Don't Lose Yourself

"Living with life is very hard. Mostly we do our best to stifle life - to be tame or to be wanton, to be tranquilized or raging. Extremes have the same effect; they insulate us from the intensity of life." 
~ Jeanette Winterson 

The hobbies and special interests many of us enjoy often become passions. Those who are handy or artsy enjoy building and creating while others who possess a green thumb or cooking skills turn to such activities to lighten our hearts and release tensions. 

Whatever our gifts, it is through these outlets we can step back from the daily rise and grind of our must dos and non-negotiables. However, our passions are not meant to take the place of our responsibilities to work, family, community, and self health. We must be mindful of when our passions become unhealthy obsessions.

Obsession is the single most wasteful human activity, because with an obsession you keep coming back and back and back to the same question and never get an answer." ~ Norman Mailer

Using obsession as a hiding place serves as an ultimate procrastination strategy enabling us to put off that which is necessary or imperative; a harsh truth to be faced, an uncomfortable conversation to be had, a tough decision to be made.  

Once we begin to use obsession as a defense mechanism we delay the inevitable and delay is the deadliest form of denial. It requires a substantial amount of energy investment and works hard to keep unacceptable feelings from consciousness. When we incorporate these habits into our lifestyle we are in danger of falling short of living up to the things that matter.

"You become what you think about all day long."    
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The more intense the obsession, the greater the avoidance which can derail us past the limitations of our stamina. Once lost in a fortress of familiar pain we hesitate to absorb the reality of what we are doing to ourselves. 

Life is about learning through a perpetual series of ups and downs and Awakening, not unlike birth, is a painful process and having the scales removed from our eyes is an ordeal not reserved for the squeamish. This we must accept and allow in order to walk fully into the Light of our best selves. 

Look to the Creator for clarity. He is well able to support us in the ebb and flow of the waves of life and is alive alongside us in the refining flame of Awakening. 

Choose to make the Creator your passion and lose yourself in His Love.

Have your obsessions become a means of avoidance?
What inevitable truths in your life are your obsessions masking?
In what ways have your obsessions derailed your journey toward Awakening? 

"All extremes of feeling are allied with madness."   
~ Emily Dickinson