Getting Past Gambling

A place to come and share experiences, to find support and strength, for those of us who are putting gambling behind us and finding new exciting and happier ways to live our lives.
" You never achieve real success unless you like what you are doing."
*Dale Carnegie {1888-1955 American Author & Achievement Expert}


Wednesday, September 28, 2005

THE DAILY GURU...Messages That Guide You Daily

"Imagine Your Ideal Future"

"Your imagination is your preview to life's coming attractions."
-- Albert Einstein I

If you were to create an ideal future for yourself, what would it be like?

All things that now exist in form were once simply ideas in consciousness. We each hold the power to manifest different circumstances for our lives.

If we wish to manifest a new reality for ourselves, we need to consistently focus our imagination on the ideals we seek to realize.

Remember to explore your ideal in terms of qualities, not people or things. What qualities do you most want in life?
Freedom? Respect? Playfulness? Abundance?

Whatever qualities you seek, imagine experiencing them now and be open to new ways to discover those qualities appearing in your life.

"Change is created by those whose imaginations are bigger than their circumstances"-- Unknown source

Friday, September 09, 2005

THE DAILY GURU...Messages That Guide You Daily

"Self Talk Is Revealing"
"If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words."
-- Chinese Proverb

What passes over your lips each day?
Are your words typically negative, critical, gossiping, deceptive, illusory, justifying, blaming, manipulative and argumentative?
Are they more uplifting, inspirational, positive, questioning, beautiful, loving, universal, truthful, accepting and supportive?
The throat is our center of expression.
Who we are sneaks out in our attitudes and in what we say.

"Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs."
-- Pearl Strachan Hurd

"The wise weigh their words on a scale with gold." -- Bible

Monday, September 05, 2005

THE DAILY GURU...Messages That Guide You Daily

"Relieve The Pressure Cooker"

"Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go.
Release the hurt.
Release the fear.
Refuse to entertain your old pain.
The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life."
-- Mary Manin Morrissey

Journaling is a great way to release and let go.
To get things off your chest. Our minds are our own worst enemies. The same thoughts go round and round in the same old ways and keep us stuck.

If something bothers you, write about it. Get it out so you can see it from a different perspective.
Let it out.
Let it go.
Owning and healing your pressure cooker is an important step in claiming your power, building your esteem and making your stand.

"In truth, to attain to interior peace, one must be willing to pass through the contrary to peace.
Such is the teaching of the Sages."
-- Swami Brahmanada

Friday, September 02, 2005

Some Things to Know About Compulsive Gambling

SOME THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT COMPULSIVE GAMBLING
http://www.gamblingrecovery.com/main.htm

The rush a compulsive gambler feels when he has a substantial wager is incredibly intense. It is hard to duplicate the drama of having hundreds or thousands of dollars hanging in the balance of a few minutes or hours.
Gambling in this sense is like a drug.
We can become so totally obsessed with the "big hit" and feeling that ecstasy, that we escape reality for hours, even days. We'll loose ourselves in fantasies about how we'll spend our winnings or turn them into even greater fortunes.

The "high rolling" life thus appeals to us as we spend our time going from one rush to the next, one fantasy to another.For the compulsive gambler, the allure of gambling is not the money, but the rush provided by the entire process.
The goal is to be always "In Action".
Gamblers often claim that they are only motivated by money not just to convince themselves or others that they'll quit once they finally make their hit.
Yet addicted gamblers always plow back their winnings eventually - no matter what the amount.
That's because your need to feel the intense rush that gambling provides does not go away once you win.
In fact, the need for that rush becomes even stronger once gamblers experience the unbelievable high of making a big hit. You want to experience that joy once again.
The thinking is, "Hey, I did it once, so I know I can do it again".
So inevitably gamblers seek out that thrill again and again and again, no matter how much they are ahead or how much they have lost.

It's not about the money.

Does the cocaine addict stop taking cocaine after experiencing his greatest high ever?
Does the compulsive eater stop wanting gorge himself after eating the most delicious meal of his life? Of course not - because addictions are an end in themselves.
They are the end.
We tell ourselves that we need to get through the weekend, or just need to eat this meal, or just need to make so much money, as if there is a goal we are trying to reach that once met will free us from our addiction.
But this is a complete fantasy, a lie we create to justify our irrational behavior.
The only goal of our addictive behavior is to feed the addiction.