So many of us are literally trained to think that when we are addicted to a substance or activity, whether that’s a food addiction, television addiction, shopping addiction, alcohol addiction, smoking addiction, or a shopping addiction, that we either have to go to counseling or make a choice to give up the substance “cold turkey” to get our lives back in control.

But what if everything we’ve been taught about addiction is wrong?

What if we really can control our addictions with ease and grace and a simple choice that we make to do so? What if labeling our inability to control our desire for the addictive substance or activity as an “addiction” is all wrong? What if it’s not really and “addiction” at all?

And does it really have to be the fight of our lives or feel like a horrible struggle to get control of our lives back?

I don’t think it does. I truly believe we can regain control of our lives without fight or struggle, and I DON’T think it has to be painful.

I believe we can turn the situation around through a simple shift in our perception to a place where we are the ones in control and making the choice rather than the substance or activity being the one that is in control of us and our behavior and driving our actions and thoughts.

But how do we achieve that shift in perception? It’s pretty simple, actually.

I wrote a really great article on this a while back about the idea that if we never had the desire for the substance or activity in the first place, we wouldn’t turn to it during times of stress. By simply clearing away the desire for the substance or activity, we simply would have no reason to. And I’ve done enough clearing work to know that much of our difficulty in any problem lies within our perception of the situation, and how negative that perception is.

So, by finding the source of where our desire for the substance or activity started in our past, we can return to it and clear away the negative energy we took away from those experiences that made us desire the substance in the first place. And when we do this, we suddenly find that we are now the ones in control of our desire for the substance or activity rather than the desire for it controlling us and our actions.

A powerful shift like this would immediately take you from being in a place where you feel disempowered and out of control to finally running the show again in relation to your life and your choices. And yes, it REALLY is as simple as that.

Talk about empowerment!