Month: May 2014

May 29, 2014

Perscription Painkiller Addiction

We are living in an age where percription medicine rules the world of health. We often become so dependent on the use of perscription medicine we find little relief in natural or alternative remedies to help cure our ailments. We live in an age where we require quick fixes rather than getting to the root of the problem even if it takes a little longer. We would rather temporarily fix a problem than to find out the real reason behind our recurring problems. It seems we don’t have the time in our current “now” to deal with sickness. We can’t afford to take time off to research, travel and find the necessary alternative solutions. We need immediate relief to get back into our fast paced lives of working, paying bills, and spending our free time doing other things of priority.
I wanted to write about why I believe we become addicted and dependent on these unhealthy solutions. In fact, I am going to primarily focus on prescription painkillers as I know this is one of the fastest growing addictions in our modern day.  Many of the reasons I am going to mention are very common and occur a lot more frequently than we think.
  • Deceptive Euphoria – The dependence of this drug ties hand in hand with dealing with emotional and physical pain. Opiods have extreme side effects of euphoria. Many people will feel extreme pleasure which may seem quite surprising. The repeated chase of feeling that same pleasurable experience is craved by the intaker. The need to feel the initial pleasurable experience requires more painkillers/medication to achieve the same result as the first “high”. The high creates a sense of relaxation that one often enjoys because he/she has been dealing with extreme pain for so long. This provides relief to many who suffer from chronic pain.
  • Masking emotional pain – This doesn’t occur immediately, rather, once the intaker takes their first couple of pills they realize this medication creates distance from their pains, both physical and emotional. Usually people suffering from physical pain also deal with extreme emotional pain and soon grow dependent on relieving all the pains in their lives through the use of one little pill. Overtime a “chase” occurs, whereby, physical pain is relieved through drug use, then emotional pain is also relieved, followed by withdrawals, which creates negative feels, therefore more drugs are used to mask or relieve the negative feelings that occur because of the withdrawals.
  • Tolerance – Just with anything in life, too much of anything is not good. Particularly with painkillers/medication, the human body develops a tolerance to the drug. With time larger and stronger doses are required in order to achieve the initial “high”. Tolerance to any drug/substance is the first sign toward addiction.
  • Withdrawals – Often, people addicted to prescription painkillers/medication believe that they need more of the drug because their pain remains or gets worse. This occurs because of the mixed chemical messages being sent throughout the body. We go through ups and downs and cannot handle the chemical withdrawals that occur through the body. This creates a sense of imbalance and we physically feel the withdrawal effects on the body. The pain is intensified and the chemicals in our brain are amplifying the negative effects as we come down, off the high.
  • Painkillers are Legal – The world we live in offer painkillers (which are drugs) to every person who has access to it, legally.  These drugs are funded and supplied by companies.  They are meant to be taken in small doses to help those in need but many abuse this system because of the legal benefits/advantage pharmaceutical companies have.  These drugs are not only provided but their use is encouraged by medical professionals.  Police do not knock down the doors of pharmaceutical companies.  Which is pretty ironic if you ask me.
  • Inaccessible Alternative medication – There are many effective forms of alternative medication that the general public is oblivious too. Even physicians here in the Western world avoid providing information because they lack knowledge or simply because they would rather profit from prescribing medication and coating symptoms rather than curing ailments. Having access to non-drug pain relief medication is very difficult to find in the Western world. This is one of the main reasons why people become dependent on prescription medication.

 mindbodysoul

“An over-indulgence of anything, even something as pure as water, can intoxicate.” ~ Criss Jami

May 22, 2014

Entertainment Age

We live in a time where technology has evolved to such a degree that mankind can barely keep up.  The overload of information is astonshing.  We are bombarded with information about all likes of this earth.  You want to learn about science, there are millions of avenues through the internet, schools, and etc. to gain access to that particular type of info.  However, because of the abundance of information we are all lost in a sea of knowledge.  I say we are lost because although we have access to this vast knowledge, barely do any of us know how to truly utilize and filter through the information overload.  It may seem like we are living in the information age based on the current state of our world, the reality is we are all actually living in the Entertainment Age.

What is the Entertainment Age?  It’s what we experience day to day, living in a society where we live in abundance of entertainment information.  The media, social networks and technology uses entertainment to connect with the mass public.  The only way to pass along knowledge or information in this world now-a-days is through entertainment.  Mass public attention focuses on how one feels.  The only way most of us feel anything anymore is if we are stimulated through entertainment, whether it’s good or bad entertainment.  Entertainment is whatever excites our emotions.  When we hear gossip, see something cool or exciting in a movie or on TV, or witness a celebrity speak about a cause or promote a service or product.  We are living, breathing, eating, and sleeping in the Entertainment Age.

Now imagine if our feelings were utilized correctly and we felt the same way we did about knowledge and information as we did about entertainment.  Most people would rather spend hours educating themselves on their favourite celebrities comings and goings than finding out their own passions.  Most people would rather listen to gossip than create or invent something new.  Most people would rather escape their own reality and live vicariously through other peoples lives by witnessing them do amazing things while they sit on the sidelines.  It’s scary how much self control most of us lack because of this Entertainment Age.  It’s almost as if the Entertainment Age is forcing us to push the onus or blame on others for not achieving our own personal goals.

Imagine a world where everyone realized the state we are currently in.  We would all wake up and make more conscious decisions for ourselves rather than being told what to do by other more “successful” people.  The Entertainment Age has created many brilliant and talented people and we should use this time as an inspiration to become far more than what we are right now.  We as mankind, have not even reached our full potential.  By being consumed with mundane and useless information we lose track of the main purpose of the Entertainment Age; giving us entertainment.  Instead, we now live by it and make poor choices based on entertainment knowledge, not ACTUAL knowledge.  So, I urge you, use this Entertainment Age for what it is and do not allow it to consume your actual world.

Time to reflect:

What are your thoughts on the Entertainment Age?  Should we keep ourselves so mired in this state while technology and the world evolves faster than our own conscious beings?  Or, should we actually use this time for what it actually is, simple entertainment, instead of being consumed by it?

mindbodysoul

“We aren’t in an information age, we are in an entertainment age.” ~ Tony Robbins

May 11, 2014

Family – why we have them

For so long I kept wondering what the purpose of family was.  Is it to create a close knit network, build communities, pass along history and secrets through generations or to not make us feel alone?  There are sooooo many reasons why mankind as well as creatures of all kinds have family.  My interpretation is that we have family to help teach us things about ourselves that eventually push us to reach our individual infinite potential.

I believe that God/the universe has devised a plan for each of us to eventually reach our potential.  Now, if you believe in reincarnation, the idea is that we are brought back each life to hopefully accomplish tasks and goals that we were unable to achieve in our past lives.  Knowing this about reincarnation one could apply this very same principle to our family dynamic.  We are provided with family members who are created in our likeness.  Our family teaches us many lessons in life through their individual experiences.  We learn how similar or how different we are and how to handle one another and life situations.  It’s as if we get multiple copies of ourselves to look at while we live our lives in this lifetime.  Family teaches us to manage all these lessons from different perspectives, but, ultimately we have to devise a conclusion for ourselves.

What I mean is this.  Our parents are half of who we are.  We are half of our father and half of our mother.  The traits we develop are passed along from them, both physical and non-physical.  The life situations they go through alter our own lives as well, as we watch them deal with and overcome the lessons.  We are given many chances in life to do the right thing for us because of what we witness family go through.  Sometimes we will notice our parents making unnecessary sacrifices that we, ouselves, would never make.  We learn not be like them and repeat those mistakes to help propel us further toward our goals.  Other times we notice our parents providing love, support, and guidance that we wish to mimick and apply to those other people who we wish to share our lives with, that is not family.  We witness and experience many lessons by having family.

Take a moment to look at your own family and try to understand how they are here to help you.  Look at their individual flaws, strenths and experiences.  Then make a judgement about what you were meant to learn from them.  Maybe, your father is supposed to teach you to be more self-sacrificing, while your mother is supposed to teach you balance by being more “selfish” or accommodating only to herself and her family.  Maybe, your brother is supposed to teach you what type of man you should be with, someone who offers love and support and pushes you up instead of pulling you back.  Maybe your sister is supposed to teach you to be fearless while she breaks boundaries and becomes a trail blazer.  Look at your life and your family dynamic to understand yourself more.  Find out how you are similar and what sets you apart.  Take the lessons as a means to understand how to reach your full potential and use their life experiences to project yourself into infinite potential.

Time to reflect:

Did you ever wonder why we have families?  I think it’s to help us reach our potential in a fair way.  We cannot be given all the answers in life, but we can be guided.  The guidance comes in the form of family.  As we witness them go through things, we are able to apply those lessons and minimize the hurt or maximize the good results.  Family exists to serve a special purpose.  We are here to learn from one another and to use one another to eventually reach our full potential.  Look at your own family and notice the great things as well as the poor things.  See how they fit in your own life and what you can take away from them and their lessons.  If we are blessed to have them, family is God’s way of giving us a chance to reach the unknown with love and support.

mindbodysoul

“In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.” ~ Alex Haley

 

May 7, 2014

Focus on what you DO know

It’s so easy to slip into this habit of being “lost”.  We live our lives trying so hard to figure out who we are or where we’re going.  We put so much emphasis on the unknown that we live a life chasing after things.  Life is a gift that teaches us balance.  Just as great as the unknown is, the known is even more fabulous.  There are so many definitive things in this world that we should be concentrating on.  If we did this more often, we would live a much happier existence.

Growing up I was always confused about who I was and where I was going because I lacked direction. While my peers were out developing skills and talents while participating in after school activities or clubs, teams or whatever it was, I was sitting at home babysitting and rotting away in front of the TV.  This made me feel like I didn’t know what I was meant to do.  I genuinely enjoy doing many things, in fact, I’m pretty good at a lot of things.  This also confused me even more because now I had no idea what to focus my attention on.  Here I was, someone who was good at many things but never good enough to be considered an expert or qualified to pursue it further as a possible “career” or passion.

This created many deep seated issues during my adulthood when I really should’ve figured out my path.  I focused so much on the idea that I DIDN’T know what I was doing that I hindered my own growth.  Instead of sticking to what I was good at, trying many new things and exploring my options, I didn’t try anything new.  Instead, I got stuck in a routine because I forced myself to settle and get into jobs that didn’t suit me or I was over qualified for.  I tried this in an attempt to fit in to the normal society.  I was told once you graduate you get a job regardless if it’s not in the field of your interest.  I wasted years investing in attaining experience in areas that have no relevance to my personal passions and growth.  All the while I should’ve really been focusing on what I DID know, which was what I was really interested in.

I want us all to stop focusing so much on the things that we DON’T know and start concentrating on the things that we DO know.  By focusing on what we do know we force ourselves to make conscious choices that align with our genuine interest.  If you know something about yourself, such as, you’re an excellent swimmer or you are an amazing singer then focus on finding solutions to how you can keep doing what you know.  Instead of focusing on, “how can I make money out of this industry?” or “how can I ever compete with so many undiscovered talented people already out there?” and etc., we need to change our focus to, “I know I am amazing so how do I meet the right people to show case that?”  This simple yet complicated attitude shift is what we need in order to really become the best we are meant to be.

Time to reflect:

Do you waste your time focusing on useless things such as all the things you DON’T know?  Start focusing on what you DO know.  You hold a lot more power than you think and a lot more control of your decisions and life.  If we understood this about ourselves we would make better and more conscious decisions that would help propel us to reach our ultimate potential.  

mindbodysoul

 

“Instead of focusing on the circumstances that you cannot change, focus strongly and powerfully on the circumstances that you can.” ~ Joy Page