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Through Yoga And The Unity of Spirit, Mind and Body
In Yoga, the formula for controlling addiction is primarily the three fold unification of
Spirit, Mind and Body. Yoga begins with a belief in a higher power or spiritual power which is
believed to be the source and essence of all life. In Yoga, God is the foundation of all
things and the basic creative power from which everything that exists was created.
The second component in this triad of elements which make up human consciousness is mind. Our basic creative power
or spiritual force expresses itself in the world of matter through the activity of the mind.
Lastly the third component is the body or everything material. The body includes everything in the
physical world as well as all physical events.
A simple modern analogy has been used by many to illustrate how Yoga sees the relationship
between the spirit, the mind, and the body.
Envision a mechanical film projector, such as you might find in a movie theater. The light
within the the projector is analogous to the spirit or your source. The film is the mind and the
projected image is the world of matter.
The mind corresponds to the film because the mind contains patterns and is a unique blend of emotions,
beliefs, intellect and intuition.
So using the pure energy of spirit, the mind shapes thought forms which it collects and layers
into it's memory where they are available for reactivation during the course of any single day. These
thought forms create the patterns which ultimately determine the eventual projected images or
material manifestations which we then experience as our life. Thought forms are the film
in our analogy which when reanimated with the source energy of spirit are then projected into three dimensional
reality.
This idea is important to understanding how addictions can occur. Though thoughts are not
themselves physical they shape the physical world. Thoughts are the
fourth dimension and are as real as the other three dimensions. Spirit gives the life force
or energy, the mind builds and plans and the physical world is the result.
In order to effect a change in the physical world in either the body or the world of events
the built up thought forms in the mind must first be changed. In Yoga there are three major steps
that must be taken to effect this change. A unification of Spirit, Mind and Body are
essential to this change and to the control of addiction.
Look at your addiction "squarely in the eye" and accept it as real. Acceptance does not mean giving up, on the contrary, acceptance is the most courageous of confrontations. Say to yourself, OK, I know that it is real, and now I need to do something about it. You don't assign fault or blame for your condition, you simply own up to the fact that it is your reality. There could be biological factors that led to your addiction or it may be due to psychological factors. It really does not matter how you came to be addicted because that is your past and none of it is relevant to the power which resides in the present. For it is a fact, as sure as life itself, that the power to change the past exists exclusively in the present moment. The power you need to stop your addiction resides in the "here and now". It is, none the less, essential to admit to yourself in all sincerity that you are addicted. This step is the first and most necessary step needed to be taken because your addictive behavior will continue otherwise. Your addiction will thrive and drive your behavior behind your conscious awareness if you do not admit that it is there. The mind will create every type of excuse to keep it hidden from yourself like an unseen but very felt malevolent ghost. (But everyone else will know). So this is why direct confrontation with the reality of your addiction is the very first step in controlling your addiction. It is with your mind, your intellect, your reason, that you must recognize and accept your condition. Accept that you are caught in a pattern of behavior that is out of your control. You must accept that your behavior is running on automatic and is slowly or quickly destroying you and that it must be stopped. Then you will be ready for the next step.
Accepting your condition and admitting to your self that you are an addict is a form of self confession but this is not enough. Self confession must be followed by the next phase which is to confess your addiction to someone else. Tell a friend or a relative that you are an addict and be totally honest. What this does is it makes your condition even more real to you. You will be experiencing humiliation and in this way confronting your built up ego through fear of possible social rejection. You have to knock the chip off your shoulder. No one wants to seem less in the eyes of friends or relatives so this is a very difficult action to take for most of us. But very necessary. Of course there is always the possibility that after your confession you will be rejected but that to must be dealt with if it happens, it can not be avoided. However most people going through this step are pleasantly surprised by the positive reaction they receive. Not dealing with the possibility of rejection and humiliation will make you want to continue to keep your addiction active. So telling someone else about your addiction makes it even more concrete, it makes it absolutely real, then you will be ready to take the next step.
Yoga meditation is another tool that can be used to positively effect the mind and help to bring you through your personal transformation. Meditation is focused awareness and it works by clearing the mind of negative thoughts and feelings. Meditation works by centering your attention on the natural vibration of peace and love which is always coming from the center of our being. You will automatically become more relaxed and clear headed the more you meditate. Yoga Meditation allows us to become spiritually aware of our God centered source. The more you witness God within, the more aware you will be of the existence of your own higher ideal and the more emotionally balanced you become. It naturally follows, the more balanced you become, the more naturally you will be able to control your habits and behaviors. Another great benefit of meditation is that it keeps you centered in the moment so that your mind is freed from thoughts of your past or worries about your future. A great obstacle to conquering addition is the predilection of the mind towards worry. Worry can leave both the body and mind unfit to handle whatever task needs to be accomplished. Ironically, worry usually makes us unable to deal with the very task we are worried about. Here self observation or meditation is the key. By training yourself to observe your thoughts you can catch yourself worrying, then you can deliberately direct your thoughts to move in a different direction. The remedy for worrying is to stay focused in the present moment because most worrying is concerned with what could happen in the future. Live moment to moment. Appreciate what is happening now not what may or may not happen in the future. Meditation will bring your mind back into the moment, into the now. Now is where all change takes place. Now is where you can put your thoughts into action. Now is where you will be healed.
You must start to believe in a power higher than yourself. In Yoga, a belief in God is not asked for on faith alone; you must believe the possibility as real. In the beginning faith is required to commence the discovery process so the truth of God's existence may be felt or experienced. Without a belief in God, or a spiritual source, life is nothing but a consequence of random material events and mankind is but an accident of evolution which is devoid of any purpose or meaning. This attitude is very self destructive and can only lead to despair. Since there can never be an absolute objective proof of Gods existence it is of little value to argue Gods existence objectively. God can only be proved subjectively and therefore is always beyond argument. That said the choice is clear; you can choose to believe in God (or any higher spiritual source) and live a life that has purpose and meaning. Or, you can choose to live a life not believing in God, a life without purpose or meaning. It is up to you but if neither position can be verified objectively why not choose a life that is purposeful and meaningful. You will gain so much by doing so. Joy, peace and love are the results of a belief in a higher power. Why not believe, you have nothing to lose.
The next step in controlling addiction is to ask for help from God and to surrender your will to the will of God. This is the most important step to take in fighting addiction. In the Alcoholics Anonymous Association this step is also seen as the most important step in the twelve step program in fighting all forms of addiction. In the AA literature there are countess examples given of some of the most chronic cases of Alcohol and Drug addiction that were cured when and only when the addict would accept his condition and then give up trying to stop his or her habit by themselves. Only when they gave up trying and handed control over to the to the will of God would these chronic cases be cured. Yoga is not a religion. Yoga is a science of consciousness and takes as self evident the existence of a higher, spiritual power. But Yoga does not ask you to mearly believe in God, Yoga proclaims God's existence as a matter of knowledge and fact. Fact which becomes personally evident through prayer and in turning over your will to let Gods will be done. In Yoga, as in AA, this is a fundamental step in the control of any addiction. It may be difficult to explain why a belief in God and then a consequent surrender of one's personal will to the will of that God is so effective. None the less, I will attempt to bring some light onto this subject. First and foremost, in Yoga it is an accepted and self evident fact God exists. It is also accepted that it is due to the will of God that you and I exist. It is further accepted as fact that in the creation of human beings, God's will proceeded from an ideal and endeavored to form the soul. The soul was then gifted with free will so that it could evolve and grow into the ideal form from which it was originally conceived. However, during our lives we may sometimes make decisions that run contrary to our own best interest and so cause us to suffer. When the use of our free will makes us go astray from this ideal, accumulated habits, bad thoughts and decisions become too overwhelming and we have no other recourse but to surrender our free will to the will of the higher power. By surrendering our personal will to the will of God we are moving towards the natural plastic capacity of our individual soul, which wants to assume the shape of this original ideal, who we are, who we were intended to be. When we contact the will of God we reunite with our spiritual center. God, or the higher spiritual will, is a vibration at the very center of our being. This vibration is an act which breaks through thought and has two effects. The first is a broadening and deepening of our "sense of being", and the second is a clarification and a stabilization of the essential contents of consciousness. When we vibrate with the will of God we feel able to control our behavior and to control and stabilize our thoughts. This is essentially why the surrendering of our will to the will of God works so effectively. We become our highest ideal. We become whole and are healed throughout
During the process of your transformation it is very important also to retain an attitude of hope. The emotion we call hope can be highly underestimated. The very fact that we are capable of hope provides incontrovertibly evidence of the existence of the soul. Hope will be your beacon, your guiding light which will help guide you through periods of self doubt and fear. Hope will keep you going when everything else dissolves into worried confusion. Hope is the positive attitude you will need to fill in those psychological gaps created by self doubt, confusion and fear. Hope is built through the belief of a Higher Power and its foundation is fortified through prayer. The most effective remedy for worry is to pray. There are many types of prayer but the confessional prayer is the kind most helpful in dealing with addiction. All prayer is communication with God but confessional prayer is where you strip yourself of all masks and lies and then stand naked before your maker as you really are. Also, I shoud say here, the most important method of reaching Gods within is to pray aloud with anther person whil holdin hands. Then you just wait to feel God's love and understanding fill your heart and soul. This type of prayer will remove your doubts and fears just as the warmth of the sun removes a cold mist. You must however believe both the prayer and the God are real or your prayers will simply go unanswered. Believe in yourself and believe in God.
This step refers not only to your own body but also to the body of man in general or our brethren. You do this out of love for life, for the instrument of perception that was given to you to keep and care for. You must acknowledge that you have been poisoning your body with drugs, alcohol or food. Then you must take steps to detoxify the body of the poison. In Yoga a vegetarian diet, excluding processed foods is recommended. A diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, grains, nuts and legumes with plenty of clean pure water and daily exercise is essential to healing the body and restoring it's natural vitality. Yoga asanas are the most gentle and effective means by which to exercise the body as well as walking in the fresh air. It is important to replace bad habits with good habits. Healthy eating and exercising will not only detoxify the body but will also replace bad habits A moderate consumption of food is recommended in Yoga where at each meal only a portion of the stomach is filled with food and a small portion is left for water and another small portion is left empty so that your stomach has room to grind the food efficiently. A life style in which you receive plenty of rest, at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep, is recommended. Early to bed and early to rise is the Yoga way of life.
Karma Yoga is a branch of yoga that involves service to mankind. Yoga prescribes service to your fellow man as another therapy for addiction. Service to others can be of immense help in the process of gaining self esteem and conquering your addiction because it takes you away from your ego and puts you in touch with the needs of others. Feeling sorry for yourself is a great hazard in overcoming addiction so helping someone else will cure you of self indulgence. It will also restore your feeing of self worth and value.
But even more than being of service to mankind in general Yoga sees that there is immense value and power in groups. People of like mind who assemble to help each other overcome their common weaknesses. Any small group can be very effective if the purposes and ideals of the members are truly in accord. This is the principle of synergy, the whole is more than the sum of it's parts. Group members who cooperatively blend their intentions, purposes and actions can accomplish something far more than they could accomplish alone. The energies of the mind and the will are intensified when applied cooperatively. Creativity and strengths are multiplied within each member. In addition to increased mutual power, groups also create a heightened power of will. The fact that an entire group is cooperating in the same effort creates a collective will that makes success more achievable. This is the reason that it is recommended you find a group or an organization that is dedicated to helping you overcome your particular addiction. In Yoga there are many ashrams that will lend support and give you the tools necessary to fight addiction. Yoga emphasizes a balanced approach where all three components of consciousness i.e.; Spirit, Mind and Body are unified so that you can become whole again. Yoga is the complete science of well being. Yoga's ancient wisdom and extraordinary mental and physical techniques, exercises and meditations can have a profound effect on anyone who gives themselves over to it's great healing powers. Stop your addiction today, practice Yoga and be healed. Written by Avananda
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