“Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”
— Mahatma Gandhi —
CONTROL YOUR THOUGHTS, CONTROL YOUR REALITY
Russel Brand knows a lot about addiction. His acting and comedic wit led him to fame and fortune. Along the way, he succumbed to more than one addiction; alcohol, heroin, sex, food, and even technology. Now he is using connection and spirituality to continue to beat his addictions.
Addiction is much more than a personal choice; it is guided by the modern-day reality and symptoms of a disconnected world that we have unwittingly co-created for each other; dragging along the baggage from our upbringing while we try to conform to the cultural environments of modern life. Brand remarks,
“You are the person you were told to be.”1
In his book2 he reveals how to overcome addiction and truly recover. That it is not about avoiding pain; after all that we resist persists. Allowing yourself to feel pain, to stop and feel the emotion, might actually be the internal driver that pivots any human being back into alignment, inner peace, and living in harmony with their internal and external world.
Brand found a community and support in Alcoholics Anonymous and their 12 Steps program. He began to crave real connection; internally with himself, with others, with humanity, and even a deeper spiritual connection to the source of it all. To awaken this connection he had to disengage from the isolation of watching mind-numbing TV and technology devices. He found that meditation stilled his mind and created space to really feel and re-examine old narratives and memories, learning from them and releasing them from his negative mindset to create a new, positive future narrative.
Stillness in his mind let him really feel, finding bliss in everyday moments without the need for mind-altering substances. Brand’s story shows us all how we can deconstruct our mental roadblocks and realign internally, discovering the right energy and behaviors that move us up the health spectrum.
OUR MIND IS SUPREMELY POWERFUL
As Buddha said, “we become what we think.” Our mind can achieve brilliance but it can also hold us back. Every day we are fighting an internal war in our mind, between our 3:1 negative bias that seeks safety and survival, with our inner voice and positive bias that reminds us that the world is abundant, safe, and that anything is possible. So much of our potential never see daylight because of the conscious and unconscious blockages and apprehensions we develop as we grow up and live our adult lives.
Every action starts with a feeling (a sensation) and a thought, a chemical reaction in that beautiful brain of yours! It’s a never-ending energy exchange that tunes into the mindstream of our external environments. However, the collective unconsciousness of our environment often proves greater than our personal ability to make our own decisions and choices.
CALL TO ACTION
Create a positive and inspiring future vision board and put it up where you can see it every day.
SelfCare Global Collective
SUMMARY
Many of our actions and decisions are made without conscious thought; these are constraints we must break free from. Separating the thoughts that are willfully ours, from those that have been unconsciously embedded into our psyche is the most challenging part.
REFERENCES
This is directly referenced from the amazon best-selling SelfCare Book "Lifestyle Medicine For the People" by Rory Callaghan. If you would like to read more content like this. Grab the free online chapters of the book or a hard copy.
We have done our best to reference everyone’s expert opinions, peer-reviewed science, and original thoughts, all references available here and referenced in the text.
We also understand that most thoughts are not our own and there is a collective unconsciousness, unconsciousness, and universal mind stream of energy that is always at work. How are references are sorted and filtered is here.