Obsessions…

Posted on August 18, 2008
Filed Under Awareness, Journal |

Obsessions are a funny thing aren’t they? They can come upon us in an instant, or they can build up slowly across an entire lifetime. Obsessions take all forms and manners as well. Not only are obsessions about the things we like to do, but they also entail the way we think. I am not really talking about specific obsessive thoughts, like obsessing over that elusive lost love…rather I am talking about an obsessive style of thinking. Some may say that it is all just done to personality; some people are self-serving, others are self-subserviant, others still are encased in perteptual negativity or paranoia. Is laziness a personality trait or an obsession?

I put it out there that any element of our personality which we dredge up again and again - traits which serve no real purpose such as bitterness, negativity, angst, perpetual hostility, are in fact obsessive patterns. Maybe we get addicted to the particular brain chemical a set thought process releases, or maybe a part of us finds such thought patterns comforting if only because they give us something to latch on to and help form our identity.

Where then do we draw a line between an attitude being an element of our personality as opposed to being an obsession? Well it seems to me, that obsessions are always very defensive - they get aggravated when they are pointed out, they have a need to justify and explain themselves. Where as conversly, personality elements simply trundle along and are what they are, be they of a positive of negative bent tends to be immatarial to the true personality element - it exists in and of itself.

I see this in myself a lot. Obsessive thoughts, beliefs or attitudes are always carried right out on display, or they loop over and over within the mind. They look for any event or excuse in order to jump right back out again - often creating quite a display for those people around us. Obsessions like to be experienced - and will always choose a course of action or take a particular perspective which will allow for this.

Personality traits are different. These are the places where perhaps we feel most comfortable, because we tend not to think about them. They simply ‘happen’ of their own accord. But what about those things we enjoy doing? Are those obsessions? Well even when we do them again and again, I would say no - there is a difference between enjoyment, pleasure and obsession - even though most often they are utterly intermixed.

But then obsessions are not necessarily a bad thing; they give us drive and strong motivation. Yet they do pose a problem when they blanket our thoughts, words and actions. Perhaps we only need be mindful of what drives our next sentance, our next action, our next thought…

…intent, consideration…or automated unthinking obsession…