Overcome Addiction with Reading

Thank You, Socrates

It can be extremely exhausting trying to overcome an addiction. You’re sitting there curled up, rocking back and forth, trying to shake the thought of that chocolate bun just waiting for you in the kitchen. Even the Bun is like, “only a matter of time pal — I will be eaten.”

Socrates famously stated that the “secret to change was to focus all of your attention on building the new.”

But this is extremely hard to do when you have nothing else to think about. The TV is full of garbage that forces you to eat the Bun’s brothers and sisters too, Cakey and Creampuff; So, in essence, it seems like there is nowhere to place the mind in order to stimulate the exploding momentum of microcosmic change in our lives.

But there is…

Addiction seems to wreck a person’s imaginative power, as their entire frame of mind is centred around the addiction in question; whether it be an addiction to drugs, food, or chasing parked cars; it is wired into their subconscious, and this blocks the imaginative mind/ Right Hemisphere from creating the new. So we become stuck in a vicious cycle.

The key is to free the imaginative mind so that the person is able to effectively build the new.

And reading does just this.

It forces a person to delve into a fantasy world of vast kingdoms and dynamic characters. Or how about an of facts, world news, historical symphonies of legends and myths. Whatever your heart is aching for in its quest for change can be remedied with reading.

For example, you can’t stop thinking about that chocolate bun in the kitchen again, and you can’t seem to shake off the thought. Opening and reading a book forces your imagination to completely soar into another world, and in no time, you’ll have pushed the bun right off the cliff of your conscious mind.

Soon enough, you will have programmed reading into your subconscious mind, allowing it to overshadow your addictions and bad habits.

Imagination is our superpower, it is the key to building the best future for ourselves. Our addictions block our ability to effectively use our imagination.

Reading helps us to claim back what is ours.

No wonder the first word revealed in the Qur’an was the word “Iqra” (Read).