Do You Believe You Can Overcome Addiction By Sheer Willpower?

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Yes, you can overcome any addiction with sheer will power.

Addiction is a result of our own internal wrong beliefs.

eg. “Smoking/Alcohol/Drugs are good for me.”

And Gnani Purush Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan has shown us an easy and scientific way to overcome any kind of addiction or weaknesses; just that we need to focus on changing our beliefs rather than our actual behavior. Generally, if one is a smoker, Dadashri never asks him to quit smoking; he only tries to change his belief from wrong to right. When belief changes, one will automatically stop smoking in some time. That’s the science!!

A 4-step solution to get rid of any kind of addiction or weakness from within you.

For ease of understanding, “Smoking” has been taken as an example here.

Step 1: Harness a 100% belief that, ‘Smoking is Wrong.’

Establish a strong belief in your mind that, “Smoking is wrong.” Every day, spend 10-15 minutes saying to yourself, “Smoking is wrong.” Even if you happen to smoke, continue to maintain your inner belief that “Smoking is indeed wrong.”

Furthermore, try to break all the ancillary beliefs too, associated with this main belief, such as: Smoking elevates me; It is a mood changer!; Smoking enhances confidence in me; It elevates my reputation/status cause I am rich

Step 2: Analyze how is smoking Harmful?

Analyze how your habit of smoking is harmful to you and to your family members. For instance,

× Health deteriorates significantly: Smoking could lead to lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, etc. You keep coughing all the time which gives pain. Your mouth smells bad!

× Family relations get deteriorated: Where family members detest your habit to smoke, there are likely to be daily quarrels, fights and even separation over this addiction of yours. Moreover, staying together, they too inhale the smoke which in turn makes them vulnerable to lung cancer, heart disease, etc.

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× Your studies or career gets impacted: Smoking makes you restless and inefficient and you tend to get agitated over little things. This does not allow you to focus or concentrate on a subject for long nor does it allow you to excel in your performance.

Make a long list of such points that go to show how disadvantageous it is to pursue this addiction of smoking. Simultaneously, also work on building up another list noting down the various advantages of ‘non-smoking’. These 2 lists shall further help strengthen your inner belief that “Smoking is indeed a wrong addiction.”

Step 3: Every time you smoke, have sincere Repentance in your heart

You may continue to smoke; but everytime you do so, you also do pratikraman. In Pratikraman,:

1. You apologize before God. “Oh God, I have this smoking habit which is wrong and I want to be free from it. Owing to this addiction, I have given immense pain to myself and to my family and friends.” Example: If you have had a harsh conversation with your father on smoking, then say apology in your mind and tell him sorry.

2. You seek sincere forgiveness from God. “Oh God, Please forgive me for the smoking I did today.”

3. You vow before God to not repeat the mistake. “Oh God! I will never smoke again. Please give me strength to fulfill my vow.” Even after such vow, you may end up smoking again. No issues. You may still continue with this scientific 4 step process because making such a vow secures your long-term future so that you will not even feel like smoking ever again.

Step 4: Never Defend your addiction of smoking in any manner

When somebody tells us, “Why are you smoking? It is a very bad habit”, our general tendency is to react strongly in favour of the bad habit. On the other hand, if you respond saying, “Oh yes, smoking is a bad habit and I will never smoke it again”, then you are not defending your mistake anymore, which allows the addiction to take an exit at an early date. When we try to defend our mistake, it makes the mistake stronger, for it indicates that you are still on the side of your mistake. Hence, never defend your weaknesses!

Conclusion:

Although these steps may look quite easy in theory; one needs sheer will power to practice these steps. Nothing gets achieved until then. But once you are determined to get rid of the addiction, it will surely happen with these 4 steps. While practicing the 4 steps, you may continue to smoke outwardly for a few more days, but in your mind, heart, and intellect within, you have already begun to quit your wrong belief and adopt the right belief instead….

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