readerbaby71

INVOLUNTARY ESCAPES

Many of our escapes are involuntary: addiction and dissociating from painful feelings are two examples. Anyone who has worked with a strong addiction—compulsive eating, compulsive sex, abuse of substances, explosive anger, or any other behavior that’s out of control—knows that when the urge comes on it’s irresistible. The seduction is too strong. So we train again and again in less highly charged situations in which the urge is present but not so overwhelming. By training with everyday irritations, we develop the knack of refraining when the going gets rough. It takes patience and an understanding of how we’re hurting ourselves not to continue taking the same old escape route of speaking or acting out.

--Pema Chodron

SparkleKitty

Needed this today, this week, this month...thank you.

readerbaby71

I also found something today that I wrote in 2007 or 2008. I think I need to strengthen my resolve not to drink, ever. I do drink occasionally, but I tend to "forget" the fact that I had a HUGE problem with alcohol for a long time. A list I made (I am such a list maker!):

If I don't drink I:

-think more rationally and logically
-am less depressed
-feel better physically
-feel happier
-am able to be present for things and people I enjoy
-have more self-confidence and self-esteem
-don't feel guilty all the time
-am more sensitive to emotional pain
-deal with things I would have drowned in alcohol before
-don't regret or forget what I did or said
-can be more loving.

There's not really much more to say.