Lets use the example of smoking. When we think of ourselves as addicted to smoking, who do we become? Remember when we believe it, we automatically feel and act is if its true ... So it follows course then, that if we believe were an addict, we play the part, which reinforces the addiction. Then of course, we hate ourselves for it. We call ourselves names: Im weak, cant control myself, etc. and feel increasingly hopeless. So then we smoke to relieve our suffering and so the addiction cycle goes round .... Resisting our addictions do not help us eliminate them. BUT, what if we were to reframe our perception of the behavior? What would happen if we were to perceive smoking as a sacred ritual, instead of an addiction we cant get past? What would happen, do you suppose, should we give ourselves permission to smoke (since we ARE smoking anyway) and framed it as a ritual we partake in only when its necessary (every time we smoke) instead? Ive found that when we change our perception from being a problem to being a lesson - or as an initiatory process we are moving through - it leaves us room to move past it eventually instead of staying stuck in the addictive cycle. This is one example of making peace, not war, with our addictions. May it serve you. :) Stop forbidding yourself to be where you are ... back off and look for the ways its exactly where you need to be instead ... and you just may find that one day you simply move away from the behavior, not because its a bad thing but because its outlived its usefulness.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 12:35:57 +0000