Passion or Addiction: 7 Ways to Understand Your Feelings

Passion is a necessary attribute of a full and successful life. This is how it is considered. Harmonious passion is a healthy variety. She energizes and motivates. Obsessive, on the contrary, harms a person. It makes you feel longing, tense and guilty. Both love passion and passion for any activity can develop into an obsession. How to recognize addiction and get rid of it?

1. Determine how harmonious your passion is

Signs of a healthy passion:

1. You get joy and satisfaction from what you do;
2. You can prioritize: when you can do what you love, and when you need to pay attention to other things;
3. You can at any time break away from your favorite pastime and devote time to family, work, friends.

2. don’t follow your feelings

If you have a suspicion that passion is becoming an obsession, try not to get emotional. As soon as you feel a strong urge to do what you love — go for a run, play the guitar, or write your fifth blog post of the day — stop and think. When you start to analyze, the desire subsides and you learn to control your desires.

3. Evaluate the sacrifices you are making

Indulging in passion, you steal time from other things and activities. 2-3 hours a day seems like a small waste of time, but in the long run, that’s hundreds of hours that can hinder your career, business, and relationships. Therefore, do not forget to evaluate possible losses.

4. Plan your day

It is better to allocate time so that you do what you love at the end of the day, when all the important things are finished. First, you will wait for the evening as a gift and try to deal with uninteresting matters as quickly as possible.

Plus, you won’t feel guilty about doing what you love because you’ve had a productive day and in the evening you can afford to have a nice rest. Finally, by the end of the day you will be so tired that you will not be able to devote too much time to your passion.

5. Get rid of the circumstances surrounding your passion

Harmonious passion brings pleasure in itself, while obsessive connection is always associated with fear. We go jogging because we’re afraid of gaining weight, we write several posts a day for fear of losing followers, we play the guitar frenziedly so that the teacher who said we have no talent is not right.

It’s easy to turn a passion into an obsession if your self-esteem and self-identity depend on it. Remember, your passion is only what you do, not you.

6. Take a break from time to time

So that passion does not turn into addiction, take a break from it – so you can keep it under control. If your heart rate does not increase, sweating does not increase, and obsessive thoughts do not come to your head, then your passion is harmonious.

7. Create a set of alternative activities

To avoid addiction, come up with options that can be a substitute for your passion. If you like running, diversify this activity with other activities. Volleyball, biking, swimming, and hiking in the woods with friends will do. When you see that there are many opportunities in life, you do not run the risk of becoming dependent on one type of activity.