This article is PREREQUISITE to understanding all meditating and 12 step recovery  recommendations for healing from addictions[drugs, alcohol abuse, sex addiction, love addiction or any addiction] at Live to the Fullest.

Have we ever pondered over the term ‘human being’? For centuries a lot has been studied, proven and written for the ‘human’ aspect of the human being. For example, beauty, fashion, medicine, workouts, race, ethnicity and gender are all related to the ‘human’ aspect of the human being. However, the “being” part was ignored for a long time. We are now stepping into an exciting and revolutionary time where we are searching for answers to some very important question. What is the mind body spirit model? What is the mind? How does it work? Is there a soul or a spirit? If there is, what is it? Ancient scripts regarding the ‘being’ were pulled out from dusty shelves, galvanized with the latest knowledge and finally, we were beginning to feel and acknowledge the ‘being’.

Again, this article is crucial and fundamental to understanding the being in all of us – which will ultimately help us understand pathway to recovery, healing, benefits of meditation and eventually, even our purpose of life.

Strange as it may seem at first, the ‘being’, is actually the bio-plasmic energy system around our physical body. It comprises of the energy of consciousness (also known as the mind, soul, spirit) and the energy system of auras and chakras. In this article, we will delve into the details and learn that mind is in fact a faculty or a subset of the soul. Soul and spirit are commonly interchangeably used and in fact they are the same.   In a nutshell soul =spirit, mind ≠ spirit or soul. It is a subset of the soul. For the sake of consistency, let’s use the word ‘soul’ for the rest of this article.

The Trinity: Attributes of the souls

The nature of the soul is indeed universal. Every soul has the following three separate attributes which are inherent in all human beings regardless of their place of birth, race, gender, caste or creed. Like the soul itself, all these attributes are not physical. The soul uses these 3 attributes to effectively command the human body to perform tasks, much like a driver of a car.

1.   First attribute: The Mind

What does the mind do?

• The mind is an engine that enables us to imagine, forms ideas and think
• This is where we have thoughts – the fundamental unit of energy that drives our existence
• Interacts with the body via the brain which processes the input from our five physical senses

Courtroom Analogy:

If we think of the soul as a courtroom, its attributes will take up specific roles. The mind takes on the role of a lawyer, meticulously collecting data from the physical world and combining them with ideas and thoughts to bring to the courtroom. Later, we will expand this analogy further to include the other attributes of the soul.

2.    Second attribute: The Intellect

What does the intellect do?

• Accepts inputs from the mind
• Understands and evaluates these inputs
• Makes a decisions using reasoning, discrimination, will-power and judgment
• Not to be confused with the brain, which is physical in nature. The brain is a power tool used by the intellect to carry-out its decision

Courtroom Analogy:

Continuing with our courtroom analogy, the intellect takes up the role of the judge or jury. It gathers input from the lawyer-like mind and utilizes the facilities of reasoning, discrimination, will-power and judgment to come t a decision. Needless to say, the stronger and wiser the intellect, the better judge it will make. This can be achieved by honing the facilities of the intellect by practicing meditation. This becomes the cornerstone of any recovery program.

Our physical brain and physical body take the role of the police or law-enforcement that enforces the decision that the intellect makes.

3.  Third Attribute: The Subconscious

What is the subconscious?

• It is a repertoire of our habits, belief systems, values, personality traits, and programs.
• Some of the information is with us when we are born: genetic information and survival instincts.
• The other part this repertoire is environmental and experiential. This part of the subconscious grows as we grow.

Courtroom Analogy:

Continuing with our courtroom analogy, the subconscious is the archives of the courtroom. This is a repertoire of preceding cases and experiences that the courtroom has gone through. The jury or the judge (intellect) can extricate relevant information from the archives to come to a better decision.

Once we understand this mind body connection, we can proceed to understanding what meditation is, what are the benefits of meditation and how meditation can be a pathway to recovery and healing.

Namaste!

“Laugh the Loudest, Love the Deepest and Live to the Fullest”

Have you ever wondered “why on Earth did I get hooked to alcohol in the first place?” or “why can’t I be faithful in my marriage and keep having these affairs I don’t even want to”?   The causes of addiction vary considerably, and are not often fully understood because they are entrenched in complex combination of physical, mental, circumstantial and emotional factors. Strangely enough, if an addict has a history of child abuse, it is almost always the reason for the development [and sometimes even sustainment] of various types of addiction (substance or behavioral addictions). In this article, let’s analyze why addiction is linked to an abusive childhood.  Before proceeding, as a side note, an addict can be rest assured that having any addiction due to a bad childhood does not mean it is the end of the world. There is always a recovery process to resolve childhood negative memories.

So let’s begin by understanding two main aspects of this topic:

1.         What is a belief system? Belief system of any individual [addict or non-addict] is defined as the sum of the assumptions, judgments, potent family messages , compliments/ criticism about a person’s value or worth, relationships, needs and sexuality recorded in the individual ‘s mind throughout his/her life .” This is the model of the world for that human being. Choices that are made in life, interpretation of other’s behavior and external circumstances, problem solving, relationship development etc. all  go through this mind filter called as belief system. In case of an addict, the belief system gets corrupted with certain faulty/inaccurate core beliefs like “I am not a good person or I am unworthy”.  These core beliefs are against laws of spirituality because spirituality teaches that every single human being is powerful and extremely worthy and capable of love and peace. But how do these faulty beliefs get into the addict’s system in the first place? This leads to the discussion of the second point.

2.       What are the feelings generated in a child due to specific kind of abuse?  A child’s basic needs comprises of unconditional love, protection and acceptance. Any kind of abuse with a child instills in them fears and thoughts which are in direct conflict with their expectation and sense of being. It is imperative to understand because these feelings fuel further negative thoughts, patterns and habits – it eventually becomes the belief system of the victim creating emptiness or a void of love inside.

Type of Abuse	Corresponding Feelings
Physical abuse	Sense of worthlessness, lack of safety and protection, distrust in oneself, self hatred
Emotional abuse: Neglect/ Mother wound / Father wound	Unwanted, unloved, worthlessness , emptiness/ void , lack of self confidence, depression, anxiety, loneliness, no sense of boundaries
Emotional abuse: Aggression/ bullying/ domestic violence	Humiliated, feels very unsafe, numbness as a defense mechanism, self –hatred, lack of self esteem , helplessness, anger, resentment
Sexual abuse	Guilt, shame, secrecy, duality, confusion, poor self esteem, isolation

 

From the above table, it is fairly intuitive to conclude that the victim ends up feeling extremely worthless and empty.  If as a child the victim has realized he/she cannot trust people, as they grow up, there is a high chance that they will make a choice through their faulty belief system to get attracted towards some things they can trust; that do provide what they promise,at least for the moment like sex, alcohol, drugs, risky behavior, gaming, Internet, gambling, food, exercise, work etc. Their mind gets disconnected with reality and as a coping mechanism they start believing that sex, alcohol, drug or whatever the mood altering chemical involved is their most important need even though it usually entails high risks. The emptiness in the soul gets fulfilled to some extent but it is false filling because it negatively affects the body and lowers self –esteem.  This process of false filling starts gradually, then progresses to habituation and as the habit persists and frequency increases it soon develops into addiction – something that now will have a painful withdrawal. The addiction becomes the source of nurturing, remedy for pain and anxiety, the origin of excitement and the reward for success.  Soon that innocent victim of child abuse has gradually grown up to be a teen/adult addict due to the faulty beliefs which acted as the anchor points of the addiction. Like said before, an addict can be rest assured that having any addiction due to a bad childhood is just the first half of the game! There is always a recovery process to resolve childhood negative memories.