Wrestling with, Ruminating on, the Phenomenon of ADDICTION

One of the, indeed, perhaps the major feature of my (more and more what is becoming an) ultra-long life is the phenomenon of addiction. I’ve wrestled with my various addictions forever, and now recognize them generically as a “tendency to repeat” — ad nauseam. But what’s wrong with repetition, I ask myself. Of course I repeat. I repeat all sorts of things, and always have. Don’t we all? Yes, we all do. So what exactly is the difference between an “addiction” and a “tendency to repeat”? Is there one?

Let’s add the phenomenon of “consciousness,” “awareness” to the situation. Addiction is the tendency to unconsciously repeat. But then, what’s wrong with that? We all need to make some behaviors automatic, so that when we are driving a car, for example, we can also be thinking about all sorts of things other than driving.

Okay, so let’s divide the situation further into Good Addictions and Bad Addictions. What’s a good addiction? Well, see above. The ability to drive a car. It’s automatic; and only when another car does something unexpected, nearly causing us to crash, do we wake up to the moment, and take conscious charge of our driving.

Our daily routines are addictions, and can be good or bad.

Let’s take “bad” first. These addictions are ones that make us feel guilty, dragged down, stuck, bored, ashamed, and so on. Whether substance abuse, or simply not getting nearly enough sleep at night, or alternatively, getting too much sleep, or “on screen” constantly instead, these bad habits make us feel yucky, as if we are wasting our lives away — which we are!

If good, then these addictions help center us while giving meaning and purpose to our days. For example: At this point, I reserve two hours in late morning for these ak.net posts. Or something having to do with my writing projects, including especially now, adding more content to tendrepress.com. It feels good to have a purpose, and a routine designed to get me where I want to go. I also reserve the first two hours of my morning for my chai tea elixir (altered a few years ago to chai coffee (two ounces) elixir), after   initial exercises, followed by a 3-4 mile walk.

In any case, just know that, as an addictive personality, I’ve had to wrestle, forever, asking for conscious awareness of “bad habits.” Asking myself to look at any habit, and decide whether it’s good or bad, and whether I want to continue it. This process is lifelong. I sense that my amazing health at this point in my long life has much to do with my increasing awareness of what habits contribute to health; what kinds and amounts of nutrition, exercise, and daily practices of all kinds contribute to not just longevity, but sheer, aliveness! As long as I’m here, I want to truly BE HERE. NOW.

Here’s the ebook I just created (using combinepdf.com) of all sorts of essays related to the phenomenon of addiction in one way or another. MY SECRET LIFE: Ten Tools for Transformation, contains yet another essay, “Taking Charge of Addictions” not included in this new Addiction ebook.

Oh wow. I just realized that I added this ebook months ago to tendrepress! Oh well! I need to keep better lists . . .

ADDICTION E-BOOK