Overcoming Addiction 3

So far in our discussion on Overcoming Addiction, we have looked at

• Establishing motivation
• Managing urges
• Controlling thoughts, feelings and behaviours

Lets take a look at the last point in this series of overcoming addictive habits.

#4   Balanced Living

I personally believe balanced living is all about keeping every aspect of my life in perspective.  Not letting any aspect of life have excessive dominion to the detriment of other beneficial things.

So for example, I can’t spend all day on the internet to the detriment of not going to work or not eating at all.  If I did then internet surfing has created a total imbalance in my life. 

By the same token, if I spent several hours surfing and then just grab a bar of chocolate for dinner, even though I have eaten something, I have not made very good use of time.  As a result, I am not eating well or properly.  Again, there is an imbalance.

Another example, if I spend so much time in the office, totally sold out in my work, but day in day out, year in year out, I am coming home late, I have allowed work to become my center point.  As a result, I am alienating my family and one day I may find that I have become a stranger to them!

Balanced living can be achieved through scheduling our time effectively and developing ways of dealing with change when they arise.    Scheduling our time well gives us the ability to allow for balance in the activities we get involved with.   This gives discipline in the use of our time.   Moses said “Lord teach us to schedule our days so we may gain a heart of wisdom.”  There is wisdom in balancing our lives. 

Sometimes we develop habits and/ or addictions when we have not balanced or scheduled our time.  For example, if I do not manage my time well,  then I would not spend five hours of my evening watching back to back soaps.   By allocating my time appropriately, I keep any TV addiction in check. 

So, I can instead spend maybe an hour watching TV, then spend time with the family for another hour or two, have my quiet time for prayer and meditation which is vital for my spiritual growth.  The latter is something we always end up neglecting because we have done everything else but that.  If my life is balanced, I am successfully overcoming addictive habits rather than allow them to take too much attention or dominion. 

Also in balancing my life, I consciously prioritize what is important.  What we prioritize is what we spend more time on.   Someone once said ‘If we fail to plan, we plan to fail‘.  And this is certainly true in overcoming addictive habits.

About The Author

Zoe

Zoe met Eze (Chuck) in the 14th year of what turned out to be an 18 year ‘journey’ with mental illness. They got married less than a year of meeting with Zoe fully knowing Chuck had a diagnosis of mental illness. In the 18th year, Chuck defied the odds of mental illness. A consultant psychiatrist signed him off the mental health system with a bill of NO MENTAL ILLNESS. The consultant was so amazed by Chuck’s astonishing recovery that he even questioned how Chuck was diagnosed with mental illness all those years before, in the first place! Today Chuck is free from medication, its dependency and hospitalizations. Zoe’s award nominated book, DEFYING THE ODDS, chronicles the highs and ‘lows’ of this journey. Zoe, often writing from the standpoint of a caregiver, clearly understands that mental illness does not only affect an individual challenged with the disease, but also families, marriages and society as a whole.

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