Addiction’s Remedy Starts with You

Self-awareness is one of the most valuable abilities we possess.

The interesting part is that it is always available to us, yet many of us miss it in the heat of the moment.

When addiction spreads chaos, life speeds up, and emotions rise we become consumed by doing, reacting, fixing, and controlling.

In those moments, we forget there is another part of us available: The witness, and the neutral observer.

This is the part of us that can simply pause, and notice what is happening without believing and acting out on our immediate reaction. BTW immediate impulses happens to all of us.

Self-awareness does not rush to conclusions. It does not need to be right. It simply observes. This is where wisdom often begins.

Most of us spend years viewing life through old subconscious patterns, habits, beliefs, and judgments. We react before we reflect. Addiction amplifies reaction to everyone who surrounds it.

Self-awareness creates a pause between the event and the reaction. This is howVictor Frankel survived imprisonment in several Nazi concentration camps during World War II.

Increasing self-awareness benefits all of us by creating an environment where diverse perspectives informs best thinking, whether that’s for an individual or a group.

Of course, people in some stage of addiction or recovery will find this most challenging, but don’t give up on them.

Since rigid thinking goes hand and hand with addiction, the thinking of everyone surrounding addiction can become black or white, and take an extreme, rigid perspective and believe one thing is correct and everything else is wrong and has no value.

Of course, I’m writing this article because I provide education of a larger perspective of addiction and coaching for you to make your best decisions. However, if you believe you have all the self-awareness you need, I encourage you to ask yourself:

• To what degree do I honestly feel addiction is not controlling my thoughts or actions?

• To what degree am I clear about what I can change to increase my level of empowerment?

• To what degree do I see the addiction in my life as a gift?

• Do my beliefs leave me feeling empowered?

Write down and track what you deliberately change. Use your self-awareness to be curious about your trajectory of change. Then zoom in and look at it from day to day change perspective.

I invite you to name one thing you can change to become more self-aware.

Everyone of us are on an evolving path. Enjoy the ride or make change so you can enjoy the ride.