One of the most profound “aha” moments in my own recovery was when I realized how I fed into my addiction to struggle and self-sabotage.
You see I had totally bought into the philosophy of no pain no gain.
I felt like I a fraud. I wasn’t good enough, I wasn’t fit enough, didn’t exercise often enough. And because I was always living on some version of a restrictive diet, when I over-ate (which happens often when you are constantly on some version of a diet), I would feel like I had failed and I was constantly facing barriers. And that’s how I crossed the line and started down the rabbit hole of addiction to struggle. You see I had come to believe that I always had to struggle and try harder.
Every emotion, whether positive or negative, is a blend of chemicals that our brain instantly produces in response to thoughts. And it’s is very addictive. It is most noticeable in the case of negative emotions.
If we often experience the emotions of struggle (worry, fear, I’m not good enough, I’ve been bad so I have to starve) our body will instruct our unconscious mind to seek out or create circumstances that will produce its desired fix. The more we program our unconscious mind for struggle or suffering, the more it will ensure that we run that program continuously.
This is called self-sabotage.
Is there a rehab process? Can this self-sabotage be stopped? YES! And the process is pretty darn simple. Here’s how it works:
- Acknowledge and accept that you do have an emotional addiction struggle.
- Make a firm and final decision to free yourself from this habit.
- Watch yourself like a hawk. The moment you catch yourself thinking negative STOP. Consciously replace it immediately with an opposite positive thought and action. Don’t analyze, don’t doubt whether it will work — just do it.
Negative emotions are a part of life. There is nothing wrong with feeling negative emotions such as frustration, anger, impatience, judgment, anxiety or even getting depressed occasionally. We are humans after all. The key is to intentionally process them quickly and remove their chemistry from our body, before they become a craving-driven habit.
None of this is that hard to do. As a matter of fact it’s mind-blowing how easy it is once we make the deliberate decision to rehabilitate our self-sabotaging addiction.
If you self-sabotage, I get into the rehab process in my FREE webinar. You can register here.
You were made to thrive on positive emotions. Isn’t it time for you to emerge from your cocoon of struggle?
Think about it!
