The Brain Can Sabotage Resolutions
Health 24
The New Year has just begun and already you’re finding it hard to keep those resolutions to junk the junk food, get off the couch or kick smoking.
There’s a biological reason a lot of our bad habits are so hard to break – they get wired into our brains.
That’s not an excuse to give up. Understanding how unhealthy behaviours become ingrained has scientists learning some tricks that may help good habits replace the bad.
“Why are bad habits stronger? You’re fighting against the power of an immediate reward,” said Dr Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and an authority on the brain’s pleasure pathway.
It’s the fudge vs broccoli choice: Chocolate’s yum factor tends to beat out the knowledge that sticking with veggies brings an eventual reward of lost kilos.
Temptations
“We all as creatures are hard-wired that way, to give greater value to an immediate reward as opposed to something that’s delayed,” Volkow said.
Just how that bit of happiness turns into a habit involves a pleasure-sensing chemical named dopamine. It conditions the brain to want that reward again and again – reinforcing the connection each time – especially when it gets the right cue from your environment.
People tend to overestimate their ability to resist temptations around them, thus undermining attempts to shed bad habits, said experimental psychologist Loran Nordgren, an assistant professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
“People have this self-control hubris, this belief they can handle more than they can,” said Nordgren, who studies the tug-of-war between willpower and temptation.
In one experiment, he measured whether heavy smokers could watch a film that romanticises the habit – called Coffee and Cigarettes – without taking a puff.
Upping the ante, they’d be paid according to their level of temptation: Could they hold an unlit cigarette while watching? Keep the pack on the table? Or did they need to leave the pack in another room?
Smokers who’d predicted they could resist a lot of temptation tended to hold the unlit cigarette – and were more likely to light up than those who knew better than to hang onto the pack, said Nordgren. He now is beginning to study how recovering drug addicts deal with real-world temptations.
Living In Awareness
By Tracy Webb
Sacred Inspirations - http://www.sacredpea.co.uk/
“You create your own reality” and “You are what you think you are.” At first I thought this was great and very simple – all I have to do is think in a particular way and I will be/have all the things I ever wished for. However, there are certain universal laws at work. It didn’t take long to find out that, although these universal laws work, it is not so much what we do but more about how we are being that makes the difference.
We choose to be certain ways. We can choose to “be happy” or to “be sad” at any given moment – usually this is an unconscious choice. We tend to allow circumstances, past conditioning and social norms to dictate to us how we act. We then find ourselves reacting to situations instead of responding to them. This can be quite a challenge especially as we are so mind dominated.
When we try to act in certain ways because we think we “should” or have been told that it is good to behave in certain ways, we soon end up with feelings of resentment. When we are peaceful, happy and in a place where we understand that God provides for us exactly as we ask and in accordance with the energy vibration we are sending out, then striving becomes futile. We can then see how weak and insignificant our egos are and the process of being able to “Let go and let God” becomes more natural. We split the natural polarities of the universe in two and decide on one over the other – therefore invalidating one in preference of the other. This creates more of the same, as the polarity that is rejected will keep coming back until it is accepted.
We are pulled between bouts of realized peacefulness and our strong ego desires. By shutting out the chatter of the mind/ego, we can more easily hear the God presence or spirit aspect of us. Bringing the mind, body and spirit into balance – instead of the extremes we create. For example – we can abuse our bodies, feed it foods that don’t nourish it and take addictive chemicals into our systems. We can let our ego/mind become so engrossed in having and wanting more, believing that we are our minds and are identified by what we have. (more…)
Do You Deserve It Or Are You Mistaken
By Aaron Potts
When thinking about your desires in life, there are 2 concepts that usually come into play. One of these concepts is obvious, the other is not, but both are powerful in determining whether or not you get what you want! The most obvious thing that people think about is how they are going to accomplish any given task. This is probably the most self-limiting practice that you can consciously partake in.
Yes, it is a good idea to take action whenever you are inspired to do something that will take you towards your goal. However, if you constantly focus on how you are going to get something that you want, then you will easily fall prey to circumstances that take you off track. Your only job in the process of creating what you want is to focus on what you want. The “how’s” will work themselves out by the simple fact of you staying focused on what it is that you desire. The second concept is a bit more slippery to grasp, although it is equally as powerful in determining whether or not you are going to get whatever it is that you are after in life.
The concept that I am talking about is whether or not you believe – on the inside, where it counts – that you truly deserve whatever it is that you are wanting to attain. What you have in your life right now represents very specifically what you think that you deserve. The beliefs that each of us have about our lives have been ingrained in us over the years and serve to dictate our lives on a day to day basis. If those beliefs are positive and empowering, then you are good to go. However, if those beliefs about what we deserve are limiting, they are now coined as “self-limiting beliefs” and that is exactly what they do – they limit us to a certain level of success in life. For some people, this comes in the form of health and weight loss. They don’t truly believe that they deserve to be healthy and beautiful like other people, so they subconsciously manifest that result over and over again into their lives.
For even more people, this same concept manifests itself with regard to their financial status. If you truly believed that you were deserving of riches, and that you could handle the “wealthy” lifestyle, then you would be in the process of manifesting that lifestyle every day. Although most people will say indignantly, “I deserve money!”, the truth is that there is a self-limiting belief underneath the surface that is feeding them just enough of the opposite thoughts to keep them from ever amassing any significant wealth. However here is the thing that you should take away from reading this post that can literally cause you to start manifesting money – or anything else – right at this moment: If you have a strong enough desire as well as a belief that you deserve wealth, health, or anything else, you will set the universal forces in motion that will bring those things to you – just because you want them and believe that you deserve them. (more…)
The Perfect Plan
By Chuck Danes
Do you sometimes feel that life’s unfair, that future hope is bleak?
Do your day to day experiences leave your spirit feeling weak?
Do you ever think the joys in life are reserved for just a few?
That your hopes and dreams you’ll never reach no matter what you do.
Have you ever thought how hard it is to get ahead these days?
That strain and strife are part of life and nothing you do pays?
If you do, take heart my friend, so many think this way.
But there is hope a brighter path that you can take today.
It will require a shift in thought, it may challenge your beliefs
But it will guide you to a life of joy, content, relief.
So listen closely and absorb this perfect plan I share
Implement these steps you’ll learn and soon you’ll be aware
Of a life that’s filled with joy beyond your wildest dreams
Regardless what “appears” to be no matter how life seems.
Focus your attention on what you soon will learn
The wisdom in it, if acted on will provide those things you yearn
The answers are available just seek and you will find
That all which you’ve experienced is a product of your mind
These troubles you encounter now that you feel get in your way
Are due to thoughts, emotions felt that you had yesterday.
For long ago the plan was made which allowed you to be free
From all these limitations that you now perceive to be
You have been given power which you’re not yet aware
It’s through misuse of this gift that’s created your despair
For in the plan there came a clause that remains within it still
That each and every soul on earth be entitled to free will
You chose to limit your results by absorbing false belief
The plan designed to bring you joy through your own choice brought you grief (more…)
What Is Faith Really All About?
By John Smith
There are many interpretations and explanations of the meaning of the word “faith”. Some believe it to be a religious concept that only applies to those who practice a certain religion. Others equate it with the general concept of belief. In this article we will endeavor to answer the following questions. What is faith? Does everyone have faith?
Let us consider the original meaning of the word faith, which includes “conviction, credence or persuasion”. The difference between knowledge and conviction is that the former only requires the acquisition of information while the latter requires acceptance of this information by the mind as truth. Firstly, it is important to understand that the human mind consists of two parts namely the conscious mind – the rational mind which is aware of its surroundings, interprets information and forms thoughts. The second part of the human mind is the subconscious mind, the irrational mind that receives information from the conscious mind without questioning or analysing, ultimately forming convictions and beliefs about the information. It is with the conscious mind that we evaluate the veracity of incoming information through questioning. The subconscious mind however, does not evaluate or question, but involuntarily receives that which has been accepted and sanctioned by the conscious mind.
It is imperative that we always question everything we hear, essentially whether it is truth or superstition; whether it is empowering or disempowering. The biblical principle, “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free”, should be the measuring stick by which we evaluate the information we receive in the conscious mind. The quality of the information will determine the quality of our thoughts and ultimately the quality of our beliefs in the subconscious mind. In turn, these beliefs determine the quality of our lives. Unfortunately, most people measure the veracity by the source of the information instead of the information itself. Parents, teachers, preachers etc. are usually considered reliable sources of information. The truth is that this is not necessarily always the case. We need to question what we hear and discover truth for ourselves.
