3 No-Nonsense Tips to Stop Falling for Every Temptation So Easily
How not to fall for every desire and live freely.
I want to nosedive straight to a tricky question. Read slowly before answering it.
Are you satisfied with your life? In other words, can you sit comfortably in a place without feeling the need to run, even in thoughts?
Or…
Do you still search for peace and contentment? Simply put, do you feel your life will turn out better if you have a few more things or a particular person?
Recognize that you are stuck on the treadmill of temptations
Most people accomplish one thing after another. Yet deep down, they feel unsatisfied and look for more things to achieve.
Temptations are like treadmills.
You lose your peace calories. It increases your heartbeat and anxiety while staying where you began.
You may feel you've conquered the world. However, the reality is, you didn't even move an inch.
For most of us, life feels like a continuous race.
We want something, but life serves us another dish. We fantasize, crave, and dream until we either achieve it or are disappointed.
Suppose you are thinking of buying a new car. You begin to picture how nice it would be to have it. You believe that a new car will make your life easy.
You start imagining how good it would feel to have —
- The new model, with recent technologies and fresh scent,
- Increased social status, great pride, and boosted confidence.
The feeling of wow and desire grips you.
After a few days, the mind may become so restless that you won't even wait for the money to come in.
Instead, you take a loan and ask for money from friends. You rush to the showroom and buy it after some fluffy research.
In some scenarios, a new car must have been a necessity.
But I am pointing to the pull of desire that arises from a simple thought.
You may have a not-so-old car that was doing its job perfectly and fulfilling your requirement just right.
But it was not sufficient for you. You wanted something more. You wanted something extra.
What to do
The "extra" that you crave leads to restlessness and anxiety. It revolves in your mind day and night.
All desires start from a single thought.
When you feed that thought more, encourage and entangle it, it becomes desire.
It can be a desire for a relationship, person, or thing.
The more you desire, the more you run from pillar to post to fulfill yourself.
You start believing that you are less of a person.
Instead of binging on that hopeless self, be conscious of thought streaming.
Your awareness cuts the chains that choke your soul.
Thoughts loosen their claw on you. You slowly become free to choose what you want instead of giving in to every temptation that arises.
Be conscious of your thoughts and witness your mental saga. It is the way to your ultimate freedom.
Your self-insufficient feeling triggers any craving. Instead, support your heart to stabilize yourself.
Suppose someone is driving a new car model ahead of you. If you watch it like a camera, you won't get involved in any desire.
But if a wild thought of owning it occurs, it will snowball into a desperate temptation.
A thought in itself is not a problem. An unchecked thought is.
The temptation has become like an addiction. You need to sniff another goal before you die of purposelessness.
It lubricates your mind to live as if you are on Earth to achieve thing after thing. And then suddenly die, leaving all behind.
Many exhaust their whole life after their cravings. Be it a relationship, child, job, money, or anything.
The deep cause is — I'm not sufficient. I'm not worthy the way I am. I need something else to feel fulfilled.
These thoughts of self-insufficiency force you to search for something. To satisfy yourself, you wander in the world's wilderness.
Shopping complexes. Dating apps. Cosmetics. Virtual world.
Everything is designed to keep your attention occupied. And most people love distractions because they hate being alone.
Aloneness is like acid that consumes you from the inside. It shows you the mirror of your incompleteness.
That is why desires tempt you.
To satisfy yourself, you try to accumulate things and surround yourself with people, even if they are fake.
What to do
Pause and take a moment to see your accomplishments.
You have already chased many desires. Many accomplishments are under your belt.
Love may have knocked on your door. Money has filled your banks. Things have adorned your house.
Yet it never has been enough.
Now is the time to change your focus from outside decorations to your heart.
True satisfaction lies in the heart. If you touch deep down, all momentary satisfactions die. A new permanency rises.
Do what liberates you. Not by collecting piles of money or things. But those activities stabilize you in the 'Now.'
The more you support your heart, the more you'll experience your eternal nature that is already fulfilled. Self-discovery is the permanent solution to your temptations.
A deep desire to control life leads to temptations. Instead, self-introspect.
You are like a walking gold mine. But to excavate golden peace, your hurt, pain, and suffering will get unearthed.
Sadly, it is unacceptable to most people.
Almost everybody wants to feel happy. But instead of feeling true joy, we try to stop all negative feelings. We ignorantly bury our pain, hurt, and suffering.
To escape inner darkness, we turn our heads to the shiny temptations.
A new love. Make-ups and new wardrobes. Latest car, house. Exotic place. Fresh friendships or community.
But after some time, everything becomes old. Trying to feel in control, we waste time and energy.
The disoriented chase to control life leads us to anguish.
What to do
Your emotional non-acceptance leads you to a fake palace in a dark jungle. As soon as you peep, you fear its darkness.
Most decide to live in this hopeless fakeness and try to control their life to feel some power.
This control causes immense suffering.
Reason.
Life never walks according to anyone. It will choke and stab you with non-fulfillment of desires.
But this utter frustration becomes a blessing.
Why?
Because that shows you can never satisfy yourself via any outer thing. More misery means more self-introspection.
As you shed the light of awareness in your heart, the darkness slowly fades away. You stop getting lost in life's maze.
Acceptance happens. Resistance dissolves.
Then the illusion of control becomes more transparent.
With repeated attempts, you develop strong trust in the universe's wisdom. Temptations lose their shine.
Your awareness of your thought will break the cycle of desperation
What happens when you:
- don't get admission to your favorite college,
- cannot buy things you desire, or
- cannot be in a relationship with the person you love?
You panic, become miserable, and may also suffer immensely.
Reason?
Because you attached your self-worth to the desires.
Life is not doing any injustice to you. You are mistreating yourself by not looking at life the way it is.
The answer lies in "conscious life."
Conscious living is living that happens in the 'Now.'
Not in the past or future.
But most people find this 'Now' either boring or overwhelming.
The mind needs stimulation. It provokes thoughts to oil its automatic machinery.
But you don't need stimulus if you want peace, satisfaction, and joy. You need to rest only at this moment.
Close your eyes and breathe. Feel the cool, incoming air. Relax into the outgoing, warm air.
This is pure life. Flowing with no stories or thoughts.
Look around you. Breathe. Heal your heart here.
Relax in it. Sink in its silence.
Final Thoughts
The truth is you are complete, right now and here. You don't need anyone or anything to make you feel more.
Desires are unchecked thoughts. You can never control them. But you can notice them as an audience. Witnessing them will lead to self-acceptance and love.
And when you are in harmony with yourself, you become free from the temptations that drive you crazy.
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