WEEKLY MEDITATION
No problem can be solved on the level of consciousness that created the problem in the first place.
-Carl Jung
For most, if not all, learning to be free of addiction is a difficult process, one that resists itself from the beginning. It is usually a process of having to learn to let go, learning both to understand and address the addiction from a viewpoint different than the one we are naturally comfortable with. Few walk into the 12-step halls at first prodding, for instance, and many spend years insisting that all that is required for change is good-old-fashioned determination and elbow grease. Of course, if this were the case, it would not be addiction. No, for us to really begin recovery most of us had to make it through the process of resistance to a place of emotional and intellectual surrender. Often this surrender was punctuated by desperation and deep feelings of failure. Only then might we be amenable to addressing the problem from an angle outside of our increasingly uncomfortable comfort zone, where a functional answer to our problem could be found. This principle can be revisited again and again so long as we understand that our dysfunctional patterns in life will often remain hidden until we look at them from a viewpoint beyond those very patterns. Often we will need to find a process that will lift our personal blinders long enough to discover another path, even one that may seem unnecessary or even absurd when looked at from our current level of consciousness. We can do this by borrowing the eyes and minds of a sponsor, therapist, or friend—anyone who isn’t us. This is, of course, the process by which we can challenge our consciousness to expand, often to include new experiences that may finally create change and greatly enrich our lives.
