her country Australia where she was born. I met Carmel more than 30 years ago in Hong Kong where she was living at that time working as a very successful financial consultant. Hong Kong then was an very exciting city with an expatriate privileged jet-setting life style that can, however, be ruinous especially for young teenagers.
CARMEL – the party girl
Today, Carmel who lives in London with her supportive husband and all her children around her, believes that loving, living life fully and especially laughing is the key to keeping your life balanced and healthy. I mention her laughter in particular. That’s because when she comes into any room, Carmel’s energetic, full throated big booming laughter is the first thing you hear ! Through the years I have learned to laugh with Carmel and my previously closed mind has learned a lot in the process. Recently, Carmel was diagnosed with cancer and you can see in the pictures here that she went to all her treatments at the Hospital in London with her usual style and aplomb. I am sure the Royal Marsden Hospital has never had a patient who went for radiation treatment with a tiara on her head and laughing all the way ! It’s rather incredible !
CARMEL with her tiara at radiology and the Newspaper article – Laughing to Win
But long before all this, years ago, Carmel had gone through hell and back with horrific substance abuse issues with two of her eldest children, Andrew and Andrea – just mere teenagers then - terrible life shattering years for Carmel and the family. Carmel will be sharing this in her article below - as she has done in her many best-selling books which she courageously and honestly wrote to help other parents cope with this problem. Carmel says she has been fortunate with her successful business, second marriage ( to well-known economist, John Greenwood) and her loving children. Carmel wants to help others with her books, videos and podcasts. Most of all, Carmel says that FAITH and GOD have been with her every step of her long and arduous journey of healing with her two children. Her books include :
· Letting Go and Loving Life
· Soul Energy : How to heal yourself and feel full of life
· Wake Up Mum ( which Carmel wrote with her son, Andrew )
Carmel with some of the many books she has written and at one of her book signings
Carmel has the perfect intellect and most of all, the humanity - with her open heart and soul, to take us on her personal journey of faith. So, let's now hear directly from CARMEL GREENWOOD herself.
HOW WELL DO YOU LOVE? DO YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE FULLY?
BY CARMEL GREENWOOD, October 2nd, 2021; London
I danced in the dark and learned all its moves. I was at the effect of the dark aggressive demands and jumped to their tune. I turned cartwheels to be loved accepted and approved of. Now I stand in the light and can no longer be seduced or be unbalanced – I’m unstoppable; I have my freedom and sovereignty - I dance to my own tune.
Carmel
One thing above all things that is worth fighting for in this world is our children. Children are the future of our species. Children of today will be the elders of tomorrow. We are the fore mothers of the humans of the future. Don’t mess it up. Fight, because all of us will be remembered as the brave fighters for truth, freedom and this generation - our generation will be remembered as the humans of earth who fought bravely and won; those who made the change, those who stood up and stopped the abuse, raised their hearts towards their sovereignty and power. This is how we will be remembered. Protect your children. They are not stupid. Tell them the truth with words children can hear. Tell them that the future will be what they make it. Keep them safe; keep them human. Keep their biology human - it’s important.
I am happily married and have 5 children and 6 grandchildren who are uniquely diverse with different personalities. We are a happy close family after coming through great challenges we had to resolve in order to find the peace and harmony we have today.
“Every situation, properly perceived , becomes an opportunity to heal.”
A Course in Miracles
As a result of my first marriage to a man who died of alcoholic poisoning I had 2 children who became addicted to heroin. My daughter, Andrea had 4 weeks to live at one stage when her immune system had packed up. I went through many years of being a saviour trying to save Andrea and my son Andrew from self-destruction and an early death. I didn’t think I could live with myself if I didn’t do all I could for them. Finally, after many years of bailing them out, putting them into rehabs etc I learnt I couldn’t control their lives. I had to surrender and let them live their own lives on their own terms. The role of saviour didn’t serve me. It hurt my heart too much and I was exhausted to the point of losing everything. I learnt that I’m not a victim. I can say ‘no’ to paying to be abused. It’s easy to say ‘no’ in business. I was a financial stockbroker in Hong Kong but as a mother, it's a different thing. The heart of a mother is very forgiving; you can do anything and I will love you which is unconditional love, but I had to separate my love for them from their behaviour. I love you but I don’t like your behaviour. It’s not my job to fill them up, make them happy or take their consequences for what they did. I found it hard to take the angry demanding energy coming at me if I said ‘no’; it was painful, so for a time I drank wine and shopped to escape. It saved me from a worse fate of taking drugs myself but I have now learned to sit with my feelings which were so uncomfortable as I wanted to make them and everyone happy and fix and take away all their problems. I finally learnt that it’s not my job to make them happy or fix their problems. Just to love and accept them the way they are and love and accept myself the way I am. I learnt that I didn’t have to escape; disassociate and leave my body; I can stay in my body and be conscious. I can have a joyful happy abundant ecstatic energetic life regardless of what others are doing and how they are behaving.
Miracles happened when I let go of my judgements and asked God or Source for help. I had to accept the unacceptable and atone for myself and my part in it. Surrender to God any wrongs in my own mind that existed. I allowed myself to see things differently. My job was to have no judgement in my heart and to find divine neutrality. I had to surrender my judgement. You can hold a grudge or have a miracle; you can’t have both. I had to give up all grudges, resentments and poor me being a victim. I was very good at being a victim and feeling sorry for myself; woe is me and it was very juicy. It was not so easy to give up. Miracles do happen. My daughter became involved with another heroin addict while she was in Holloway Jail in London and found out she was pregnant. When she gave birth the baby was addicted to heroin so had tubes all over his little body for a week. The social services asked me if I would adopt the baby. After coming through so much I just knew it wouldn’t work. If I wanted all violence and addiction out of my life so we could have a happy family; if I adopted the baby she and her partner would always be at my door demanding and stealing money for their next fix. I had faith and I had made the right decision. But some of my friends, some family and her partner’s Greek family thought I was terrible. I had to stand firm. It was as if a small quiet voice from God had told me what to do. I had to hold my faith; stand firm and love her but not take responsibility for her actions. The social services in the U.K. were amazing. They organised a foster mother to take care of the baby for the first year. Andrea and her partner had to earn the baby back. They could visit for one hour then two hours; they had to stay clean, have parenting lessons etc. They were monitored by the Social Services, not me. They were doing all the monitoring and bailing out I used to do. I was able to take their baby out for Christmas Day from the foster mother and bring him home and we spent Christmas together as a family; then I returned him. I had a Christening party in my home and we invited the wonderful foster mother. I said to her I felt guilty I wasn’t able to take him. She said that she didn’t have the same history as me and understood. Andrea loved her baby so she did all that was required to get him back. She stopped taking drugs. They did an amazing job and finally got him back out of the system to live with them. She surprised me by wanting to go to university to study addiction. I was over the moon and happily paid the tuition fees. After graduation she started working for a highly regarded addiction treatment centre and made her way up to being the manager. Because she went through so much she is such a valuable asset as she understands people going through addiction and can relate to them very well. Her son is l8 years old now and studying film production.
Andrew, Andrea and I studied Psychic Healing with an instructor from the Berkley Psychic Institute in San Francisco. Andrew is studying Psychology with an Australian University now. Having Faith and never giving up brought us through it to a life of happiness for all of us. We have managed to talk through all our points of view; our feelings of what went wrong, what went right; a celebration of lives well lived so now they are helping others come through the pain of addiction. When we teach children and adults how to process their emotions; to feel them, acknowledge them and love themselves through them until they dissolve and disappear, they won’t be seduced into taking drugs to numb themselves and escape. We are comfortable in our own skins and at peace with ourselves.
One of the most important things I learnt in my life is to love and have compassion for everyone. Only what I am not giving can be lacking in any situation. Sometimes we get lost in a miasma of craziness that allows ourselves to be abused. Craziness steps in. I accepted I was at times crazy in the relationship with my first husband. My children witnessed him strangling me which was so traumatic. By atoning for what I did wrong, I do not feel guilty; the holy spirit has undone it all. I did feel temporary discomfort. You did wrong. You should feel bad. Ego wants you to stay in self-hatred so you don’t get better. We are all Souls; we may take a wrong path but we are all good at heart and can change if we choose to. God doesn’t judge us or brand us as sinners. Forgiveness is here for all of us. Most important is to forgive ourselves for what we may have done or perceived to do wrong and make amends for it. We can solve all problems as there is only one problem – it’s our separation from love and God. When we connect with God all problems and separations are resolved. I take the stand for a different alternative than the craziness of the world. I stand for Love.
We need to take all of our personal conflicts and resolve them. It’s in ourselves, if you are not sure of your habits and behaviour, ask your children and family. They will put you right! By making peace, healing our wounds and traumas by becoming at peace with ourselves, we don’t feel the need to project outside our inner conflict to treat them outside as a therapy. When we encounter someone who thinks differently its ok; just say - I acknowledge your opinion. You would have projected it out before but now you will have healed it and made peace with yourself. It’s the same with the planet. When every country has sorted its own struggles out they won’t project them out to other countries. We will have a federated world. It all starts with us. It’s the noble thing to do. We need to make an effort. Things don’t just fall from the sky into our hands. We are our own saviours. We need to make it happen. We are the only ones to make the effort of getting on with ourselves on all levels; then you get on with everyone. We have to find the barriers in ourselves that prevent us loving and being at peace. That’s the job we have to do to work and start to evolve; everyone is part of it. Start by healing yourself. Once you are healed, everyone is healed and this world is in peace and we can move on. That’s the requirement we are standing in.
Many are turning to the good loving peaceful side and saying ‘no’ to evil, abuse and hatred. A lot of structures are turning to the winning side - all the corporations who want to keep their business fair for all; the greedy ones can no longer operate. Corporations go with the winners. The Galactic federation unify and include everyone to help the vibration of the civilisation to rise. They believe in souls who are able to heal and evolve. Don’t give up now. We know what we are doing. Meditate every day; have a prayer for people fighting for the freedom of citizens of the human species. This cause is freedom on many levels, physically mentally and spiritually.
When someone hurts us we usually close our hearts to them to punish them. We think. Who is hurt? Us. We brood, we stew in our own juice. Whose fault is it you are hurt? Yours. You closed your heart to them; they didn’t. It has the opposite effect. You are punishing yourself and it keeps people out. We can have compassion instead of closing our hearts. Hurt people hurt others. We all make mistakes. We are the ones who hurt if we don’t forgive. It punishes us, not them. Have the faith to love ourselves through it and have compassion for the other person. Pray for the person who hurt you for 30 days. May they be blessed, happy and loved. After 30 days, they will change or you won’t care. Be the people we are capable of being. Honour our children and our children’s children. Say ‘NO’ to what needs to be said ‘no’ to. When we love with an open heart it’s impossible to hurt anyone it’s against our nature to do so.
When we meditate we go into the quantum realm of infinite possibility. We get to the causal level and we recognise our love for each other. Love is the basis of all. Prayer aligns us and takes us beyond the 10% of the brain capacity. We take our direction and guidance from the still small voice of God. Surrendering ourselves that we might be used by love as part of the healing miracle of the world. We look within. Where we have been weak, we are strong; brave where we have been cowardly. We feel the divine elixir of God’s love upon us. As it moves through our body it restores nourishes and revitalises our body and emotions, and we are aligned. Pray we might become better at forgiveness, mercy, compassion and more ready to atone for our own ills. Protect and bless the quiet sacred place within. Open our inner eye that we might see the beauty and innocence in each other. We ask you to dissolve all the barriers to our love - where we move into that place where we accept all and let go of our judgements. We experience the joy of knowing this is who we were always meant to be. Stand strong in deep humility before the power before us; seeking the innocence in all we meet. Ready to do what God would have us do. Love, power, glory - we are all joined together. We place our fears in God’s hands and ask God to direct us and pave the path before us.
Most of us have lived an unconscious life and are confused. We live out our lives and it's not until after we realise what we have done that we feel guilty about it. It’s unconscious. We don’t have to stay stuck in problems. We can move energy and move on. The only reason I know is I had to slow down and watch how I behaved and reacted. When I’m upset I wanted to punish. My reaction is I want to hurt them. It’s natural to feel this way but we have a choice of what we do. We have to deal with our own energy. The reason I’m able to do it now is I’m able to be conscious of it. I stop and look at my reactions and become conscious of my behaviour. That’s how you learn. Look at what you do. How do you know what you know. I have to look at what’s going on inside me to deal with reactions where I want to explode with rage and anger at injustice. I look at it; deal with it and process it. I have to look at it and process it. When things get ugly I have to look at why I’m running ugly energy. I’m facing the ugly anger and rage. Facing it takes courage but it’s worth it to be happy. Most will deny it. Trauma changes our consciousness. We can twist ourselves into the evil or transmute the evil and have something so much better if we had not experienced the trauma. Contrasts are here to teach us who we are. Make all relationships the best we can.
It's ok to be who we are. We may have self-hatred from the past and experience lack of love in our lives. it's ok to be wherever we are. Accept ourselves wherever we are at. If you are an angry bitch; sad, resentful, angry - accept yourself. Love yourself through it. If you are confused in yourself - learn to accept yourself as an evolving being ; accept yourself with all your ups and downs. I’ve had to learn to do it. We are told that you can’t. We all have issues. The shortcut is to accept you have these issues and choose to let them go.
Keep well, raise your vibration and love every minute of your life. Always remember deep in your heart that all is well and everything is unfolding as it should. There are no mistakes anywhere at any time. Trust yourself; be kind; look for the opportunities to be kind. Light up someone up with a smile. It costs you nothing. You will be enriched by giving it. When you give love and appreciation out to the world, it uplifts you too. What goes out comes back. I Love you. Carmel
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Editor’s Note :
Dear Reader, thank you for reading this weekly edition of SMITTEN BY FAITH.
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