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[nimbus_column column_number=”9″] On your pathway to recovery, in addition to the 12 steps, rehabilitation and/or rational recovery techniques, meditation is the most powerful weapon in your arsenal. Why meditate to overcome abuse and addiction [drugs, alcohol abuse, sex, love addiction, caffeine addiction or any strange addictions]? How does it work? Let us take a real-world analogy that will make this easy to understand and assist in your journey towards healing.
Please note that understanding the mind body spirit model used at Live To the Fullest is a PREREQUISITE for the article below.
The Computer System Analogy
In the modern world, everybody interacts with computers. Everyone has at least a basic understanding on how a computer system works. A computer system relies on basic and distinct components, working in tandem to execute complex tasks. The major components of a computer system and their analogous components are:
Computer Component |
What it does? |
Analogy |
What it does? |
| Input devices: keyboard/mouse/controllers | The computer system relies on these devices to gather information | Our 5 senses: Sight, Smell, Hearing, Taste and Touch | These bring us input from our environment. |
| RAM( Random Access Memory) | This takes input from the input devices and processes it temporarily. | The Mind | It accepts the input from our senses and processes it by developing feelings and thoughts. |
| Hard Drive | This stores information for the long run. The logs in the hard drive store all the events a computer experiences. | The Subconscious Mind | It stores all our experiences and previous decisions. The major difference from the computer hard-drive is this: We cannot delete information once it enters the subconscious mind |
| The Operating System | This is an in-built set of rules and methods that the computer system utilizes to evaluate input and make decisions. This resides on the hard drive | The Belief System | This consists of our in-built habits, personality traits, programs and instincts. We use our belief system to evaluate input and make decisions. This resides in the subconscious mind. |
| The CPU (Central Processing Unit) | This is literally the brains of the computer system. It carries out the decisions of the operating system. | The Brain | This is the physical component that carries out the decisions we make. |
Please go over the above chart and take a moment to understand the analogy. This loose analogy will help understand how this ecosystem relates to trauma and addiction and greatly assist in the pathway to recovery.
The Computer System Analogy continued: What are trauma, abuse and addiction?
We all know that abuse (psychological abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse or spiritual abuse), domestic violence, neglect can all cause immense emotional pain and trauma. What happens to this delicately balanced computer system during emotional pain? It is simple, really. Trauma and abuse can easily be seen as faulty or malignant input that corrupts the Operating System and finally gets stored on the hard drive. In other words, your computer system now has a ‘virus’ in the operating system causing it to make incorrect decisions. Whatever may be the cause of the virus, an addiction can be seen as the ‘incorrect decisions’ that a corrupted operating system makes. When an alcoholic picks up a drink, he is making an ‘incorrect decision’ based on a faulty operating system.
This analogy really helps us get a good grasp on the workings of our system. Now that we understand trauma, abuse and addictions it brings us to the million-dollar question. How do we overcome addictions and the effects of trauma? The answer is very obvious. We can do this only by fixing the faulty Operating System. How do we achieve this gargantuan task? Let us build the analogy further to answer this.
The Computer System Analogy Conclusion: Healing trauma, abuse and addiction
We are at an exciting turning-point in our journey. We have understood that to heal the ill-effects of trauma and abuse we must fix our faulty Operating System. Who and what does that? What do you think was missing from our previous analogy? You guessed it right. We have deliberately left out ‘the intellect’ from our analogy till this point. The intellect is the programmer that solely has the power to re-program the faulty parts of our operating system. This mighty programmer fixes out the bugs of our Operating System. Just as a programmer uses computer code and his special ‘tools of the trade’ to re-program the Operating System, so does the intellect. We will go over these tools in great details at Live to the Fullest.
Computer System |
What it does? |
Analogy |
What it does? |
| Programmer | Has the ability to re-program and fix bugs in the Operating System | The Intellect | Has the ability to consciously re-program the faulty programs in our subconscious |
| Computer code | A tool utilized by the programmer to access and fix the Operating System | Tools of the Intellect:
|
Tools utilized by the intellect to access and fix the faulty programs in our subconscious |
| Anti-virus Software | Protects and maintains the robustness of the Hard Drive and the Operating System. | Meditation | Protects and maintains the robustness of our subconscious |
As you know, it is not sufficient to just get rid of the virus; a computer system needs to be protected from viruses too. This is accomplished by anti-virus software. This is where meditation steps into the picture. The analogy for the anti-virus software is meditation which keeps our Operating System clean, pure and functioning to its maximum potential. Without mediation, just as without anti-virus software, we cannot keep our subconscious free of faulty programs. Apart from many other benefits of meditation , this is the primary reason to meditate in any healing process. Meditation is truly the bright pure illumination on the path of recovery!
Namaste!
“Laugh the Loudest, Love the Deepest and Live to the Fullest”
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