The Spiritual Root of Addiction

"We are addicted because we are not living from our source; we have lost our connection to our soul. The use of food, alcohol, or drugs is essentially a material response to a need that is not really physical at its foundation. Drunkenness, for example, is really a forgetting of personal memory so we can experience the joy of the non-personal, the universe. What we are looking for is pure joy rather than mere sensation, or even oblivion of sensation. Self-destructive behavior is unrecognized spiritual craving. All addictions are really a search for the exultation of spirit, and this search has to do with the expansion of consciousness, the intoxication of love, which is pure consciousness."  ---Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra's work on addiction offers new insights into why addictions are SO DIFFICULT to QUIT.   Search for Deepak's books on addiction, they are well worth the read.  TJS

Long Afternoons

Caroline Knapp's moving book, Drinking: A Love Story is a challenging journey into self-discovery. She details the fear we have of really being 'in our skin.' Of knowing who we are and accepting it. It is well worth the read.

"There’s something about facing long afternoons without the numbing distraction of any sort of anesthesia that disabuses you of the belief in externals, shows you that strength and hope come not from circumstances or the acquisition of things but from the simple accumulation of active experience, from gritting the teeth and checking the items off the list, one by one, even though it’s painful and you’re afraid....Passivity is corrosive to the soul; it feeds on feelings of integrity and pride, and it can be as tempting as a drug. If it feels warm and fuzzy, it is probably the [addictive] choice. If it feels dangerous and scary and threatening and painful, it is probably healthy."