Stop Your Addiction With Mindfulness

Our gut and brains evolved for hundreds of millions of years in nature. Civilization has created hyperstimulating products that hijack our primitive reward system. For instance. We are programmed by evolution to seek out salt, fat and sugar. So corporations make products loaded with those. We are programmed to achieve goals, so corporations make video games. We depend on others in nature, with social media we can connect to everyone in the world. And organizations, legal or otherwise, sell drugs that chemically trigger a reward directly, like alcohol, tabacco, cocaine or weed.

Sometimes an addiction can be productive. Like a work addiction, an exercise addiction or an addiction to optimizing your diet for health. But productive addictions can also lead you down a harmful path. 

Dopamine is the motivation chemical. It actually releases in anticipation of something exciting. You get your first hit of dopamine before your behavior.

Another name for addiction is habit-forming. When you come across something that activates your reward system, your brain will give you a hit of dopamine when you come across it again. Your brain will associate a place, a person, a smell, an image,... with the exciting behavior and these associations will trigger an urge. The more you give in to the urge, the stronger your habit will become. It will become a thoughtless automatic behavior every time you are triggered. 

"Cool" people make fun of the "Just Say No" campaign. Just don't start. But it's actually the best advice. If someone offers you cocaine or meffi for instance, and you know that it is habit-forming, the smart thing to do is to refuse and never expose your brain to the chemical. Often, one hit is enough to start a lifelong addiction. 

Moderation (small amounts) doesn't work. I once read that of alcoholics that try to moderate, only 2% succeed. If you want to quit, quit completely. Say goodbye to your addiction forever.

The way to quit a bad habit with mindfulness is:

1. to be aware that you are triggered

2. to take a deep mindful breath and enjoy it

3. to be curious and objective about your feelings instead of identifying with them

4. to recall your motivation and use visualization (like imagine cancer in your lungs, you becoming really fat, scars on your liver, holes in your brain or fat deposits lining your arteries, remember how sharp you become when you are sober for a while)

5. to say NO resolutely, and to let the feeling go and know that your urge will go away. "Surf the urge". Don't push down your feeling, but let it float away like a cloud. Keep taking your mind back to your body, your breath and your senses.

Willpower is like a muscle that you can strengthen with practice. Your saying NO to your bad habit will become a new habit. After a while your willpower will become automatic.

Read my more elaborate guide on mindfulness here.


Peace ✌️ 💜 


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