Do you ever feel like a robot who without free will obeys his Addiction?
One summer day, shortly after having quit smoking, I walked into a convenience store to buy some gum. When I got to the counter and faced the cashier, with absolutely no awareness at all, I said,
“Marlboro Red 100s hard pack!”
BUT then I caught myself! It was as if I were in a trance robotically spilling out those all familiar words in that all familiar setting!
“No! Cancel that! I don’t smoke anymore! I’ll just take the gum,” I told the clerk. He looked at me like I was possessed! And in a way, he was right!
My brain had been possessed by Addiction! But I also was breaking FREE!
So what exactly is awareness and how do you acquire it?
First, you have to BE ALERT! I had to hear what it was I was saying and catch myself in the act! I had to break through the hypnotic spell – the automatic pilot of my brain! I had to recognize that I was about to purchase my drug of choice with the intention of using it!
Second, you have to SHIFT YOUR FOCUS! I was here at this place for the gum and that’s all!
And finally, you have to let the EXECUTIVE CONTROL of your brain make the decisions. That’s the highest part of your brain that has actually processed the information and come to the conclusion that buying gum and not buying sickerettes was in my best interests! I was actively inhibiting task-irrelevance, i.e. buying sickerettes was not the task at hand, buying gum was.
All of these elements are built into trigger awareness training. They are built into the Daily Pledge. They are built into blog reading. They are built into group activity.
Everywhere you look throughout this program Awareness is emphasized and Executive Control is taught.
If you want to be Addiction FREE then BecomeanEX can show you how! But you have the executive decision to stay trapped in a robot or to break FREE!
