How to overcome Addictions (video game, film, food, lifestyle e.t.c) speaking from experience
I'm glad you have decided to help yourself, even the strongest fall eventually if they are too proud to ask for help or receive wisdom from others, myself included... the battle for my "I AM" and "Awareness/ Awakened state" has been going on for a long time.
I've decided to write a little about the one thing I have managed to successfully overcome again and again, which is video game and film addiction and a passive/ observer role life style.
As with anything, the "Why" is important, the why for playing games and watching films or eating certain foods has its origin in a place many of us cannot even remember, and sometimes, before our birth; while we were still in the womb, or even in the genetics of past family members.
My "Why" began when I was 7 years old, the first year of primary school, our uncle came and gifted us (our family) with a Personal Computer, a P.C, I was grateful, yet it didn't take long for me to become addicted to the "level up" and "power up", "virtual accomplishment" syndrome,
I moved onto the console and the hand held device (con-soul) a few years later, the PlayStation 1 and Sega to be exact, and whilst these things are not good or bad of their own nature, they are detrimental to a child's development if usage is not gaged/ guided.
I believe we as conscious beings run the risk of being ruled by our inventions, if we are not wise enough to use them for good... I believe we are still in puberty, as a race, of humans, and that it is only in taking personal responsibility for our own lives that a good life can be lived. Blame cannot be placed anywhere, forever; there is no sense in repeating oneself forever, whilst suffering the same result: it is more effective to just take responsibility and change oneself, than to hope for the world to change, and as we all know: the world does actually change when we change our core self.
The long and short of how i overcame this addiction is
- Seeing the bad results of repeating my behavior (physical and mental health)
- Imagining what would happen if i went on repeating myself (my soul's health)
- Delaying "giving in" to the established bio-rythm; an addiction is a powerful pull... only the rarest people can quit in one go (something I did manage to do for whole months, before slipping back into my addiction). I said to myself: ok, but for 3 hours I will do something else, like going for a walk, or writing, or reading things online, then I will play. It worked; often I could "snap out of it".
- re-framing my world view/ shifting the "dopa-mine triggers", I had compassion with myself and realized I was really struggling to let go of games, and I was becoming a shadow of a person, living through a machine, instead of through my body, cultivating merely virtual friendships, instead of actual physical ones; always having the safety to click a button and end the conversation. To get out of my "Massively Multiplayer Online RolePlaying Game" and violent/hollywood brainwashing film addiction, I decided to say: Life is a game, life is a film, and really believed it: I still do!
- Making real friendships and feeling the sacred nature of life
- Forgiving myself for wasting time: no amount of self accusation can replace genuine compassion and the grace of a loving heart.
- The resistance! This site and the people on it are probably one of the main reason: something tells me that all of this talk about multidimensional life, giving all you've got, developing spiritual abilities, is not just empty talk
- Mantak chia (discovered here): Sexual techniques; learning about my own body, and how, as a man, not to waste my power (essence), but store it up and transmute myself.
Thank you for reading this, I hope it helps! :)
"He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God"; The temple of "your god" is your body, and you are the god, in miniature, which you have always been waiting for :)
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by daniel sunn on
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great share, please continue to elevate others through your own understanding. As you express yourself it encourages others to do the same. This,overcoming addiction, is a major key component involved in our shifting from the past limitations to true presence in the now, our future.
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Permalink Reply by Samuel Adam Alder on
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You are welcome and I will continue on, I know that giving up is not an option. :)
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Permalink Reply by Andrea-Ryan Profaci on
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Thanks for sharing. I've struggled with a more serious addiction for some time now and I'm weaning myself from it's grips. It has caused me harm both physically and mentally and it's amazing that I haven't been able to stand up to the desire I feel deep within pulling at me for more.
I can feel another part of me yearning to stretch it's arms in the glory of a warm sunny unaddicted day where I am free at last.
Thanks!
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I can encourage you to share this with someone in confidentiality, this is showing "self" in you that you are taking it seriously and really want to change. A skype talk, family member, friends, "I have something that gets me down and I feel weak in the face of it, think you can listen and help me for a few minutes while i describe it (my situation to you)?"
If there's no one you feel comfortable talking to about it, I am here... and trust me, I'm not judge mental, i'm not even judge spiritual ;) I, like the rest of the resistance team, am solution oriented, and I can tell you, from the bullet point list I made, the #1 thing that shifted me from "addict" to "proactive" was shifting my world view.
Essentially, it is about removing the compulsion, of "the thing/ substance", and seeing THE CHOICE; Your FREE will. Finding the same, or a similar pleasure, through creativity, or something far more natural, doing it inside.
Another thing that has helped is just knowing: people are counting on me! People who are even weaker than me; children, sick, women, elderly... People I don't even know yet. If i really want to help others, I MUST grow strong enough to let go of parasitical relationship dynamics be they with objects, people or myself, and essentially, an ADDiction is just that: something which keeps wanting to "add" to you, but in this upside down world, that actually means Subtract, because the more you fill your time with "stuff" by "adding" it, the less time you have, and time is what life is made of.
Be blessed brother, know that there are lots of us in this together and we are strong and have been through similar... I didn't want to mention it in the topic title, but I have managed to sustain myself for over a year without a hint of alchohol or drug or any type of addiction really, the only ones I have now are very subtle shifts in power between people, and my relationship with eternity; time, and the life giving essence.
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Permalink Reply by Marie Adams on
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Greetings & Wholeness Andrea-Ryan! I came across this & thought I would share. It is from the book Awakening the Budda From Within and is along the lines Samuel is bringing forth.
The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of concern for all beings.
As the shadow follows the body,
as we think, so we become.
from the Dhammapada- sayings of the Budda
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Permalink Reply by Tettrah on
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Excellent post! Being addicted to anything sucks. I like how you mentioned the observer though. Because I have noticed this too, that you get realizations like "I really gotta stop doing this" but then do it anyways. I find it funny, almost like a child but more destructive, you know its bad but you do it anyways. I guess thats the nature of this sort of thing though. Learning to be in full control of your actions.
I quit smoking in january; its not the first time I've quit but the longest I've gone in probably 4 years :) I think the greatest advantage I have this time over previous attempts is the observer state of awareness. Meditation has helped me recognise this aspect of consciousness. So when I get a craving, and I still do, I simply observe the sensations in the body, acknowledge the mind kicking and screaming and just laugh inside. Its like that "pain is weakness leaving the body" sort of thing. Conquering your cravings is like weakness leaving the mind.
I've seen my fair share of drug and alcohol addicts. The first thing you have to do is know you have to change, then you have to want it. Its something that has to take place within the individual or the individual will never change. The next thing is to get out, get away. The environment is a huge contributing factor to getting straight, its hard to not do something when your buddy is telling you to do it and he's doing it too. Then its all about that 30 days, not to break a habit, but to make a new lifestyle that doesn't involve the habit.
When I was younger I used to be really into CKY and the j****** gang, stevo was always one of my favourites. Stevo has video footage of just about his whole life and there is an MTV series called "Demise and Rise" where they took a lot of this footage and made a show about his drug addiction. I encourage people to watch it, it is an extremely good case study into drug addiction. Here is a LINK to the video.
Wholeness :)
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Thanks for being, becoming and putting effort into the straight way, it is only with our left and right wing ("sides") in balance that we can fly, like the eagle in your picture! :)
And yes, the observer is a great "buffer" to not rushing in to places where "angels fear to tread", it's so easy to fill your day up with clutter, but we all have the same 24 hour day time system.
I didn't really put that much effort into conquering my addictions in all honesty, i took the path of harnessing the enthusiasm i had for those things which were also harmful to me, and turning them around for making videos, and so on, as I've already explained! :D
I also remember seeing stevo and the people from jack*** hurting themselves, and everyone thinking it's funny, well, as in micro, so in macro :/ But only if we look at the wound, the dis-ease can we really be good "doctors" and find a cure.
Lastly, I keep hearing Carl Jung's voice: Until you make the darkness (unconscious) conscious it will appear in your life as "fate", I think if you really go deep into yourself, you can cure addiction and recover the enthusiasm in a single sitting, but that is like saying; If you know how to play the guitar, you can play the 4 seasons.
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And thank you for sharing your vulnerability which really makes you stronger. I come from a generation that never had to face this kind of addiction problem. Looking around in today's world, the opportunities for addictions have increased as well as distractions...maybe that is the same thing. But when you stated "delaying giving in to the biorhythm" I felt that really made sense because if I could post-pone self-gratification for 1 minute more then I can do it for 3 and so on and stretch it out until eventually it is not an addiction and there are new nero pathways leading to a better self...a healthier, stronger self. The fact you were able to recognize your challenge in the first place is admirable and then you devised a plan toward that that feels better & designed a better lifestyle. Congratulations and yes, please keep sharing. It is one of the reasons I check-in everyday.
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You're welcome Marie!
The way I see it, we're all richer if we share, just like in the body, the way white blood cells share information with one another about tough situations, because they can all profit from the information about bacteria and viruses, we can do so too, free of charge! :)
well, except all of the electrical charge generated through excitement...
Also thank you for the congratulations, i accept them, i think often small congratulations and pure positivity can go a long way, and we are not used to giving these small praises and thanks sometimes, for seemingly "little" or "obvious" things, and then when we do achieve something "big", or explain something well, we often say "oh well it was nothing" or "i was just passing it on".
As for vulnerability, yes, it's really just one of those strange things which makes you feel and think the opposite of what you actually are: when you go into and admit and allow the feeling of pain/hurt/weakness and so forth, then the real strength can shine forth. As it says in that short book the Tao “Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self. When we don't see the self as self, what do we have to fear?” when we can just let go and really be ourselves without trying to impress others or "our selves", then the new ness can get through! :D
"A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live.”... that's what true vulnerability is; the courage to live!!! :)
Here's to creating new neuro path ways and adventuring and travelling through the innerverse! Have a great time, until we meet/read/write again!
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Permalink Reply by Amos on
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"If at first you don't Succeed...Dust your self off and try again."
Thanks for the affirmation that it Truly is All On Me.
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Permalink Reply by jana on
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Gratitude for this post. Overcoming/undercoming/innercoming/innerstanding etc. what has come to be known as addiction within the tertiary body mind spirit 'vehicle' is important as a being moves forward into wholeness within themselves and within the whole. Indeed the 'space' is here for one to do so most successfully! I have spent time observing common 'causes' of said addiction/s within the human and this could be expounded on for days. For brevity sake I will first acknowledge the mentioned importance related to the responsibility a being has when he/she realizes an addiction is present, and I believe this happens quickly at least within the subconscious, even if said person chooses denial as a coping mech. Or blame. This is not to say others do not perpetrate (ignorantly or purposefully) the initial cause of an addiction. In basic terms one can choose to disallow said perpetrator any continued extraction of one's lifepower. Also labeling one an 'addict' can sometimes compound the issue yet I innerstand the need for conversation sake. When encountering one with an extreme addiction I often relate to the issue itself when they are ready/trusting: 'you have a serious dastardly habit of consuming a hell of a lot of fast food/soda' etc. :) we make light not judge, I for one choose not to point that one finger when others are pointing back at my self. I have had times in this life when I allowed some external to knock me off balance. Wobble. Plenty of causes such as trauma, hopelessness, purposeful archonic programming, etc.
I witness change, some slow, some quick and some 'cold turkey' when beings increase their vibration even slightly into the more balanced harmonic spins. This can happen in simple ways when one chooses to forgive an old argument, or include veggies with the crap food initially, or hear an inspiring piece of music, etc. etc. etc. A big factor: I know they can do it. And they know I feel that way. I also do not throw a fit when slip up occurs. I do become somewhat impatient when 'slip ups' negatively impact others which is often the case. This can then be pointed out gently as another aspect hopefully instigating different choices. As Samuel mentioned, I also use the concept of life being somewhat a game in order to clue people in to the actuality happening all around them. 'Leveling up' can feel very good and can come in all shapes sizes and colors. It can even replace the often synthetic 'high' of whatever the addiction/s is/are. Linking in with others who are experiencing or have experienced similar, then subsequently in to the clarity expanding all around us is beneficial as well. Purpose. This is part of being the bridge. Many of the best healers/teachers/etc. are ones who have experienced then overcome hardship and trial. Wholeness!
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Affirmative! So let's keep building all of these bridges... weaving the networks of light.
Eventually we will assemble as a glorious crystal castle light emanating inside and out, and silk walkways for us to traverse the omniverse!
Wholeness! :)
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