Minding the Moments

Why is it so difficult to wake up to sugar addiction, disorderly eating & the emotions that fire it? I think it's because the addiction is not only to the substance, but to the many facets of the behavior & habit. The Self doesn't want to let go of this particular "release method." So, if this is the case then every addiction is truly a multiple addiction, needing a multi-pronged kind of approach. As parents learn to take their own addictions to task, then children will have the opportunity to view recovery in action from their most powerful teachers..... Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht

KNOWLEDGE HOOK

Moments are very small fragments of time, each holding automatic mind programs in the form of thoughts & emotions. Emotions color the moments with their crayons. The body is also involved as it responds to whatever is passing through the moment. Let me give you a living example of what I mean...

Those of you who know me, do know that I'm very honest about my own issues, past & present. It's managing these very issues that enable me to do my work with others having the same. Well......... here's something that I might not have shared. I'm absolutely fine with my eating all day long & up until about 9:30 PM. Then come the thoughts, followed by the body tension & compulsion to have "something." Here's the funny part..... it doesn't have to be much, but it "has to be" or it will not leave me along. Sometimes I'll wake up a few hours after going to bed & there it will be...........it's a true physical body tension........almost being wired.

Usually I just eat a couple of dry crackers & the tension releases & so I tend not to worry about it. But yesterday, when I was itemizing what I want to correct & tweak in my own life, this issue came onto my list & so I committed to managing it without any food. Last night I went to sleep & woke up with a start about 1:30. I came out to the living room & headed for my chair, not stopping at the cupboard. Well you would have thought I was possessed. My body was so tense & the compulsive thoughts were yelling & screaming at me...... then cajoling, manipulating........you name it. I stuck to my guns & worked on relaxing my body deeply.......using my breath.........deepening.........deciding to "enjoy" the moment...........realizing that I could do this if I truly wanted to & believe me, I wanted to. I'm simply tired of this control-ritual brought on by my mind & body.

It took about 15 minutes for me to release & be ready to go back to bed. I slept deeply & today I felt like a million dollars. I went to do my food shopping today & for the first time in a long time, my noisy & bothersome child-self left me completely alone.

Keep in mind that every moment is valuable. You already know that you can only catch a small number of them. The ones I caught last night were extremely potent & obviously attached to other negative patterns in my own life. This was seen by the carry-over into the supermarket. Not only was I able to release my body in the middle of the tension-filled compulsion, but without conscious thought, other changes occurred.

It is possible to program your subconscious mind to wake up to particular genres of thoughts. This is a very valuable technique or suggestion, because we tend to work with less than 2% of our subconscious mind library data. I'll teach this to you later on, but for now the goal is simply to practice waking up & releasing, just as I did last night.

MIND EXERCISE

We often need help to wake up from automatic pilot programs, especially in the beginning because the mind is not disciplined. This will change later on.

I suggest that you set some triggers to help you wake up, just like little alarm clocks. Sticky notes work well for this. No one else needs to know what you are doing. It’s not necessary to write anything on them. You already know what they are for. When I’m working to improve this skill for myself, I place a sticky note just to the right on my telephone, one in the car, one on left wall in my office. At home I like the bathroom mirror, the refrigerator, the head of my bed. Move the notes occasionally so that your automatic pilot doesn’t set up a program to ignore them.

Each time you notice a sticky note, check the moment. Pay attention to your thought processes, noticing the type of thought, the emotional states & crayons that are being utilized. Next, scan your body, noticing the stressors present, gently placing flowers on the bigger areas. Allow the flowers to open, noticing that your breath becomes deeper & locates to the lower abdomen just below the belly button. This is the release portion of the exercise.

This entire exercise takes less than thirty seconds, but provides tremendous benefits, immediate & in the future. Your mind & body connection are learning to fire off & release on their own. You are building awareness about who you are, your automatic program, your emotional terrain & what crayons you allow to color your life without deciding if they work for you or not.

There are many other tools for building Interactive Awareness, skills that you will receive throughout the book. Later on when you meet your Inner Coach, you will have the opportunity to practice skill building on your road to addictions management and the practice of excellence.