With my wife and professional partner, Diane Cirincione-Jampolsky, I first met Diederik Wolsak in 2001, and we bonded immediately with him. He has taken the principles of Attitudinal Healing and A Course in Miracles around the world. His Six-Step Process, lectures, and workshops have helped many people change their lives for the better. Diederik started the Center for Attitudinal Healing, known as Choose Again, in Vancouver, Canada, and later opened a retreat center, El Cielo, in Costa Rica. It was our honor to spend time at the retreat center in 2012, where we found people from all over the world. We really didn’t know what to expect before we arrived, but the work we were exposed to went far beyond anything we might have envisioned. In fact, in the 52 countries that have Attitudinal Healing centers, we have never seen such a clear and effective approach. We were impressed that the staff was able to help people with many different kinds of challenges, including difficult addictions. We found El Cielo to be a remarkable around-the-clock healing center, with the Six-Step Process being the cornerstone of the therapeutic technique.
We had travelled to Costa Rica with the full understanding that we would participate in the center’s activities, not merely be passive observers. And indeed, Diederik made it clear that he did not want us to sit idly by or even just give a talk or two. Instead, he wanted us to become part of the mix — part of the group healing process, the focus of which is learning to see the value of letting go of the self-imposed blocks to love that many of us experience — blocks such as guilt and judgment. Members of the group learn how to apply the Six-Step Process to discover and then correct those blocks. We learn to be responsible for our own happiness, rather than blaming others for our state of unhappiness. We also learn that it is only our own thoughts and attitudes that hurt us, and that forgiving others and ourselves completely is the true key to happiness. We come to understand, in a deep and profound way, that the universe has given all of us the freedom to choose what thoughts and attitudes we put into our minds.
Choose Again teaches that we don’t have to go through life feeling like we’re a victim of circumstance. Rather, we have full control of how we experience our inner as well as outer lives. We learn that there is a healer inside of us and that we can decide to make a decision to be a love-finder rather than a faultfinder, a giver of love rather than a seeker of love, and to live in a consciousness of giving rather than of getting.
Centers and groups devoted to Attitudinal Healing study its twelve principles, the first of which is: “The essence of our being is love.” We’ve always thought that if we could practice just this one principle consistently, we wouldn’t need to use the other eleven because in this first principle’s application we are also able to recognize that the essence of everyone else’s being is love, too. Diederik’s process reminds us how powerfully healing this principle is.
Diederik’s work helps us understand that life is about choices — both conscious and unconscious — and if we’re not happy with the choices we’ve made along the way, we can always forgive ourselves and choose once again.
If there is something in your life that’s not working, if you sense an emptiness, a lack of purpose, if you continue to be anxious and fearful, if you’re still hurt about the past and fearful of the future, and if you’ve reached a point in your life where you say to yourself, “There has to be a better way,” then this book was meant for you. It is with great enthusiasm that Diane and I recommend it to you; treat it with utmost respect — for it has the power and the potential to truly change your life. — Gerald Jampolsky, m.d., Founder of Attitudinal Healing, Co-Author of A Mini Course for Life; Change Your Mind, Change Your Life