One year, eleven months, two weeks and three days ago, I initiated a program of change which began with removing alcohol and went on to help me amend patterns of behaviour and re-evaluate belief systems I held about me, my life and the world around me.

What began as a foreboding step has transcended into an exciting adventure full of reward and joy.

Alcohol was a critical coping tool, but it was also a pillar that kept a lot of non-life-bringing-mechanisms in place. By removing it, the walls of my shantytown life came crashing down (providing me an opportunity to rebuild!)

My inner demons and life situations, unveiled by sobriety, lined up hard and fast. It was overwhelming for a while.

Healthier survival techniques presented themselves, and here I am, 717 days later, very pleased with my progress.

Coping mechanisms are short-term solutions, but the longer game requires a more lasting approach.

I must engage with the areas of my life that call for constant help.

 

• Wounded inner child

• Belief structures

• Unhealthy relationships

• Unhappy job

• Health, finance, or home issues

• Fears and phobias

Is Change hard?

Can I stack the deck in my favour?

There are three players in the mix:

Me

My mind

My Body

Real Change requires these players to harmonize.

Herein lies the first obstacle:

Many of my Body and mind’s processes are automated and invisible, making them hard to access.

Example:

My awareness wants to step away from drinking, but my mind thinks I need a drink, and my Body craves it. Disharmony.

A closer look at the players

Player 1 – My Awareness (or Spirit, or Being or Presence)

This part of me is the unlimited bit.

Superconnected, loving, wise and the best choice for CEO of my life.

Player 2 – My Mind – Thoughts in Motion.

It wants the CEO job but support/deputy is more appropriate.

My mind is an incredible tool but full of contradictory information.

My brain stores a massive memory database of everything I have ever experienced during my 62 years, including through books, TV and film.

When circumstances confront me, or I have decisions, my subconscious rifles through its stores of data to find relevant ideas that then buzz around in my conscious brain as thoughts.

My subconscious can’t discern true or false; it only recognizes a related connection or theme.

e.g. I see a character in a film being rewarded or healed by drinking hard liquor after a shock, and guess what? The next time I suffer a shock, this idea will pop up.

(Advertisers capitalize on this mechanism)

My mind is awash with thoughts and ideas populated by my ‘helpful’ librarian-subconscious.

If the librarian’s regurgitated data (my thoughts) is conducive to Player 1’s goal, the process is smooth; however, if the data doesn’t align, the thoughts derail the process.

Furthermore, the unaligned thoughts will illicit reciprocal emotions from Player 3 (The Body), because feelings always follow thoughts.

Player 3 – My Body – Chemistry

If I do something often enough, my body ‘learns’ and automates it.

Actions, like balancing on a bicycle, typing or walking are committed to memory in the Body (muscle memory), as are creating the chemicals needed for sleep or digestion or those required for fight-or-flight moments.

The Body develops a sort of mini-brain as it remembers, recognizes and synchronizes physical responses to scenarios ahead of thought.

E.g. Two years ago, my Body was savvy to the rhythm of my drinking and produced the countermeasures to alcohol ahead of my imbibing it.

My Body produced cortisol and adrenaline in response to the sedative, which hadn’t arrived yet but which it was expecting.

OMG! My Body initiated a thought/feeling loop!

It temporarily seized power and became the CEO, but I didn’t see the switch!

 

• Cortisol and adrenaline raise anxiety and agitated feelings, which are uncomfortable (Chemistry).

• The brain perceives discomfort to be a problem (Thought)!

• The librarian offers suggested fixes for this problem.

Yep! You got it!

 

• Have a drink!

The Body and mind unknowingly sabotage the Awareness plan to live a healthier life without the poison.

Sabotage initiated by the Body!

I must find a way to harness the Mind and Body’s automated functions.

Harnessing the Mind

Open-ended questions are a powerful tool.

If I ask myself, “Why won’t I be welcome at the party?” My librarian will offer up everything it has ever heard, read or experienced, regardless of intrinsic truth.

“Because you are too tall, too short, not funny, too funny, quiet, loud, try too hard/not hard enough etc…”

Result: My head is full of disempowering untrue thoughts – mirrored in my Body by feelings attached to those thoughts which call forth more of the same thoughts and more feelings etc..

On the other hand, if I ask myself, “What is there about me that people like?” My librarian will fill my head with empowering thoughts, and the feelings will be uplifting.

Other questions:

 

• Why can’t I stop drinking? vs What could I do now to help myself not drink

• Why do I feel so shit about myself? vs What could I do to feel good about myself?

• How would I like to feel today? What could I do to promote such a state?

 

Change the question and automate a different result.

Harnessing the Body

Visualization – Using the imagination to fool the Body.

The Body can’t distinguish between an imagined and a real scene and will react similarly to both.

The Body learns to recognize repeated scenarios and react accordingly with learned behaviour.

If the Body identifies circumstances in the present with learned experiences from the past, it will react with its learned behaviour in the present, effectively reliving and recreating the past.

The Body will reproduce its learned chemistry, manifesting feelings (energy in motion), which signal the mind to produce complementary thoughts, which then cause more of the same feelings, forming a loop and dooming this present moment to look and feel like the past.

A problem if the past was an unpleasant/unsuccessful place!

The Body reacts to a memory, albeit triggered by something real, but to a mental construct.

I can use my imagination to imagine how I would like a situation to unfold.

I could visualize perfect events and prompt myself to feel the respective feelings.

I would be creating a memory!

A memory of the future!

If I created it often enough, my Body would accept it as real, learn from it and automate it.

My Body would begin to create in the present from learned behaviour in the future!

In effect, I can create who I am by making a story or memory my Body believes has happened and will reference in the future when it automates my present!

#Mindfuck

It takes a bit of effort and a bit of planning, but WOW! What a hack!

None of this is easy, but also none of it isn’t easy.

It is about practice and application.

Trial and error

Belief and persistence

Human beings are creative beings

We can create anything with the right tools and encouragement.

(I’ve also signed up for some therapy LOL)

Love and peace

Duncan x