For anyone *STRUGGLING* with ANY addiction.

I would like to share a post I made for Facebook (my personal journal) based off simple principle *related* to Buddhism.

Inside the mind of an addict.

We all are addicted to someTHING or someONE. Your vice is no better or worse than the next. A sin is a sin. I am the type of person who wants to see everyone around me: man, woman, friend, enemy or stranger win this game of chess, I mean life. The biggest obstacle we come across is ourselves and nothing can break us if we have control over our mind, emotions and our fufillment is found within ourselves instead of depending on the external. If those around me are winning more than likely I will be too. Addictions, obsessions, and compulsions hinder us from growth because no matter how small the vice is you can’t move on to the next level if youre a slave to a habit or a way of thinking because no matter how many times you do it, think it, attain it, or complete it…it will never be enough. How can you move on to level ten if you’re fixated on level 1. Anything you can’t let go of, you’re a slave to. How can you be a conqueror and a slave at the same time? Sometimes a patch isn’t enough. Sometimes we need to totally reconstruct or recreate ourselves. All we know is quick fixes. We don’t like to stare in the mirror and get to the root of the problem so we can end it. We just mask it and let it grow worse. Drugs and vices in general are patches that temporarily cover our emptiness and help us deal, avoid, or distract from our pain, reality or just give us a false sense of purpose.We all sometimes believe certain circumstances will never happen to us but shit happens and a lot of times it starts with a bad choice. I wish I never touched any mind altering substance, even marijuana because once you try it, it makes sobriety feel bland, boring and ordinary or just plain intolerable. Not only do drugs affect you it affects your relationships. An addiction or withdraws from the habit , drug or person may cause someone to act out of character due to desperation. If both people in the relationship are addicts then everything revolves around the object of addiction and when the thrill comes to an end you will compare your sober or detached moments to your high or attached moments and it will never match up, leaving you feeling empty, missing and unfufilled.You can be a mentally disciplined person but once you touch something that alters your internal body chemistry (the feeling of LOVE affects the brain in the same way as a drug, particularly crack according to science) you’re no longer just battling your mind. Oh no, your battling a demon that consumes your body and takes ownership. Body/mind vs soul/spirit and although a LOT of addicts HATE being addicts, hate themselves, hate the dope/vice they physically need it or a pharmaceutical to function or experience euphoria as they did before they ever dabbled. A vice as simple as porn or arrogance can be just as detrimental as a drug (I’m just saying CAN be, I’m not justifying drugs) because anything that consumes your mind, consumes your life and if you can’t moderate it, you will lose something or someone. For example, with a porn addict your mind is used to seeing a certain type of woman or act that isn’t being played out in real life and as a result the sight of your middle aged wife disgusts you, although you may have an emotional bond. Your marriage may end and they just may take everything. Addiction attracts loss and adversity. Arrogance will keep you from learning, working as a team, adapting, or accepting new views because the only person you see or validate is yourself and when you can’t see new people and circumstances as opportunity you tear yourself apart because you continuously make the same mistakes/assumptions over and over again producing error and adversity instead of knowledge and achievement. There are functional and dysfunctional addicts but the moral of the story is our full potential is never accessed when we are in bondage to something or someone. ALL Addictions share this in common: they destroy, destroy, destroy and tear apart relationships and whether we like it or not we can’t make it in this world alone. You’re going to need emotional support or the acceptance of someone somewhere to gain something. Don’t let your vice over take you. Once an addict, always an addict. Every day is a struggle to tame the demon inside you but every day you keep it at Bay is a milestone. I don’t care who you are, you ARE somebody and you are a crucial piece in the puzzle of life. even though your career, actions and habits describe your character…they don’t give you purpose. You are purpose and you create it. You don’t find it, you create it everyday through cause and effect. If the universe is a divine play that unfolds exactly as it should (desiderata) then every act, choice and person is a vital element in the outcome and development of humanity. Without all living creatures, the universe would have no purpose.We are all connected as one mind in different bodies and affected by different variables. Your children don’t come FROM you, they come THROUGH you. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed or seen with eyes, but it can be felt. Therefore, our bodies are just vessels leased to us by the universe/source/God to manifest it’s desires, thoughts and longings through matter. We are formed from life’s longing of itself. We are the universe and everything in it. However, we aren’t in sync with each other. The ultimate goal is synchronicity. For example, everybody living life with the understanding that you are me and I am you and there is no desire to hurt, envy or be toxic to each other because your mind fully comprehends divine love and accepts all parts of ourselves; accepting yourself means you don’t seek validation from other people or things. If we accepted ourselves we wouldn’t reject or sabatage the people with the traits we yearn for or reject in ourselves. You’re perception of everything and everyone around you is related to your perception of yourself.
If you saw a piece of yourself in everything in nature and people you probably would be more gentle, caring and understanding to the emotions, actions and needs of people and your environment. All living things were formed through an act of love and nurturing. What is love? Divine Love is endless, unbiased, nonjudgmental, unconditional acceptance and support that was never earned and is never taken away but was given as a gift from the purest realms. It is like Mother Earth sacrificing her realm to humans who do nothing but destroy her and each other and still produces light and food because when you love something you will suffer or sacrifice yourself for the greater good.Whether it was sex or mother Earth’s fertile soil and refreshing rain, everything was formed through an act of love; sometimes pure, sometimes impure desires but it was carefully imprinted in your mind and time was spent meditating on it (love is reflected by time spent) When we start seeing ourselves in others and work together to build instead of divide and destroy we can come closer to maintaining peace and in my belief…reach Nirvana. It is said Earth is a manifestation of low vibrations, the realm closest to hell and once karma is worked out you reach the parts of the galaxy that produce higher vibrations, the heavenly realms. You give your life meaning and if we are all one then we are here to water each other so we can operate at a higher frequency and maintain peace on Earth and regain connection with our highest self. Peace isn’t promised or consistent. It’s a state of mind and is most easily raised through fellowship and assisting everyone and anyone you encounter mentally, spiritually, emotionally or maybe financially (spiritual food, feeding the soul) so that they can develop into the person they need to be to complete their mission on Earth and eventually bring this mental prison system to an end.

I see you, you are loved, your voice matters and everything will be ok 🥰

-Namaste-

#synchronicity #weareONE