Question from brooke
Thanks for your continued vulnerable sharing.
I feel that there are instances in which the medical use of marijuana can be helpful such as in the treatment of glaucoma and so forth. It's also easy to abuse because it's a quick fix for an altered state of brain chemistry. I personally found that it would add to my confusion because some insights would seem very important but they were just red herrings. So I've come to believe that sobriety allows for greater clarity in the quest to understand what is beneath the anxiety.
Cannabis can alleviate symptoms but only understanding can get to the root of anxiety. Typically, we are born happy, relaxed little beings, then accumulate stress over time as a result of trying to adept to mostly dysfunctional systems (family, society, school, work, etc.). The process of awakening requires disentangling our mind from all that we have learned.
I'm aware that you have started dealing directly with your family of origin since your 6 week break. Perhaps the next time you try a hiatus you won't experience as much pain because you've been confronting fears and dealing directly with your relationships. If you do come up against a difficult period of withdrawal, you can treat it as a rite of passage, something to move through in that "darkness before the dawn" kind of way. In our culture, where most people must make their our own rites of passages, it is easy to believe that the pain we face will destroy us. This is the ego's attempt to keep us dependent upon our various addictions so that we will never be truly free.
I've found that the spiritual teachers I most admire are able to achieve peace while living free of alcohol and drug free. I'm a very independent person, so the thought of being dependent upon anything outside of myself (with the exception of food/water/air/shelter) doesn't appeal to me. I believe that access to wise guidance combined with a dedication to doing spiritual work, as I've outlined in many of my videos, allows us to get to a place where we feel at peace, naturally. Dependence upon drugs or alcohol is a sign that we are still a seeker, but not a seer.
I believe it's possible to still get the insights and alleviation that drugs can provide without the side effects of exaggerated thinking, paranoia, and so on. Our brain chemistry is brilliantly designed to let us know through stress/anxiety that something is wrong. It can feel frustrating to feel that something is wrong and not yet know what it is, which can lead to prescription medication, or self-medication with various drugs. However, when we artificially alter our brain chemistry we are essentially blocking out the message that something in our life needs to change (be it awareness, how we're living, our relationships, etc.). When I started living sober I became aware that some relationships no longer interested me. It's like that t-shirt slogan, "I drink to make other people more interesting." It's true in many cases. Instead of letting go of certain relationships, or making other big life changes, we medicate to block the signals that it's time to change.
When we are eventually ready to go into the fire of deep awareness, we must walk into it alone, with nothing available to cool the flames but our willingness to surrender.
Peace,
Chris
Get 5 Free Minutes ~ Live Psychic and Tarot Readings
Get 10 Minutes for $1.99 ~ Live Psychic and Tarot Readers
This blogger is supported by ethical reading sites which offer live online psychic readings, tarot readers and astrology.
Thanks for your continued vulnerable sharing.
I feel that there are instances in which the medical use of marijuana can be helpful such as in the treatment of glaucoma and so forth. It's also easy to abuse because it's a quick fix for an altered state of brain chemistry. I personally found that it would add to my confusion because some insights would seem very important but they were just red herrings. So I've come to believe that sobriety allows for greater clarity in the quest to understand what is beneath the anxiety.
Cannabis can alleviate symptoms but only understanding can get to the root of anxiety. Typically, we are born happy, relaxed little beings, then accumulate stress over time as a result of trying to adept to mostly dysfunctional systems (family, society, school, work, etc.). The process of awakening requires disentangling our mind from all that we have learned.
I'm aware that you have started dealing directly with your family of origin since your 6 week break. Perhaps the next time you try a hiatus you won't experience as much pain because you've been confronting fears and dealing directly with your relationships. If you do come up against a difficult period of withdrawal, you can treat it as a rite of passage, something to move through in that "darkness before the dawn" kind of way. In our culture, where most people must make their our own rites of passages, it is easy to believe that the pain we face will destroy us. This is the ego's attempt to keep us dependent upon our various addictions so that we will never be truly free.
I've found that the spiritual teachers I most admire are able to achieve peace while living free of alcohol and drug free. I'm a very independent person, so the thought of being dependent upon anything outside of myself (with the exception of food/water/air/shelter) doesn't appeal to me. I believe that access to wise guidance combined with a dedication to doing spiritual work, as I've outlined in many of my videos, allows us to get to a place where we feel at peace, naturally. Dependence upon drugs or alcohol is a sign that we are still a seeker, but not a seer.
I believe it's possible to still get the insights and alleviation that drugs can provide without the side effects of exaggerated thinking, paranoia, and so on. Our brain chemistry is brilliantly designed to let us know through stress/anxiety that something is wrong. It can feel frustrating to feel that something is wrong and not yet know what it is, which can lead to prescription medication, or self-medication with various drugs. However, when we artificially alter our brain chemistry we are essentially blocking out the message that something in our life needs to change (be it awareness, how we're living, our relationships, etc.). When I started living sober I became aware that some relationships no longer interested me. It's like that t-shirt slogan, "I drink to make other people more interesting." It's true in many cases. Instead of letting go of certain relationships, or making other big life changes, we medicate to block the signals that it's time to change.
When we are eventually ready to go into the fire of deep awareness, we must walk into it alone, with nothing available to cool the flames but our willingness to surrender.
Peace,
Chris
Get 5 Free Minutes ~ Live Psychic and Tarot Readings
Get 10 Minutes for $1.99 ~ Live Psychic and Tarot Readers
This blogger is supported by ethical reading sites which offer live online psychic readings, tarot readers and astrology.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment