Stop Scratching Scabies with Darren Hardy and Pema Chodron
Alcoholism is like an irresistible urge that drinking makes worse.
During an unusual but stimulating start to my day today, I had the pleasure of inviting two ‘greats’ into my home and mind. At 5.00 am local time I had a webinar (sales pitch) from Darren Hardy booked in — locked into the Google Calendar and the link to have my exclusive pass copy and pasted in the description box.
Two Coffees
Later, after two coffees, I sat down to do my ‘Miracle Morning Meditation’. Huh. That’s not going to work out, is it?
So I turned on a Sounds True recording I had stored featuring Pema Chodron leading us to enlightenment with a talk called ‘Staying Here’.
Pema summarises our general malaise as wanting to
- Numb Out
- Be Aggressive or
- Crave
whenever the uncomfortability of life confronts our ego. I believe she names this Ego-clinging.
Likewise, Darren speaks about the issues with getting what we want in business revolve around
- Distractions
- Decisiveness, and
- Busy-ness
He calls out busy as fear, weak, shallow. The same could be said of craving.
Similarities, not Differences
So, here I recognise again, the similarities between me, the alcoholic, and me, the human being, and everybody else. My patterns of behaviour in the face of life’s basic and common struggles indicate weakness, fear and learned attitudes. My ability to change is dependent on past modelling by parents or other significant leaders (Buddha, Darren Hardy etc), and my willingness to adapt.
Now, as I publish this short soliloquy on human potential, I have stumbled across a Medium Playback podcast highlighting the dangers of Female Ethanol Abstinence by Kristi Coulter. (You read that right)
Ms. Coulter humorously recounts her early sobriety as a woman who ‘Can have it all and keep her man happy too’. The men and women inside and outside of sobriety have been equally crazy in my reckoning.
Just as I have 97% the same DNA as a Malaysian Orangutan, there is very little difference between the plight of women and men alcoholics. AND their is not that much difference between alcoholics and non-alcoholics — Carolus Linnaeus might beg to disagree.
ADDICTION OF ALL SORTS IS RIFE IN OUR SOCIETY.
Furthermore, it is not a modern problem.
My Thesis Statement
If you want to change — and become a billionaire who enjoys a 16 hour work week, or an abstinent alcoholic who loves life, lychees and levitation — you need to assess the reasons why you do what you do and formulate a plan to overcome these issues and change. Until then,
Here’s the pattern…
Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch scratch, STOP — winge, winge judge, judge, die.
Can you break the pattern with Knowledge, Meditation, Meetings? We’ll see.
Maybe the only people who have money AND job satisfaction are as rare as those who have sobriety AND happiness? 3%? 1%?
love alwaz
mike
If you like the feel of this article and are thinking you would like to give sobriety a go, try my FREE 5 part course, “Stop Drinking — Start Living”.
Originally published at dharmaholic.com on August 8, 2018.
