How do you tell you have an addiction? If you stop doing the behavior that you think you are addicted to for one week and cravings arise, that means you are addicted. Addiction List: -          Drugs -          Food -          Porn -          Tabaco -          Alcohol -          TV and internet -          Videogames -          Socialization (chitchatting and parting with your friends) -          Shopping -          Work -          Gossip -          Thinking (is the #1 thing people are addicted to) The root cause of any addiction is fear of emptiness. It is the real fear of emptiness that you experience when you are alone with nothing to do (if you sit in a room and do nothing for a while you will notice a fear of emptiness come up). What addictions are is they are distractions and escapes from this existential emptiness fear that all of us have. So the problem that you have is basically that you cannot sit alone in an empty room, so what you do is you turn to …… into distraction. The degree to which you are self-developed, emotionally mature and capable as a human being is measured by the fact that you can sit alone in an empty room without any external stimulation and the degree to which you need external stimulation to feel happy is the degree to which you have no mastery over your life, it the degree to which you are a slave to external reality; It is the difference between being internally grounded and externally grounded and the whole aim of self-actualization is to anchor yourself into being internally grounded (BEING VS DOING). You cannot be really satisfied in life if you cannot sit in a room for a couple of hours! And most people cannot do that; this is because their lives are hollow. Your life is actually empty but you have been running away from that truth and reality. You are doing stupid stuff to distract yourself since you cannot be happy by only being and in the present moment. No matter how much you consume you will never fill your emptiness of being with materialism; you cannot replace the being with the doing. This existential emptiness is not a problem that you should avoid, it is something you should open yourself to and dive into. The nature of Being is Emptiness and spirituality is indeed this. So this fear is the fear of the Void inside of you; it is the same fear that arises when you start contemplating your own death. This emptiness is the same experience as when you are in deep sleep, is the same emptiness of death and the same as the emptiness you were before you born. YOU ARE RUNNING AWAY FROM THIS EMPTINESS. If you sit long enough you will realize that none of this means anything and this might make you depressed and lead you to an existential crisis (the dark night of the soul) WHAT YOU NEED TO FACE THIS VOID AT ONE POINT IN YOUR LIFE IF YOU WANT TO CONQUER ADDICTION SUSTAINABLY. How to overcome addictions and face emptiness? Sit with emptiness and do nothing, without any stimulus. As you do this, don’t go into fantasies, just do nothing. What you need to do is sit and feel the Purifying Fire of Emptiness; all your cravings and addictions will come but you need to endure and sit there. As you sit your mind and body will start going crazy but the longer you sit there the purifying fire will burn all the inner demons (it’s like your inner demons are escaping you). If you don’t do this, it is just a short term solution. Sitting and doing nothing is the ultimate solution. SITTING AND DOING NOTHING IS THE MOST DIFFICULT THING TO DO. All addiction is basically emotional immaturity. Top techniques to overcome addictions and be fully self-actualized: -          Do Nothing -          Mindfulness Meditation -          Strong Determination Sitting -          Existential investigation: You sit down and investigate who and what you are existentially and face your inner demons head on. o   What is going to happen when you are dead? There are two types of addictions: 1-      Hard addictions (everything mentioned above) 2-      Soft addictions a.       Criticism and Judgement b.      Love and Validation c.       Compliments d.      Success People think that soft addictions are good but they are in nature neurotic. The most self-actualized person is the one who is internally grounded and doesn’t need external reality at all. This doesn’t mean he is a banal person or he is not fun, he can do everything but he doesn’t need it and for his the most enjoyable things for him is just to sit and to be. The question is how far are you from that ideal? How can you structure your life so your main goal is to be happy just by being and doing nothing? IF YOU CAN BE HAPPY DOING NOTHING AT ALL IMAGINE HOW COULD IT BE WHEN YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING WONDERFUL AND EXCITING. Internal wealth is how happy can you be doing nothing; and this is something you can develop.