What has gone wrong in today’s society? The problem on the surface looks like alcoholism, drug addiction, prescription pill addiction, obesity, depression, loneliness, and hiding behind a spiritual teacher’s teachings. The cost of these symptoms is over $276 billion annually to society, not to mention the additional loss of being a non-productive member of society and the incredible negative impact these symptoms have on a person’s psychic and spiritual maturity.

But is obesity, alcoholism, drug addiction, prescription pill addiction, depression, loneliness or hiding behind someone’s spiritual teachings the problem or is there something underneath all that?

The underbelly of these symptoms is simply people not feeling good enough while possessing a poison tongue.

I remember an occasion when I was in India at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama (SRSG) doing a 40-day silent retreat in 2004 and Swami Veda threatened all the people at the ashram that he would shut it down if people could not reign in their gossip and poison they spread with their words. He further stated for people to make amends or he would become a recluse and do his writings and no longer teach.

He sent a most powerful message about the need for emotional sobriety.

I also remember Swami Veda once mentioning that a person will not make any progress in yoga until they learn to master their emotions.

So how do these symptomatic problems perpetuate themselves? You think a thought, then you feel an emotion based on your belief about that thought—be it a bad or good thought; now your belief matches you to the exact wave-length of your emotion magnetizing the physical evidence to appear in your reality, and around and around you go going deeper into this circle of thinking. Or another way of saying it, energy follows thought and returns to its source which in this case is you, the map-maker.

Thinking unwanted, negative, blaming, critical thoughts of others or yourself only creates more unwanted, negative, blaming, critical thoughts which eventually lead to unwanted experiences in your life. Thinking healthy, uplifting positive thoughts create wanted positive circumstances in your life.

In the words of Swami Rama, “You are the architect of your destiny…and studying one’s own thoughts, emotions, deeds, and actions is the real study.” It is through thought that you design your life and then live it.

In other words you are one hundred percent responsible for all that has occurred in your life, is occurring in your life and what will incur in your life whether you admit it or not.

So, what is emotional sobriety? It is simply a state of feeling good no matter what is going on in your life without the need for criticism, judgment, alcohol, drugs, over-indulgence in food or hiding behind your spiritual teachings. It is being a fully productive member of the human race in whatever capacity that you have created and in the process feeling good about yourself.