Those of us living with addiction and mental health issues have developed habits over the years that reinforce our addictive patterns along with the mental and emotional health challenges we experience. These habits feed our addictions and our overall lack of well-being. When we have habits that we consider to be bad habits, that constitute negative patterns that are harmful to us, our focus when trying to break them tends to be on those particular habits rather than on the new ones we want to establish. Our desire to break those habits causes us to focus squarely on them and to give them all of our attention and energy. This can be problematic because now we’re compounding and worsening those habits by directing all of our energy toward them. We’re feeding them and causing them to grow stronger.
Focusing on Stopping a Habit Perpetuates It
When our focus is on stopping something, that keeps our focus locked on that thing. We want to stop it, but we’re giving it so much attention that we can’t help but perpetuate it. It’s what we think and worry about, what we panic and obsess about, what we ponder and deliberate about. We keep it strong in our thinking minds and locked in our subconscious minds. We keep it current and active in our vibration, causing us to continue to manifest more of the same recurring patterns.
Focusing on the New Habit Instead
Instead of giving all of our energy to this bad habit we want to shed, let’s instead focus our energy on the new habit we want to implement. Let’s practice holding this new habit in our awareness and in our vibrational frequency, by thinking about it more, speaking on it more, and practicing it more. We want to focus on the act of replacing the old habit with a new one, rather than on trying to stop it. We want to focus on filling up our time with this new productive habit, rather than trying to rid ourselves and our time of the old habit. We want to encourage and motivate ourselves around this new habit, rather than pressuring ourselves to quit the old habit and beating ourselves up for failing to meet our expectations.
Intention vs. Resistance
The more energy we apply to a habit, the harder it is to stop doing it, because we’re giving so much of ourselves, our time and focus to thinking about it and therefore perpetuating it. The more resistance we give it, the stronger it becomes. Instead, we want to apply our focus and energy to the habits we want to take root. We want to cultivate these new habits and focus on making them grow. This concept holds true not only for behavioral patterns but also for emotional and thought patterns as well. Any habit that isn’t serving us we can shed more easily by actively, intentionally and mindfully focusing on developing the replacement habit.
At The Guest House Ocala, we have personal recovery experience
and over 12 years in the recovery industry.
We have helped countless people recover, and we’re here to help you too.
Call 855-483-7800 today for more information.
theguesthouseocala.com
3230 Northeast 55th Avenue Silver Springs, FL 34488