What we are failing to see is that for most of us our level of addiction is in one of these categories, but the reality is we are constantly judging ourselves against other people and as long as there is someone who is more addicted than you, you can justifiably say, "I am okay."

Addiction is a force of the mind. There is no addiction on a spiritual level. To understand addiction one must look at the human mind. It is a remarkable tool that stores all memory, thought processes, cognitive skills, motor skills. It monitors your hormones, moods, and your immune system. It is a fantastic outgrowth of evolution. Being that we are capable of learning we are then able to maintain the species and make important scientific, medical, and technological discoveries.

So what does this multi-faceted wonder brain do when faced with addiction? Denies it. Smart people are addicts, and dumb people are billionaires. There is no rhyme or reason, no logic to who will succumb to the pitfalls of life. To understand why one does fall, you must go back to the beginning. Back when everything was new, childhood.

Childhood, the imprint of God still lies fresh on your tiny body. Some people remember more than others, it is just feelings. When you are a child you live in a restricted world. Things are too high; grown-ups speak many words you can't understand. You pass your time playing, eating, learning one thing after another. Crawling, walking, drinking from a cup, etc. Children learn by example. So understand that as a child you absorbed everything. A lot was saved for later, intricate social skills filed away into the psyche. At home, outside, on tv, everywhere a child absorbs and then patterns themselves after what they have received.

What was your life like back then? Who were the people in your life? Do you see that you are behaving like your role models did in some ways? At some point we break away from our parents and fight for independence. In adolescence we are trying to create our own belief system, yet most of what was taught is still there, far too programmed to be dismissed. A common teenager is more of a mimic than anything else copying friends and celebrities to fit in. Here enters the glamorous life of drugs.

People use drugs for any reason imaginable. It is not their outward reason but their inner reason which must be examined. You must remember when you decided that it was alright for you to use drugs. Once you remember, then you can understand why you are choosing addiction. In this you are taking a step towards being in control.

Addiction fills a part of you that is empty, or so you believe. It numbs, and therefore people who never learned to confront their pain are trapped in their addictions because they simply know no other way. Whether addiction is new to you or if you've battled it your entire life, the first step is always the same. You must decide that you want to stop. Then you must decide what it is you are going to put in the place where your addiction used to be. Try something creative, or perhaps going to school, starting a new job. For many people giving up an addiction is as easy as walking away form a certain crowd of people or routine. Spiritually your soul does not want to be saddled with an addiction your entire incarnation, in fact you may OD and get out sooner than you meant to. Try to look at everything in the positive, maybe you can help other people and council them, or maybe you will learn how to be more compassionate of others weaknesses. Addiction happens for many reasons, it is important to stop the mind, for it fools you into thinking that things are alright when they are not. Go within and find your strength of spirit.

Sit back and relax, find a place where you will be uninterrupted. Be in a peaceful state of mind but not too tired or too agitated. Breath in and out slowly until you have reached a state of calm. In this meditation we will use the mind, for some we set it aside. Any time during this meditation when you come across a person or memory that makes you feel pain,guilt, or anything negative say out loud, "I am okay now, I choose to be healthy and sober, I send love to this person/memory and I release him/her/it from my experience with love." Now, begin to see the people in your life,see their faces, their actions, what do they tell you about yourself? They are reflections of you, they are parts of you. Be an observer with no emotion with no relation to anyone. Sit with this for a moment. Now go back to the time you first started the lifestyle you live ow, when its first influences were being felt. Who were the people in your life then? Again see their faces and actions, feel their motivations, their ideas about life. How much has changed since then? How have you changed? Take a long time in answering these questions. Sit with yourself and examine what comes up.

The reason we choose addiction is because we want to forget about things in reality. We may have had such a hard time in our life that we need to unplug continually to cope.Once you dig beneath the layer of addiction you will find more problems, the very ones that led you to cover them with addiction.

Learning to get out of addiction is just that, learning a new skill. There are many healthy alternatives that do not rob you of your body, mind and spirit as drugs and alcohol do. It is essential to understand that what happened in the past is something that is over and does not stay alive to haunt you unless you give it the power to do so. Once you identify what lives beneath your addiction you must face it and heal it. So that in the end you will have tackled not only your addiction but what was at the root of it as well. Proceed to the next page to find more meditations, if you do not find a meditation for what is causing you pain e-mail us and we will create one for you. No one person can truly be healed until all of us are healed, for we are all connected. Please read on...