Overcoming Addiction - The Root Cause Of Every Addiction 7 Day Challenge

[Argue]

Introduction: A challenge to transcend your addiction (e.g. video games, smoking, porn etc.) 

Synopsis: To transcend an addiction, you must sit and do nothing. People fail with addiction because the fear of emptiness terrifies them.  

Detailed Video: 

7 Day Challenge: Starting today, take 1 hour of your time to sit and do nothing, for the next 7 days (1week).

During Your Sitting: 

• You are not allowed any external/internal stimulation (books, socialization, television etc.) 
• You are not allowed to distract yourself with fantasies, temptations, cravings. 
• Practice mindfulness meditation.  
• Practice existential investigation. 

Post Your Experiences: After your session, post your experiences following this format: 

• Addiction: 
• Date:  
• Time: 
• Day # (e.g. Day 2):
• Feelings Felt Psychologically:
• Feelings Felt Physiologically: 
• Questions You Asked Yourself: 
• How Do You Feel After Your Session?: 

 Conclusion: On the 7th day, do you feel transcended? Yes or no? 

 

[Argue]

• Addiction: Video Games 
• Date: 4/17/2016
• Time: started at 10:30 AM but session ended at 11:20 AM because mom distracted me. 
• Day #: Day 1 
• Feelings Felt Psychologically: A lot of distractions but gave an effort to stay in the present moment and thought of nothingness. Some periods, had an urge for cravings to play but reminded myself no. 
• Feelings Felt Physiologically: For like 3 minutes my right leg kept shaking. 
• Questions You Asked Yourself: Some questions I asked myself was does this really work, how can I become a better write, how do I articulate my thoughts better, how do I reach a higher level of success. 
• How Do You Feel After Your Session?: after my session, I feel more calm and alert. I have a little impulse to play but consciously I know not to and I won't. So far so good. Also I actually laid down because I am sick with influenza aka the flu. 

****EDIT****

Edited April 17, 2016 by Argue

[Argue]

My thoughts so far: Leo really scared me and made me realize that if we just listen to his words but take no action, you can stay an addict for the rest of your life.

That really inspired me to make this challenge. This is my only shot to get this right so I'm taking this serious and gonna devote/commit my time to completing this challenge. Best of luck to everyone who partake. 

[Saarah]

@Argue  Nice thread! Im going to start this challenge tomorrow with eating junk food, anything that comes packaged like crisps, chocolate etc. I've already had a little chocolate today so I'm not doing it today 

For now if I drink juice (not a big fan of juice so nothing to worry about) or tea or eat fruit when I want something sweet I'm going to allow that but nothing that can be classified as a hardcore actual piece of junk food

One thing I'm confused about is if you do the exercise after you get the desire for your addiction or if doing it at a set time is fine too 

[Argue]

Thanks @Saarah best of luck on your challenge! To your question, I think both make sense. Personally, I won't be able to do it at a set time although I'm gonna try. I'm definitely gonna do it after that desire/urge too so both methods work out  

[Truth]

I'm down for this, except I'm gonna mostly contemplate life, I'm only gonna do what I think needs to be done and nothing else, no internet, music, nothing, for this entire week. I'm really curious to see if I can do this, the other day I just sat and did nothing for 4 hours straight and that was pretty peaceful and surprised I could do that but my intention wasn't realized. I'm resisting even posting this, but shit, I feel this is gonna be interesting. I'll post here everyday a little something that I learned or something like that.

Here's my personal structure.

Intention -->  to understand addictions, deeply contemplate life to motivate me to know and do the things I really want, ultimately detach and create non neediness. Anything that fulfills this intention is okay to do.

Questions to contemplate -->

What would I miss the most about life?

What do I want to get out of this life?

What is really worth doing?

What isn't worth doing?

How am I being small minded?

How do I need to reorganize my life?

Ground yourself everyday in this structure.

Edited April 17, 2016 by Truth

[Argue]

2 hours ago, Truth said:

I'm down for this, except I'm gonna mostly contemplate life, I'm only gonna do what I think needs to be done and nothing else, no internet, music, nothing, for this entire week. I'm really curious to see if I can do this, the other day I just sat and did nothing for 4 hours straight and that was pretty peaceful and surprised I could do that but my intention wasn't realized. I'm resisting even posting this, but shit, I feel this is gonna be interesting. I'll post here everyday a little something that I learned or something like that.

Here's my personal structure.

Intention -->  to understand addictions, deeply contemplate life to motivate me to know and do the things I really want, ultimately detach and create non neediness. Anything that fulfills this intention is okay to do.

Questions to contemplate -->

What would I miss the most about life?

What do I want to get out of this life?

What is really worth doing?

What isn't worth doing?

How am I being small minded?

How do I need to reorganize my life?

Ground yourself everyday in this structure.

Hey @Truth this an awesome way to look at it. Solid perspective. If you don't mind, I'd like to borrow that "structure" and add it to my after sessions. Thanks for the feedback!  Best of luck on your journey! 

Edited April 17, 2016 by Argue

[Truth]

@Argue Go ahead, as my signature says, "good artists copy, great artists steal"

Edited April 18, 2016 by Truth

[Saarah]

Intention: I want to be emotionally mature and to feel that sense of freedom from outer experiences that I use to fill the empty void inside me. Only when I'm happy without my crutches can I be emotionally free. This will give me more speed to move forward in life for bigger growth. 

Addiction: Junk food

Meditation method: Do Nothing for 1 hour a day 

***************

Day 1: 18/04/16

• Levels of motivation upon waking: I feel like this is going to be easy, don't really have a desire for it but it's only early, this is really a litmus test to see if I'm addicted and I think I've gotten better at avoiding junk food lately but we'll see. 
• Meditation time (complete?): 6-7pm completed
• Feelings during and after meditation: Super tired and sleepy, didn't feel like doing it wanted to get up and do something, accepted it after a while, most of the time was doing the do nothing, some of the time I was trying to assure myself that there's no need to do anything, doing is just busy-ness for no salient reason other than to avoid feeling empty, afterwards now it's finished I feel sort of slowed down in my tracks, whatever I do for the rest of the evening just doing it one at a time instead of jumping around activities like a flea... 
• Thoughts/struggles throughout the day: Nothing in particular, popped to the shop on a super empty stomach but glad to say I avoided the junk
• Triggers for addiction:  Some that I'm already aware of are procrastinating on uni work, unsure of what to do/boredom, watching tv but I don't watch it much 

***************

 

 

Edited April 18, 2016 by Saarah

[charlie2dogs]

22 hours ago, Argue said:

Introduction: A challenge to transcend your addiction (e.g. video games, smoking, porn etc.) 

Synopsis: To transcend an addiction, you must sit and do nothing. People fail with addiction because the fear of emptiness terrifies them.  

Detailed Video: 

7 Day Challenge: Starting today, take 1 hour of your time to sit and do nothing, for the next 7 days (1week).

During Your Sitting: 

• You are not allowed any external/internal stimulation (books, socialization, television etc.) 
• You are not allowed to distract yourself with fantasies, temptations, cravings. 
• Practice mindfulness meditation.  
• Practice existential investigation. 

Post Your Experiences: After your session, post your experiences following this format: 

• Addiction: 
• Date:  
• Time: 
• Day # (e.g. Day 2):
• Feelings Felt Psychologically:
• Feelings Felt Physiologically: 
• Questions You Asked Yourself: 
• How Do You Feel After Your Session?: 

 Conclusion: On the 7th day, do you feel transcended? Yes or no? 

 

You have too many rules for sitting and doing nothing, sitting and doing nothing will do nothing to help you overcome addictions. The addictions are addictions of the identity and ego itself. to overcome the addictions you must become something other than the identity.  As a being of consciousness, there is no rule book of rules by which to function as a being of consciousness, there are no spiritual practices to perform, there is no right and no wrong, no good and no evil.  The identity cannot dictate to consciousness what the rules are, because consciousness has no rules, will accept no rules, will follow no rules, throw your rule books away, drop your spiritual practices, drop your beliefs, begin to look at your own thought process, you will see that it is severely flawed and keeping you in the identity and is the cause of your situation in life.  As a being of consciousness you will be functioning in the moment of life in a conscious, present state of awareness within that moment, and your rules will not be making any decisions about what is seen, or what happens with what is seen as the observer of events that appear before you because your concepts, thoughts, beliefs, programing cannot be in that space of being, and if you still are clinging to all these things than you are not functioning as a being of consciousness, but rather as the identity that thinks that it is achieving something that it is not.  There is a huge misconception about what self realization is and how a being of consciousness functions, this is because of a lot of teachings by those who have no real experience with consciousness and no understanding of consciousness.   Argue, this is not meant to offend you, my intention is to help you understand something very important,  the first sentence i directed to your post, the rest was meant for everyone. 

[Saarah]

@charlie2dogs I don't understand, what are you suggesting? 

[charlie2dogs]

33 minutes ago, Saarah said:

@charlie2dogs I don't understand, what are you suggesting? 

i take it you are referring to my response i wrote to ARGUE ,  what i am say is this, functioning as a being of consciousness which is the real you, one cannot have rules books, religions, doctrines, philosophies, beliefs and programing deciding on what is going to happen in any event, that only happens when you function as the identity, but living life as a being of consciousness, all of that is gone and you are first an observer in consciousness, which allows you to see the reality of life and events around you.  you cannot take these, rules books, religions, doctrines, philosophies, beliefs and programing into that space of being.  At that point you as consciousness is all that exist and (if) consciousness chooses to take an action it will be from a place of reality, and not made by the physical identity with its rules and beliefs. I hope this isnt confusing to you, sometimes when you are dealing with real experience in consciousness, it can be confusing to others, i try to define things in a way to help other understand but consciousness experiences cant be fully understood until one has the experience of it, nothing can be fully understood as knowledge until there is experience in it, and the experience has to be based in reality before it can become knowledge and understanding, otherwise it just becomes programing and belief, which is a warped perception of the experience.  I hope this answers your question if not, define your question a little more and i will provide an answer, thanks

[Truth]

Day 2: I've had a ton of insights today, in fact it takes me back to the days when I first started cutting out distractions, but anyway, I had some really deep insights today, but out of all of them the deepest insight was the fact that I've re-focused my life by staying away from distractions, I've literally started a new vision for my life, a new structure, and realized that if I'm gonna be on my path I can't be distracted, at all, I realize that everything I do I have to have a set intention towards my path. If it's not towards my ultimate intention on my path then it's a distraction. And my ego really didn't like hearing that. but I just get the sense that this is how to get change in my life. all my efforts have to be concentrated to reach a breakthrough. I contemplated life deeply today and will continue to but I just realized, this is my one life and I don't want to waste it, and as long as I do my best to stay on my path I can die happy and no regrets (or at least minimize them haha). Everything else feels like a distraction, comfort, instant gratification. I just realize I can't live the life I want if I'm doing that stuff..I don't know how long I'm gonna stay on track here, I realize all these insights and realizations mean nothing unless I commit to them.. I fear me falling back into old ways, being distracted, doing useless pointless crap. But, I gotta try, I'm aware this is all talk. But I'm only writing this because I committed to this challenge of posting each day. So this is me posting

 

 

Edited April 19, 2016 by Truth

[Argue]

Addiction: Video Games 

Date:  4/18/16

Time: 11:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Day #: Day 2 

Feelings Felt Psychologically: I started at 11 PM. Got home from work around 10 PM, ate junk food (Burger King, yuck), watched a UFC video on YouTube until 11. At 11, I didn't sit but laid down because I'm still sick so it's hard on the body to sit for now. During the first 30 minutes I thought about how useless my addiction is. How I spent so much time and energy in the one activity. At first it was fun but then it was robbing me of my life and health, transforming my brain into a rotten tomato. After these thoughts, slowly I started to drift away. I unfortunately entered sleep mode. So from 1130 until 12 I was sleeping. At 12, my alarm woke me. I decided to save my post for today because I had no energy or alertness to post. 

Feelings Felt Physiologically: during the first 30 minutes or so, my body was not fidgeting or anything. I felt no discomfort and my nerves were at ease. I was quite surprised because usually I have a very hard time to sit still. I really should start sitting to get the full effects from this challenge. Seems like I'm starting off sluggishly? I mean it's ok I'm taking baby steps and working towards becoming better at this practice. I'm glad I'm mindful enough to do this challenge. I have hope for the next days that follow. 

Questions You Asked Yourself: I didn't really ask myself any questions. Maybe I did but I forgot. I do know it's important to post right after the session so everything you felt is still fresh and alive. I'll take note of that and commit to doing things the right way. 

How Do You Feel After Your Session?: after my session I feel back to sleep lol. 

[Saarah]

Intention: (see post 1) 

Addiction: Junk food

Meditation method: Do Nothing for 1 hour a day 

***************

Day 2: 19/04/16

Levels of motivation upon waking: I was feeling like I'd be able to not eat any junk food today but my motivation to meditate wasn't there, I don't mind doing 10 mins but an hour feels so long, just shoved it to the 'later' pile, when later came, I was close to just saying I'll do it for 20 mins but I stuck with an hour 

Meditation time (complete?): 20 mins then 35, got distracted by people twice, didn't see the point returning for the remaining 5 mins 

Feelings during and after meditation: Resistance at first and then just got into it, more alert this time but not at the point where I'd enjoy it over doing something, felt like a spoilt kid realising how many different types of activities I have to do in my time, have listed this out before but by just stopping I felt it in my bones how much I actually do, feel like this should be my default state and first thing in the morning to do so when it comes to doing I'd be less likely to be in a state of just consuming stimuli but would be more mindful and slow about it. Didn't feel any physical effects or cravings 

Thoughts/struggles throughout the day: No struggles, junk food maybe entered my mind for a moment and left, found out my mum ate my chocolate I'd been leaving but wasn't annoyed, just found it funny how it got snapped up while I wasn't around. Dad had brought some junk food after work but was easy to avoid, no cravings, I think junk addiction may not be there while it was in the past, but addiction for convenient outside food and eating beyond hunger may be something to look at next 

Triggers for addiction:  Didnt come across anything triggery 

***************

 

[Truth]

Day 3: Really starting to grasp addiction, it seems everything I do, EVERYTHING, is to distract myself of this constant void or emptiness of life. I mean, it's pure emptiness, it just goes and goes and goes and all I do is fill this void with stuff to do, whether that's thinking about things, or distracting myself with YouTube or knowledge even as important knowledge is to me. I sat for 2 hours today, I really got to thinking like.. what if I just did nothing for 12 hours a day? I mean, I got all these important things I should be doing, -- staying with my commitments, my meditation habit, my workout routine, reading habit, planning and strategizing. What if I just didn't do any of that? and it ended up being a really peaceful feeling like, I don't really have to do any of that. it's like all my problems just went out the window, I didn't have to do any of it, of course I still am but, it was still a pretty insightful thing to know that just being and not really thinking, it's actually really peaceful not running around chasing things, after that everything I did felt peaceful, although I did watch a YouTube video or two it wasn't that long like 20 minutes, and then I started focusing on my intentions again without distractions. but that was a pretty big insight for me. Looking forward to keep going here.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Truth

[Argue]

Addiction: Video Games 

Date:  4/19/16

Time: 10:30 PM - 11:30 PM 

Day #: Day 3 

Feelings Felt Psychologically: I've sat there and tried my best to just stay in the present moment. I was mindful of my breathing using it as an anchor to remind myself of the present moment. Thoughts I had were calm, I could see myself playing the game and then after the image suddenly fading away like a cloud of smoke. It was very enlightening to me if I'm allowed to use the word here. As the days goes on, my impulse to play has lessened and lessened. I don't habitually type in the games name anymore in my phone, I very rarely think of it, I'm becoming happier. I'm becoming more social again and returning back to my extroverted roots in my daily life. I'm excited about this change. I'm happy. I need to keep the course and stay strong. 

Feelings Felt Physiologically: this was pretty tough the first 5 minutes to sit but then nothing bother me physiologically because I was very mindful of my breathing consistently focusing on the present. 

Questions You Asked Yourself: I can't remember because yet again I posted a day late. Got home late. Just focused on commiting to sitting and doing nothing. Got home like at 10:18 PM, settle in and at 10:30 on the dot began my session. I was more focused on just doing nothing and letting the chatter pass by like clouds. I'll post day 4 today too but much later on. 

How Do You Feel After Your Session?: I felt simplicity happy. 

[Allison]

Leo's video was perfect for me at this time, I'm on day 15 of cold turkey no smoking & cannabis habit has been given the boot too. Watching the video brought to my attention just how many other distraction/ addictions I have & use to numb myself in life, also how many hours are wasted on tv series marathons etc. I've recently joined to Sanga meditation group as I want to deepen my mindfulness practice. I've also recently became part of a spiritual warrior group in my city & attended live, webcast events & contributing to the online forum. Both these groups are helping me & it's the first time for many years I've connected with other people.  I've been given a bigger challenge of going a full day without using distractions in this spiritual warrior group so I'm going to try this on Friday. I'll be finishing another 50hr week of night shifts so it will be interesting to see what my experiences are. I'm strangely excited about it but scared too. I'll post any relevant stuff here. This is my first post in this forum. I've been tuned into Leo for many months now. I'm new to forums as well. The other one I'm in is not interactive with other members, I can only interact with the person who started the group & forum so this place is different in that respect. Enjoying all the posts here  

[Saarah]

Intention: (see post 1) 

Addiction: Junk food

Meditation method: Do Nothing for 1 hour a day 

***************

Day 3: 20/04/16

Levels of motivation upon waking: I felt optimistic and again knew I'd be able to avoid junk food, however I could also tell from the get go this was going to be a day full of me 'stuffing' myself with random distractions 

Meditation time (complete?): 1 hour complete, starting half 11pm 

Feelings during and after meditation: Once I got started I was surprisingly calm and awake but near the end got tired due to the late time. To me avoiding junk food hasn't been so difficult after all, instead I found the meditating difficult, it feels like an endurance sport where I'm putting in so much effort to not give up. I wish I could just genuinely feel the joys of nothing, in theory it sounds peaceful but in practice there's so much work to do. At one point I got emotional with happiness of how I'm pursuing this instead of going back to my mediocre everyday life, and of not backing down in the face of ever so painful emotionally challenging discipline. 

Thoughts/struggles throughout the day: No struggles, I just noticed though lately I've been filling my time with certain distractions, playing video games more frequently for example, I feel like this is the time I should do the meditation, forcing myself to sit facing the void when I least want to. I re-listened to the addiction video yesterday but forgot to today, but I will tomorrow again just to reinforce the message lots of times 

Triggers for addiction:  nothing 

***************

 

[Truth]

Alright day 4: Been kind of a busy day with work and my daily rituals. today going to work I felt a less and less need for knowledge and music, being present in the moment felt interestingly more peaceful, and I love my knowledge and music. I usually just stuff my face with my music or knowledge, but today that exact thought occurred to me, stuffing my face, trying to resist the present moment, the void, the emptiness, the eternal now, whatever you wanna call it, what actually ended up happening not distracting and stuffing my face with that stuff is I ran into a technique, just as Leo talked about in "How To Be Ruthlessly Effective At Anything" this technique was doing absolute wonders for me for the intention I set, I plan to be using it more and more, that technique involves understanding beliefs, identifying limiting or negative beliefs, and changing those limiting or negative beliefs, with the ultimate intent of systematically stopping myself from creating new problems in my life. I really feel this will help me realize my ultimate intention for this 7 day challenge and help me with much much more. so far this challenge has been a huge new step for me. let's keep going.