The first step to overcoming is to admit it.

This morning I talked with a friend about someone who had a problem. The person concerned was in denial. She refuses to admit that she had a problem. Although her friends would have liked to help her, help could never reach her as the denial was a close door to solutions.

Let's face it. Some of us, in one way or another, have some kind of hidden uneasy secret in the deepest corner of our mind hopefully buried in that part people understand as the subconscious mind. We do put on a brave front wherever we go but the secret keeps us in fear or too conscious of something.

It could be a lousy past, a poverty period of the family, the lost of a dear friend, the reluctant end of a relationship or a painful period in our lives. It could have been a trauma, a painful, scarring past that is always at the back of our mind. Because of such a trauma, we are keenly conscious of susceptible pain. We draw away from possible situations where such pain could be inflicted upon us. The one with the lousy past would not want to have anyone play him or her out again. The person from a really poor family would not wish the same sad financial circumstances that may arise as a result of being economically unstable. The guy with a lost love might not want his heart to be hurt again.

Yet, if we ever tell the person concerned to forget the past for it is over and there is still so much life to be lived in the years to come, the person would deny that such a problem exists. Without admitting that such a problem exists, we cannot rid ourselves of the problem. (In a much earlier posting I have written about my own inferiority complex, how I faced it in my youth, overcome it with the help of my friends, my greatest teachers, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale, and my very own tremendous effort through body-building, sports, gymnastics and doing voluntary work.)

Yes, it is only when we know our problems, face it squarely that we are able to do something to get rid of it. When there is this desire to remove the problem, we see clearly the weakness we burden ourselves with and with that in mind we can take positive steps to overcoming them. The steps to take comes with knowledge and knowledge today is within the reach of almost everybody if we make the move towards it in books and the internet besides experienced friends.

The day we acknowledge our problem is the start towards a better future, a better us, so the sooner the better. I was lucky as I was made aware of my problems by caring friends. I was also aware of my sickly past which left me weak and unable to be involved as much as I would have like to. Thank God, the am exactly the opposite of what I was.

Well, our fervent hope and prayer is to share and enjoy life as God would have wanted us to. May everyone be blessed with happiness and those who are more fortunate ought to help those with their burdens to unshackle them. In God we trust. (No, I do not belong to any religion for I am a free-thinker but not an atheist.)