Difference Between Doing Nothing And Willpower For Overcoming Addictions?

[BHL_20]

I think most people who are addicted to something, will at some stage admit that they are indeed addicted and that it's bad for them. They will make some resolutions and decide to use brute force willpower to stop doing the thing or reduce how often they do it. And it might work for some time then fail. If they're determined enough it can succeed.

But what's the difference between that and the approach Leo gave in the video? The defining moment in his food addiction does very much sound like a pure willpower triumph (he didnt put himself in an empty room at all). All I see is that you are resisting the cravings but if you're doing nothing else, then you also have to resist other potential (less harmful) cravings such as the craving to eat or work. So if the normal brute force approach doesnt work for someone, why would this work, seeing that it's similiar but harder? Am I missing something?

[Saarah]

@BHL_20 I think willpower is about resisting and on the surface level it certainly feels like doing nothing is resistance by willpower because you're intentionally avoiding the addiction 

but with the doing nothing there's an added layer of being mindful I suppose, and it's not resistance it's more conducting the feelings, there's also the addition of looking at the emptiness that you're avoiding as opposed to distracting yourself which is what's possible with willpower alone, with doing nothing you're actually looking at the root cause which is the emptiness  

Also, Leo said in one of the videos how willpower gets stronger the more you exercise it so doing that can be effective too 

[Elton]

@BHL_20 each time you control your impulse you are building your willpower up. Letting go of control is doing nothing.

[charlie2dogs]

15 hours ago, BHL_20 said:

I think most people who are addicted to something, will at some stage admit that they are indeed addicted and that it's bad for them. They will make some resolutions and decide to use brute force willpower to stop doing the thing or reduce how often they do it. And it might work for some time then fail. If they're determined enough it can succeed.

But what's the difference between that and the approach Leo gave in the video? The defining moment in his food addiction does very much sound like a pure willpower triumph (he didnt put himself in an empty room at all). All I see is that you are resisting the cravings but if you're doing nothing else, then you also have to resist other potential (less harmful) cravings such as the craving to eat or work. So if the normal brute force approach doesnt work for someone, why would this work, seeing that it's similiar but harder? Am I missing something?

if the identity is cornered in a way that it cant explain things, it will admit to something, but the identity trying to rationalize things and often afterward finding a way to justify its way doesnt bring real change.  Brute forces can work to a degree functioning as the identity, but it will not bring liberation from what binds.  Lasting beneficial change has to take place within consciousness, the physical body ( identity) is merely a replication of the condition of your consciousness, all of the problems in life including sickness and disease is self created and is created by what is rooted within consciousness itself and then reproduced in the physical identity.  Most are merely dealing with the symptoms of an issue whether it be a problem or a sickness or disease, dealing with a symptom never solves the issue at hand, one must go to the source or root cause of the issue to bring about a resolution, if its not done that way, the issue will present itself in another form of problem or illness somewhere in the body. All issues must be resolved and cleansed in consciousness before liberation from it can occur.

[Henri]

Doing nothing is working with the mind and using willpower is working with the intellect.

Intellectuals usually use the willpower, because in the end the will is nothing else than a thought. A strong will being a strong and repeating thought.

Working with the mind goes deeper and when the cause of the problem is rooted in the mind this is the only solution.

[christianblake]

Agree with @Henri and @charlie2dogs. There are many different approaches to tackling addictions, resistance, or anything you don't consciously want. You can either try to manipulate your mind by visualizing the opposite --- let's say in a food addiction, when you feel the craving to eat that tub of ice cream in the fridge, one method to use can be to visualize the long term effects of eating ice cream. Seeing yourself fat in the future. Or you can do the opposite and try to positively motivate yourself by visualizing you being or staying lean in the future. Or maybe you can go and throw the ice cream in the garbage, theres lot's of ways to try to manipulate your psyche or your "lower" self into trying to not eat the ice cream. And these all take willpwoer or mental effort. 

But what Leo was referring to in his video on addictions he just recently posted was about getting to the deepest fix for addictions. Really feeling into it. Just observing it as it is until the feeling subsides.

I find that it's a more effective technique than the other techniues I mentioned in the first paragraph. It really depends on your level of development. For someone new to personal development and wiith little awareness trying to obersve your emotions might not be the most effective thing. So you have these "superficial" techniques for preventing the consequence that you don't want want. But it's really up to you to gauge where you're at. I find that trying to do the superficial techniques become tiring after a while. They start to have diminishing returns in terms of it's effectiveness. I personally think you'll know when the right time is to switch to taking a mindful approach rather than a hard approach. 

It's good to have a lot of techniques in your arsenal though =)