“fear of internal growth”
A mother in 2019 wrote: “I know firsthand how difficult it is for families. I’ve walked the streets of downtown Seattle looking for my son where drug users and dealers hang out. I’ve seen them passed out with a needle hanging out of an arm or leg. I’d ask myself: What is Seattle doing to fix this problem?”[i]
We think of addiction as drug or alcohol abuse, and that’s true of course, but gambling, shopping and work can be addictions. Hoarding, collecting, or on the other hand, minimizing or asceticism can be addictions. In other words, any behavior or substance or activity taken to extreme.
Why would humans behave in such a self-destructive way? In Simple Reality we explore a deeper understanding of human behavior by looking at the initial choice we make. Everyone stands, at many times in their life, at a “crossroad” when they have a choice of whether to say “yes” or “no” to the drink or drug or gambling or whatever it is that pulls them toward eventual addiction. This is the “point of power” that we speak of in the Point of Power Practice, that all-important moment where we choose a life of suffering (reaction) or a life of freedom from suffering (response).
Actor Ben Affleck is coming to grips with that realization: “People with compulsive behavior, and I am one, have this kind of basic discomfort [suffering] all the time that they’re trying to make it go away. You’re trying to make yourself feel better with eating, drinking or sex or gambling or shopping or whatever. But that ends up making your life worse. Then you do more of it to make that discomfort go away. Then the real pain starts. It becomes a vicious cycle you can’t break. That’s at least what happened to me.”[ii]
The Point of Power Practice helps us to be more conscious of how and when we choose the reactions that cause our suffering. We always have a choice! And when you choose a response instead of a reaction, you feel a deep connection to your True Self and the perfection of Creation. In other words, you feel your own personal individual Universal “point of power” that is available always and forever.
Insight # 84 comes to us from Caroline Myss (b. 1952), an American author and a leading voice in the field of human consciousness.
“In energy terms, any behavior motivated by the fear of internal growth [a reaction] qualifies as an addiction.”[iii]
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Additional Reading:
- Addiction, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 1
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[i] Kier, Kathy. “Letters: Seattle’s Way of Fighting Addiction.” The New York Times. September 8, 2019, p. 8.
[ii] Barnes, Brooks. “He Knows Something About Vicious Cycles.” The New York Times. February 23, 2020, p. 12.
[iii] Myss, Caroline. Anatomy of the Spirit. New York: Crown Publishers, 1996, p. 230.
