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Hieromonk Alexis (Trader)
I chose to handle procrastination in reverse order since many people don’t consider procrastination to be a serious problem. They fail to recognize the long-term physical, social, emotional, and spiritual toll habitual procrastination can have on themselves, and in so doing they resemble people who, though sick, are unaware of the sickness, only to have to deal with the consequences of the sickness when it is too late.
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In other words, procrastination, the guilty feelings about failing to do what we intended to do, arise from poor judgment, poor self-control, and a failure to face squarely our own problems. In spiritual terms, we could say there is a lack of discernment, asceticism, and courage.
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Our lived experience tells us that today impulsivity can be a disorder that affects many people of all ages in a sundry of situations with a variety of objects that are the focus of pathological impulsivity.
For the Christian, the beauty and calmness of such a scene is never complete without a grateful ascent to God, knowing full well that “the sea is His, and He made it: and His hands formed the dry land”
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Recently, advances in social cognition research have suggested another way to understand human behavior, which is in sync with what the Church fathers have been teaching for over a millennium. We are double-minded, literally.
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When we are tired, we become less aware of ourselves and what we are doing. When we are anxious, we are too worried about the future to be concerned with controlling ourselves in the present. When we are depressed, we are often so wrapped up in our past failures that present goals, such as self-control, seem pointless.
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The secret to their success was very simple: they were victorious through their day-to-day, moment-to-moment communion with God, the source of their strength, life, and love.
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The vital question is whether the impulsive can gain self-control when they need it most.
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The therapeutic regimen offered by the holy fathers tacks in a slightly different direction, based on a very different understanding of the human being’s inner world or personality.
For the fathers, the goal is not to acquire an iron will for “white-knuckling” one’s way through any temptation. Rather, the aim is to have a supple will conformable to the will of God.
Before temptations, a man prays to God as a stranger. When temptations are allowed to come by the love of God, and he does not give in to them, then he stands before God as a sincere friend.
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"Put simply, impulsivity, that quintessentially corrupted power of choice, is related to sin, to missing the mark. The remembrance of irrational pleasure (παρὰ λόγον ἡδονή) and the pursuit of irrational pleasure, however, always bring the pain of regret that those who are impulsive know so well."
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This God-bestowed gift of patience is required to no longer be subject to the impulsive desires swirling in our hearts. Patience affords us the opportunity to break out of the gratification-filled desires of the present and reflect upon both similar past actions and the future consequences of potential impulsive acts. In that sacred space created by holy patience, we can find another luminous path leading not to the object of our impulse, but to Christ Himself.
The cycle is characterized by a cycle of tension, gratification, and remorse or guilt after the impulsive act. Tension builds because of a desire to commit the act.
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Although in most cases from a Christian perspective, impulsivity needs to be kept in check, there is such a thing as a good kind of impulsivity.
In our ever-changing, fast-paced contemporary world that rewards Type-A aggressive behavior and a results-oriented lifestyle, impulsivity can become our default mode for interacting with the world. This “ready-fire-aim” approach to life can be framed as quick reflexes and speedy adaptation needed for success and getting ahead. Of course, if one’s gut reactions are wrong, that same approach can be one’s ruin.
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Hieromonk Alexis (Trader) from Mt. Athos discusses impulse and addiction in patristic terms, and shows patristic parallels in the twelve step program.
In a 1789 letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy, Benjamin Franklin wrote, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Yet, most of us spend our lives doing everything possible to avoid them both.
Ultimately, physical illnesses or the death of a loved one are opportunities to reflect upon the brevity of earthly life and ponder the reality that we are sojourners in a foreign land with our real homeland being in heaven with Christ and His saints.
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Loving those who love us may makes us feel good about them and about ourselves, but we should not deceive ourselves into thinking that therefore we are good Christians or virtuous people.
