October Week 3: Will This Spark Joy?

I hope that you are enjoying your month. I recently flipped through a book that you may have heard of. It’s called: The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

If you haven’t read it, it’s a very short book about how to de-clutter your life of things you don’t really need. This means paring down your current and overwhelming amount of “stuff” into only the things that bring you joy. In fact, the way the author has you de-clutter your home is by asking the question to yourself, “does this spark joy?”

I thought about how similar this is to a Shift strategy “Thinking it Through” that you can use for the same purpose of seducing your Inner Rebel out of impulsive food choices and overindulging. The basic idea is that while your rebel is trying to seduce you, your inner coach steps in and asks the question…”how will eating this make me feel three hours from now?” Basically asking the same question, ”will eating this bagel with cream cheese spark joy in me three hours from now?”

This technique is very appropriate for this month’s theme of The Weight Mastery Cycle because learning to tame the Inner Rebel’s seductions is a big part of long term success.

'THINKING IT THROUGH' INNER REBEL STRATEGY

Our Inner Rebel is very good at seducing you away from your weight release intentions. The good news is that even though this seduction dance with your Rebel can have a powerful pull, we are learning that the times and ways our Rebel tries to seduce us is fairly limited in scope and, let’s face it, often very predictable

Some typical Rebel seduction times might be:

• Convincing you that you are too tired to exercise
• Coming home from work when you are hungry and then binging
• Over indulging at social outings, restaurants and parties
• Cravings in front of the TV at nightComfort eating at work or home when you are bored or stressed

The way to shift out of the siren’s call of seduction to abandon your healthy plan is with a cognitive coaching technique that I call THINKING IT THROUGH. This involves seducing your Rebel into making the healthier choice for you. According to Canadian psychologist Philip David Zalazo, “Our thoughts and the language we use to express them can remind us of bad consequences and guide us to other actions and reinforce the value of success.”

Basically, what I am talking about is counter seducing your rebel with an offer they can’t refuse.

Remember, most of what drives our brain forward is the idea of perceived reward. The rebel is a master of making his reward seem better to you than sticking with you healthier option. What if you started marketing your healthier option in a more enticing way than the rebel?

The thinking it through strategy is as follows:

1. Think through the seductive temptation of the rebel all the way through the pleasure of indulging to the painful or un-pleasurable final outcome.
   • Visualize the scenario of what would happen if your Inner Rebel got his or her way. How would you feel in the moment as you gave in to your rebel?
   • How would your making the Rebel’s choice impact you three hours from now?
   • How would that decision to let your Rebel's win make you feel tonight when you got into bed? Would you feel light and aligned with yourself or bad about yourself, bloated and not happy
2. Now think through making the healthier, weight mastery choice, and  how good it will feel to stay true to yourself and your goals.
   • Focus on seducing your Inner Rebel with how good that healthy choice is going to feel. How will making the healthier, more conscious choice allow you to feel in the moment?
   • How does it feel three hours from now?
   • Tonight when you go to bed? Light and aligned with yourself?  Feeling connected to yourself and your journey of Weight Mastery?
   • Focus on that lighter and freer feeling and how good that is going to feel if you followed the healthier choice all the way through to the end of the day.
     
     Example: Your inner rebel begins seducing you to into getting up from the TV and going into the kitchen and getting some ice cream. The thought of ice cream can be very seductive right? That is because we are only thinking about the perceived pleasure of taking those first creamy and delicious bites.
     1. So think that thought of eating ice cream all the way through until the outcome is not so appealing. See yourself getting carried away with the ice cream and now the carton is empty and you feel full, that sticky sweet sugar coating in your mouth is a bit gross and you feel bad about yourself as you go to lay down. Allow yourself to really feel what it would feel like to be in this unpleasant situation, you are creating an aversion feeling that markets to your rebel like a PSA “This choice is not a good one for you!”.
     2. Now offer the rebel a healthy alternative. Imagine getting up and making a cup of hot mint tea or getting a cup of cool, thick and creamy yogurt drizzled with just a dab of honey and imagine how good that would taste and how light and happy you will feel going to bed later having really given yourself such a light and tasty treat. Really imagine how satisfying that will feel in your body, your mind and spirit. Let your rebel really get a feel for how good this option will “taste”. By offering your rebel options and thinking it through, the reward driven rebel will opt for the healthier choice because he is going to go for the most pleasurable option. Good marketing!

Benefits of the 'Think it Through' Strategy:

• Takes you out of impulsiveness and old mindless habits and allows you to truly make a decision based on your deeper needs.
• Trains the mind out of seeking old, self sabotaging “rewards”
• Builds your confidence that you can communicate your way out of cravings and self sabotage

The “Thinking it Through” strategy can be used during your Morning Vision Meditation Session or it can be also used on the spot, during a moment of temptation or resistance.

I hope this week sparks joy within you and that you have a wonderful uncluttered week both inside and out!