WEEKLY MEDITATION
A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions
-Oliver Wendell Holmes
The thought of letting go of certain addictions can seem as daunting as it is necessary. It is important to remember that the reason it is difficult to let go of addictions is because they provide a very valuable service. Often, they have been providing this valuable service for years and, as genuinely as we may want to be rid of them, we can’t deny that we may feel we need them. But it is equally important to trust that, with care, we can learn to provide for ourselves, functionally, the very experiences our addictions provided, dysfunctionally. In essence, we need to trust that our minds will be able to stretch to accept the experience of living life without the addiction. Not only can we trust ourselves to accept it, we can further trust that after we have experienced it for a while, we wouldn’t be able to go back to our addictions as we had originally. But we may need to face the healthy anxiety that comes with unfamiliar emotional territory. We may need to support ourselves through the difficult transition that necessarily accompanies change. But we can always trust that if we persevere, we will eventually grow accustomed to it—perhaps even comfortable with it.
