Addictions are Habits of Distractions 

• The takeaway from this episode is … you must face anything of excess in your life to target the addictions.
• Here’s what this will do for you … identifying your addictions is the first step to getting back to who you are, giving you power over them.
• Here’s what I want you to do with it … to activate the power you have over your addictions – write them down. Admit everything you know about your addictions. This is how you will unravel and disarm them.

There are many different types of addictions beyond the ones you hear about like, drugs or alcohol.

Addiction to anything follows a pattern. It starts with exposure, a curiosity that led to experimenting with it, which led to continued exposure, and then addiction.

Your brain receptors become overloaded, and you have to do or take more of your substance of addiction in order to get to that high you crave. You can be addicted to drugs, alcohol, pharmaceuticals, gambling, eating, sex, love, the Internet, your phone, video games, exercising, your work, and much more. All of these addictions are outside of yourself. Addictions are distractions. Addictions happen when they become habits of distractions. Addictions are appealing when you choose to escape your current life situation, what you are dissatisfied with.  

Curing addictions involve acceptance, attention, and action:

• Acceptance of who you are and what you are going through. Accepting yourself as you are.
• Pay attention to the guidance we are always sending.
• Take action on that guidance so you don’t slip back into addictions. 

Addictions start out first as a curiosity. If the curiosity is strong enough it becomes something you experiment with. This is how you have always learned. However, when this becomes a distraction to escape life it becomes an addiction that takes it over. Go back to the first time you recognized an addiction you got caught up in, it’s anything that took control over your life. Write down the details about the curiosity, experimenting with it, what you discovered about yourself, and how it took over your life. This is the action that will give you the power over any addiction by applying your free will.

An addiction is anything you lie about.

It’s only when you are paying attention, able to accept the truth, and then take the obvious action. That’s when addictions will lose their grip on you. You can’t see it when you’re in it, which is why it’s so important to write it down … exactly what happened, when it happened.

We would never encourage any type of addiction or distraction. We encourage the three “A’s” … acceptance of who you are, the ability to not take things personally, so you are able to evolve in balance. This is when you will realize the addictions are not you.

CALL TO ACTION:

• You can be addicted to all types of things even some you feel are good for you.

• To regain your power over the distractions that lead to addictions you must write down the details of everything that led up to it.

• Addictions are an escape from something in your life. Once you realize this you will have the power to eliminate them. 

HOW IT WORKS: Addictions disconnect you from the present moment. In fact, that’s the appeal of an addiction, avoid what is unpleasant at the moment. Of course, the obvious solution is to change what makes you unhappy but that would require you to face the things you have been avoiding or didn’t realize were wrong for you. The addiction numbed your senses as an immediate coping mechanism. Addictions prevent or postpone the change that is causing the addiction in the first place. An addiction becomes temporary as soon as you recognize it is there – that it’s not who you are. This is when you have power over the addiction. ~ Linda Deir

RELATED ARTICLES:

• Conquer Distractions With This Simple Chart – Psychology Today

• Addicted to Distraction – PsychCentral

• An Addict’s Guide to Overcoming the Distraction Habit – Zen Habits