What's Your Addiction?

[Rev. Renee Bledsoe]

So how do you cope with life, with pain and disappointment?
How do you distract yourself from your unrest?
What’s your drug of choice?
Alcohol, Cocaine, Crack, Heroine, Uppers, Downers or both?
Or are you one of us sophisticated addicts who wouldn’t dream of taking drugs?
Do you medicate your life with something a little more socially acceptable?
Sex, Affairs, Love, Relationships, Romance, Religion, Spirituality, Emotions,Intellect, Family, Marriage, Care-taking, Controlling, Having Babies, Food, Exercise, Work, Money, Smoking, Gambling, Spending, Volunteerism, Perfectionism, Under-achieving,Meetings, Television, Vacationism, Soap Operas, Nail Biting, Sadness, Negative Thinking, Denial and Lying?

Whew…wait a minute… aren’t some of these (you might be asking)…good things?
Well yes, of course they are.

As you can start to see, it’s not so much what we do to escape our lives, it’s why we do it and the way we do it (or don’t do it).

Some addictions that reside within us are never acted upon, yet they are still destroying us from the inside out. These are the silent killers of our soul, our energetic body and if they remain hidden long enough go deep into our psyche and manifest as disease and illness in our physical and emotional bodies.

Yet, using addiction to cope with life, in fact does not necessarily stop you from being functional. Many people who use addiction to cope lead fairly productive lives. And my opinion is that we're all addicts and in fact have incarnated to release all attachment. Addictions don't stop us from living life in most cases. Addiction IS part of our process. In fact, many great things have been accomplished by people who are trying to fill a hollow space inside of them, dull some aching pain or simply escape the disappointment of life. And some of us are so adept at employing the process of addiction, that we have a host of addictions that we play like a symphony or a deck of cards.

Addictions and unhealthy attachments are pretty good coping mechanisms….At first…especially the ones that don’t “look” like addictions. At first, you think you’ve rifled through your life skills toolbox and found just the right tool. Because at first the pain is lessened and you can function.

But then comes time for the awful payback. Because you made a trade that you didn’t know about. Some people think that we slide deeper and deeper into addiction because we were fooled.

But the real story, is that we are the ones who fooled ourselves.

At the top of everyone’s addiction list is Denial and lying..
So if you plan to release yourself from the bondage of your addictive processes that is obviously the first one to break with.
Right? Make sense?
Addiction is bigger than you are.
It seems to fill a….NEED.
And once it take hold in your life there is no reasoning with it.
You can’t control it.
No YOU cannot control your addictions.
Want to know why?
Because attempting to control and forcing is what got you here in the first place.
You are so much smarter than you think you are…
That’s right…you are absolutely brilliant
You know exactly what you need. This knowledge is part of who you are.
You are programmed to desire, it’s part of your eternal flame. You are also programmed to succeed.
But you tried to second guess yourself and you simply missed the mark.
We know how THAT feels!
You need to FEEL GOOD!
You need to erase PAIN.
You need to be able to FUNCTION in society.
You need to be HAPPY.
Deep in your soul you know you are not meant to suffer.
And so you set to work to stop the suffering.
Your natural state is to be joyfully creative.
You are meant to be in the LIGHT
This knowledge is encoded in your DNA.
The only problem is that you saw a light
You saw it and went to it…
And it was not really the LIGHT.
Just like a Moth to a flame or a Whale to a beach
Hey, if it can happen to them, it can happen to you, right?
You were fooled.
Know why?
Because you were looking in the wrong place. Kind of like when you can’t find your glasses anywhere, only later you REALIZE they’re been perched on top of your head all along.. Hmmm…
So, where is the best place to find the light?
Well, how about in the dark… right?
Something shiny isn’t going to fool you in the dark, that’s for sure.
It’s too dark in there! Only real LIGHT can illuminate the darkness.
But where can you go where it will be dark enough to get to the LIGHT?
How about inside of you?
Now we’re getting somewhere.
In the dark night of your soul, in the womb of your Self is a flame.
That flame…..
That’s the LIGHT.
That’s the one you want.
You have to travel through the dark
To get to the LIGHT.
It’s OK.
We’ve got your back.
We’ve been through it and we made it.
And we’ve come back for you.
We’ve come back to tell you that there is an other side.
To tell you that people can change.
There is an actual map which can help you navigate this.
No, really…a geographical map…North, South, East, West…all the directions….Up and Down, too.
It’s a map of you and it’s a map of your world.
It’s a sort of diagram to your human landscape and the terrain of your life.
This map is thousands of years old. You already know about this map, but you forgot.
And this map will help you find your way. (No, it’s not the Bible, Torah, Talmud, Buddha or anything else outside of you –(You can take these things on your trip if you want to).
Make no mistake, it is your way to find.
In fact, finding your way….that’s what heals you.
All we and your fellow travelers do is hold the space and hopefully some LIGHT, so you can see your way when you’re in the dark places.
It’s your journey to make.
We made it through and we are living proof that it is possible to do so.
There are many others who know this, too.
There is a cure for addiction.
All and any addiction can be healed.
Chances are you’ve got more than one.
And many things we don’t consider to be addictions are.
Really anything you do that prevents you from going to the dark and finding the LIGHT can become an addiction.
Some people are so clever that they have a host of socially acceptable addictions, which they play like a symphony.
Whether you’re addicted to booze or your girlfriend, food or sex.
Addiction is not a genetic disease.
It is a dis-ease of the spirit. To be more precise it is the result of an imbalance.
It is a misguided attempt at self-healing, really nothing more….and nothing less.
But paradoxically, dis-ease is part of how we evolve and so it's all perfect.
Maybe your family taught you how to be an addict
And maybe society played a hand in it, too.
But it is not
WHO YOU ARE!
And when it is truly healed…
It is TAKEN from you.
And you will KNOW when it is gone.
The desire to do the addiction is gone because the addictive coping process becomes obsolete and unnecessary.
It is replaced with a measure of wholeness and a feeling of completeness unlike anything you have ever previously experienced.
And with every day you spend on this journey the connection to your Self is restored, the hole in your heart heals and your cup will begin to overflow, like a crimp has been taken out of the garden hose.
The only way to get to this is to forge all the way through
To the OTHER side, come full circle and get back to where you began.
We’re going to take a trip, fellow travelers.
A trip to the core of your Self.
You’ll need hiking boots, bathing suit, pen, journal, binoculars and camera (zoom and wide angle lenses are a bonus)
Oh yes…and don’t forget your compass. You’ll be needing that for sure.
We’re going to take a journey. I know what you’re thinking….not another spiritual journey.
This isn’t just a spiritual journey.
When we said get out those things, we weren’t kidding or speaking metaphorically.
This thing we call life…That’s the journey.. and you’re kind of already doing it. The only difference now, is that you are going to begin to become aware, awake and alive during the process.
So, while we will be dealing with things you can’t see, we will be dealing with plenty that you can.
Everyone’s journey is the same, but everyone’s journey is different.
Oh yeah, and you’ll need to get real comfortable with paradoxes.
After all you can’t solve a problem with the same mind that created it, right?
We’ll visit breathtaking vistas you’ve barely dreampt of, hear a song like you’ve never heard it before, discover the magic of air, the miracle of water, the flame that ignites our souls, the power of the earth and the simple truth about being human.
Ultimately, when you end this journey you will be back at the door to yourself and you will carry with you the wisdom that in fact you are the door to everything. (Now where were those glasses?)
Don’t worry there’s lots of guides and lots of help along the way.
You’ll learn how to spot them and call to them. We’ll help you if you ask.
Remember to ask…that is key (remember that thing about desire?)
So get ready…Get your supplies and your bearings
Because this trip’s going to take about 8 months, maybe longer for some.
We’re starting in the East.
In the East we deal with Illumination, Clarity and Shattering of Illusions. The view here is magnificent!
That wide angle lens comes in real handy right about now.
So, are you Ready?
OK then, let’s go…
One foot in front of the other.
Click here to Start Now.