“You can run but you can’t hide” Joe Louis
Joe Louis’ quote, likely drawn from personal experience, suggests that no matter how much you try to avoid or escape a problem, you will eventually have to face it.
You see, when we don’t face an issue and deal with it, we often take an escape route. One such is called “doing a geographical”.
Doing a Geographical
“No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself.” Haruki Murakami
“Doing a geographical” is term often heard in addiction recovery programs. It means doing more than psychologically running away from difficulties caused by using substances. It refers to suddenly leaving a place physically and moving elsewhere, because you think that a change in locale will help you to stop using. You are steeped in the delusion that when you leave your present physical location your addiction and its related problems will not travel with you.
Harriet Runs But Cannot Hide
Harriet has a predilection for running away from her addiction-related problems. She has changed jobs, partners and cities multiple times. Typically, in the early days of her geographical escape, things do seem to be better. She feels freer, better and more optimistic about her future. But then, post each geographical, life and its related problems catch up with her. She finds that the grind of daily living and its challenges are no different than in her last relationship, job or location. Life is life and her addiction is still active somewhere deep inside of her no matter where she is living and so, inevitably, she begins using again.
If you relate to any part of Harriet’s story, ask yourself:
- What am I running from? Could it be some kind of painful truth fuelled by grief, loss, shame or fear?
- Do I think that changing locations will help me to get sober, fix my substance abuse issues?
- Would it be better to effect some internal shift rather than a geographical one?
- Do I need help and support and if so, what kind?
Holly Stops Running from the Truth
After a lifetime of running and hiding from the facts, Holly has had a spiritual awakening. She can now see that she not only has to face her issues, but she also has to take ownership of them. She is not a bad person. She is an addict, plain and simple. It is her addicted self that has caused harm to her family and, of course, to herself in a myriad of ways. With the help of her therapist and her recovery program, she has begun a new life of sobriety and recovery. She now is ready to repair the harm she has caused herself and others. The gift of this process is that Holly is discovering her true self.
If you relate to any part of Holly’s story, ask yourself:
- What triggered my awareness of the facts and my willingness to face them?
- How did I begin to see the harms I caused myself and others?
- Have I taken action to repair the harms that I caused?
- What help and support did I seek to support my willingness to face the facts and take the needed action?
The Spiritual Awakening – Coming Home to Yourself
“You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.” Seneca the Younger
The upshot of all of this is that what we need is not a change of location but a change in perspective. The shift in perspective that I am talking about is from the outward to the inward.
What we come to understand is that it is not just what others have done to us, but what we have done to ourselves by the meaning we have made about these events and our reaction to them.
What it boils down to is doing the scary stuff – actually facing the problem and owning our part in it, however large or small.
Then the next step is likely changing what we can and then letting the rest go.
With all of that comes a growing ease with being who we actually are in the deepest parts of ourselves.
We are coming home to ourselves.
