G.I. Gurdjieff, a 19th-century spiritual teacher, described humankind’s profoundly deceitful state: individuals, more machine than living being, suffer a paucity of attention. He declared people to be virtual sleepwalkers, bereft of consciousness. ‘Man consumes a distressing amount of vitality in negative emotions such as fear, emotional stupidity and anger‘, he explained. ‘Freedom requires an admission of enslavement.’

Being present in the moment signifies the complete absorption with what is, as it is. This embodies free attention. Tremendous beauty infiltrates our lives when attention is fully present during routine events. For instance, drinking freshly squeezed orange juice at breakfast becomes a symphony of taste sensations when approached with open awareness. The entire universe dissolves into the immediate moment. Creating free attention necessitates a determination to address habitual behaviours and fully release any negative thoughts holding attention captive.

Conventional notions often perceive addiction under social, substance-based constructs. Essentially, addiction is a dependence on something - whether behavioural, relational, or otherwise - a dependency intended to evade discomfort or stress. Many individuals opt for cognitive or societal addictions; they deny internal conflict while escaping into an external issue. They deploy intricate manipulation techniques to sidestep reality. This psychological trickery is often incongruent with true mindfulness. These mechanisms often serve an unconscious bid to alter perceptions of reality - but to what end?

Managers of thought and emotion rarely comprehend the distortion they unconsciously instill by using manipulative strategies, such as ‘fear and release,’ and the myriad diversion tactics which follow: denial, selective inattention, blame shifting. Employing such mechanisms impairs free thought, creating the illusion that reality exists under the terms of our desires or expectations.

While striving to define reality - be it idealistic or grounded - is arduous in itself, we may simplify by considering reality as objectively existent, independent of subjective constructs. Manipulative behaviours function as self-protective habits rooted in denial or avoidance. They further harden the mind against the malleability of change. For example, blame shifting rationalizes undesired emotions by denying them while assigning accountability to external entities.

A victim mentality perpetuates robotic, addictive routines. We can compare instinctual reactions to deliberate, intentional choices. The former is embedded within us; the latter requires self-awareness and courage. Automatic actions result in self-inflicted pain. Self-awareness reduces the risk of furtherance by offering an objective lens to one’s behaviours. Acknowledging past and present transgressions against ourselves or others is often the most potent catalyst for constructive change. Through sincere remorse and subsequent resolve for personal growth and transformation, one paves the way to freedom from unhelpful narratives and patterns.