Are You Run By Your Addiction?

I was talking to someone @ work the other day who seems to be able to say "no" fairly easily to what he didn't want in his life. Donald had been drinking several sodas each day and decided a few months ago that he'd cut them out completely---and he did.

But last week he picked up a soda and drank it. After he drank it he decided he was going to stop because he didn't want to be run by anything. And he said it would be easy for him to stop now becuase of the reality he had of not wanting his life to be run by anything.

I could relate with Donald because when I gave up each addiction I was very aware how much each addiction had been running my life, and I wanted to be in charge of my life, not the addiction.

Donald also said something to the affect of "just say no."...and how easy that really was. I agreed, but did say to him that so many people find it the most difficult thing to say. "Just say no" to many people is.....well it's just too easy and won't work.

The key here is---and what I believe---is that it IS that easy many time. Just say no and get on with your life.

Are you run by your addiction? Could "just say no" possibly work for you? Just maybe?

Try it.....I'd love to hear what results you have....

Why Is It So Hard to Quit My Addiction?

Is this a question you ask yourself a lot? Why can't it just be easy like so many other things I do in my life?

I remember those thoughts too, especially with my weight issue years ago. I couldn't understand how I seemed to be almost overtaken by my thoughts to where I believed I didn't have any say as to whether or not I picked up a Twinkie or candy bar. I really believed I couldn't stop myself from eating that junk.

But looking back I see that I didn't have the will to say "No!" then. I was a kid. I didn't know that I had the ability to run my life. You get wiser with age, they say, and that's a good example of it.

So what is the message here? I think it's that you have to realize that the mind will do what the mind does---go all over the place---telling you you can or can't do things. It's up to you, not your mind, how your life turns out.

So I urge you to watch your thoughts regarding addiction and see what your mind is telling you (lots of lies I would imagine), and start to realize that you don't have to listen to your mind.

You do have control over your life. And the more you start taking control, the easier it will be.

Could It Be Easy Quitting Your Addiction Afterall?

If I'd heard someone ask me that years ago I would have said no, of course it's difficult. You have to have a desire to quit, you have to go to self-help groups and pour your heart out.....THEN you have to go to these groups all the time. Then you end up thinking about your addiction every day and talking to people about it. You find yourself reading articles about people just like yourself who are addicted. These people are just like you and you feel an affinity with them.

But then after a few months it starts getting old---going to the meetings, seeing the same people sharing the same stories---you think about your addiction again. The newness is gone. You think about going back to your addiction out of boredom.

What if it were possible to just say, "ENOUGH! I don't want to be addicted anymore!" And what if it took? It happens all the time.

Isn't this LESS difficult than the previous? Not that meetings are bad---they're not, but they're not for everybody. Personally, meetings wouldn't have helped me. But think about the possibility.....of just quitting to get on with your life......

I Had a Great Radio Interview

I was on Blogtalkradio with Don L. Price last week. Don has a very nice, soothing voice which helped keep me very comfortable throughout the interview. We talked about my 3 addictions and how I overcame each one. He also wondered if I agreed that the addiction is always just the symptom of the problem, not the problem.

Yes, I agreed, because that is so true, isn't it? If you lose 100 pounds and your mind doesn't shift at all, you'll surely gain the weight back. It happens all the time. For me personally, the shift happened that night when I cried out to God---if You're there, I need you because I can't stop eating.

A shift happened that night. I never ate non-stop again in my life! What a healing that was, but I still had to deal with the losing weight, which took years. But the eating-until-I-can't-eat-anymore problem left that night. I'll never forget it. And I never get tired of sharing that story.

If anyone wants to listen to my interview go to my website http://www.DovelinPublishing.com
and look under "Press". You'll see the Blogtalkradio widget, click on it and listen. If you have any comments or questions please let me know on this blogsite or email me @ lindajoyallan@aol.com.

I Watched an Overweight Woman Crossing the Street...

last week on my way to work. It seemed she was carrying some sort of a coffee cake, wrapped in saran wrap, along with a back-pack. She must have been at least 100 pounds overweight. It was a struggle for her to even walk. I sat there at the light wondering what thoughts might be going around in her head.

I felt compassion for this woman. I don't know if she's given up on herself, or maybe the cake she was holding wasn't for her at all! For all I know she could be giving the cake to someone because she's decided to lose her weight this time for good.

So we don't know what people are thinking. I do know she didn't look happy, but how can you when you're carrying around so much extra weight. Sometimes when I bring in my grocery bags which must weigh at least 10-15 pounds, I'm very aware of how that weight would make my life so difficult if it was on me---if I had to lug around an extra 50 pounds (I did years ago) every day.

The memories started to come back to me of me being fat while watching this woman for the 20 seconds I watched her (she didn't see me watching her). I'm just so grateful that I dropped those pounds and can feel a lightness about me all the time. It definitely makes a difference in the way I perceive everything in my life. I've written may times over the years of this fact: I couldn't be happy and joyful if I were still fat. I personally couldn't. But the good news is for overweight people is that they can lose weight, but it takes dedication and committment.

One little shift in someone's mind who is overweight can start the process of losing weight immediately. It happened to me, and I've seen it happen to many over the years.

That's good news....