We all have things we do that we are not very satisfied with or proud of and that we would like to be able to change. The change process requires that we go against or cross ourselves. One of the most obvious ways to recognize how difficult it is to cross ourselves is to consider the difficulty of trying to lose weight.
Instead of loading our plates with all the delicious food prepared for a meal or instead of going back for seconds, we have to cross ourselves, or go against our desire to satisfy our acquired hunger. Alcoholics and drug addicts, very much like those who are driven to overeat, also have to cross themselves. Those are probably the most difficult human behaviors that must be crossed, as well as the most common.
I smoked cigarettes and whatever else I could light up and draw smoke from (cigars and pipes) from the time I was eleven until I was nineteen. At the point that I realized how it was affecting my health in a negative way, I wanted to quit, but it was not an easy thing to do. After many attempts, I was finally able to cross myself when I was a nineteen year old man. Shauna Gibby suggested that addiction of any kind means to surrender to something, thus relinquishing agency and becoming dependent on some life-destroying substance or behavior. Crossing oneself is a mind over matter project, or putting it another way it is to take back our agency. It is choosing to employ a positive pattern of behavior rather than one that is negative and unproductive. Indulging in health-threatening habits could appropriately be called imprisoning oneself. Is there really a difference between iron bars and/ or a substance that limits your freedom to live a normal life, a substance that compels you to be with a limited group of friends and to be where you will have access to your choice of drug? The best way and maybe the only way to quit one habit is to replace it with another. A bad habit for a good one is a recommended trade off. Most bad habits are started during periods of idleness and while associating with people who have the habit already. I believe most good habits are started during productive times, times when we are occupied in positive ways and in company of positive people, people whom we would feel uncomfortable with, if we were to indulge in our negative habit.
I am now an old man, and I am grateful every day that I was able to overcome my bad habit while still a youth. However, it is never too late to make positive changes in one’s life. Someone has said that “The pursuit of happiness is the chase of a lifetime! It is never too late to become what you might have been.” That may not be entirely true, but we can always strive to be better and in that process of striving we usually become more free and even happier along the way.