How One Woman Overcame Her Addiction and How Her Method Can Help You with Your Own Bad Habits

Addiction and bad habits are something most of us have had a personal struggle with at some point or another. How do you deal with your bad habits? One of my guests on Thriving After 40, Bracha Goetz a Children’s Book Author, battled a food addiction for many years and shared how she overcame her dependency. I found her philosophy on addiction powerful and worth paying attention to.

Bracha shares that there are five levels of the human soul and there are five levels of pleasure in life. When certain aspects of our soul are not being nourished, we fill our life up with things that do not benefit us and we begin a negative cycle. The secret is that by nourishing the human soul with these five levels of pleasure, we can heal ourselves of our addictions – of which, let’s be honest, there are many.

We can get unstuck from addictions by realizing there is no scarcity of pleasure in life, there is actually an abundance of pleasure, which we can bring into our lives at any time. We can bring ourselves any pleasure that is available in the natural world. When facing your need for addiction, ask yourself – is it my body that is hungry for this food/substance/item or is it my soul?

When you turn to your addiction, what you are really trying to do is fill your soul. The only thing that will finally fill you is to bring more joy into your life.

This entire explanation by Bracha made my soul sing. I LOVE this. Here are the five levels of pleasure you can use to overcome your own dependencies.

At the lowest level there are physical pleasures. Connecting with an object. You can turn on music, start dancing, feel movement in the body, do your favorite physical activity, go outside, feel the sunshine on your face, feel the breeze, be with nature – move and connect with a different kind of joy until you feel the need dissipate.

At the second level, there is love. Connecting with another being. Bracha reminds us, that love does not depend on other people. You can bring love into your life by simply thinking of another person you appreciate – you can bring love into your heart at any moment by feeling gratitude for any other human being.

At the third level there is Meaning, doing something meaningful. Connecting with the world. Reaching out to someone or some group to bring meaning or goodness, bringing pleasure into other people’s lives in some way.

At the fourth level there is Creativity. Connecting to adding something new to the world. When you are creative you find yourself in that pleasurable zone and don’t feel that addiction need.

Finally, at the fifth level, there is transcendence – Understanding how we are all connected with each other – a feeling of awe and bliss – the glimpses we get into that sense of awesomeness, that amazing and total connectedness in the universe, is what sustains and helps bring everlasting pleasure. It’s a knowing that once seen, cannot be shaken.

Now that you’re aware of the abundance of pleasures and the hierarchy of the pleasure ladder, if you ever feel stuck, you can use these tools to make your life more fluid. Bracha shared that learning the purpose of life is to experience the greatest pleasure possible and that the way to experience the greatest pleasure possible is to nourish the soul, changed her life completely. Now yours can to. Next time you have that negative urge, bring awareness to it and realize, oh, you want to experience pleasure, okay, let’s do something else that’s pleasurable.

It’s time to free ourselves from the ties that bind. This sounds like the absolute best way I’ve ever heard to do it.

Bracha understands that the purpose of life is to experience the greatest pleasure possible. She shared that because of this knowing, she does not spend much time being unhappy. She spends her time focused on gratitude and appreciation. Anytime feelings are negative, it is possible to change them by feeling gratitude in that moment and by doing so, you will experience pleasure. It’s in your control, at any moment you can focus your minds on what you have to appreciate. Life is a gift. Every breath is a gift.

I’m going to leave you with Bracha’s final parting thought. She said, while your body may age, your soul remains timeless –your soul is as vital now as it was when you were born. If you are alive, your mission is not complete. There is a reason you are here. If your soul has felt dulled, it’s time to light that fire for your soul is waiting for you, vital as ever.

Wishing everyone a blessed and more pleasure filled life than they have ever experienced before.

For more from Bracha Goetz you can listen here: https://bit.ly/BrachaGoetz