At The Heart Of Addiction
I was honored to have this article published December 11, 2014 in a massage manual: The Ariana Institute Advanced Massage Therapy Techniques Manual. Ariana Vincent LMT, MTI, BCTMB.
Addictions are an attempt to solve a deeper problem. Maybe I feel anxiety when in social situations, so I depend on alcohol or marijuana to help me be more relaxed and uninhibited. Maybe I don't want to experience my fear of being alone, so I choose sub-consciously to always be with someone to avoid being alone, and facing the feelings that being alone triggers in me. Maybe I carry emotional pain from unresolved issues from my past, so I use a substance to numb myself to the pain. We are always attempting to meet our needs and get what we didn't get. When we are unaware of this kind of pattern, we may attempt to meet our needs in addictive or unhealthy ways. Our addiction is the false prophet, it is an impostor, not the real deal. At some point, our addictions fail us and we become disillusioned. Because they are impostors, not what we are truly looking for, it is only a matter of time before the addiction can no longer satisfy our cravings and needs.
We all want to experience our essential states of love, peace, joy, bliss and well-being, but we don't know how to get back to our true self that can experience these positive states of being. Our true self is like a beautiful multifaceted diamond that shines brilliantly. This is who we truly are; however, in the process of life our true self or diamond gets covered over with coal tar. The journey of life is about excavating the diamond. Once we begin to attend to ourselves, face our emotions and beliefs, and resolve the past, we start the process of uncovering this brilliant diamond inside. Our addictions point the way to what needs healing in us. Our addictions can help us find and connect with ourselves, and that connection is what we all truly want.
As we begin the conscious journey back to ourselves, we feel the physical and emotional pain, we hear the racing thoughts in our mind, we might feel crazy or really messed up. This is the healing process, to gradually learn how to tolerate and be with the discomfort we were once trying to avoid or cover up through our addictions. As we gain tolerance, acceptance and compassion for ourselves, we are able to connect to who we are more deeply. We begin to release or let go of our false conditioning and false images of ourselves. We notice our projections and faulty beliefs about the world and ourselves, and we are able to debunk these and make new choices.
The more we can allow our inner process to purge out what is false in us and be willing to be with our discomfort, the greater our ability becomes to connect with our brilliance and well-being. The coal tar falls away and our true brilliance shines through.
Contact me, Lynne Arial to get started today: (512) 831-4856.