Self Help Requires Self Help

Self Help Requires Self Help

The self-help path to overcoming addiction can be very long.

That path requires doing a lot of work aimed at uncovering the subconscious mind. It entails beginning to regain the ability to feel our feelings and discover the truth about why we have such elaborate defense structures. In addition to that, a person has to create new habits and do them for a long period of time in order to override the bad habits.

There is an invaluable secret to self-help, and it involves awareness. You must become aware during those moments in which you feel the vibration of anxiety arising. At such times, you may feel compelled to act in a way that is self-destructive. Instead, you can remind yourself that when you feel that way you need to sit still and take deep breaths. Then, you can find another more positive way to act. If you do that enough times, you will be moving right along on your successful path of recovery.

It’s difficult. Especially when you have physical addictions that not only draw you in mentally but also tell your body that you should satisfy certain cravings.

When you are trying to overcome physical addictions, it’s important to treat your body as if it’s going through a detox process. Always have quite a bit of clean drinking water on hand, play lots of positive music, and get plenty of fresh air and exercise (very important). There are a great many things that you can do to arm yourself against those strong physical cravings.

It’s important to understand that one of the things that you will be craving is just the habit pattern itself. When we quit doing whatever it is that was physically and mentally destructive to us, we feel that something is missing in our lives. For that reason it’s extremely important to replace whatever it was with something positive and life-affirming. If we do so, over time we will cease to crave the thing or the behavior that we had to remove from our lives.

To beat addictive cravings, you first have to do nothing and then you have to do something. When a craving comes on, you first sit and do nothing. You just sit down, take deep breaths, close your eyes, and meditate. You’ll soon be able to do it in such a way that it causes the overwhelming craving to pass. Then, once the craving passes, go out and do something. Do something that will enhance your life, the lives of your loved ones, or the lives of the people and the creatures that you share planet earth with.

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