WEEKLY MEDITATION
Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.
-Carl Jung
The tyrannical reign of addiction takes many forms. Addiction, remember, is fundamentally a pattern employed to erase the need to feel the pressure created by experiencing the present moment. It is easy to mistake addiction as having to do primarily with the substance or activity to which one is addicted, but this is only the surface truth. After the primary substance/activity has been successfully discarded, the need for addictive behaviors is only potentially more active, and new addictions can easily spring up uninvited and, often, unnoticed. In the beginning of the recovery process, it is acceptable to use more banal behavioral addictions to ease our way out from under our primary, more dangerous, ones. But it is important in the long run to attempt to develop the awareness to know when other addictive behaviors have developed and to make a decision as to how acceptable they are to maintain. If we decide they must be discarded, we must figure out how to let them go. With each new level of addictive behavior discarded comes the opportunity to live and experience the reality of life more fully. It is a personal decision that each must reach as to what level of addiction we want to be free of, but all addictions can have a negative impact on our lives, to some extent, if not faced consciously.
