You don't get sober and close all the bars

Blessed are the ones that aren't addicted to anything or don't eat or smoke anything in a compulsive way, because they are the strong ones, and they shall live in Heaven forever, if they don't do that already. Not like we, the addicted ones, will get to hell, but who doesn't have an addiction of any sort nowadays? Not me, and I have quite a few to begin with.

To give you just two example I will point out sugar and my smartphone. Not one day passes by, without getting my share of sweets, or draining the battery for hours on simply nonsense smartphone usage, because that's what my smartphone usage is really about. The productive activities, such as reading, informing myself on what's going on in the world or blogging, is just about 5% of my times spent online.

The rest is just useless scrolls and refreshes. Same as with sugar. Yes, you won't die if you eat a cookie once in a while or drink a Cola, but daily, it's not healthy at all and to enumerate all the cons of excessive sugar consumption would definitely need an entire post. I've tried though, but used the aggressive and deemed to fail strategy. The one of avoidance.

As Charlie Sheen seen said when talking about his sobriety while making commercials for Tequila, you don't get sober and close all the bars. It's impossible. Hiding behind the world's curtain and closing your eyes every time you pass by a bar won't get you sober. It might help at the beginning, but after a while you need to face your demons, see their weakness and pass by, and that requires strength.

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I mentioned about sugar, because a few days ago I went shopping, mostly for Christmas, and I ended...somehow, buying a lot of sweets, along with the food that I need, although I haven't intended to. Among chocolate and yogurts, I got home with a six cans pack of Pepsi. I don't even remember when I had, the last time, that much Coke near me. I usually buy one once in a while, but even if it's not a Coke a day, there is something else to take its place in the daily sugar dose. Something to fill the space.

I am trying to quit sugar, as much as possible or even entirely, for years, and always fall for the temptation. I know why I want it, I know it's achievable, but I simply haven't quit it yet. I will for sure succeed and I know how. I will live simply with it, or around it. Yes, let the cans stay on the shelf, let the sweets stay by them. I don't have to close the bar, right? I just have to live with it and pass by.

No, I won't throw everything to the garbage, like I did in the past, because it doesn't work that way. I will instead consume my addiction, consciously, and moderately until there won't be an addiction anymore. That's what many addicts, worse than me, lack when trying to get rid of a bad habit. Being conscious about their addiction, getting to understand that it is all mind related, and it is just a neuronal circuit that has to be re-wired, and that's more than enough.

Throwing away your cigarettes won't help, you'll buy others. Shutting down the phone won't help, you'll miss important calls and conversations. Living with that last cigarette in your pack, while still having it in your pocket and refuse to burn it, is the road to success, and that's what I learned from a friend of mine yesterday while telling me about trying to quit smoking. He simply refused to either smoke or throw away the pack with that one last cigarette.

Instead, kept it in the pocket, done his duties and whenever the urge arose, he continued doing what he was engaged with. He simply acknowledged it, reminded himself of what he aims at, and passed over that urge. It's not simple, I know. If he would have thrown the pack away, he probably would have bought another one, but keeping that last one close to him made him stronger and determined to quit. You know, we have in here that saying: keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.

It takes some discipline though to quit an addiction and very often discipline consists of sticking to the plan and replacing the addiction's ingredients with healthier ones. You can't just fill that addiction's space with void. You need to fill that with something good, or at least better, and believe me, there are tons of alternatives.

Now, I know that this post might have been one of the most boring ones that you just read, if you bothered to read it entirely, but it is somehow written for me rather than you, as my self motivation letter that I can open when getting close to the can or the cake. I need to get rid of some addictions, I need to face some demons, and I need to become more disciplined. Probably that's why I spent that much time typing this, when I should actually go to sleep. Something is definitely ignited...

Thanks for attention,
Adrian