Survival Games Power Addicts And Co-Dependents Play

Note To The Winner Survivor/Compassionate Warrior: 

The main objective of this developing series is to facilitate YOUR getting out of the codependent cycle YOU are likely also in with the political chaos going on.

Here's how it works:

1. Stop being all caught up in the Trump-media drama. If you are in it, that is YOUR addiction, not theirs;
2. Focus your attentions, while also staying vigilant, but not hyper-vigilant, on those closest to you; family, friends, neighbors, you local community;
3. Lean in, lean in, lean it -- build bridges of understanding to overcome polarization anywhere and everywhere you can;
4. This is a critical pathway, slowly but surely, for eradicating the toxicity surrounding us now in society and politics;
5. This is a pathway for bringing more calm and peace into your own life;
6. This is also a pathway for eventually bringing fresh, new leaders into our government. 
7. By living, now, in integrity in your own life you will have a better understanding in the future about how you choose leaders and what you will want from them;
8.This is a pathway for role modeling to the younger generations how our country can best move forward.

DO THIS NOW!!

I want to make a handful of points here in beginning what I hope will become a useful series of articles to follow as soon as I can prepare them. My hope is that these just might have the substance and clarity I wish for you to have from my efforts to write my many blog posts, designed especially for your edification -- and --- your transformation. 

(For inspiring my idea for this series I thank Jonah Goldberg of the National Review for his wonderful article, Trump’s Relationship With Media is One of Codependency.)

To accomplish this I am starting off with my end point: 

If you wish to find a modicum of peace for yourself in these troubled times, socially and politically, winding your way through the sometimes arduous task of taking my “Do You Have A Survivor/Addict Personality? inventory can be a useful tool (Also named the Where Is Your Compassionate Warrior Hiding? Quiz.

Two different names for the same inventory, designed for you to see the two different angles intended for exploring from this quiz; the first name focuses on the problems to be identified while the second, “the Compassionate Warrior” quiz suggests that there is treasure to be found in areas of challenge.

If you make a serious exploration of either of these two, content identical quizzes, framed somewhat differently to help you best make use of them – and – if you make your way through to the scoring, you will soon discover that the lowest possible scores tell you what the highest potentials of human functioning look like.

Thus the scoring you will see tells you --  

If your score is: 25 - 35, your Dark Side may no longer be actively destructive. You may have come through the tempering process of a journey similar to mine and returned a Compassionate Warrior whose strength is combined with gentleness except in extreme emergencies. In other words, if you scored in this range, you have, most likely, learned the art of merging head and heart. 

In this mode you value strategic planning. If and when you choose to activate your Inner Warrior, it is always with a sound dose of it being for the good of the whole. Here integrity rules the day above most other things. 

You can also check out the Serene Survivor Inventory to further explore the dominant ways of the Compassionate Warrior in relationships. High scores on this inventory offer a baseline for identifying optimum Compassionate Warrior behaviors. Use it to guide your development of living in a transforming manner.

Now, getting back to my main focus for this article, “Survival Games Power Addicts And Co-Dependents Play.” One further aside; sometimes, when I am feeling particularly happy and resilient, I experience a moment or two of gratitude for Donald Trump and his outrageous team of cohorts. After all, I had been investigating the social and political dynamics of the Dark Side and its enabler, the co-dependent, since Watergate. 

I was quite certain it would now be time, after Election 2016, to share fully what I’ve learned. So I was intent on that mission. But without Donald Trump in office to portray a real live Dark Side in motion, on a daily basis, ad nauseum, who might I have drawn from for “case study” examples of some of the worst possible manifestations?

Only Darth Vadar had seemed to be an apt example previously.

Now to return to my main point, “Survival Games Power Addicts And Co-Dependents Play.” 

If only, if only people could tune into the level of excessive survival-driven behaviors Trump and Company are promoting – and – find their way through that darkness to the Light, oh how wonderful it could be, on the Fourth of July as well as the other 364 days of the year.  

(Michelle Obama offers an idea of how to do this in her statement, "When they go low, we go high." Do it!!!)

With that end in mind, I offer you this --

As a registered Independent I give myself the leisure these days of reading all types of online media, other than the irredeemable extremes of the dark side. In the process of this exploration, I have taken a liking to the National Review, founded by William Buckley Jr. Often times, these days, I find some of the commentary posted there as the only sane place, still with a bit of thought-provoking zest, to help me sort out the mental gyrations Donald Trump and his team are intent on provoking.

Jonah Goldberg has become one of my favorites on this site. And today, his article, "Trump’s Relationship With Media is One of Codependency,” gave me so much that I want to share it with you as a homework reading assignment for the teachings of this site.

So, instructions Number One, read this article.

Instruction Number 2, return to this site for some Dark Side transforming lessons based on the interweaving of Jonah Goldberg’s article and the principles of this site. 

(I mean transforming within yourself along with doing your best to transform the Dark Side wherever you see it, near or far. See this link for a further exploration of Dark Side and Compassionate Warrior principles.

Caveat: Be mindful that attachments to changing others, outside of managing how you handle yourself, lead you right into survival/addict functioning!)

(Hopefully I will not run afoul of any copyright infringements in doing this. I have requested an official okay but am going forward as intended, unless some other upheaval distracts me, once again, as often happens.)

Details on the way.

Happy July 4!!!

Surviving (Adrenalin) Addictions, Chapter Two: Introducing The Survivor/Addict Personality Inventory

Update: This update extends Chapter Two, Section: The Cost of Having A Survivor/Addict Personality

The following article was posted, originally, on Anastasia The Storyteller blog site as …

Discovering What Really Matters

The story of “Mommy, I hate your eye patch!” (Part 1)

Words of a seven year old; my seven year old, named Elisa Joy.

I can still hear them ring out as loud and clear in my mind as if they had just been spoken yesterday.

“Mommy, I hate your eye patch!”

Anastasia
(formerly Marcia E. Rosen)
circa 1970

These were the words that changed my life; the words of my seven year old daughter speaking in the code of childhood. One had to be able to de-code child-ese to be able to understand them.

They told me she felt abandoned and betrayed by the disproportionate time I spent away from her, handling my cornea transplants (by this time to I was going on #4 in close to as many years),  my workaholism driven career  – and  -- then the hours given over to socializing.

To this day, no other words have ever quite made their way through t0 my heart so pointedly.

Continued here on Anastasia The Storyteller and-

This update extends Chapter Two, Section: The Cost of Having A Survivor/Addict Personality

Surviving (Adrenalin) Addictions, Chapter Two, Part 2: Paying For Your Survivor/Addict Tendencies

The Cost of Having A Survivor/Addict Personality

Ok, you’ve read what I’ve written so far. Maybe even gone so far as to take my "Do You Have A Survivor/Addict Personality" Inventory." You’re even willing to consider you just might be a carrier of the Dark Side with its Survivor/Addict tendencies.

Well, so what? Big deal.

How much different than most everyone else around you are you?

Big deal. So you like to chase after excitement. Maybe your habits, especially when they come to excessive money expenditures are a bit over the top.

Big deal. At least you’re enjoying life so why give this stuff much attention?

Well, here’s a bit more of the puzzle. See what you can do with it while you are deciding whether or not to keep visiting this blog site.

6 Ways The Survivor/Addict Personality Costs You

Low Self-Esteem:  Adrenalin Addict behavior is compulsive, out of control, counterproductive, expensive in time, energy and relationships. Actually this kind of behavior brings more pain than pleasure in the long run.

Ask yourself

Does it ever bother you that sometimes a Force greater than yourself seems to be in charge of your life, your time, your money? And, maybe it isn’t the Force of goodness and Light whose ends are rewarding and happy?

Does it ever bother you that sometimes you burn yourself out doing things that afterwards seem to have been a waste of time?

Low Opinion by Others:  Adrenalin Addict behavior is often experienced by others as disruptive, intrusive, chaotic and energy draining.

Ask yourself

Does it ever bother you that sometimes your behaviors are irritating and draining for others?

Have you ever thought to ask others whether or not they experience you in this manner?

If you did, were you satisfied with their answers?

Low Cooperation with Others:  Adrenalin Addict behavior invites adversarial, defensive and/or competitive responses from others.

Ask yourself

Do others find me to be a good team player?

Do I tend to invite out cooperation or competition from others?

Frequent Turnover of Friendships: Lovers, friends, spouses, jobs, interests, money (easy come, easy go), careers, ideas, fads, and values, Adrenalin Addict living leads to a shallow, blocked existence.

Ask yourself

Do I tend to give up easily on relationships, or do others give up on me?

Do I find myself tending to feel bored and unfulfilled in my friendships or intimate relationships?

Does my life seem to have more surface than substance?

Increasing Sense of Despair With Age: In the Survivor/Addict maturity and mellowness do not increase with age. Rather as time goes on Adrenalin Addict living becomes less feasible, and the beauty and strength in life diminishes. Tolerance to environmental toxicity lessens and the side effects of excess excitement increases as the individual burns out and runs out of people with whom to play addict games. It is all just too costly!

WARNING! Adrenalin/Excitement Addiction can lead to emotional/psychological breakdowns, disease, institutionalization and premature death.

Survivor/Addict Living Is Very Expensive!

(And Dark when you get to its core.)

Update – January 30, 2015

The following article was posted, originally, on Anastasia The Storyteller blog site as …

Discovering What Really Matters

The story of “Mommy, I hate your eye patch!” (Part 1)

Words of a seven year old; my seven year old, named Elisa Joy.

I can still hear them ring out as loud and clear in my mind as if they had just been spoken yesterday.

 “Mommy, I hate your eye patch!”

Anastasia
(Formerly Marcia E. Rosen)
circa 1970

These were the words that changed my life; the words of my seven year old daughter speaking in the code of childhood. One had to be able to de-code child-ese to be able to understand them.

They told me she felt abandoned and betrayed by the disproportionate time I spent away from her, handling my cornea transplants (by this time to I was going on #4 in close to as many years),  my workaholism driven career  – and  -- then the hours given over to socializing.

To this day, no other words have ever quite made their way through t0 my heart so pointedly.

Continued on Anastasia The Storyteller