Getting to know an Addictive Part
The very first step in our recovery from any compulsive pattern is to bring awareness to the behaviour itself: What is it we find ourselves doing again and again that is holding us back from living the 100% most wholehearted life we can, growing towards our greatest potential in this lifetime? Once we have clarified in our minds that a behaviour we ourselves are doing is impacting on us repeatedly, we are well along our way to cracking the first step in our complete recovery from this pattern: the first step being that of Awareness.
Awareness can include how it feels in our body when we are caught up in the compulsion, how it impacts us afterwards, what thoughts may be running through our mind at the time, what may have triggered the activity….
Awareness isn’t easy to gain when the part of us engaged in the behaviour is fast, or secretive (even hiding it from ourselves). This part of us may tell us that it’s no big deal, and that it isn’t really having a negative impact. It may surround you with other people who do the same things, and then use this as evidence that ‘It’s normal.’
Bringing awareness to the behaviour sometimes only really works therefore when simultaneously used with Reassurance. It can really help in our mission to dive into the first step to freedom by reassuring the addictive part of us that we are not trying to change it’s behaviour. What we are wanting to do here is to get to know more about it – how it feels, what it’s going through. Constantly repeating this reassurance to addictive parts of us can really help them, because they may be used to other parts of you, or other people in your life, trying to change or control them.
So, in the early stages of your journey to freedom, remember that reassurance is often key to gaining the awareness needed to move up to the next rung on your recovery ladder.