Quote:
A Word on Addictions

If you are addicted to cigarettes, sugar—whatever—quitting (if you want to) can be really difficult. When you can’t quit, you might compound the problem with guilt, self-loathing, and self-judgments, leaving you feeling defeated and disempowered. There is a way to feel empowered and optimize health, even if you aren’t ready to quit . . .

Be Proactive

Let’s say you are addicted to cigarettes and you haven’t had any luck kicking the habit. You can shift focus from feeling badly about it (which is a natural reaction) to finding ways to maximize your health now—even while smoking.

The Internet makes research easier than ever (using a good deal of discernment). Explore ways to address the effects and optimize your health until you can quit. For example, what minerals are depleted because you smoke? Does smoking interfere with vitamin absorption? Are you drinking enough water to keep your lungs hydrated? How can you oxygenate your body better while you are still smoking?

Based on your research, do what you can to optimize your health until you can quit. This might include a daily run on a treadmill or ride on a bicycle, particular supplements that support the lungs, saunas to sweat out toxins, etc. Now you are taking charge of your health without focusing on your inability to quit.

The benefit of doing this, aside from making you feel empowered, in charge, and not defeated, is that you will be healthier and better able to actually let go of your addiction when you are ready.

Caveat: I’m not condoning indulgence in unhealthy habits. I am suggesting a shift in perspective.
At all times, in all circumstances, within all contexts, you can optimize your health.

(10-18-2020, 10:34 AM)Diana Wrote: The following excerpt may help. I have found that if trying to change mental/emotional imbalances isn't working, one can try another angle to that imbalance. The mental creates the physical, but the physical can also affect the mental.

Quote:
A Word on Addictions

If you are addicted to cigarettes, sugar—whatever—quitting (if you want to) can be really difficult. When you can’t quit, you might compound the problem with guilt, self-loathing, and self-judgments, leaving you feeling defeated and disempowered. There is a way to feel empowered and optimize health, even if you aren’t ready to quit . . .

Be Proactive

Let’s say you are addicted to cigarettes and you haven’t had any luck kicking the habit. You can shift focus from feeling badly about it (which is a natural reaction) to finding ways to maximize your health now—even while smoking.

The Internet makes research easier than ever (using a good deal of discernment). Explore ways to address the effects and optimize your health until you can quit. For example, what minerals are depleted because you smoke? Does smoking interfere with vitamin absorption? Are you drinking enough water to keep your lungs hydrated? How can you oxygenate your body better while you are still smoking?

Based on your research, do what you can to optimize your health until you can quit. This might include a daily run on a treadmill or ride on a bicycle, particular supplements that support the lungs, saunas to sweat out toxins, etc. Now you are taking charge of your health without focusing on your inability to quit.

The benefit of doing this, aside from making you feel empowered, in charge, and not defeated, is that you will be healthier and better able to actually let go of your addiction when you are ready.

Caveat: I’m not condoning indulgence in unhealthy habits. I am suggesting a shift in perspective.
At all times, in all circumstances, within all contexts, you can optimize your health.

(10-18-2020, 12:07 PM)sillypumpkins Wrote: Ah, JJ, I understand what you're going through. I've had troubles with addiction for as long as I can remember.

Another user (I believe it was RitaJC) shared this a while ago, and it was helpful for me: https://lissarankin.com/dont-kick-the-habit-resolve-to-skip-new-years-resolutions-this-year/

It sort of is similar to what Diana is pointing out. I.e, finding the love in those moments where you feel so overwhelmingly compelled to indulge. Shifting the focus away from "I shouldn't be doing this" to something more empowering. Then... naturally, things start happening.

Of course, everyone is different and some will need a "full stop" depending on their circumstances.

What you're doing is natural. You're looking for comfort in something outside of your self because most likely, a part of you is hurting. What a totally natural response to something that feels uncomfortable! Ain't no shame in that.

Best wishes to you JJ on your journey

(10-18-2020, 12:40 AM)JJCarsonian Wrote: I've been battling some form of addiction for most of this decade.  First, it was opiate, then over the last 4 years or so it has been Kratom.  Alot of this struggle is mental.  I know that much of addiction has underling causes that need to be healed.  Looking back, I wasn't necessarily unhappy, but enjoyed the quick fix happiness painkillers brought.  I seem to be always looking for a quick way to change my mood, nowadays.  What is a good way to heal this aspect of myself?

(10-20-2020, 09:55 AM)sillypumpkins Wrote: I had a recent insight into the workings of the subconscious recently.

I've been struggling with addiction for a while now (with varying intensities thru the years). I didn't really "get" why I was doing these things. Why the f*** am I smoking when I don't actually wanna be? Seriously confusing..... and upsetting.... so I would just get hard on myself. I would be y'know, like mean to myself.

"You know you shouldn't be doing this" things like that. Also harboring feelings of guilt and shame. Really just bringing myself down so much to a point where the only choice was to seek that relief. At least that's how it felt.

So I have been seeing a hypnotherapist and we were talking. We were talking about the subconscious mind. Out of the blue, he mentions, the subconscious being the "primal" part of consciousness. The monkey mind.

So I was like, "okay, that makes sense." I had been sort of confused about the subconscious for a while, so there was some clarity there.

I went home, and walked my dog. We were walking on a long road and we always reach a point where we have to turn back. 9/10, my dog will just freeze and not want to go back. So I would like, force him. I would physically move his body so he would come in the direction I wanted, or I would just pull on his leash until he came. This never felt good and I could tell it always made him more nervous.

So, this time, I tried something different. We reached that point, and I got down to his level, gave him a pat on the back, and said "Henry, we're going to go back home now" and off we went!

It's funny, but that was a real learning moment for me.

Especially in light of learning about the subconscious, and it's connection to the "monkey mind."

Think about your subconscious as a part of your consciousness which is a remnant of that animal mind. Begin to understand it in terms of how you would train a pet.

If you're teaching a trick to your dog, and he doesn't quite get it at first, are you really going to be an a****** to your pet and start yelling at him? The dog doesn't know! He's just doing what he knows works. He's just acting out his very nature. Just like the subconscious.

So, it's been helpful for me to cultivate a relationship with my subconscious that resembles a master-pet relationship. Not an authoritarian one by any means, but one that has mutual respect for those aspects of my conscious experience. Harmony.

The nature of the subconscious can obviously be more complex..... this is just something I learned.... hopefully I worded that in a way where it's understood, and if not i can reword it.

(10-18-2020, 10:14 PM)JJCarsonian Wrote: Thats an interesting take, I appreciate you sharing.. Ra also mentions Fasting as a way to drop unwanted thoughtforms... What do you think about that?

(12-06-2020, 10:30 PM)Ohr Ein Sof Wrote:

(10-20-2020, 09:55 AM)sillypumpkins Wrote: I had a recent insight into the workings of the subconscious recently.

I've been struggling with addiction for a while now (with varying intensities thru the years). I didn't really "get" why I was doing these things. Why the f*** am I smoking when I don't actually wanna be? Seriously confusing..... and upsetting.... so I would just get hard on myself. I would be y'know, like mean to myself.

"You know you shouldn't be doing this" things like that. Also harboring feelings of guilt and shame. Really just bringing myself down so much to a point where the only choice was to seek that relief. At least that's how it felt.

So I have been seeing a hypnotherapist and we were talking. We were talking about the subconscious mind. Out of the blue, he mentions, the subconscious being the "primal" part of consciousness. The monkey mind.

So I was like, "okay, that makes sense." I had been sort of confused about the subconscious for a while, so there was some clarity there.

I went home, and walked my dog. We were walking on a long road and we always reach a point where we have to turn back. 9/10, my dog will just freeze and not want to go back. So I would like, force him. I would physically move his body so he would come in the direction I wanted, or I would just pull on his leash until he came. This never felt good and I could tell it always made him more nervous.

So, this time, I tried something different. We reached that point, and I got down to his level, gave him a pat on the back, and said "Henry, we're going to go back home now" and off we went!

It's funny, but that was a real learning moment for me.

Especially in light of learning about the subconscious, and it's connection to the "monkey mind."

Think about your subconscious as a part of your consciousness which is a remnant of that animal mind. Begin to understand it in terms of how you would train a pet.

If you're teaching a trick to your dog, and he doesn't quite get it at first, are you really going to be an a****** to your pet and start yelling at him? The dog doesn't know! He's just doing what he knows works. He's just acting out his very nature. Just like the subconscious.

So, it's been helpful for me to cultivate a relationship with my subconscious that resembles a master-pet relationship. Not an authoritarian one by any means, but one that has mutual respect for those aspects of my conscious experience. Harmony.

The nature of the subconscious can obviously be more complex..... this is just something I learned.... hopefully I worded that in a way where it's understood, and if not i can reword it.

I am sorry but I think I am understanding what you wrote but maybe I am not understanding it clearly. Will you clarify it for me please? Did a hyponotherapist say that the subconscious mind is the monkey mind? Is this because it creates without descretion to your mental imagery and conditioned patterns? It is your record keeper within each experience you have ever had since you were created in the Mind of God. I am not sure of this terminology; I think. I have heard it before but never considered to call our record keeper, the subconscious mind, a monkey mind. Unless its a pun of sorts because it does what it is asked to do based on what it is given.

(12-09-2020, 06:27 PM)sillypumpkins Wrote:

(12-06-2020, 10:30 PM)Ohr Ein Sof Wrote:

(10-20-2020, 09:55 AM)sillypumpkins Wrote: I had a recent insight into the workings of the subconscious recently.

I've been struggling with addiction for a while now (with varying intensities thru the years). I didn't really "get" why I was doing these things. Why the f*** am I smoking when I don't actually wanna be? Seriously confusing..... and upsetting.... so I would just get hard on myself. I would be y'know, like mean to myself.

"You know you shouldn't be doing this" things like that. Also harboring feelings of guilt and shame. Really just bringing myself down so much to a point where the only choice was to seek that relief. At least that's how it felt.

So I have been seeing a hypnotherapist and we were talking. We were talking about the subconscious mind. Out of the blue, he mentions, the subconscious being the "primal" part of consciousness. The monkey mind.

So I was like, "okay, that makes sense." I had been sort of confused about the subconscious for a while, so there was some clarity there.

I went home, and walked my dog. We were walking on a long road and we always reach a point where we have to turn back. 9/10, my dog will just freeze and not want to go back. So I would like, force him. I would physically move his body so he would come in the direction I wanted, or I would just pull on his leash until he came. This never felt good and I could tell it always made him more nervous.

So, this time, I tried something different. We reached that point, and I got down to his level, gave him a pat on the back, and said "Henry, we're going to go back home now" and off we went!

It's funny, but that was a real learning moment for me.

Especially in light of learning about the subconscious, and it's connection to the "monkey mind."

Think about your subconscious as a part of your consciousness which is a remnant of that animal mind. Begin to understand it in terms of how you would train a pet.

If you're teaching a trick to your dog, and he doesn't quite get it at first, are you really going to be an a****** to your pet and start yelling at him? The dog doesn't know! He's just doing what he knows works. He's just acting out his very nature. Just like the subconscious.

So, it's been helpful for me to cultivate a relationship with my subconscious that resembles a master-pet relationship. Not an authoritarian one by any means, but one that has mutual respect for those aspects of my conscious experience. Harmony.

The nature of the subconscious can obviously be more complex..... this is just something I learned.... hopefully I worded that in a way where it's understood, and if not i can reword it.

I am sorry but I think I am understanding what you wrote but maybe I am not understanding it clearly. Will you clarify it for me please? Did a hyponotherapist say that the subconscious mind is the monkey mind? Is this because it creates without descretion to your mental imagery and conditioned patterns? It is your record keeper within each experience you have ever had since you were created in the Mind of God. I am not sure of this terminology; I think. I have heard it before but never considered to call our record keeper, the subconscious mind, a monkey mind. Unless its a pun of sorts because it does what it is asked to do based on what it is given.

I think I used "monkey mind" a little haphazardly there. Not really the right word. Shows my clarity on the subject of the subconscious  

My apologies for the confusion