How to Quit Addictions Known and Unknown Using Innovative Methods

When I was a kid, Halloween was my favorite time of year. You get to wear a costume and dress up as your favorite character. Regardless of whether you took on the role of a superhero or villain, it was a break from your everyday persona to become someone new. Getting a new identity gave you newfound courage to act or behave differently than how you would usually be if you were yourself.

I suppose it came from the fact that the character that you are role-playing is a different entity from yourself. As a kid, without my costume, I would be too as is afraid to ask for candy.

Thinking back, I was crippled by my social anxiety. I would stutter when conversing with others and become self-conscious whenever I was unable to articulate a coherent perspective.

Thinking back, it came from my fear of being judged. To make matters worse, I was not fond of my voice. I thought my voice or articulation was weird. Sounding almost alien-like or different from other people. From a hindsight perspective. it was all in my head and the internal dialogue that I was feeding myself.

Which takes me back to Halloween. I believed the costume that I wore gave me a stat boost or a power-up in a video game. Which gave me the courage to say “Trick or Treat"!” to random strangers. This leads me to my metaphorical treasure or the candy that I’ve acquired. Unfortunately, this contributed to the start of my sweet addiction.

Unbeknownst to me, I was unconsciously cultivating an addiction that was beyond having a sweet tooth. I was enabling destructive self-talk into my psyche. By cultivating negative self-talk throughout my life, I was programming my mind on a self-destructive path toward a downward spiral to the metaphorical abyss.

Thankfully, once reaching a low dark point in my life, where I thought I was ruled by my destructive habits and low-self esteem, I managed to get a glimpse at a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. It dawned on me that change was possible for me. This was not an easy realization for me. It took me to the path of trial and error and many failures along the way for me to uncover this concept.

The first step to eliminating addictions from your life is to acknowledge or become self-aware of your addictions. These addictions are holding you back in life and drain your potential energy that can go on more productive goals.

As alluded to earlier, addictions can range from hard addictions which include; alcohol, drugs, and sex. The other is soft addictions which may surprise some people including; videogames, social media, money, success, arguing, and negative self-talk to name a few.

Addictions can be seen as an emotional crutch that gives you short-term gratification from cheap dopamine. It feels good in the short-term keeping you comfortable and preventing you from making significant progress in your life.

Throughout this newsletter, I will lay out several techniques for dealing with hard and soft addictions. Getting rid of addictions is a life-long process that must be at the forefront of your mind that must be diligently followed on a daily basis.

The addiction is programmed into your psyche for years and reading a single article would not be enough to help you.

This article is intended to put you in the right direction, framing it in a long-term solution based and my consistently executing the steps mentioned in this article will help you get on track to getting rid of your addictions to live a more fulfilling life.

A simple way to find out whether or not you have an addiction that is plaguing you is by doing a specific activity for a week and seeing whether cravings arise. It starts mentally when you are yearning for that specific addiction and eventually proceeds to your body physically craving it.

Once an addiction is discovered, the first technique that one can implement in their life is to find a positive habit to replace the negative habit.

For example, rather than drinking coffee every morning, you can drink green tea instead. It would still be hard at first since what makes coffee addictive is the caffeine that is in it.

However, as your body adapts and overcomes the urge for caffeine, you will realize that caffeine is just a crutch and that you can function fine without it.

A strong advanced technique that not many medical professionals advise that I have discovered through my research. more on the philosophical and spiritual path to self-actualization involves a concept of overcoming the existential void.

What is Existential void?

Here’s a good test. Try sitting in a room by yourself in total solitude and doing nothing. Many people will struggle with this, myself included.

In today’s society, we are inundated with many distractions, with a loss of focus and even a lesser attention span. We want instant gratification, instant pleasure, instant money, and an easy life.

Sitting in a room in solitude will reveal many things about yourself. It will show you your current level of how developed emotional maturity or how much work is needed to improve.

While in this room, you are to be in a present state focusing on all the sensations that course throughout your body. You will feel all your cravings for any source of external stimulation, whether it’s to check your phone, watch a youtube video, or play video games.

If existential emptiness is not a goal in your life to be slowly conquered it will lead to a dissatisfied life no matter how much material wealth is achieved.

While in self-contemplation, be present, and feel all the suffering coursing through your body. As you feel the internal pain of being present at the moment, picture a purifying fire from within burning the internal metaphorical demons leaving your body.

Think about it. What are some reasons people are dependent on alcohol or drugs? Most people use these mind-altering substances as a form of escape.

They are not currently satisfied in their life and want to find a form of escape, even temporarily, to no longer feel what they currently feel in the present.

At a more subtle level, people pursue money or success, at an obsessive level, when they feel unworthy and believe that if they become successful then they would deem themselves a worthy individuals.

This is tricky because society applauds and reinforces being successful. In our culture, being successful and a contributing member of society is one that individuals should strive for.

However, as many successful business individuals and celebrities have clearly shown, just because one achieves a high level of success in society, whether it’s accumulating a substantial amount of financial resources or a level of fame, does not make someone content with their lives.

Some business individuals commit suicide due to a failed business and even celebrities are taking hard drugs and in therapy. This is proof that it takes more than achieving external success to have a fulfilling life purpose.

All the examples previously illustrated are high-achieving individuals that still did not feel the existential void and they use success, defined by society, as a crutch to go through life.

Of course, this does not apply to all rich and famous people, just people that had a significant void in their lives.

These two techniques can assist you in fulfilling the existential void in your life but must be consistently practiced daily for them to be effective.

The Do Nothing Meditation, and Strong Determination Sitting

How to start the Do Nothing Meditation?

The Do Nothing Meditation is easy and effective for beginners:

First, find a comfortable position. It can be as simple as sitting on a chair or crossing your legs Indian style on the floor.

You then sit with your eyes open. If it’s your first time start with 10 minutes and slowly progress to eventually you can do it for an hour.

Take a minute to fix yourself and tell yourself that you are going to start to do nothing. Take a couple of nice deep breaths in your belly for approximately 30 seconds.

Look out into the distance and consciously let go of control. Accept whatever thoughts come into your mind. Remember to breathe and to have no judgment.

Nothing is bad just observe all your thoughts and accept everything. In another newsletter, I’ll go more in-depth about this technique but this is enough to get started. This will teach you to accept the void that you currently feel in your life.

What is Strong Determination Sitting?

This is a bit more advance but can be slowly worked on as you get better at meditation.

Your goal for determined sitting is to try to reach 1 hour by either sitting in a chair or sitting cross-legged on the ground.

You then don’t move at all. Not for scratching an itch or repositioning your body.

There is a formula that comes from this challenging meditation:

Purification = Pain X Mindfulness

By consistently trying to get better at Strong determination sitting throughout the years the void will be cleansed which will cure any addictions that you may have that are holding you back.

Overcoming hard and subtle addictions

All addictions originate from a single source. It’s people’s internal weaknesses that they must conquer by developing more control and conquering the internal void.

The obvious solution was to replace negative habits with positive habits.

To cure most addictions, the unconventional spiritual and philosophical path can be utilized by incorporating the Do Nothing Meditation and Determined Sitting to overcome the existential void in your life.

Incorporating Doing Nothing Meditation and Determined Sitting will help enhances a person’s ability to take back control of their lives. Remember, this must be done routinely to be effective.

By conquering the void in their lives then what will eventually be purified are alcohol, food, sex, video games, and even the trap of success can be conquered. This is by not needing external validation by conquering your inner void.

I’ll reiterate this point, Nothing will change unless action is taken and followed on a consistent basis is when a person can truly vanquish their addictions and to change their lives for the better.

I have personally used these techniques to overcome my addictions and perceived weaknesses in my life. I have not overcome all of them but it is a continual process that I have found helpful in my journey of self-actualization.

Give it a try and see if it will help overcome addictions in your life. Best of luck Champions!