we all have this in common

photo cred: Rasheed Kemy, Unsplash

We are addicted. We are attached.

According to Ian Morgan Cron: "None of us has only one addiction; we are boiling cauldrons of addictions."

Brene Brown: "We are the most addicted and medicated adult cohort in US history."

Anne Lamott: "Getting all of our addictions under control is a little like putting an octopus to bed."

Addictions are spiritual workarounds, a substance or strategy used to distract us or numb us from pain and to fulfill the longing we experience as humans. We think that our longing will be met through an addiction of choice, but instead, these compulsions block us from the free flow of divine love and from wholehearted living. Addictions are "self-erected blockades" that masquerade as comfort, security, and freedom.

I've been engaging with Ian Morgan Cron's book The Fix, his accompanying workbook, and in Richard Rohr's book, Breathing Under Water. Both Rohr and Cron point to Twelve Step spirituality as the transformational program to surrender our addictions so that we might live, instead, in the grace and provision of a power greater than our own attempts to fix ourselves.

If you are stuck and frustrated with your lack of growth and transformation, just know that you are not alone. We all have sly egos that really believe they are pulling out all the stops to protect us and keep us from demise. These egos offer addictions- poor substitutes- for Love, though. In fact, I once learned this mnemonic tool for ego: Edging God Out.

Identifying and naming our proclivities and patterns, our addictions and attachments, is a necessary step on the wholehearted journey of moving from ego to essence, from fear to love.