“Life is really good now, but life wasn’t always this good” – Darren Waller.
When success hits you, it does not come with the security of quality life ahead. Your past or bad habits come along with it and may give you a hard time living your life. And sometimes, to eradicate them, you join or enroll in some spiritual awakening process. However, not everyone realizes that they need to change their lives and connect with some spiritual awakening process or another spiritual path.
Life always has something unexpected for you in its box. Like Darren Waller’s journey, he had a hard time-fighting drug abuse and the addiction he had since he was 15 years old. First, he underwent suspension for four games after his tests for marijuana came out as positive. As a result, he had to go through suspension twice for using this drug at Georgia Tech. Moreover, on the 30th of June 2017, Waller got a suspension for the complete 2017 season for once more violating the league’s substance-abuse policy.
He hit his rock bottom and had the realization that he had to get up now. He didn’t want to look in the mirror even while brushing because the person in the mirror was not pleasing or someone he was earlier. That was when the conscious awakening hit him, and he knew that there was a way to live a far better life than this.
However, the number of people who realize how to lead a better life is so less compared to the people who have a completely different end. For example, how many people do you think to realize they need meditation, spiritual awakening, or therapy to make a better turn in life? It is just 10% of all the people who have a drug addiction or other destructive habits.
It is difficult to overcome addiction. Most people give up or face defeat in the initial stage itself. However, the headstrong people or individuals with their peers and family push them to make it to the better side of life. Here are a few ways one can fight addiction or substance abuse:
One of the essential things that individuals can opt for is surrounding themselves with friends and family who stay sober. Although it might be a challenge to cut out the unhealthy or toxic contacts from the past, being with people who stay clean will help them in the long run.
Staying busy is an excellent way to keep your mind off the desire to use. Not just that, establishing a rewarding or enjoyable hobby can help you find happiness, purpose, and even the will to replace unhealthy habits.
When a person’s physical health refines, they experience the “natural high,” i.e., endorphins that elevate their moods. An exercising routine forms a structure for your days and helps in reducing the risk of recurrence.
Like Darren Waller, you too can go ahead sharing your life’s story, talking about it to people, sharing your experiences to help them get over their addiction. Finding a cause to support when you are still recovering lets you help others while helping yourself.
In other words, meditation is one of the best mindful exercises to relieve stress and anxiety, plus it decreases blood pressure and refines the immune system. Practicing meditation or any other mindful living spiritual awakening process can help you find solace and calm.
Life is what you make it, it is not always good to you, but it does not mean you cannot make it better or turn it around. Many students at PTTI have made significant and robust decisions to lead a better life by learning trade skills and avoiding violence and wrong deeds. There is no age for realization to work on self and change routes. Some of our students are plus 30 and have started their skilled trade training now to envision a better future.
Things always work out if you work hard enough for them. All you need is strong willpower because goals are timeless. Darren Waller left football and started working at sprouts, started going to meetings to feel better about his life at that point. Later he moved back to football when he was sure he was ready. Although sometimes, it is not what you think you need in life to be happy, what you didn’t expect gives you calm. It is okay to accept it. It takes small steps to figure things out, and again it is okay to take your time to be you or accurate to yourself and everyone around you.
Destructive things like addictions, violence and bad habits might give you the way out of your problems in the short term. But they do not guarantee you long-term happiness. On the other hand, constructive ways or hobbies make your life better.
For Darren Waller, meditation got him back to the field and found his true self. To our students, it is skilled trades. So what is or will your constructive path be?
Read More: