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“Your Emotional Toolkit” for Breaking the Cycle of Addiction

There are many kinds of addictions, BROADLY defined, which include: addiction to cigarettes & smoking, alcohol and drinking, drugs and shooting or popping pills, image
sugar consumption, overworking, gambling, overeating, imagesex, obsessive-compulsive behaviors like cutting, picking, hair-pulling or thumb-sucking, and playing video-games.image

My PREMISE for this talk is that underlying each and every one of these ADDICTIONS… is a set of UNRESOLVED EMOTIONS.

EMOTIONS:
Emotions are OBJECTIVE, and physiologically manifested in the body. They often correspond to THOUGHTS, which can be true or false, but in and of themselves, EMOTIONS are TRUE and OBJECTIVE.

And such FEELINGS are PHYSICAL CLUES to us that we need to DO SOMETHING. Like fight, or flee, or resolve a conflict.
Okay, if you feel “happy”, you might not need to actually “DO” something, but when you feel the troublesome or difficult emotions, “negative” emotions, THESE are CUES that you need to do something.

But often in life, it is not possible or appropriate to just DO that something that our emotions are cueing us to do — like fight, or run away — and we might not know HOW to resolve a particular conflict. When it is not simple or possible to resolve the emotion adequately, through an appropriate behavior, we often unconsciously implement a SUBSTITUTE behavior, which may DIFFUSE THE FEELING of that emotion temporarily, but does not necessarily RESOLVE the emotion. If you are hungry, and you have no food, and someone is eating in front of you and does not want to share, you can’t just grab their food. So you substitute something to deal with the PAIN of this feeling, of this frustration. Over time, or even after one such substitute action, we may develop a substitute BEHAVIOR PATTERN. THIS is the BASIS for ADDICTION.

I’m going to tell you some of the SPECIFIC EMOTIONS, the OBJECTIVE FEELINGS, which often underly PATTERNS OF ADDICTION.

I’m going to teach you when and how to process these particular emotions in order to break the cycle of addiction. This tool does not BATTLE your addiction directly. It’s NOT about willpower, or “white knuckling” and trying to be “stronger than” your addiction. These methods don’t work well, as you probably know if you’ve battled addiction unsuccessfully for any length of time. Mine is simply a POSITIVE TOOL to ADD TO YOUR LIFE. Once you know how to use this tool, and USE IT REGULARLY, the DESIRE for your addictive substance or pattern SIMPLY SUBSIDES.

So NOW:

1) Let me give you the ACRONYM for this, the FIRST TOOL for YOUR NEW, EMOTIONAL TOOLKIT — and that way you will ALWAYS REMEMBER IT!

“Halt! You f’in’ SOB!” Now, this acronym is a mnemonic technique, and I’m not promoting swearing, but this is a key part of this toolkit. It stands for:

Hungry
Angry
Lonely
Tired
Fearful
Sad or
Bored

Add “Ashamed” to the toolkit list, and you will be even better equipped!

WITHOUT judging or criticizing your SELF, and without judging or criticizing the EMOTIONS, I want you to NOTICE.

2) To “NOTICE or NOTE” is the 2nd Tool in your EMOTIONAL TOOLKIT. When you feel inclined to _______________ (fill in your addiction), (like smoke, shoot drugs, eat gluten if you’re celiac, have sex with a stranger) take a moment to NOTICE it. And say (out loud works best) — “HALT! You F’in SOB!” Now, I’m not telling you to call yourself names — this is simply a mnemonic technique. And it is intended to interrupt a pattern.

3) 3rd Tool: Use your ACRONYM, and Ask yourself, “Am I hungry? Am I Angry? Lonely? Tired? Fearful? Sad? or Bored?” “WHAT DO I FEEL?”

And answer yourself, OUT LOUD.

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Emotions — FEELINGS — are by nature TRANSITORY. They come. And they go. The page turns. Once you IDENTIFY the emotion — give it a name, say it out loud, it is being attended to. Sit with it for a moment — literally like 10 seconds to 1 minute or so. Just reflect on the name of the emotion, and the feeling in your body. You can say, “I am feeling scared. Nothing more. Nothing less.” Or “I’m feeling lonely. It doesn’t feel good. I feel lonely.” Or “I’m feeling hungry, and shaky. I’m not dying, but I’m really hungry.” You are now on your way to properly processing that emotion. The page does turn.

You have CONVERTED the emotion from a POWERFUL, SUBCONSCIOUS ACTOR DIRECTING YOUR BEHAVIOR TO AN ADDICTIVE ACTIVITY…
(A TRIGGER)…
TO a transitory, appropriately-minimal-sized experience in your body (one of many) during your day, which YOU as an adult, as a full human being, SIMPLY NOTICE AND PROCESS. YOU are the director now. Emotions are transitory! That’s the Good NEWS! They are just paragraphs, or sentences even, in each larger chapter of your life’s book, which YOU write.

When we are no longer slaves to our EMOTIONS, we are no longer slaves to ADDICTIONS.

To find out more about the EMOTIONAL TOOLKIT to resolve ADDICTIONS, or how this fits with the Longevity Hot Spot Lifestyle, please sign up for the RSS feed for my blog: PowerSourceUnlimited.com, or comment here. Or write to me on TheBluePrintForLife.com And I’ll be sure to send you any upcoming reports.

“Your Emotional Toolkit: Breaking the Cycle of Addiction” Jump to the second hour for a 60 minute RECORDED, LIVE PRESENTATION & INTERVIEW of T. Bergenn by Wolf Spirit Radio Host Luella May:

You can also schedule a consultation or series of consultations with me.

To deal with food addictions, I invite you to investigate and try the AkeaBLAST! for nutritional support that can make your cravings subside by meeting your micronutrient needs.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to share one of the most powerful tools I know to help your overall wellbeing — Your EMOTIONAL TOOLKIT!!!!

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