News - The Chopra Foundation

Ask Deepak: Why Moms Don’t Have to Be Martyrs

Each week, spiritual teacher Deepak responds to Oprah.com users’ questions with enlightening advice to help them live their best lives.

Q: I am proud of my children. My 25-year-old son and 22-year-old daughter are caring, kind and smart. My son has a strong work ethic. He chose not to attend college. My daughter dropped out of high school. She is a new mom and is currently on welfare. I worry they will always struggle financially. I am paralyzed by the guilt that I could have done something different when they were young. It is killing me. How can I get past this guilt? — Sandra S., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – READ MORE AT OPRAH.COM

Daily Inspiration

Together we can help create a peaceful, just, sustainable, and healthy world. Our lives are inextricably linked. We belong to one another! -Deepak Chopra

Doing Shadow Work to Eliminate Old Patterns

I feel I am at a crossroads in my life. I am 57 and have two children one who is married and the other who is about to leave to live in her own apartment. I divorced my husband around 20 years ago after suffering a lot of mental cruelty. I separated from my last partner two years ago after nearly 14 years together as I felt I was losing my identity in our relationship. I recently left my job as I suffered bullying at work and could not stand it anymore. I am hopeful of a better future but I feel I have hit rock bottom and do not want to repeat my old mistakes. However I feel that I have not learned anything and will somehow make another bad decision. Have you any suggestions for me that might help. I have read your book the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success many times and find great peace within.

When You Help Yourself, Which Self Are You Helping?

Americans are great believers in self-help, and with good reason. There are more tools for personal growth today than ever before. Books, seminars, weekend workshops, and support groups of all kinds flourish in abundance. Cynics decry this as a symptom of narcissism, the navel-gazing of the Me Generation. Actually, self-help spans all generations, and according to studies, around 75% of people who improve their psychological state do so, not with a therapist’s help, but by themselves. (more…)