- Differentiating Gross and Subtle Addictions: Gross addictions are tangible and involve substances or actions that are generally recognized as harmful, such as junk food, drugs, alcohol, and overuse of television or internet. These addictions are easier to identify due to the obvious harm they cause and the clear withdrawal symptoms they produce when attempts are made to quit. On the other hand, subtle addictions are less tangible, more conceptual, and harder to identify because they are often acceptable or encouraged by culture. They could include conceptual addictions such as the need for love, approval, arguing and judgment. These addictions are harder to overcome because they are ingrained into one's lifestyle and can seem normal or even good.
- Examples of Subtle Addictions: These can comprise of being loved, judgement and criticism, being right and proving others wrong, arguing and debating, anger, hatred and racism, being moral or good, preaching to others, holding onto ideologies, seeking attention and being liked, and being arrogant or cocky. These subtle addictions often go unnoticed, but can be equally, if not more, detrimental to personal development and spiritual growth.
- Identifying an Addiction: An addiction can be identified as anything that is done repeatedly, leads to overconsumption, has negative consequences, decreases freedom and awareness, and reduces ability for growth. It often manifests as feelings of guilt or regret, withdrawal symptoms after stopping and becomes a crutch that one cannot let go of.
- Accuracy of Cultural Perceptions of Addiction: There is a cultural tendency to set the bar for what constitutes addiction rather low. For instance, food and coffee are not often considered addictions despite causing similar harmful effects as drugs and alcohol. Therefore, it is important to raise this bar and consider daily behaviors as potential sources of addiction.
- Effects of Subtle Addictions: These addictions are insidious in nature because they are often hard to identify, easy to rationalize away, incorporate abstract elements that make remedies uncertain, and can be done over years without noticing immediate damage.
- Addressing Subtle Addictions: Cultivating awareness around these subtle addictions is the first step to overcoming them. It is important to recognize when a particular behavior or need takes precedent over personal growth and start taking steps to reduce the dependence on it.
- Understanding the Extent of Potential Growth: Many individuals do not realize the extent of their potential growth because their perceptions are limited due to their subtle addictions. Hence it is critical to recognize these addictions and address them to unlock one's full potential.
- Value of Judgment for Personal Growth: Judgment and criticism can often become addictions that can hinder personal growth. This is especially crippling when individuals build entire careers out of judgment and criticism without realizing the negative effect it has on their personal growth.
- Recognizing Subtle Addictions as an Excuse for Averting Personal Growth: There is a tendency among people to preach or give advice to others while neglecting their own growth. This can stem from an addiction to preaching, which is a subtle addiction that people often overlook.
- Subtle addiction to success, work, and career advancement: Leo Gura points out that an obsession with success, often reinforced by societal norms, can be a significant form of addiction. This type of addiction encourages constant striving for more success and can lead to workaholism or single-minded career advancement.
- Addiction to money: Money addiction, which is distinct from success addiction, is the obsessive pursuit of wealth. It may involve seeking the highest paying career or engaging in get-rich-quick schemes. This addiction is shallow and can lead to disaster if it becomes the top priority in one's life.
- Addiction to material possessions: Addiction to material luxuries and collections, distinct from money addiction, involves the compulsive accumulation of objects such as fancy cars, houses, or collectibles. It can become addictive and ultimately unfulfilling.
- Addiction to security: A craving for stability and certainty, often resulting from an insecure childhood, could lead to a chronic quest for security in finances or career. Obsessions with safety and risk-avoidance could become addictive.
- Addictions related to negative mental states: Negative self-talk, excessive worry, anxiety, fear, or fixation on past wrongs can all become addictive behaviors that keep individuals trapped in negative cycles.
- Technology and Productivity addictions: Technological addictions involve constant obsession with the latest gadgets, while productivity addiction involves the relentless pursuit of efficiency. Both addictions distract from the essence of life and hinder spiritual growth.
- Addiction to competition, multitasking and helping others: Other addictions include compulsions for competition, multi-tasking, helping or changing others. These can deter individuals from focusing on their own self-actualization.
- Addiction to suffering, control, and negative attitudes: Addiction to suffering, a need for control, or negative attitudes such as victim mentality and constant complaining can all form barriers to personal growth. All these addictions emphasize the importance of becoming aware of and addressing subtle addictions.
- Addictions to Physical Comfort, Laziness and Procrastination: Being comfortable, particularly after periods of physical inactivity due to reasons such as recuperating, can become an addiction. Similarly, laziness feeds on itself, slipping people deeper into inactivity and procrastination, making it difficult for them to pull themselves out of it.
- Addiction to Perfectionism and Dependence: Striving for everything to be perfect can imprison people in a cycle of never meeting their own satisfaction. Dependence on others, be it financial or emotional, can also develop into addiction.
- Addiction to Physical Appearance: The obsession over one's own physical attractiveness or the physical attractiveness of others can turn into an unhealthy addiction.
- Negative Motivation Addiction: Some people can only push themselves to act under extreme external pressure or pain. This form of negative motivation can become a habit and prevent self-actualization.
- Guilt, Jealousy, and Envy as Addictions: Continually milling over guilt, jealousy, and envy can become addictive behaviors. This includes pressuring oneself, brooding over mistakes, and feeling inadequate compared to others.
- Addictions to New Experiences and Gossiping: The constant need for newness, excitement, or even danger can be addictive. In the same vein, gossiping and talking behind people's backs can become addictive behaviors.
- Addictions steming from Orderliness, Cheating, and Shortcut Taking: Keeping everything orderly or clean can turn into an obsession. Unethical behaviors such as cheating and stealing, as well as taking shortcuts in personal or professional spheres, can become addictions as they yield initial successes.
- Lying, Manipulation, Mystical States and Knowledge Gathering Addictions: Lying and manipulating others can be alluring addictions, offering control over others' perceptions and behaviors. Those skilled in meditation can become addicted to the inner peace it brings. Lastly, hoarding knowledge without application is also an addiction.
- Understanding Addictions: Addiction is not based on the activities, but on the patterns created in the mind. Stop the activity in question for seven days and see if cravings arise, that's a sign of addiction.
- Overcoming Addictions: The key step is awareness of the addiction and understanding its root cause. One needs to actively watch for signs of the addiction, journal about its manifestations, reflect on its role in one's identity, the purpose it serves, what's being escaped from, and why the addiction is needed. Applying this awareness can help recognize and prevent engagement in the addiction.
- Creating Positive Changes: Set a clear intention to change, regardless of knowing how, and use reminders such as a wristband to be mindful of the addiction. The idea is to practice being present in the simplicity of life. Going on a solo retreat can help reconnect with oneself and glimpse a life free of addictions.
- Benefits of Overcoming Addictions: Liberating oneself from addictions leaves room for personal growth, and focusing on life's purpose and top values. Cleaning up even a few addictions can have a significant impact and lead to living an enlightened life.
- Understanding the Roots of Addiction: The impact of any addiction relates to how it forms part of an individual's identity. It's typically used as an escape, but analyzing why the addiction is needed can reveal personal weaknesses or self-beliefs which fuel it, such as the notion that manipulation is necessary to survive, or to receive love.
- Envisioning an Alternative Lifestyle: Creating a new life without addiction necessitates envisioning an alternative lifestyle. However, the mind struggles to imagine this without resorting back to the old addiction, creating a void that allows the addiction to resurface, such as the difficulty faced by chronic substance abusers when attempting to visualize a lifestyle without substance use.
- Ensuring a Compelling Alternative: Any envisioned alternative must be regarded as much better than the current state. It's important to map out an attractive lifestyle without the existing addiction, which not only makes the alternative viable but also compelling and desirable.
- Letting go of Addiction: Determining whether an individual is genuinely willing to let go of an addiction is a critical step in the process. Beyond superficial willingness to stop certain behaviors, letting go of the part of the identity tied to the addiction is where lasting change can occur.
- Setting Clear Intentions: After understanding and contemplating the root of the addiction, setting a clear and firm intention to change is crucial, even when the 'how' is not yet apparent. This intention must be strong enough to stimulate change.
- Increasing Mindfulness of Addiction: Using tools like a wristband can increase awareness of the subtle addictions engaged in every day. Consistent reminders can heighten awareness of actions or behaviors associated with the addiction.
- Replacing Addiction with Being: All addictions serve as avoidance to simply 'being'. Eradicating addictions opens up the opportunity for individuals to simply 'be', encouraging raw, unadulterated existence. This forms the ultimate solution to many addiction problems.
- Removing Addictions and Achieving Liberation: Cleaning up addictions over the years can lead to liberation, freedom, and undistracted time for personal growth, life purpose, and observing top values. This process should not be rushed, but gradually tackled as a lifelong project.
- Impact of Addictions on Life Quality: Most people unknowingly revolve their lives around a series of addictions, leaving no room for personal development activities like meditating, contemplating, and reading. Reducing addiction offers more room for personal growth and self-actualization activities.