This is my personal story about giving up alcohol for five years to choosing to drink again. I reflect on my relationship with sobriety and self-awareness, and what it means to move out of shame and into healthy self-worth.

The sages say it that suffering is a choice, yet suffering is inevitable for there there is much that we must let go of and unlearn before we understand how to ease ourselves out of suffering. It's all too easy to spiritually bypass suffering without realising it is an essential part of our reality that will grant us our spiritual and emotional freedom.

This shouldn’t be a divisive opinion, but it is. Debate is healthy, yet there is none. Standing up for what you believe to be good and true in the world had never created so much tension, yet this particular subject does. Why is that?

Personal choice is an essential cornerstone of our existence, one which is under dire threat from those whose fear has surpassed all level of reasoning.

How quickly we’ve forgotten how cunningly the Nazis waged a war of mass manipulation against the German public, creating a breeding ground ripe for hate, fear and division.