Addiction 01 - Self-deprecation
We often try to belittle, hate, criticise, run down ourself in our own mind for no good reason. Self deprecation is an urge, usually an automatic and irresistible urge to see yourself less than others and make unrealistic or wrong comparisons. Even when we get together with a group of friends we always have something to complain or judge about ourselves or it can be about life in general. Higher degree of self judgement will follow the lack of actions, which results in more anxiety and we create a situation for us where we are miserable and the only way out is to be aware of the feelings of fear, anxiety or depression and then ask yourself “what did I just tell myself that is creating this feeling?”
Addictions are always challenging to resolve and this one is no exception. Try to be easy on yourself, it will take time and dedication to become aware of your self deprecating judgements.
We often try to belittle, hate, criticise, run down ourself in our own mind for no good reason. Self deprecation is an urge, usually an automatic and irresistible urge to see yourself less than others and make unrealistic or wrong comparisons. Even when we get together with a group of friends we always have something to complain or judge about ourselves or it can be about life in general. Higher degree of self judgement will follow the lack of actions, which results in more anxiety and we create a situation for us where we are miserable and the only way out is to be aware of the feelings of fear, anxiety or depression and then ask yourself “what did I just tell myself that is creating this feeling?”
Addictions are always challenging to resolve and this one is no exception. Try to be easy on yourself, it will take time and dedication to become aware of your self deprecating judgements.
Addiction 02 - Overthinking
There’s no off switch to somethings and Overthinking is one of those things to me. If anyone ask me how many hours per day do you think? I don’t know the answer, I overthink all the time when I am awake or maybe in the sleep too.
You become whatever you think about, every life situation is shaped by our thoughts, So think wisely not overly and only when you need it because thinking is for simplifying not to complicate, thinking too much is already defeating the purpose. Use it as a tool, maintain the sharpness of it by letting go of all your thoughts about past and future. No matter how much you want to achieve tomorrow and and how much you have suffered yesterday. Appreciate the NOW. Yes, it is difficult but at least we all overthinkers can try.
There’s no off switch to somethings and Overthinking is one of those things to me. If anyone ask me how many hours per day do you think? I don’t know the answer, I overthink all the time when I am awake or maybe in the sleep too.
You become whatever you think about, every life situation is shaped by our thoughts, So think wisely not overly and only when you need it because thinking is for simplifying not to complicate, thinking too much is already defeating the purpose. Use it as a tool, maintain the sharpness of it by letting go of all your thoughts about past and future. No matter how much you want to achieve tomorrow and and how much you have suffered yesterday. Appreciate the NOW. Yes, it is difficult but at least we all overthinkers can try.
Addiction 03 - Sleep/Staying in bed
Sleep is a basic biological need and we all love sleeping and more than that we love staying in bed even after completing our sleep. I sleep a lot, I wake up around noon on weekends and like to spend a whole weekend in bed without going out a for even a single hour and still feel the urge to stay in bed more. Sometimes its good to spend weekends like this but this should not become a ritual. It’s not normal to just want to lay in bed all day long all the time, you need to find out the real reason for this feeling, because Sleeping, resting or staying in bed is there to make you feel refresh, alert and fill you with right amount of energy to go on with life but this urge is a just a plain lifestyle disorder and we need to tackle this before it overtakes our life. These constant long hours of napping might seem okay for now but it can lead us to major issues in future.
Sleep is a basic biological need and we all love sleeping and more than that we love staying in bed even after completing our sleep. I sleep a lot, I wake up around noon on weekends and like to spend a whole weekend in bed without going out a for even a single hour and still feel the urge to stay in bed more. Sometimes its good to spend weekends like this but this should not become a ritual. It’s not normal to just want to lay in bed all day long all the time, you need to find out the real reason for this feeling, because Sleeping, resting or staying in bed is there to make you feel refresh, alert and fill you with right amount of energy to go on with life but this urge is a just a plain lifestyle disorder and we need to tackle this before it overtakes our life. These constant long hours of napping might seem okay for now but it can lead us to major issues in future.
Addiction 04 - Online dating
I love that ice cream flavour too, have watched this movie over 100 times, used to read these Comic books during summer vacations,Never thought I will be telling these simple but important things about myself to so many strangers every weekend and finding that someone special will convert into looking for something casual, dating will become a part of your weekend schedule, feeling butterflies before a date will fade away, emotional bonds will form because of some AI algorithms.
Online dating sites have a problem in that everything is a piece meal. You read bios, look at photos and develop a sense of the person you are about to meet in real life. But how realistic is it to assume your image will be accurate?
Online dating may have made it possible for unlikely people to connect with each other but it still doesn’t offer that sense of joy which is there in traditional dating. No matter what method you choose to pursue when looking for that someone special it majorly relies on that one simple chance instead of your regular opening lines copy pasted to every match and maybe that’s how it should be.
I love that ice cream flavour too, have watched this movie over 100 times, used to read these Comic books during summer vacations,Never thought I will be telling these simple but important things about myself to so many strangers every weekend and finding that someone special will convert into looking for something casual, dating will become a part of your weekend schedule, feeling butterflies before a date will fade away, emotional bonds will form because of some AI algorithms.
Online dating sites have a problem in that everything is a piece meal. You read bios, look at photos and develop a sense of the person you are about to meet in real life. But how realistic is it to assume your image will be accurate?
Online dating may have made it possible for unlikely people to connect with each other but it still doesn’t offer that sense of joy which is there in traditional dating. No matter what method you choose to pursue when looking for that someone special it majorly relies on that one simple chance instead of your regular opening lines copy pasted to every match and maybe that’s how it should be.
Addiction 05 - Apple products
Back in the days when any product or device was built, it served a purpose which was not only about making money or gathering maximum users. The motive of that classic Black and White TV was not to get your grandparents glued to it all the time, it was there as a utility to teach, entertain and make them aware about their surroundings by borrowing a short span of time from their lives. But now we have to take time from our own lives to stay away for a bit from these products which are strategically built to get our attention as much as possible. Apple is the ultimate trendsetter for this not only by their addictive interface, they are also good at creating this perfect illusion of you being the superior after buying their product. So may be we can begin by breaking all these walls of illusions and start living as humans instead of Users.
Addiction 06 - Binge Watching
The way of consuming content is one of the many things which we have revamped with the arrival of Internet, and this new manner of watching your favourite show or movies has defeated the purpose of that content piece. The purpose was to inform, teach, entertain and inspire, but we are busy pressing the next episode button and completing the watchlist instead of absorbing it. Most of us may still remember the dialogues of movies and shows which we have watched years ago on TV but now barely remember the episode number of series on which you dozed off last week after watching it for 8 hours.
Addiction 07 - Emojis
A picture is worth a thousand words or wait let me rephrase for us, an emoji is worth a thousand words and whole lot of other complex emotions. Technology made easier to pursue our feelings through emojis regardless of the amount of truth they carry. How many times we have been misunderstood because of using a certain emoji or came across as a rude person because of not using an emoji at the end of a sentence. And this happens because these flashy icons can’t replace our real expressions and emotions, as humans like to express themselves not only through facial expression but also what’s seen with the eyes and varying modulation of the voice and that’s why we ask people to meet in person during serious situation. I am all up for easy, fun and quick communication but do we need technology to facilitate a thing like expressing our feelings every single time. When technology didn’t evolve as much, people used passion and meaning in their words and believes in communicating in person from time to time instead of just virtual connection and that we should keep intact.
A picture is worth a thousand words or wait let me rephrase for us, an emoji is worth a thousand words and whole lot of other complex emotions. Technology made easier to pursue our feelings through emojis regardless of the amount of truth they carry. How many times we have been misunderstood because of using a certain emoji or came across as a rude person because of not using an emoji at the end of a sentence. And this happens because these flashy icons can’t replace our real expressions and emotions, as humans like to express themselves not only through facial expression but also what’s seen with the eyes and varying modulation of the voice and that’s why we ask people to meet in person during serious situation. I am all up for easy, fun and quick communication but do we need technology to facilitate a thing like expressing our feelings every single time. When technology didn’t evolve as much, people used passion and meaning in their words and believes in communicating in person from time to time instead of just virtual connection and that we should keep intact.
Addiction 08 - Mobile phones
FYI My screen time was 38% down this week, for an average of 5 hours 6 mins a day.
Addiction 09 - Busyness
I am insanely busy, Haven’t taken a real vacation in a year, Can’t come, my calendar is crazy busy for next three weeks.
If you use these lines frequently and your friends have started assuming in advance that you are not going to make it for that planned trip, then you might be addicted to the busyness because being absurdly busy all the time is actually a choice and a lack of prioritisation. Most of the time it is self imposed and you have accept it as a lifestyle . You might be using this busyness to numb the other uncomfortable feelings and to avoid harsh truths of life or it can be as simple as of being just scared of boredom or be an average achiever at a certain point in life. Just be honest with yourself and try to find out what void are you trying to fill in with this constant busyness in your life because this is avoidable most of the time.
Addiction 10 - Pets
Humans love companionship because we need someone to talk or share things on a daily basis, so from the very beginning of our lives we start finding our companions in form of our favourite toys, a friend from our building, then classmates, siblings or a pet.
Yes, we all adore our pets and are up for showering all the love and affection on them but sometimes despite of our infinite love they might be struggling to live because at the end for some animals we can’t change the physical conditions according to them and we still decide to keep them anyway, just because you like to keep pets, want someone in your empty house or you want to cope up with your loneliness or maybe just for your Instagram stories.
Few weeks backs I got a chance to keep a turtle as a pet and I got all excited because all the above reasons are applicable to me but after a couple of days I realised because of me he is never going to meet another turtle in his life and will never touch the earth directly with his own feets and catch his own food. This was not the ideal life for him so I called up an animal welfare agency and handed him to them, so they can release him into his natural habitat.
Addiction 11 - Nostalgia
We usually dream to hop on a time machine and go back in time to experience the good old and simpler times of our lives, we use nostalgia as a retreat to the past and to hide from the future but instead of this we should use it to gear up and take over the future. Nostalgia should give you courage to go out and take social risks because all your good memories are proof that you’ve made strong and deeper connections in the past and had awesome experiences and you have the ability to do it again.
If we can reflect on our own life and feel satisfied, nostalgia is good and healthy. We all should embrace our prized memories, but don’t try to replicate them. Take what you loved about those times and places and channel them into brand new experiences.
Addiction 12 - Loneliness
Spending time alone is not inherently bad, it allows you to connect with your needs, goals and emotions but it’s dangerous when this state of solitude gets addictive. Because of globalisation, we are moving away from collectivist society, people are living alone away from their families, people got even more cautious during festivals while celebrating alone or with few friends. Divided between interdependence and the desire to strike out on our own, I always find this puzzle of loneliness hard to solve.
Addiction 13 - Cancelling Plans
You might have dodged a lot of plans this weekend without any concrete reason and stayed in bed because when you text them “I can’t make it “ your eyes must’ve rolled back into the skull with joy because this is one of the pleasures we all crave for. As an introvert I support the need of spending time with yourself, this is not selfishness, it’s self preservation.
But do not unplug yourself completely because we all need human interaction as plants need sunlight plus don’t take people who love you for granted. If you are bailing, bail responsibly, believe in meeting commitments because unreliable life is not a life I believe.
You might have dodged a lot of plans this weekend without any concrete reason and stayed in bed because when you text them “I can’t make it “ your eyes must’ve rolled back into the skull with joy because this is one of the pleasures we all crave for. As an introvert I support the need of spending time with yourself, this is not selfishness, it’s self preservation.
But do not unplug yourself completely because we all need human interaction as plants need sunlight plus don’t take people who love you for granted. If you are bailing, bail responsibly, believe in meeting commitments because unreliable life is not a life I believe.
Addiction 14 - Religion
I consider religion to be an imposed addiction. One of the deadliest drug on earth is introduced to us by our own parents. But do you want to or how much you want to consume this, it’s upto you, with the Elections around the corner, you may find heavy doses of religion and God all around you in different forms and we all know it’s good to keep God out of politics.
Religion and politics are both very combustible subjects, and throwing them into each other’s arms is definitely going to cause a fire. Civil life duties are very different from religious ones and we all should be aware of that and it is okay to not have one more Mandir.
