Addiction and Recovery

Is Narcissism an Addiction?

We all like to feel special. When someone NEEDS to feel special to feel good, then needing to feel special becomes an addiction, in a misguided effort to treat the […]

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Watch Yourself

Be a little wary of your mind, especially of your default, automatic feelings, thoughts and responses. Left to it’s own, the mind can be a great troublemaker. The ego is […]

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Worthy Distress

No one wants to be in pain. Yet sometimes being in distress is worthwhile because of the benefits it brings. Short-term pain does sometime lead to long-term gain. Examples include […]

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Pain and Pleasure

As animals, we share with all animals strong, instinctive survival drives to gratify desires for food, water, sex, and comfort. We have strong drives to avoid pain, danger, or anything […]

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Suffering

No matter how skillfully we live our lives, pain and loss visit us all. We all have endured or will endure one or more seasons of great suffering. This is […]

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Clarity of Purpose

A Zen master once asked me, ‘Why do you eat?” I replied that I eat to sustain my body. I then asked him why he ate. He smiled at me […]

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Getting to Wow

Part of savoring life entails the capacity to experience “wow.” Wow is when you feel wonder or awe. You might experience this on special occasions, such as the birth of […]

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Nicotine

With the concern with the opioid overdose epidemic, it is easy to overlook the most insidious and malignant of all addictive substances: nicotine. Tobacco use results in nearly a half […]

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Sparking the Flame of Addiction

The flame of addiction burns in nearly 1 out of every 3 people (if one includes food addiction). This results in hundreds of thousands of deaths each year and great […]

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