The Greatest Addiction
By Bart Sharp author of “Magic Speaks”
The greatest addiction is not associated with a substance but with a behavior. The behavior that charges our nervous system and thus adrenal glands with an increase of energy in a negative way. According to the main guidebook of Alcoholics Anonymous called the “The Big Book” the main reason people become alcoholics is they cannot find peace with this addictive behavior. This behavior is the core reason why people have created a second addiction to a substance such as alcohol or drugs, they cannot find peace with the main addiction. The greatest addiction is our resentments and the energy needlessly expended by habitually feeling them.
A resentment is anger that we have not resolved and have repressed within us. The resentment is not only recorded as a memory in our mind but also in our body. The memory is not sitting dormant in the body but is an active ingredient stimulating our mind to think angry thoughts. Each time we go into anger, express it with another or become pulled into somebody else’s conflict we will be triggering the repressed anger or resentment we have hidden away.
It is hard to determine which one comes first the thought in the mind or the repressed memory in the body but it is more important to understand what occurs when we go into reenacting our resentments. When we do this our nervous system becomes stimulated and our adrenal glands go into action, they become charged with energy inside us we are more energized by thinking angry thoughts whether they be a resentment from the past or something in our current situation.
It is why people have reoccurring angry thoughts reappearing, often without their asking. The thoughts get fixed in the person’s head and they cannot detach from them. They find themselves thinking and saying angry things before they realize what they are doing.
Although the feeling of being charged by resentments through our adrenal glands is unpleasant, it is also energizing and people become gravitated to the behavior. In a way it is rewarding because we receive more energy, it is why people seem to be unconsciously attracted to negative events that make them angry. They will prefer to look at a picture that stimulates them to anger instead of something that is pleasant and peaceful. The resentment is more stimulating for the short term while peaceful thoughts just take us to a calm place. We see it everywhere in society where people find a huge attraction to negative events. It may be a story that they see on Facebook about injustice or something offensive but there is something unconsciously draws the person to participate because of the adrenal charge they receive from the anger that is stimulated.
In this society we have millions of people that are addicted to resentments from the repressed anger and are in some kind of conflict in their daily life. It can be something as basic as being angry at their boss, a workmate, a spouse or some kind of the relationship. It also can be resentments to another group that you find offensive, a political cause for example. What they all have in common is one side is good and the other side is bad. The polarity we have in resentments to the other “wrong” side or other people is part of the ingredients of the greatest addiction.
That is how many resentments work, we live in an anger and/or negative emotions that become charged when we think of the other side that is wrong for their beliefs or has done something wrong to us. We may think that we are fighting the good fight but as long as we are creating a duality of two sides against the other and when one side wins the conflict is resolved, we will always be in this conflict or greatest addiction. The fact of the matter is until we begin to understand our conflicts we will be controlled more by our unconscious repressed self.
It is true that the other people we are in conflict with has their issues but are real freedom is when we keep the focus on us. Then we can begin a journey to understanding how we have repressed our anger.
After years of working on anger I have found that the more I can feel it inside of my body I begin to have awareness of how to release it. The greatest addiction can be resolved when we begin to feel repressed parts inside of us and then approach to releasing that. We still may see relationships and things in the world we disagree with but the first step in finding a greater resolution is by dealing with our greatest addiction which is a polarized fight with our repressed other side. Then the greatest addiction has clarity that we see an individual resolves the problem they begin to contribute to something greater resolution for society and they get to enjoy a life that is much easier and pleasurable.
Magic Speaks
Becoming A Magical In A Modern Magical World