Can’t shake off a bad habit?
Could be anything from smoking cigarettes and weed to drinking alcohol or popping sleeping pills just before bed every night.
Chances are that you’re aware of this self-defeating habit that you’ve somehow come to adopt. Chances also are that you’ve tried to get rid of it someway, somehow. Unsuccessfully.
If that is the case, here are three creative ways and some contemplative thoughts that might help you rid yourself from this nasty habit.
1. Meditation
Meditation. Creative?
Yes, meditation can and is a highly creative endeavour even if doesn’t look like it from the outside or feel like it in the inside, initially. Though it seems like one’s just paying attention to oneself and the moment at hand when meditating, there are in fact many layers present to the meditative experience and what it does to you. From cultivating conscious awareness of yourself and the present moment, meditation can bring you into a more harmonious state where you are tuned into the natural creative flow of life and nature. Life is creative, each moment is an unprecedented moment in history, believe it or not. Though you may feel like you’ve done that innumerable times or been in that place a thousand times before, the truth of the matter is that each moment is unique.
Now how does this relate to overcoming addiction?
Well meditation can promote your general wellbeing, potentially elevating you or unburdening you from those things that normally hold you down. Amongst other things, addiction is characterized repeated behaviour that is (in the long run) not in service to your wellbeing. There are a couple studies that shows how meditation can help addicts by increasing self-control and emotional regulation, most likely through increasing their general self-awareness.
2. Artistic expressions
Sometimes I feel like art can save the world. Whether it’s music or dancing, painting or just creating whatever. Novel experiences that brings you closer to the moment has a tendency of satisfying some deep-rooted need we have us. That sense of lack which we all know so dearly, some more than others, addicts perhaps most of all. There are many ways of expressing yourself artistically, here are some of the ways you could try for yourself:
- Singing and humming
- Dancing and creative movement
- Creative writing
- Visualization techniques
- Learning new skills like knitting and archery.
- Gardening and home décor
The world is literally yours, so don’t let your addiction get the best of you. Try meditation, listening to some music from a place you’ve never heard of before. Simply do whatever that makes you 1% happier and fulfilled in yourself as you are instead of dependant on external things to give might give you that false and fleeting 10%. Reclaim your mind and empower your direct experience through creative and artistic expressions that might be waiting for you just around the corner.
3. Psychedelics
Psychedelics is a fascinating topic and world of its own, which also happens to be something we haven’t discussed much here on TrueRelaxations.
Mounting scientific research and studies have shown that psychedelics can be an effective tool when it comes to treating and healing individuals with addictive personalities[1]. Alongside the scientific data there are also countless anecdotes that proclaim the same sentiment, namely that certain psychedelics can prove helpful for certain problems, ailments or diseases, especially when it comes to mental health.
In a similar way to meditation, psychedelics show you the innate creativity present in life and nature as a whole. The potential experiences you could have during a psychedelic trip is to say the least, impossible to convey in words, for good and for worse. However there is also a dark side to psychedelics, the so called bad trips, which are just about inevitable if you test your luck sufficiently.
If you’re lucky and open, psychedelics can reveal to you in ways you didn’t know possible what your addiction does to you and the near and dear ones around you. It might be small things or big, if there is hole to poke, the psychedelics will poke it, you may not like it but you’ll be compelled to deal with it, no more hiding.
Conclusion
The internal struggle associated with addiction can potentially be relieved through these creative outlets. The truth is we’re all addicted, whether it’s to technology, our own incessant thinking or to external substances and drugs, we’re all in someway addicted. It is when this addiction gets out of hand, and starts compromising your health and wellbeing, limiting your potential, that is when you know that something needs to be done to change this. Whether its by meditation, art or psychedelics, is up to you to free yourself from this mental prison. And you know what they say about prisons of the mind, namely that they’re the best kinds of prisons because only you hold the key.
Daniel Seeker is a lifelong student of the past, present and future. He realized deep relaxations of the psyche when meditating in his hermit cave on the island of Gotland. His writings are mostly a reflection of that realization. Daniel has meditated & done yogic exercises daily for more than 10 years and is studying history and philosophy at Uppsala Universitet. He is currently finishing writing his B.A. thesis in history which explores how Buddhist, Yogic and Hindu texts were first properly translated and introduced to the western world in the late 18th and 19th century.