A couple of decades ago, First Lady, Nancy Reagan, extolled us to overcome drug addiction by, "just say, no." Several decades later, with rising drug and alcohol addictions, many people still don't know how to say no to drugs and many other harmful addictions.
As many of us know, it's difficult to say no or refrain from doing something we are addiction to. While some of us find it easy to condemn those on drugs, we are less harsh with ourselves when it comes to our own addictions with food, anger, envy, jealousy, greed, and victim lifestyles. Even though society labels some addictions as acceptable or more acceptable than others, for many victims with addictive lifestyles food is just as harmful to us as drugs are to the addicts.
All addictive behavior contributes to the pain and suffering and, ultimately, our victim beliefs. Nevertheless, armed with countless empowerment insights and years of work on ourselves, many of us are still vulnerable to addictive behavior, particularly when we are tired and restless. When we feel weak, tired from the hustle and bustle of work and when we settle into the still of the night, our restless minds begin to focus on satisfying our burning desires for food, alcohol, drugs, anger, envy, jealously, and so forth. For some reason, this time of day is the most challenging for many of us working to achieve enlightenment.
Similarly, it seems whenever we slow down to a peaceful pace, some of us forget this is the time for us to meditate rather than vegetate. We confuse peace with restlessness. Nevertheless, our restless minds remind us to be mindful of the actions we are about to take as we listen to our bodies cravings for all sorts of harmful things.
In the meantime, for us to overcome this conflict, we must focus on what's important to us. If we believe a bowl of ice cream or a large order of french fries are more important than eating an apple or orange, then we do that which we believe is most beneficial for us at that time. And regardless to what others might tell us about the harm we doing to our bodies, we don't hear their voices in the still of the night. We only hear and feel the cravings driving us to act.
By refraining from doing something we're accustomed to, we're in effect changing our lives. Whenever we say yes to empowerment, we are saying no to everything that caused us to think of ourselves as victims. Regardless to the number of times we eschew dysfunctional behavior, unless we have made a commitment to achieve empowerment (enlightenment), we are most likely to succumb to our addictions.
Similarly, when we focus on empowerment, we settle our minds to see beyond the deleterious behavior caused by our victim beliefs. And if we hear a voice telling us it's time to go beyond our current limitations, we will say yes, and not mean no.
The truth about us is not found in what we say, but in what we do. For someone not addicted to drugs, it's easy to tell others to "just say no," and it's just as easy for them to agree with you and continue using drugs. However, in taking the action necessary to embody the feelings associated with saying now, we quickly discover it's not quite that easy to do.
Whenever we discuss personal responsibility and self-reliance, we must be cognizant of the work we must do in working with this social philosophy. This means we must fill in the missing steps between our desires and our achievements. In other words, there's some work we must do before we can just say no to anything.
In the meantime, as we teach others to refrain from addictive-driven lifestyles, we must remain vigilant of the work we must do to maintain control over our own potential addictions. The latent desires lurking deep in our consciousness are driven by habits and weaknesses. For us to overcome them, we must accept we are masters of mindful actions. And as masters of mindful actions, we are always fully present in the moments between our thoughts and actions. This is all the time we need to overcome instinctive actions of anger, envy, jealousy, and so forth.
One of the critical problems we face in proclaiming ourselves as teachers of something, particularly enlightenment, we must have already become masters of mindful actions. If we have not done this, then we must teach at the level where we are, and not where we desire to be.
Meanwhile, for those of us willing to say no to drugs, alcohol abuse, overeating, and so forth, we must remain focus on our work to achieve enlightenment. This requires us to maintain mindful attitudes about our power to control how we think and live. And when we interact with others, we give them the knowledge we have without any attachments or expectations.
So, for those on the empowerment road, we say, "Just say, yes to empowerment" and no, to victim beliefs.
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