I came to learn how to stop an addiction. I don’t understand. I still have a craving for alcohol/tobacco/food. Do I stop doing those things and embrace the feelings that I get?
Again, I am not telling you what to do on the outside. If, after you embrace your thoughts and feelings about your addiction, you still have a desire to smoke, then by all means, light up. But here is what you do. If your thoughts try to make you feel guilty or tell you that you are being irresponsible simply be aware of them and embrace them. And when you put the cigarette to your mouth, feel the smoke in your lungs, be attentive to your thoughts, feel the nervousness in your body. Feel the air around you. Stay in the present moment. Do this again and again if it doesn’t work right away. It will work.
I am already doing what I want to do. I just want to be better at it. How does this help me?
If that is your case then you simply should just concentrate more on the present moment. For example, if you are trying to get much better results during a workout, notice how your mind wanders while you are lifting weights. Focus completely on the muscles that you are working. “Feel the burn” as they say it. But really feel it. If you are listening to your headsets or thinking about the pretty girl next to you, are you really concentrating on your muscles? Do you ever wander why there are some people who spend only minutes working out and look much better than people who spend hours a day struggling? The quality of their workout is much better, even if it is shorter. To improve your quality, stay in the present moment. A part of me wants to try and explain in detail why this works, but you won’t understand it until you just try it for yourself. I will simply say that this is exactly how you develop discipline. Discipline is a word you will hear repeated over and over among the most successful people. Just remember that discipline does not have to be associated with being hard or negative.