At least once we’ve heard the well-meaning advice, “Just let it go.”

Quite frankly, we deserve a gold medal if we’ve managed to restrain from throat punching the Good Samaritan giving this sage advice.

We’ve also heard, “Love is our natural state.”

If love is our natural state, why are so many of us feeling unhappy and unloved—and why don’t we love ourselves?

Reaching enlightenment (or the state of love) can be compared to taking a hot air balloon flight. Many of us turn on the fire and focus on cultivating that brightly burning flame. But if our ropes are still tethered to the ground, we are limited to the heights we are able to fly.

At a certain point we need to take our eyes off the sky, forgo turning the flame hotter, and instead work to release those ropes.

Drugs and alcohol can simulate these higher states because they temporarily create the illusion that our ropes are released. We lose awareness of the things keeping us from love—and when we suppress these lower states, we love more easily.

However, this way is unsustainable. When the drugs wear off so does the oblivion, and our primary perception of life comes crashing back. This strong desire to release our illusions can keep us locked in a cycle of addiction.

The secret to being happy isn’t about learning to love more—we already love enough. Your flame is already lit. The secret is found in releasing those bindings that keep us from love.

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” ~ Rumi

So how do we do this?

Here are four ways to get high without mind-altering substances:

1. Clear your energy with an energetic healing session

It’s simple to understand that physical hygiene is important. We shower and clean our physical body daily, and we’re encouraged to wash our hands often to avoid getting sick. When we contract a bacteria or virus that we are unable to get rid of on our own, we often seek help from a professional.

These same rules apply to our energetic bodies. As we navigate throughout our daily lives, it’s common to pick up things energetically that do not belong to us. Like gum on the bottom of our shoe attracts dirt, leaving these external energies in our field can attract situations or emotions that lower our vibration, making it harder for us to feel love.

Some examples of how this can affect us include anxiety, chronic fatigue, or unwanted thoughts. If these symptoms come from something external to us, an energy healing session can offer almost immediate relief.

>> Recommended: Russell Forsythe, with Forsyth, Inc. is an energy healer with a five-star rating and over 400 verified reviews. Also recommended is Amy Sikarskie, she has a five-star rating with almost 200 verified reviews. Additionally, The International Center for Reiki Training (ICRT) maintains a listing of their practitioners and trainers on their website.

>> This video illustrates the power of vibrations to affect their surroundings. Within two minutes, 32 metronomes (started at different times) have picked up the nearby vibrations and become perfectly synced.

2. Learn to meditate (i.e., redirect thoughts) 

Our thoughts and emotions have a cumulative effect on each other, and it doesn’t matter which one comes first for that downward spiral to start.

The cycle often plays out like this: we have a negative emotion which causes a negative thought. The negative thought causes an even greater negative emotion, which then causes even more negative thoughts. If we learn to redirect our thoughts, then we have control over the situation and are not overcome with emotion. We halt the downward spiral before it gets going. Additionally, there is research to support that brainwave frequency during meditation can reduce depression.

>> Recommended: The mobile app Headspace offers daily guided meditations. We can also find free online guided meditations from well-known teachers such as Tara Brach.

“So the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: learn to disidentify from your mind. Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows stronger.” ~ Eckhart Tolle 

3. Get enough of the right vitamins

When we feel good, it’s easier to maintain higher states of consciousness. And when we feel bad, we’re more susceptible to the lower states. How often have we snapped at someone because we felt tired or drained, and then felt worse?

There are many ways a physical nutritional imbalance can impact our mood. For example, if we are low on Iron, we can feel tired and lethargic. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with some states of depression, and insufficient Vitamin B-12 can affect our energy and metabolism.

While eating a healthy and balanced diet is important, we can also boost this with nutritional supplements.

>> Recommended: Standard Processes is a supplement company that uses whole-food processing, and offers gluten-free and vegetarian options. Gematria produces laser-enhanced nutritional supplements, and is GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) certified.

4. Decode and reprogram our negative karma

Throughout our life we replay similar situations over and over because we’re subconsciously attracting these circumstances.

From the time of conception until around age six, human brainwaves primarily operate in a subconscious state or “programming:” state. The situations we encounter during this time have the potential to go straight into our subconscious.

If we compare the human brain to a computer, these first six years can be thought of as the years in which our software is written. The rest of our life we spend executing the same programs. And as we all know, any well-written computer software operates the same way every time.

For example, I have a friend who commented that he generally works for overbearing bosses. I pointed out to him that his father is also domineering. On a subconscious level, he’s recreating the circumstances under which his programming was written.

This will keep happening unless it’s rewritten.

We could try saying positive affirmations all day in an attempt to change our attractions, but they will likely prove less effective because they are occurring at the conscious level. Our conscious is generally incapable of changing our subconscious.

At a deep level we don’t believe these positive affirmations. We believe our core program which tells us the opposite.

This is where the practice of biodecoding and reprogramming fits. The root cause of the unwanted area of attraction is decoded and reprogrammed at the level which it occurred: the subconscious level.

The process of biodecoding and reprogramming should be done with a trained professional, and often people report releases from lifelong patterns within one to three sessions. This is in contrast to traditional therapy sessions, which can take months or years to see results.

>> Recommended: Visit MindBodyLogic for training details or contact them for a listing of practitioners.

“You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you and allowing that goodness to emerge. But it can only emerge if something fundamental changes in your state of consciousness.” ~ Eckhart Tolle