Tuesday, August 29, 2006

 

Why diets fail and you keep on smoking

As you’re sat there reading these words, your brain is being assaulted by over 2,000,000 bits of information per second! This information is flooding in through your various senses. Your eyes and ears, the nerves throughout your body, your taste buds and your nose are all sending messages to your brain. It is all coming in but you’re only aware of a very small fraction of it. Most of it is totally discarded. So, if you have all this information coming in, where does it all go and what determines what you get to be aware of?

Can you notice the feeling of your feet inside your shoes? Can you feel the pressure of the shoe against the sole of your foot? I’m willing to bet that before I mentioned it, you hadn’t noticed it. The shoe was there, as was your foot. Why didn’t you notice this feeling previously?

What determines what we pay attention to and what we ignore? Well, a number of things, including what you are interested in right now, what is relevant to your current beliefs and values.

Can you remember a time when you bought a new outfit or a new car that you really liked and then on the way home, suddenly, they were everywhere, everyone had one or seemed to? Well, they were always there but until they were relevant to you, you completely ignored them, or rather, your unconscious mind deleted them before you had chance to be consciously aware of them.

You did know you have a conscious mind and an unconscious mind, didn’t you? Well, you do. Your conscious mind is the part of you that analyses, plans, makes decisions and that you witness the world with on a daily basis. Your unconscious mind is the store house for your memories, the source of your emotions, your intuitions and your reactions.

The conscious mind and the unconscious mind work totally differently. They enhance and complement each other, but because they are independent, there can be problems.

Have you ever been on a diet?

How did it go?

Here’s how it always went for me. I would start the diet and be super strict. Nothing would get passed my lips unless its name was on the authorized diet list. I would walk passed the chocolate section in the supermarket with my head held high, not even a twitch or grimace. I could go out for dinner, pick a suitably diet worthy main course and happily refuse the sweet trolley. This would last for a few days. You see, I was focused. I was consciously guarding my mind from any thoughts about forbidden foods. The thing is, that’s hard work and after a little while I started to lose a little of that initial focus. My concentration would wane a little and with my concentration out the way, stray little thoughts would sneak on by. Perhaps just one piece of cake and I can make up for it by walking home….tomorrow. Before I knew it I’d be knee deep in chocolate cake, pouring out excuses and feeling guilty.

Why did I cheat on my diet and how can I make sure I don’t in future? I didn’t get it. I knew what I wanted to do. I felt dedicated to the task. I managed to go for a while, I had my will power turned right up, but I couldn’t keep it up. Is it the same for you?

The answer is delightfully simple. My conscious mind was leading me in one direction but my unconscious mind was heading in another. It’s like pulling an elastic band in two different directions at once, eventually it’s going to snap.

So, I’d give myself a hard time, accuse myself of not having enough discipline and will power. Then I’d try again. I’d struggle and suffer, craving all the bad foods until finally I’d buckle.

Why didn’t it work?

I was trying to use my conscious mind to control something in my unconscious mind. It doesn’t work. It’s like trying to drive your car whilst sat in the bathroom. You’re doing the right thing but in the wrong place.

The same rule holds for stopping smoking, conquering a phobia, changing a limiting belief (like “I’m not good enough”). These are all held and run by the unconscious mind and trying to use will power to get rid of them has about as much effect as trying to knock down a house with a kipper.

So, how do you solve this? The answer is simple and I'll go into it in another post.

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