34: Is This Blocking Your Ability to See

Steven Ginsburg: 0:00

I like this analogy. Where chess is concerned, it's imperative that we see the whole board, and sometimes, when we zero in on the board, we are looking at the board in its entirety, and sometimes, when we look at the board, we're looking at one piece in one position. Our lives need to have some balance where that's concerned.

Steve Coughran: 0:18

This is the Addiction Recovery Podcast with Steven T Ginsburg, founder of Restore Detox Centers in sunny California. Enjoy your experience. One of my good friends. He was telling me how he went to his optometrist the other day. This is not a joke, it kind of sounds like one. But yeah, he went to his optometrist to get his eyes checked and during that appointment the optometrist was telling him how. You know, like a major development, a major problem that's occurring especially with younger people is this nearsightedness, where you know they're so focused on their phones, you know, and they're holding their phones close up to their faces that actually the muscles within their eyes and I'll know all the technical jargon but their muscles, they're getting trained and strengthened to focus inwards, so then when they look outwards it's harder to see like it messes with their vision over time. And with this trend, if we just take it paradoxically and we just apply it to real life, nearsightedness, farsightedness, both of them can be a problem. So let me just set this up and then I want to hear your perspective. If you're nearsighted, it's easy to just get stuck into the day-to-day, into the weeds, the details, the problems, the addiction, whatever it is that we're struggling with, and not see into the future, not see the bigger picture, the bigger vision for our lives. Conversely, if we're farsighted, it's easy to just see the big picture right and you're like, hey, I want to be an entrepreneur, I want to be a pastor, I want to, you know, change the world with this, or go back to school, or be a better husband or a wife, whatever it is Right, and we have this big grand vision, but then our daily patterns don't match that. So we're like, farsighted, we can see the bigger picture, but we're not doing things on a day-to-day basis that are going to get us there. So both of them can be a problem. And that's what I want to talk to you about, S steven, is because I think a lot of the youth especially it's so easy to get trapped in social media and in our phones and just the digital world, this virtual world, and just in our day-to-day problems that we miss the bigger picture that's right before us. What are your thoughts on that?

Steven Ginsburg: 2:34

A couple of things jump out and I really love where you're at on this topic and I love what we're talking about. There's some real value always in playing the tape all the way through. That coincides with anything and everything in our lives, every choice, every decision, everything we do and I am not a chess player there is my disclaimer, but I like this analogy. Where chess is concerned, it's imperative that we see the whole board and sometimes, when we zero in on the board, we are looking at the board in its entirety, and sometimes, when we look at the board, we're looking at one piece in one position. Our lives need to have some balance where that's concerned.

Steven Ginsburg: 3:15

And this is where, again, the ability to methodically really look at what we're doing in our day-to-day life, the choices we're making in our day-to-day life, the choices we're making, the ability to think about the long-term benefits or the long-term actual rectification and problems coinciding with our decisions, and then the short-term benefits and the short-term hazards that we're facing, by being able to actually slow down and think, not knee-jerking, by looking at the whole board and taking it all into consideration, it gives us the ability in life to navigate these intricacies well.

Steven Ginsburg: 3:54

The hardest part is when there is something that is impaired with our vision apropos to what you're discussing and what impairs vision, things like mind-altering substances impair vision, they impair focus, they impair clarity. When we've got those elements on board, we don't have the ability to have that distinct look at all things and we lose what Perspective? And then what happens? There's dire consequences, and this is where it all bundles up nicely. This is why it's so imperative especially if there's unmanageability and powerlessness where these things are concerned to realize every decision we make, every choice we make, every move we make has an effect on our life today, tomorrow and otherwise.

Steve Coughran: 4:43

Yeah, and I love what you said, stephen, about something's blocking our vision. And if you think about drugs, I mean that's scientifically how they work and I'm breaking this down very simply but they're going in and they're blocking receptors, which then like releases you know, dopamine or other things in our bodies and gives us the high Right, and so it's like drugs block, like literally blocker receptors, but they also, like these mind altering drugs, they block our vision. But there's other things that also get in the way of blocking our ability to see. It could be a past hurt, it can be resentment, it can be anger, it can be all sorts of things that are that that just get in the way of a seeing in, like perception right, which goes back to nearsighted and being farsighted.

Steven Ginsburg: 5:29

C correct. It also lends itself to what you're sharing about. So I love where I love where we're at. There's so much power in these vehicles and these mechanisms that are delivering us things to consider social media platforms, right advertising networks, even things like music apps. They're all delivering messaging and messages that are either supporting the better good or supporting detriment. There's very few gray areas I find in all of the above, but those things alter perception at such a higher level that it all creates a really difficult board for us to navigate and creates challenges on top of challenges, which is why, again, we need to continue to be very acute, very focused, very sharp of sound mind so we can do the next right thing and continue to progress our life where we're called to progress our life.

Steve Coughran: 6:29

Yeah, and I love the episode that we did a couple episodes back where we were talking about giving up one thing to gain, you know, everything. Gain the whole world. And I think when we can't see, when something's blocking our vision or we're just so nearsighted, then we think like that one thing is going to bring us all this happiness or popularity or whatever. It is Right, and maybe that's what it starts out, as You're like oh, I feel really good, I feel more empowered, I feel more machismo when I drink, and then, little do you know that that turns into a major problem or a major addiction. Then you end up giving up everything.

Steve Coughran: 7:03

So it's, it's being able to start with today and almost playing the option game. So you can say like, okay, for example, let's take drinking and driving. So you could say, okay, let's go through the options. If I drink and drive tonight, option one is I make it home unscathed. Okay, great, I got lucky, drove home drunk. Okay, that's one outcome.

Steve Coughran: 7:25

The other outcome is you crash into a tree and you wreck your car, and then there's outcomes on outcomes. Right, you crash in a tree. You live. Crash into a tree and you wreck your car, and then there's outcomes on outcomes. Right, you crash in a tree, you live. Crash in a tree, you die right, but it's like you crash into somebody else, you kill them, you get arrested and you just go through all the outcomes and you say, okay, if I go down this path, here are 10 different possibilities.

Steve Coughran: 7:46

Okay, what does that look like? Now you're playing r playingussian roulette here with a revolver, essentially saying, hey, if I drink and drive, one of these outcomes is going to happen. Um, which one is it going to be? Tbd, you know? Or you say, okay, what if I abstain? What if I don't drink and drive? What if I'm the designated driver? Yeah, what if I'm the designated driver? Great choice. What if I go get help from like a great place, like restore, whatever it, whatever it may be? You know when we can see things in our minds aren't like blocked and skewed by these mind altering substances. Oh my gosh, like our lives can turn out in so many different ways.

Steven Ginsburg: 8:23

I just want to end on that into that is that becomes so much of where there's value in delaying gratification and having the willingness to again allow ourselves the gift of life on life's terms and a massive dose of acceptance and understanding that everything being okay is okay and there doesn't have to be some massive high nor some massive low. And all of those elements collectively and cumulatively. And again, I always feel like on every topic, you and I could go on for hours and hours and hours, but nobody needs to listen that long and you and I don't need to talk that long about any of it. But the ability to have that proper perception, that's what allows us to do. These elements that lead to the best result, like delaying gratification, playing the tape all the way through and everything else we've mentioned, and this is just really healthy perspective for people to hold on to at the onset of recovery, during ongoing recovery or in long-term recovery. Praise God, these are all the elements of that road less traveled as we trudge that road.

Steve Coughran: 9:38

Yeah, I love that. Well said. Couldn't agree with you more. And just to reiterate a point you just made, these little short episodes are meant to be little golden nuggets, so as you're listening to them, hopefully maybe one topic or another will relate to you and if you find value in this podcast, it'd mean the world if you left us a review and you share it with your audience, because that's how we're going to spread the word. And also we'd love to hear from you so you could go and email us at hello at restore detox centerscom. You could also go to our website, restoredetoxcenterscom, check it out, and we have a ton of resources there. Steven, so great to be with you today.

Steven Ginsburg: 10:16

Thank you so much for examining such important content. We are here with and for you all. Everyone have a safe and sober day.