Devil's Playground
A crucial factor within the foundation of Addict II Athlete was addressing the importance of unstructured leisure or free time. If left unchecked this time is what makes or breaks recovery. When this time becomes unstructured and boredom sets in most people switch back to default settings, old habits and make poor decisions.
Boredom is one of the most important topics in recovery because it has the potential to be the source of much misery. Boredom is just a precursor to some fairly heavy emotions that if gone unchecked, will overwhelm even the most dedicated individual. Feelings of emptiness, helplessness, sadness, inadequacy, and most frequent and common, depression will all rear their ugly head if we allow ourselves to fall into the scarcity of boredom. We may not even realize that something as innocent as being bored could have such severe consequences if not dealt with quickly.
When someone is bored they evidently don’t like what they’re doing but don’t really want to invest in thinking to do something else. It’s like the light bulb in your head is so bright you don’t turn it on because of its glare. Becoming inactive or relaxed in recovery is dangerous because it takes away from the fundamental principles of what Addict to Athlete teaches, those being action, creativity, and personal investment.
I think about it this way, I’m never bored when I am busy, even if it’s something that I don’t thoroughly enjoy. I remember talking to a client who spoke about feeling bored to him meant that he had too much free time and when he realized that, it was an indicator to produce something of greater value with his time. It’s time that can be used to increase relationships with family, social networks, sponsors and of course my personal favorite, physical activity with other athletes. It is also a great time to work on yourself and your surroundings such as write, fix, create, or meditate. It’s funny how when we wanted something so desperately like our next score we could create and produce out of nothing because the desire was so strong. Typically we tend not to spend the same amount of time and energy to battle the potential relapse because the real world does not manifest as instantaneous as our drug of choice does.
A common cause of boredom may be the endless hunt for pleasure. In pursuing pleasure, inevitably it’s more likely we will be disappointed. Life is not about a mission for gratification, but about a reason for existing. Our reason for living is a personal one and one that we create. If we create it and live up to it during our free time, we won’t experience boredom.
Boredom always sets in when we are preoccupied with scarcity. How can we be bored when we live in such an abundant world? When there is so much to be created for our fellow man and ourselves. When we direct our attention outward, we will find much to be excited about, learn about, and get involved with.
Thus the beauty within the AIIA program by establishing relationships, becoming trained in and developing passions for physical exercise, relationships, purpose, service, goal attainment and personal accountability we have the power to change lives, starting with our own.