Example: My friend decided that this was finally the time to give herself a budget and be serious about getting her finances in order. Just as soon as she made that determination she went out and bought a wad of jewelry she suddenly desperately ‘needed’ and sent her bank account back a couple of hundred dollars.
Another friend wanted to lose a few pounds. Always a great new year’s resolution, but she is very smart, and knows that it’s not just about the weight, she is going to make ‘health’ changes. This week she has craved nothing but Coca Cola and Cheezies.
I wrote in my January Blog that I was committed to being an online presence and to writing encouraging things and suddenly, I had nothing to say!
This ladies and gentlemen is the ‘lack’ side of your trained brain in action. You are wired to be sensitive to lack so that you are not surprised by suddenly occurring famine or natural disaster that wipes out your particular food &/or shelter supply. It is a great thing when you are a bear or squirrel or living under your rock. But, here in our highly evolved surroundings, we are not really in danger of possibly starving or finding ourselves naked this very day. Unfortunately our lizard brain has not evolved with our surroundings, and it is never going to evolve. It has one job and that is to be on the lookout for any lack in any form. If it is used to you having coke and cheezies, then by gosh golly, it is going to let you know when those supplies go missing!
The best we can do is to move our thoughts from that ‘old, hard part of our brain, (the reptilian complex) up to the softer, ‘new’ part of our brain (the neocortex) and spend some time making thought tracks there. I have found that by imagining that I have just written a stunning piece of information and marinating in that particular feeling that my fear calms down, and I actually get inspired. When my jewelry clad friend envisions her loaded bank account and that satisfaction/peace permeates her being, she doesn’t need the jewelry as armour to protect herself anymore and when my friend with the junk food addiction daydreams about her updated Facebook profile pic looking 10 pounds lighter, suddenly she really does feel like making that green smoothie and going for a walk.
Impulses are just that – impulsive. If you can give yourself a moment, breathe, imagine and ‘feel’ your way forward, then soon the old ‘song of lack’ will not be so hard to tune out.
I’m off now to feel good about what I’ve just written.