Once the mind is accustomed to certain habits and ways of thinking, it will work hard to keep them, including deception

We can’t help wondering how it is that a virus can become so successful that it eventually kills its host. A virus can become the ultimate victim of its own success, can it not? How curious it is, and yet it can certainly seem this way. But the purpose of a virus is simply to reproduce. Its aim is to spread beyond its host so it then survives in another, and on and on, it goes. Eventually, though, once all suitable hosts have died, it will die also. A little pointless, you might think.

Where we differ from a virus is our capacity to think

Even so, when it comes to our ability to control our self-destructive behaviour, thinking our way out of it often seems impossible. Addictions to stimulants, be this drink, drugs, or over consumption of anything, reward us so greatly, that they often outweigh the potential damage to our wellbeing. Why is this? And indeed, how is the mind is so adept at deceiving us into continuing with destructive behaviours?

We can quickly come to the issue of coping mechanisms. If unresolved issues concerning conflict, guilt. emotional pain and confusion, stay locked away within our minds, we must stay busy and stimulated at all costs. Drink and drugs will of course stimulate us in ways that also distract us from the real issues at hand. As far as the mind is concerned, these methods of coping, through distraction and even oblivion, are the ideal solution. The mind, in a sense, becomes the unthinking virus that just wants to replicate its own solution to the problem. As we all too often see though, if we remain unthinking, falling for the minds many means of deception, the solution becomes the final decider. Our addictions will kill us.

The answer, as simple as it might seem, is to become aware

That’s right. Once we become aware of the tricks our minds play, to remain on the easy path of the solutions it has found to survival (without suffering), there is no looking back. Becoming aware, of the tricks and deceptions played out within our own thinking, means we then have the power to choose. If you want change, it begins with meditation, leading to mindfulness. However, the mind, as it may well already be doing, will work hard at making sure you remain oblivious to a different, healthy solution. Remember, as for as the mind is concerned, it already has the answers to easing our pain and loneliness. Change though, need only be one decision away.