Richard Hoffman here. Today, we'll delve into values, principles, and support, which are crucial for achieving healing, making changes, addressing issues, and correcting course in our lives. In this segment, I'd like to focus on the roles values and principles play in this journey. To clarify, let’s discuss sensory blind spots, or scripts. These occur when we fail to recognize stimuli because they lack value to us personally. For instance, if a mother sleeps through a thunderstorm but awakens at the soft cry of her baby, it’s because the baby’s cry has value and registers as significant, whereas the storm does not. The implications of this extend beyond the auditory. If you visit a shopping mall and see a Halloween display, what you perceive says more about you than anything else. If you see it as "capitalistic manipulation," that reflects your values. If you see "incredible creativity," that reflects different values. A practical exercise is to sit in a mall and observe passersby, trying to recognize expressions of love. Love is everywhere if you learn to recognize it. This exercise underscores how our ability to perceive depends heavily on what we value. Introducing another topic: the impact of trauma. Trauma affects our inner "vertebrae" of self—the components like self-acceptance, self-esteem, etc.—and can halt their development. People often wrap these vertebrates in a protective coating, which can be behavioral or chemical, to numb the pain of trauma but unfortunately also stifles growth and accessibility to these crucial aspects of self. This leads to the development of the four core addictions as a way to cope:

1. Security Addiction - This stems from the "I am not enough," feeling leading to an exaggerated need for security.
2. Control Addiction - This involves a need to control outcomes to avoid leaving anything to chance.
3. **Sensation Addiction - This arises from a need for heightened experiences to feel alive due to numbing from handling security and control issues.
4. Suffering Addiction** - Ironically, some are addicted to suffering because it can manipulate situations to their benefit or lower expectations placed on them. Addressing these addictions requires us to fill the void left when we attempt to discard the negative components. For instance, if one lets go of impatience, one must cultivate patience. This involves recognizing each character defect, admitting it, and opting to surrender and replace it with its positive counterpart. This transformation is essential for recovery and personal growth. It entails a daily recommitment to the qualities one wishes to embody, like patience or honesty, supported by an understanding of personal principles and structured through consistent habits like journaling gratitude and successes. Lastly, engaging mentors and coaches in various areas of life—financial, relational, spiritual—is instrumental. They provide external perspective and accountability, helping maintain alignment with one’s principles and continued growth towards a fulfilling life. Join me for the next module where we will delve deeper into these transformative processes and explore practical steps.