When life throws you lemons... Do you make lemonade or are you consumed in rotten peels? Does it consume you or do you shut it out? Do you identify and conquer it or do find another vice?
Vices come in all shapes and sizes. Good ones; bad ones. ones that have hidden benefits and ones that have glaring dangers. What is your vice?
Now there is the obvious negative vices but I want to focus on the ones that are less obvious and may be as detrimental to your end goal as the large glaringly obvious ones.
So, let's start with what is a vice? According to my dear friend Mr. Webster a vice is: a moral depravity or corruption :wickedness; :a moral fault or failing; a habitual and usually trivial defect or shortcoming. Basically it is something that we decided is morally inconsistent with our values and beliefs.
What's your vice? What is it that you turn to when times get tough? When you are so stressed that you cannot see the forest for the trees. Is it alcohol or drugs. Is it seeking comfort in another in a morally inappropriate way? Is it over or under indulging in any or all parts of life? Whatever it may be-- chances are the vice that was a bandaid through the stressful time is now a habit. and likely an unhealthy one at that!
Can you turn that vice, that moral fault into something good for you? Something that betters your life. Something that makes you bigger, better, and stronger, than before you needed the vice? The answer is yes you can but it sucks. Like hardcore sucks. It's so not easy. It takes time...sometimes a very long time to re-wrtie your patterns and norms.
Letting go of the one crutch that comforts you in time of need is like asking a gorilla to get a bikini wax. it is seriously not going to be pretty. And though the king of the jungle may not need a wax job, chances are you need to get rid of that vice. It's likely dragging you down and killing you in a slow painful death of despair and heartache!
Okay, so now that I have totally bummed you out---how do you fix it? First a foremost you have to identify that it is a vice. And perhaps more importantly that you are willing to give it up! Then take a good long hard look inward and try to figure out why you needed it in the first place. What's the why underneath the why. Get real and honest with yourself. like ugly honest with yourself. stare yourself down a good long time in the mirror and seriously be honest! Then decide if you let that vice go, what else must change too? Are you willing to do that? Is it worth it to you? If so, that change will be easier than you thought.
Good luck my dear friends.
In Light and Life.