Having an addictive personality, and quitting my last 37 year addiction on New Year’s day, I feel I can help others who are still struggling with their addictions, or with their addictive personalities. Here are the Top 5 Ways How ex-Addicts can Stop Running from Themselves.
1. Cut Out Media And Constant News
Let’s face it: the news is depressing and dark, and not even accurate anymore – if it ever was. Everything we watch on TV or hear on the radio is programming us to think in a fearful state.
Media wants us to feel fear all the time because it keeps the masses “dormant” or “lacking” so we buy more things we don’t need.
Same thing with dark, heavy, or negative music. I grew up on Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, and Gangster Rap – and we know how negative those messages can be. Dr. Emoto did experiments on how music affected water – since were made up of mostly water, the results were sobering.
Our music and our surroundings greatly impact us on a physiological level.
Add years upon years of negative messages on top of each other, along with alcohol and substances, and your chemistry is going to be “toxic.”
We are what we eat, listen to, and see.
Change your surroundings for the positive and lightness and watch your life shift for the better. . .
2. Cut Out Sugar
Sugar is a huge “silent killer” in our society. No one wants to really address how bad sugar is because 95% of us love it. Americans consume 66 pounds of sugar a year – it is literally in everything, including sandwich meat – isn’t that crazy?
The easiest way to quit sugar is to switch to Stevia. You can find it in the baking section of Walmart and almost every store carries it now.
It might have a strange aftertaste for about a week, but once you get used to it it tastes like sugar and the body doesn’t register it as a sugar. It will lower your blood sugar tremendously and help you get off sugar.
3. Exercise Often
Addicts and ex-addicts usually have excessive adrenalin, because they live in constant “fight or flight mode.”
Working out an hour a day can make you more relaxed, which will reduce the cravings for an escape or addiction.
Exercise will also boost self-esteem, especially when you start to lose the beer belly, which will make you more proud of yourself and less willing to sabotage yourself with drugs, alcohol, or sex.
4. Start Doing Yoga
A spiritual teacher once told me that if i did 10 to 30 Sun Salutations a day it would change my life. There is something about the flowing body movement that Yoga incorporates that makes us feel more free, loving, and relaxed.
Doing Sun Salutations every morning will not only help you wake up, but it will slowly instill a positive routine back into your life, which ex-addicts greatly need.
5. Meditation
Since I have been doing meditation an hour every night, I want to run from myself less. I feel more solid and seated in myself – and my confidence and concentration has grown.
As addicts, we want to run and escape using something that makes us feel temporarily better. The downside usually, is the “high” from whatever your vice is there is a crash – you might feel emptier than before – and with me, I felt shame and guilt because I really thought I was done with that stuff.
Meditation fills that void inside you that makes you want to crawl out of your skin and go use.
Thanks for reading the Top 3 Ways How ex-Addicts can Stop Running from Themselves.
As addicts, we need to fill up ourselves with love and self-esteem. We need to begin loving ourselves, letting go of the past, and staying in the moment – completely present, without blaming anyone or anything.
Every minute of your life can literally be “reset” to a new paradigm, the only obstacle is your belief that you can change.
