I have heard so many complaints about time around me lately. Some examples are: “I only had three hours of sleep last night because I had to finish two essays. Now, I am going to have two exams today!”

“I was watching TV all night. Oh my gosh! I just can’t stop this!” “I haven’t eaten all day, because I was so busy.”

To be honest, I am guilty as well; however, it is time to make a change in life, because I am going to tell you how I got rid of my gaming addiction.

I was always a big fan of role-player games, and I could play all day and night without averting my eyes from the screen. It might sound crazy, but the truth is that I played so intensely that my eye-sight worsened dramatically. I could not help myself — I simply did not want to lose the achievements that I had accomplished throughout the game, even though they were just virtual.

I can relate to the people who keep watching TV shows even though they don’t want to waste the time to finish the show.  The end result has been killing them because they want to know what comes next.

We have all suffered from our delusion for so long that we are numb toward reality.

Now, let me introduce the idea of mindfulness. This concept simply means being conscious of something. It is interesting that when you pay attention to your actions, your body sends you signals to respond your actions. It seems like we have some sort of natural instinct inhibiting us and this voice is very quiet, almost a whisper, and in order to hear it, we have to calm down all the noises around us.

When I was playing my video game, I focused my mind on my emotions while playing the game. I realized that time slowed down, and my mind was crystal clear; the virtual world that I was dealing with was manipulating my mind. I needed to break the pattern.

So I slowly let go of my computer, looked away from the screen, and started doing something else instead. The problem I had at first was that I kept thinking about playing video games when I was bored, and the urge had been torturing me for a while. However, I just quieted down my mind and picked up a book to read. When the first day was successful with no games, the next few became a breeze because I replaced my pattern with reading, and my reflexive memory was refreshed again.

For people who are suffering from procrastination, when you are doing something that distracts you from working, try to be aware of what you are doing. Do not make a judgement of what you do.

After a while, you will awake from the reality that you are always trying to escape from. Embrace the difficulty, because only when you think it is difficult are you able to resist it.

The more you resist, the more you fear it and then you would accept that you are okay with the bad habits. Let go of fear, and be aware of what you’re doing; simply follow your mind, and you will make the right decision.