Campbell Harnessing the Power of the Principles of Well-Being

Live Free of Addictions and Self-Destructive Behaviors
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4835-9047-9
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 200 Seiten

This book helps you learn how to harness the power of the principles of well-being to free yourself of addictions and self-destructive behaviors. The principles of well-being taught in this book were used by the author to help her recover from alcoholism and learn to lead a happy and more fulfilling life. In it she shares the secrets to such things as learning to build a foundation of self-love, letting go of the past, getting in touch with your emotions, forgiving yourself and others, finding abundance in your life, becoming a new person, and writing a new life story. You'll be provided with practical exercises and application for how to incorporate these principles into your daily life. You'll learn how to build new life-affirming habits and behaviors that can turn you way from your addiction and self-destructive behaviors and on to a road of freedom from them! The principles of well-being are: Principle 1 - We're all a WIP (Work in Progress) Principle 2 - Self Love is the Foundation Principle 3 - The Past is Gone Forever Principle 4 - Purge the Critic - Be Your Own Champion Principle 5 - You've Got Feelings - Express Them Principle 6 - Keep Your Power by Owning It Principle 7 - Abundance is Attitude Principle 8 - You are Spirit - Nurture Your Soul Principle 9 - Resistance is Futile - Surrendering Will set you Free Principle 10 - Forgiveness - It Starts with You Principle 11 - Who you are now is What Matters Most Principle 12 - Your Story is Yours to Write The book also provides an overview on addiction and aspects of how it functions and keeps us prisoners in our own lives. But, by learning and living the principles of well-being anyone can break free of addiction and self-destructive behaviors, just like the author. Learn how to live these principles and you too will live a happier, healthy, and positive life.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Campbell, Kerry S.

Leseproben

CHAPTER 1
THE BIOLOGY OF ADDICTION
*** Let’s talk about addiction. Personally, I dislike this word as it usually conjures up images of homeless people, stinking, and emaciated in dark doorway corners of the street huddled in ragged blankets. This might be true. Homelessness is often a result of untreated mental illness for a person who has no resources or support mechanisms to help them get well. But, addiction comes in many shapes and sizes. In fact, I’m a firm believer that we all have addictions. It’s just a matter of what kind and how destructive it is. I can tell you I had an addiction to alcohol, but you wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell from the outside. I was an educated person working at one of the biggest global companies in the world, Microsoft. I made a six figure salary – I dressed well, I spoke well. I had a good family and a good upbringing. None of this matters. Addiction is an equal opportunity disease. And a dis-ease it truly is. What is Addiction? Simply put, addiction is: A habit that has taken over our life A biological survival mechanism that has over ridden itself/gone on hyper-drive A result of maladaptive behaviors and poor coping skills A thing that fills a void we don’t know how to otherwise fill A genetic disposition we are born with and have no control over The dictionary definition of addiction is “the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance, thing, or activity.” Otherwise known as: dependency, habit, or problem. The key thing is it’s a habit, problem, or dependency that is destructive to our emotional and physical well-being and it is something we feel we cannot stop, are compelled to do, and are basically a slave to it. Our life revolves around it in myriad ways. Let’s take an addiction to food, for example. Obesity is an epidemic of epic proportions taking over in the world. Statistics say that 1.9 billion people on this planet suffer from being either overweight or profusely obese. That’s one quarter of the world’s population! Did you know that it’s not food overweight people are addicted to? Physiologically it’s sugar. Emotionally and mentally, it’s comfort – a maladaptive way to self-soothe when stressed or suffering from emotional pain. The true definition of addiction by the American Society of Addiction Medicine is this: “Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This is reflected in an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors.” Addiction means we are a slave to our biology, our body, and our mind. Do you know why so many people who suffer from depression tend to also have an addiction to alcohol? Because the alcohol makes them feel happy and it provides a temporary relief from their chronic and debilitating sadness. This boils down to brain circuitry and what you’re born with. We’re all born with good and useful things, but we all also have our not so great things. Maybe you were born with a big body or big bone structure. Maybe you were born with a brain that produced low levels of the mood elevating neurotransmitter, serotonin. Maybe you were born into a family situation that was full of anger and violence. We all have our cards dealt to us. But, we aren’t stuck with that set of cards, necessarily. Ever play the poker game Seven Card Draw? You are dealt seven cards. You get to pick the best five of them to make your poker hand. But, you also are given a choice to get rid of two cards and get two new ones, to see if you can make a better poker hand than with the cards you were originally dealt. There is also often times a wild card – this is a card that if you get it in your hand, you can make it whatever you want. See, you have the power to work with what’s you’ve been dealt and make a better poker hand! You have resources, you have resolve, and you have persistence and perseverance. This is what it takes to achieve more in your life. This is what it takes to free yourself of addiction and self-destructive behaviors. It’s about understanding what hand you’ve been dealt, what you are working with, and learning how to apply the principles of well-being to make a better poker hand. What can you achieve by learning and applying the principles of well-being? I’ll tell you what I achieved: Peace of mind – free from mental anguish and emotional pain Freedom from addiction to alcohol and release from bad habits Relief from negativity and depression No longer smoke cigarettes No longer a prisoner of my past or the person I used to be Greater appreciation for my life and the good things in it Gratitude Healthier and happier relationships with my children and family Improved job performance and advancement opportunities Enjoyment of the little things in life, the simple things, and the small moments Better friendships Contentedness with things as they are A positive change in my life’s direction and what I’m doing with it Pride in myself for my accomplishments Strength to overcome obstacles and barriers in life Compassion for myself and others – ability to connect with people on a deep level Openness to new adventures and experiences Belief in myself and what I can do with my life A focus on self-love and self-care that supports making good choices and developing good habits What Can You do About it? Addiction can be beat. Addictive behaviors can be replaced with behaviors that serve us rather than destroy us. Our mind is ours to train and to control – we just need to learn how to do it. The principles of well-being will help you with this. We can manage our biology through education and following a different life style. It is not as hard as you might think – it just takes one step at a time! Imagine you are in a dark room trying to get out. You are feeling around the walls and stumbling into furniture, and falling down. You keep banging your knee on the edge of the same table – damn that hurts! You curse. You yell. You get frustrated. Then, somehow, you find a flash light. It was in your pocket all along and you didn’t know it. You shine that flashlight and the room begins to take shape. You can see how big it is – not that big. You can see the outlines of the furniture. But, most importantly, you can see the door! And you can make out the outline of the pathway to get to the door. What you do next is the most important thing in your life. Do you put the flash light back in your pocket and remain trapped in that room or do you begin to walk toward the door? Let’s say you begin to walk toward the door and you get to the wall next to it. You find a light switch. You turn it on and the whole room illuminates with brightness. You notice there are windows in the room. Beautiful tall windows that look out on a peaceful landscape of trees and sunshine. The furniture in the room is well designed and elegant. The colors on the walls are bright and cheery. There is a fire place with a nice warm and cozy fire going. You never even noticed the warmth before! You are this room – where you had been hidden in the darkness for so long. But now, you’ve found the light and things look different in the light. You turn that door knob and swing the door wide open. There’s a whole wide world out there waiting for you to join it – chirping birds, people walking by smiling, a dog wagging its tail. You can change – you can learn to live free from addiction! What we are going to do in the book is shine a light in the dark and it will spread and begin to illuminate everything in that room, so you can see your way out of it. Let’s list some common things people can become addicted to: Alcohol Prescription drugs Street drugs (heroin, crack, etc.) Sex/pornography Food/chocolate/sweets Gaming/television Nicotine/caffeine Marijuana Gambling Maybe you haven’t thought of some of these things as addictions, but they can become addictions if you are genetically susceptible to them, developed unhealthy habits associated with them, or are unable to stop doing them if you try to quit. But you can quit. In my opinion, the reason why many drug and addiction programs and approaches, such as AA, fail at an astonishing rate, despite some of it successes, is because they tend to focus largely on just the drug or addiction itself. This is like treating the effect and not the root cause of the problem. It’s like giving yourself an aspirin to fix a headache, without addressing the fact that there is a brain tumor causing the headache to begin with. First, you must understand that when in active addiction, you believe you must have the substance or commit the behavior or you will die. Quite literally, it takes over any rational thinking and becomes insistent. I must eat more ice cream, cookies, or drink more soda pop because my brain is hooked on the sugar. It equates sugar with survival. This is true – all food converts to glucose as the fuel for the functioning of our brain, or organs, and our body. Glucose, a form of sugar, is the ultimate thing required for our survival. When addicted to food, we are actually addicted to the sugar in it. That’s why we mostly gorge on sugary...