We're All Addicts

We all have them... bad habits.
Habits that do more harm than good.
Some can even be called addictions. We can be addicted to anything. Anything can become an addictive vice that harms us no matter how good it can be in moderation. Along with an array of drugs we can become addicted to, we can also become addicted to other humans, to Facebook, to Twitter, to food, to sports, to nail biting, to cleanliness, to anything you can conjure.

I learned a while back that balance is a key to life. When we are balanced we find ourselves living life in better conditions. Balance is a difficult path to travel, but a necessary one none the less. If we place balance at the center of everything we do we find peace is easier to come by. How do we find this balance? How do we stop bad habits? How to be break the cycle of addiction?

Each human has a different path. Each human has the path they must follow in order to gain freedom from themselves. Even though each path is different there are common factors that play into gaining freedom from a bad habit. I'm going to share one of my "tricks" that I'm currently doing that has provided me with new found motivation and feeds my perseverance. I'm not going to go into detail as to what my bad habit is though - maybe one day?

I've been told more than once, and by more than one person, that I have adult ODD (oppositional defiant disorder). Which is very possible considering my attitude towards authority and rules. In being wired with this defiant attitude I find it extremely difficult when a bad habit is pointed out in my life by someone, and then preached at that I should stop said bad habit. When this occurs, even if I myself want to stop this bad habit, I will find myself self-sabotaging, and failing on a continual basis. It's as if my attitude can't help but say, "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!" You told me I shouldn't do it, and therefore all the more reason to do it. That's how I'm wired. I'm adapting to this part of myself, and learning to balance it.

Therefore, even though I have this bad habit I want to stop, I keep failing to stop it, because a piece of me (a vast piece of me) doesn't want to do what others tell me to. Though something clicked this morning while on the morning commute to the j.o.b. I decided I'm not going to stop completely. I'm just going to take a break from this bad habit. If I want to start it back up later on I can, but for now I need a break. This has helped ease the tension in my ODD. I'm not doing what others tell me. I'm compromising, and taking a break. I'm letting go of that substance for awhile, and going to exercise restraint until I'm ready to start again. While I'm taking a break from this habit I hope to find that at the end of the path I permanently break it all together.

Take a break from your bad habit - from your addiction. Don't say you're quitting. Don't say you're finished with it. Don't say you've stopped. Just say you're taking a break. You're just not going to use for awhile. You're not going to get on facebook for awhile. You're not going to drink coffee for awhile. You're not going to bite your nails for some time. You're not going to smoke for awhile. You're taking a break from your bad habit. Then hopefully you'll find that the break you took actually broke you of your bad habit. It's definitely an attitude that has awaken me from these absolutes I feel we're sometimes pushed into. Nothing is absolute when it comes to behaviors. It has been scientifically proven that we can "rewire" our brains. We can modify behaviors. Is it hard? Fuck yeah. But it is possible. There are an infinite amount of paths one can take out of bad habits - it's just a matter of finding which path is best for you.

h