Spiritual Living

            What is addiction? How does one become addicted, is it genetic or acquired? Addictions do not necessarily occur overnight, however it may seem to happen that way. Simply stated addiction is that event which drives a person to seek out what ever substance they are using at any cost. It is the “I have to have it to feel normal!” Here is one definition: “the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.” (Dictionary.com n.d.) There are several theories as to what causes addiction, for the sake of this article those will have to wait since it is extremely extensive. The purpose here is to inform and share a bit of insight into this phenom that seems to plague so much of the population.

            For the most part I do not believe that anyone would wish this dis-ease upon their worst enemies let alone set out to become addicted to anything. Alcohol, drugs (illegal and legal), tobacco products, caffeine, soft drinks, sweets, gambling, sex, the list is endless as to what one can become addicted to. Addicts cannot stop thinking about ways to get more of what it is they are addicted to, any means and any way to achieve the desired result. Sneaking around, hiding it, pretending it does not matter, depending on the substance, never sharing their last one or near last, being defensive when asked about it, and if they do not have it becoming irritable, withdrawn, defensive, and a host of other symptoms. As the definition above states, not having it causes severe trauma, this occurs in many ways, fear, pain, harming self in some way, again depending on the substance.

            There are those people who can be casual, social and recreational users, and then there are those who are not so addicted but get into trouble when they do use, the problem users. Take it or leave it, order a drink take one swallow out of it and leave it not touching it the rest of the time it sits there. Try this once and watch your friends reactions to this, or refuse a drink and when asked tell them you decided to quit, and then listen their responses. When I tell someone I do not drink because I did not like where I woke up, the responses are about the same, justifications and explanations about their drinking habits. I once went out with this guy who said he was not ready for A.A. (Alcoholics Anonymous), just A.

            How do you know if you are addicted? That my friend is a personal evaluation, but you can keep a journal, noting the times that you seek out/use, patterns, or cravings for what it is that you have questions about. Also not the motives, which mean to listen to your thoughts and feelings about it. Then make up your own mind. When the pain is bad enough one will always find a way to fix it, one way or another.

            As always, bright blessings on your journey. Please feel free to contact me, leave a comment and keep coming back.

References

addiction. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/addiction

            When you remain consistent with journaling daily patterns begin to emerge, emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and the culmination of life as you knew it shifts. These are developed patterns of life that have brought you this far, leading you to this day, this information, and can be considered a blessing or not. Recognizing the habits which hold you in prison fuel you to action and in general are judged either good or bad is a result of consistent journaling. It has been said that bad behaviors are persistent and resistant, where as new ones are more difficult to obtain. What I find intriguing with this concept is that all habits are equal until judged, and then labels are placed according to how the habit affects its environment. In other words if a habit disturbs another person, causes pain or joy the label is either good or bad, there is a criteria involved in creating the judgment about the habit.

            Freedom of choice, a gift of the Divine, the one major cognition that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom bringing with it a responsibility to self, not others, but self. The one person in this world that has the greatest power in your life to love you and cherish you, show respect, guidance and most of all the power to create something wonderful in your life is YOU. Does that decrease the effects of others in your daily life? Yes and no, yes because what another says appears to be good or bad, no because it is the learned value of what others say and do that affects us the greatest. Well, if you get hit or run over by a vehicle that hurts, of course, abuse of any form hurts. Yes, mostly because what we are taught early in life, those early lessons that have been passed down from generation to generation and is unique to humans, not the rest of the animal kingdom. There are volumes of research and books written on this topic alone, so because that is too cumbersome for this article I will save it for later and provide the links to those in case you are interested.

            The first pattern that becomes apparent is the desire to forget about journaling, a new habit that can be helpful and healing. The first night excitement at discovering a new tool to help, so practice is completed, off to sleep (if it is done at bedtime), the next night, time to journal before bed, but so many other things must get done, exhausted from the day, too tired, and off to bed, journal untouched, from there dozens of nights pass and eventually you forget all about it. Then something happens and you think perhaps doing the journal thing is not so bad of an idea, so you give it another try and the same result, one more time only this time maybe you write before bed, get up in the morning and make a few more notes. Here the first of many patterns emerges, the choice to make a healthy change, to use a tool to help make changes in life is attempted, then the old way of living kicks in and says nope, not going anywhere. What do you think this is?

            When you decide to do something new, perhaps healthier for you, and it falls by the way side, what happens to you? What thoughts come up for you, how does your body react, what sensations occur? For me? It was a reason to punish myself, negative thoughts, getting up in the morning feeling depressed and uninterested in my day. Each time I made the decision to not practice something that would improve my life, begged off with being too tired, another reason to be disappointed in me, to punish me, to dislike me even more. This resulted in whining, negative self-talk, illness, poor decision making, and the list could be endless, but I am hoping by now you know what I am talking about. Does it sound familiar? Maybe, maybe not, I write because I have to share my experience, strength and healing with you, spreading the word that there is a way out.

            In closing I do hope it does help, that perhaps you will decide to go easy on yourself the next time you resolve to make a change in your life, to add something new and when you falter making up reasons to not do it, that perhaps you will recognize the pattern and decide to go through with it one more time. Then make the decision to give yourself a break and not push so hard. If you want guidance, someone to walk this path with you, let me know. My contact page will have several ways to find me. I look forward to our journey together.

Bright Blessings abound for you and yours.

Welcome to my new blog, the information that will follow this post will include daily tips on developing a spiritual life style, information regarding substance abuse and how to overcome it, and a rants, raves and life in general.

Basics for living a spiritual life are pretty simple, it is, however human nature to complicate it, determining its level of difficulty and seeking some way to measure it. If you do not keep a journal then it is my strongest suggestion that you begin today. This is a great way to discover progress, patterns that you either choose to change or enhance, and defiantly a great place to vent. A journal is yours, to write in any way you see fit, there are no hard or fast rules, but there are as many suggestions as there are people who use them. Journals are a spoken or written chart, a way of following your own life, or sharing with someone else. The types of journals I have utilized include work, especially as a new employee, making notes of events, conversations, operating procedures that have changed, tracking those unwritten rules that invariably come up and if you are in sales, tracking your number of contacts, etc. Then there is the personal one which holds the good, bad and ugly of my daily life, this is where I can write anything I want to, no judgments, no opinions, just my inner thoughts that would create havoc in my outside world. This is also the place where I can track my victories, the changes in my life from old beliefs to new ones, discoveries, blessings, and all the other terrific stuff that belongs to me.

Journaling for personal growth means writing “free-style,” just put pen to paper, write, let it flow, sometimes it occurs as a dialog, other times it is just a rant. For instance, if there is a question that is perplexing I may start my journal entry that way. Like this:

Begin journal entry with the question, perhaps droll on about the emotions that accompany it, explore the inner workings of how this bothers me. Stating the problem, perhaps repeating the question(s), allowing myself to not analyze, just write. Sometimes it seems like gibberish or just crap, like I am pretending. I have come to discover that feeling disconnected from what I am writing is acceptable; it allows me room to examine without judgment.  Sometimes my journal entries do look like a dialog of sorts, the question will be stated again, perhaps for the third time, then an answer just seems to appear on the page, when that happens it is a freedom that escapes words. This takes practice, permission for self to explore and the inclusion that it certainly does seem like you are crazy, because who in their right mind would be carrying on like this and if anyone saw this, what would they say. It does not matter, because they will not be seeing it, unless you choose to share it.

The next step is another day, so stay tuned and enjoy this learning process, explore the uncharted and dare to go where no one has gone before, especially you. If you need help, I am there for you. Check out my contact page and get in touch, even if it is just to say hi. Trust is earned, another partner in your journey.

Bright Blessings abound for you and yours. God/dess Blessings!