How Do We Make Our Decisions Work For Us, Not Against Us? How do we change that story our ego has created in our mind? This strategy helped me win a world title, it’s a strategy I now live by everyday. I know you can adopt it to. Let’s dive in…..
Not being able to concentrate on singular actions, or always looking for distractions, are habits of a mind that is out of your control, overly stimulated, and unhealthy (in a stressed/anxious state). When we regain control and awareness of our “self”, we can change any physical or mental habits.
“Self” is a term for your conscious. If we have lost awareness of our mind and body we have also lost our awareness of our conscious “self”. This means your subconscious mind is living your life for you based on past experiences, memories and emotional reactions. Your subconscious thrives on routine, habits, patterns, repetitive thoughts and actions. It basically keeps you from being present, calm, in control and relaxed.
Why does it do this? Simply put, your subconscious does not know what is or is not healthy. A bowl of ice-cream every night as a kid will set up a very strong ‘memory to hormone pathway’. Therefore, ice-cream becomes what your subconscious craves, for happy hormones (with the aid of other hormones craving the sugar) because it knows 100% you will get a release of happy hormones as that is all it knows (after all it’s just your subconscious, not Einstein). This is what ‘comfort food’ is. Too much ‘comfort food’ could be killing you if your subconscious is in control 100 percent of the time.
Ask yourself now if you are making all your decisions based solely on memory responses from the past or emotional cravings based in the future.
So How Do We Make Our Decisions Work For Us, Not Against Us?
For long lasting true happiness we need a different approach that overrules our short-term pleasure hormones and our automatic brain patterns (cravings/bad decisions/addictions/habits). Keep in mind these hormones and habits don’t worry about long term health issues or lack of long term fulfilment/happiness.They just want the biggest hit NOW for the least amount of effort/energy output!
When you are your true “self” (in control with a peaceful mind), your intentions and goals are readily accessible. They can take priority over the habitual patterns of the subconscious, which are generally distracting, unhealthy, unfulfilling, leaveing us wanting and unhappy.
Let’s Chat Ego
Ego can only exist in the presence of past and future thoughts of ourselves. Our true “self” can only be connected to in absence of ego. Only our “self” has the strength to try something new with an unknown outcome. Only being present in this very moment in time, with no presence of fears, memories, or expectations from past or future, are we able to create change – to create the life we truly desire. If we let our subconscious mind and ego be the loudest voices in our head we will never, ever, be able to live to our full potential. Our ego will always hold us back with fear & doubt, or make us act beyond a sustainable level that we crash down (commonly referred to as ‘burn out’) later.
We too often live according to the stories that our mind is telling us instead of the reality of our existence in the present moment. Below is an example of not being in the moment, of being controlled by our mine, specifically my mind.
Many years ago, I learnt the power of this simple shift in awareness after a long and hot bike ride…
I had been told of this human behaviour, that what we feel is only a projection of what our mind tells us we “should” feel. One day, I found myself walking into the house after a long bike ride thinking how buggered I was from such a tough session. I thought if I didn’t get something to eat and lie down soon I would surely collapse. I thought of the discomfort I was experiencing, my ego sang it loudly like a badge of honour, as i continued to perpetuate the ‘story’. The story of how tired I now was because I had done such a gruelling and impressive (to myself) training session.
Suddenly I remembered what I had been told previously about the stories we tell ourselves. I stopped telling myself I had just done a hard session. I let my mind go quiet, I stood tall, my body relaxed, my breathing slowed, instantly I felt as though I had done nothing.
How could it be?! How could that impressive session leave me feeling fine? As if I had done nothing at all? It was a blow to my ego – because it (my ego) had now disappeared – it was all ego that was telling me how tough of a guy I was, to be feeling so “tired” after such a “tough” session. As easy as that, I now had to walk around the house without my badge of honour, without asking for extra attention, without cramming food down my throat, without drawing a breath. I transitioned to be in the moment without my story of why I should feel tired, to determine how I felt.
Conclusion
Next time you catch yourself “feeling” tired, OR unhappy, angry, stressed (list goes on), acknowledge that it is simply a ‘story’, a story created by your perception. Take a breath and make an effort to stop listening to the “story” you are telling yourself in that moment, with no past, no expectation, and no ego. Let go of everything you think you ”feel”.
You’ll be surprised how little exists in the “now”, how easy it is to feel relaxed and happy when you are truly present.
I dare you ?
