4 Ways to move beyond addiction

Addictions are extreme behaviors that arise in a person who believes he is incomplete. People develop compulsive habits for different reasons. Each person is on a healing journey.  If you dream of being anywhere other than where you are, you refuse to believe healing and redemption are available now.

People consume too much of things when they are under the illusion they do not have enough. They over-indulge in activities as they do not consciously feel satisfaction. They behave in ways which they believe compensate for deep-seated fear and perceived lack and yet, a sense of restlessess lingers.

To move beyond unhealthy behavior, a person must evolve to recognize extremes. As you choose to explore reasons why you permit extremes to arise, you also have freedom to explore feelings that perpetuate and dissolve them. The path to wholeness invites you to recognize different sides of yourself;

1) Address the physical level. Based on gender, unless you are a hermaphrodite, you are male or female or what appears to be half of a whole. You are attracted to whatever you sense is missing. Sexual intimacy is one way human beings seek to fill a perceived gap. For many people, this a short-lived experience because the sense of union does not last. A return to oneness raises the issue of energy polarity and why opposites attract.  Certain kinds of love are addictive yet they do no serve you.

2) Examine the emotional level. Addictions arise based on the unconscious refusal to face and work through pain and related issues.  Whatever you are using or doing to an extreme evokes discomfort precisely because it draws your attention to what bothers you underneath all that.  You surpass the threshold where your chosen distraction is no longer effective.  The pain source is more pronounced.  As you move beyond ego substitutes for needs, another part of you awakens.

3) Review the psychological level.  To identify with the mind is to falsely identify with an external sense of self.  In other words, you may create an identity based on your social position, material items, money in your possession, physical appearance, perceived approval and conditioned beliefs.  To deny ego is not the same as choosing to understand why it exists.  As you stop focusing on self, you dissolve reasons for fear.  To consciously empty the mind is to stop resisting what is.  An effective trigger for change is to completely accept others and yourself. Turning off the judge takes you beyond ego. That is, the inner critic and will to punish, dissolves.

4) Explore spiritual connections.  The non-material, non-physical reminds you of the power of presence.  This draws attention to the reality of timelessness.  As you learn to live in the present, you sense unmanifest reality. Part of you yearns for an end to duality.  This is experienced through connecting with everything.  You consciously remove veils of illusion and form to sense pure love.  Suddenly, energy aligns.  You feel it.

Comments

[Evita]

Working in the health and food field I definitely see a lot of people with various addictions to various foods and drinks.

To me it comes down to 2 things:
1) Consciousness - for if we are conscious about our thoughts, actions and words, we will rarely fall into the unconscious traps of something like addictions

and

2) Self-acceptance, respect and love
I find that many people just don't love themselves or respect themselves enough to value what they do or put into their body. This is a huge area with so many people today, and in one way or another comes back to the conscious aspect of things.

[Liara Covert]

Evita, your insights are welcomed. You raise the point human beings are rarely aware of what they do and the implications of their own thoughts and actions. Self-destructive behaviour often evolves through ignorance. Liberation arises through increasing consciousness. People feel discomfort when they turn inward because they choose to feel anger, fear, grief, regret, guilt and other negativity. Yet, discomfort and reasons for addiction dissolve as they work through misplaced emotions. In addition, to move beyond certain behaviour opens your mind and heart to be receptive to new experiences you would not have accepted before deep emotional healing.

[Alexys Fairfield]

Hi Liara,

After knowing a woman who has had a heroin addiction for a number of years, your insight illustrates the lack she felt in her life.

There was nothing I could do to help this person until she found the strength to help herself.

I do believe that her addiction was as addicted to her as she was to it. They seem to give each other what they were lacking while slowing going deeper into the illusion of living a good life.

I wish that she could read your words to know how to unlock those deadbolts in her Soul.

Maybe she will feel these words wherever she is?

[Alik Levin | PracticeThis.com]

I loved the frame. It is funny... i developed a serious technique for productivity, I think I have become addicted to being productive. At some point, people started to call me robot. I took step back, reviewed my addiction and changed it a bit becoming back a human ;)
You provide a good frame to combat addictions. Good stuff!

[Curly Haired Strong Bear :)]

It's like attaching one's self to a cycle to fill one's emptiness, and the attachment keeps on spinning on the back of a virus, and one becomes afraid to let go or jump off into the nothingness they were initially afraid of.

[Liara Covert]

Alexys, addictions are teachers not only for the truly addicted, but also for those beings who learn the meaning of helplessness from their vantage point as silent observer or enabler. Codedependency is a concept that remains foreign to many peple. The ideas of anticipation and resistance contribute to chronic conditions. Learning to step back and understand your thoughts and behaviour raises your energy vibration and enlightens the self.

[Liara Covert]

Alik, over-productivity is also sometimes viewed as chronic acceleration. If you perpetually rush through what you do a a given moment in order to get to the next thing, then the mind is always somewhere other than where you physically are. This is a misplaced time warp. When the mind is focused on the future, it is not possible to reconnect with the now. As you evolve to sense present is not something to get over, you begin to realize speed does not better your condition. Time loses meaning. You suddenly recall happiness is not a destination. It just is.

[Liara Covert]

Curly haired strong bear, some human beings forget impulses are permitted to guide action. Procrastination underlies all addiction. The reasons for this mental resistance are the key to shifting unconscious inertia.

[Jannie Funster]

Hmmn, I would love to lose (and keep off,) 8 lbs, perhaps these four considerations can help me to explore my love affair with sweet varietals of alimentation. That Lindt milk chocolate with almonds bits does find its way into my shopping cart on occasion.

Ah, it's all good. But would be nice to feel my jeans loose on me again.

[Liara Covert]

Jannie, to be aware of how you think and feel is the first step to understanding behaviour on a different level. Human beings develop reflex reactions and conditioned habits that are actually responses to hidden feelings and unresolves issues in the psyche. When it comes to food, the Thai have an intriguing philosophy. They suggest a person cannot be truly satiated unless he consumes something sweet, sour, bitter and salty by the end of a single meal. Each taste preference you develop often has an ulterior motive, Discover yours and you are equipped to change patterns that no longer serve you. This said, some human beings remain convinced chocolate is a legitimite food group. Only you can decide if you have good reason.