Today, my dear friend, I propose we see life under a new perspective .  I sit down comfortably,ready to write this post with the clear idea to focus on this topic as if we were playing a game.  Maybe it will help to make this controversial and sensitive subject a bit easier. Be prepared  to use some fundamental ingriedients: a profound ENGAGEMENT with your deep self and massive dosis of HONESTY. On this occasion, it would be very interesting if  we could  go further than our usual weekly reflextions which ,I hope, are still beneficial for both of us, nurturing and enriching us at a  personal level. The aim of this space we share is to encourage you, the reader, to reach your own conclusions.

I challenge you to take off everything in front of a mirror..yes, yes, you have read it correctly; an unsual exercise but UNDRESSING THE BODY AND THE SOUL goes hand in hand.

Free or a slave to…?

Have you ever stopped and thought how often YOU DO THINGS THAT IN REALITY YOU DO NOT WANT TO DO,  and how often YOU GIVE UP THINGS YOU ACTUALLY LIKE ?

Let us put these two facts together and ask the one million dollars question: Be totally SINCERE with yourself, do you consider yourself FREE OR A SLAVE TO SOMENTHING ?

Someone of you will be thinking: “well sometimes I see myself obliged by the circumstances  and there is no much I can do about it…” pehaps, some others will be thinking “ in this life you have to be part of the system, like it or not”.  Of course I agree with you: there are circumstances that require to BE PART OF THE SYSTEM but there are many others where you should GET OUT WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE AND AT YOUR CONVENIENCE TOO.

The era of addictions

It depends on the SITUATION:  a party, a job,  a celebration; we go to our wardrobe and decide :a skirt or trousers?  Depending on the people we are hanging out with, we can find ourselves DRINKING more than planned, just to fit in and not be the one saying no, when someone of the group shouts out..come on this is the last… before the last”. I live in the south of Spain and this behaviour is very much of a HABIT here. We have made of this a NORMALITY and the limits have gone well beyond, unsupectedly.  THE WORLD IS UPSIDE DOWN, in such a way that who does not drink alcohol, does not smoke, does not gamble or does not spend the whole day gossiping in the socials or is not dressing in the latest fashion, is out of phase, haggard.  On the other side of the scale, we find those who take the healthy life stile to the extremes..hours and hours of practice accompanied by a very strict diet .   From my humble poin of view we are witnessing THE ERA OF ADDICTIONS, we believe we are enjoying our freedom more than ever before, but in reality we are slaves, part of a MEANINGLESS world, leading to insanity.

WE ANAESTHETIZE OUR SENSES to gain full acces to the supposed comfort zone, where we believe we have everything under control. How am I not going to do it,  if everyone does it?..if I am not in line with the top I am a looser!

In the balance you find virtue and equilibrium

Useless to say it, IN THE BALANCE you find virtue and equilibrium, yes my dear friends, everything  done in MODERATION,  WITHOUT THE MASK ON AND WITH THE CLEAR ABILITY  TO FEEL OUR EMOTIONS.

To give you a tangible example, very often, when we give up SMOKING we replace it with” an arm robbery” to our food storage.  If we stop DRINKING alcohol we feel like out of place when socialising, is tougher to “break the ice” or we miss that idea “ now I am going to chill out”.

Without even realising it we have created a HABIT, from the habit a NECESSITY and from it an ADDICTION.  Having reached this point, I believe is very important to define this substantive, in order to clarify the negative connotations it carries. In the dictionary, the word addiction is defined as A REPETITIVE BEHAVIOUR OR CONSTANT CONSUME OF CERTAIN SUBSTANCES THAT CANNOT BE STOPPED OR IS NOT EASY TO BE STOPPED, DUE TO A PHISYCAL OR MENTAL DEPENDENCY ON IT/THEM.

Let us not deceive ourselves when we say “ I can give up drinking alcohol whenever I want..”  “ I have it under control” “ what a nonsense, I have only played three times with the gambling machine this week”…” I love challenges, this week I am going to take 8 sessions of spinning…this is definetly “more healthy” than getting drunk”…and we could carry on with many more examples.

I would like to add another important part to the definition of addiction; our brain, our central system, the one that CLAIMS ITS REWARD, ITS DOSIS OF WELLBEING, through substances or behaviours; here and now we realise our body is only a humble and obedient slave.

The choice is always yours

Now that you are in front of the mirror totally naked , no clothes and no mask ,ask yourself, saying it out loud:  “am I free or a slave? “ THE CHOICE is always yours. Be the MASTER of your decision, from your clear conscience, your real being. Recognise yourself with open eyes, remember there is nothing good or bad, apart from the anihilation of your own FREEDOM. Practise this exercise from the deepest of your honesty and find out if you LOVE OR MISTREAT YOURSELF.  Maybe you need to recognise your ADDICTION TO SUFFERING and believe me, in one way or another, this is the most common addiction among us, human beings. But once we have reached this point, then we are in the right track, towards OUR SELF LOVE AND WORTHINESS.

Here I take leave and I  wish you ,from the bottom of my soul, that you will find the courage to walk the most important path of our existence, the one of SELF-KNOWLEDGE.

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