Don Joseph Goewey – Stop Fixing Yourself, Wake Up, All is Well

Don Joseph Goewey is the executive director of the Anthony de Mello Center. He’s the editor of Anthony De Mello’s book, “Stop Fixing Yourself, Wake Up, All is Well.”

“‘Stop Fixing Yourself’ is the mother lode of spirituality. Wake up! Focus! This is it,” according to Mr. Goewey.

Are you broken? Where are happiness and peace? Are you looking for love in all the wrong places?

Our mind exaggerates the problem. The real and present danger is misperceived.

The amygdala is a core fear system in the body. It can easily turn a rope into a snake.

Thinking about the future keeps you out of the present. Be aware and pay attention. Become the expert.

Are you attached to things? Do you think happiness is out there? Are you happy but you don’t know it?

When do you think happiness will come to you? Are you driving with the brakes on?

Are you in debt? Could attachment be the cause?

Most of our fears never materialize. Out of the ones that do, almost all of them are easily manageable.

Mr. Goewey recounts the personal story of how he looked “into the black hole of catastrophe.” He was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and the outcome was not optimistic. He had also just been fired from his job at Harvard.

He was oppressed by his negative thinking. He had failed at his job. He had failed at his health. What would his family do without him?

“When you can’t change your situation, then you’re called upon to change yourself.” Mr. Goewey recounts the amazing story of how he got both his health and his job back.

Take responsibility. You are the writer, producer, and director of your own movie free to change it at any time.

We can choose our own way into the life we want to experience.

Children are born happy. They don’t need a reason to smile. Allow your mental blockage to shift.

Happiness comes and goes for most people. That’s not true happiness. It’s not the kind of happiness that makes you smile for no reason.

Happiness is available to everyone. It’s not something you have to “get.”

Happiness does not have to be chased. It’s inside yourself.

What you’re aware of, you control. Be aware of all that’s false and neurotic within you.

How do synapses print our negativity? How do most people program their unhappiness?

Awareness leads to reality. We’re surrounded by Divinity. Helping hands are all around us.

People are hypnotized to see what’s not there, and also hypnotized to not see what’s really there.

Happiness is not about adding anything to your to-do list. Stop Fixing Yourself was written to deliver this message.

Map the territory of your prison cell. Stop believing you can’t be happy without the things that are absent.

Happiness is your natural state. You’re happy and you don’t know it.

Happiness is not changing your situation and the people around you.

Make a list, “I cannot be happy unless or until …” You just made a list of why you’re not happy in your life, but you have happiness already. “You were born with the spiritual DNA gene for happiness.”

Americans are a shame-based culture. It’s in our schools and religions. There’s not one bit of evidence that shame produces anything positive.

Shame produces nothing except stress. It damages DNA and shortens telomeres.

Stop Fixing Yourself. Reclaim your happiness