How Bad Habits Can Be Healed

DOUGLAS W. SHAFOR

A friend called and said, "I know you have been a student of Christian Science for many years—how does it heal bad habits of long standing, such as those of smoking and drinking?"

I explained that we do not through human willpower or the use of the human mind force ourselves to stop smoking or drinking. He replied, "I know enough about Christian Science to understand what you mean by human will, but I want to know how one is healed if he doesn't use the human mind to stop these habits."

This was a good question and one that many of us need to have clarified. Mrs. Eddy states in Science and Health: "Human willpower is not Science. Human will belongs to the so-called material senses, and its use is to be condemned."^{Science and Health, p. 144;} We must realize that the use of human willpower, exerted to force ourselves to stop doing something we believe we enjoy—without the understanding of why we are not really in bondage—does not heal or stop the human craving to continue to indulge the appetite.