Life is build upon needs. Physical needs, emotional needs and spiritual needs are all needs for a soul to manifest fully for its earthly experience. As needs are integral to life, one is bind to their needs and so to life itself. The binding is so strong that one will be overwhelmingly addicted to much or all of our needs.
Addiction to our needs is necessary but at the same time may create unnecessary suffering. If one’s true needs is the first layer then the addiction to our needs is another second layer covering the first layer. There are also addiction that is used to cover up one’s fear or undesirable needs which is the third layer. All these layers distance one from one’s true needs.
Fear usually lead one to use other addiction to numb oneself from a need deprivation. An example will be sexual needs that cannot be expressed due to the fear of shame and embarrassment. One may use alcohol or food to numb ourself from the deprive sexual needs. As the initial sex need deprivation goes into an overdrive mode so will the alcohol or food binge, leading to heavy addiction to alcohol or food binge. This bring unnecessary suffering of the side effects of over consumption and bringing one further away from the truth or origin of the problem.
Addiction can be to anything. Addicted to be alone, to be accompanied, to eat, to drink, to numb, to feel powerful, to feel stupid, to feel smart, to hide, to be ballsy. to be love, to be unloved etc etc. When there is a compulsion to do something constantly and slowing down or stopping is very difficult, that is an addiction.
When one untangle an addiction one releases a bondage and lead oneself nearer to our truth.
I used to believe that 3 meals a day and exercising regularly gives one a healthy and efficient body. I was so addicted to this that I tirelessly exercise intensively and eat religiously for years. This does enable me to have to healthy and strong body but the work to maintain this is so much and so tiring. It is so difficult to maintain using this forceful approach. One fine day I just decide that this does not make sense and seek an alternative approach. I started eating so much lesser and stop exercising regularly. The result is amazing, my body became lean and healthy and I actually does not feel hungry with much lesser food. I started to realised that our body do not need so much food and exercise to maintain its healthy and efficient level. By eating based on society standard is in fact giving our body more problem then protection. By exercising extensively we are forcing our body to be stronger then it need to be. My new approach to body wellness is more gentle to my body and mind, the simplicity of it untangled my addiction to social norm on body wellness.
With the unentanglement of this addiction, a new found peace of surrendering my addiction ‘to control my body’. Allowing it to be itself is to respect it as itself. Just allow.