Past Topics : Habits of Health Tuesdays

As someone who has experienced an addiction, through hindsight, I can say that I had a hole in my gut that I could never fill.

I don’t know what other expression to use!
No matter what I tried that was external to me, the satisfaction was short lived and only lasted for a short period of time.
Alcohol, drugs, food, fast cars, flying, exercise, and sex—nothing seemed to fill that emptiness and the satisfaction I received never lasted for very long.

It is said that a craving “satisfied” is bound to repeat itself.
The logic behind that is that if we give into the craving, then we reinforce the craving by satisfying it. The craving then demands more of the same.
By the same token, if we stop and challenge the craving and then make a conscious decision to continue with an error in judgment, we are progressing towards a new way of thinking. We make a conscious decision rather than allowing a habitual reaction to make the determining action. We are making a conscious decision to challenge our thinking, rather than allowing it to happen because of habit.

However, trying to overcome any addiction using willpower also doesn’t seem to last very long.
At some point, our forgetters kick in and we seem to slip back into a realm of denial.
We stop telling ourselves that we have a problem and start telling ourselves that we are in control and can handle whatever that craving was.

At some point after making that decision, the old habits, kick back in and become stronger than they were before.

The 12 step program that I became part of has shown me that it takes more than willpower. It takes a spiritual program. It takes something greater than us to actually remove the obsession or craving.

That said, in order to turn it over to something greater than us, it calls for us to surrender. Giving up, letting go, giving up the battle, which seems to be an oxymoron.

How can we, by letting go, succeed in overcoming something?

It happens, because we allow something greater than ourselves to become active in our lives and provide for us what we cannot provide for ourselves. By establishing a relationship and then building on that relationship, we can allow improvement, strength, peace, and serenity to become part of our lives.

 

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Michael McCright
Free Health Coaching – provided by the "Together i Can Group"
Togetherican.com
December 12, 2017

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