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Compulsive Behavior and the Subconscious

February 14, 2008 |

Compulsive behaviors are formed in the subconscious.
The brain weighs only a few pounds, but it is hundreds of times more powerful than the fastest computer. Within the brain’s deeply furrowed cortex lies a wellspring of memory, dreams, alertness and self-awareness. Neurons hum with activity — networking, processing, and acting with lightning speed to interpret the messages from the sense organs. The temporal lobe, association cortex, corpus callosum, and the left and right hemisphere act like players in an orchestra to transform the constant influx of signals into a cohesive interpretation of the inner and outer world.

Even with today’s high-tech diagnostic tools, the brain is like an iceberg—hiding more than we can see. Below the surface are the workings of the brain hidden from the conscious. It’s called the subconscious. It does most of the work you take for granted.
Imagine trying to walk while figuring out what blend of digestive juices your pancreas needs to digest the pizza that you ate for lunch. Imagine sending millions of enzymes, one by one, into that sticky, half-digested pizza sludge looking for a nutrient. Meanwhile, your heart needs regulating and you’re getting a little confused in organizing the 100,000 chemical reactions the mind performs each hour to maintain homeostasis (balance). And you thought making your eyes rotate in two different directions is hard! If these reactions were not hidden from us, we could not function. Automatic functions let our brain focus on the most important things.

To develop any skill, we train our bodies to react, then refine that reaction so we gain control with ever-increasing complexity. A concert violinist plays with ease because he has developed a complex array of automatic reactions. It is much like writing a program for a computer.

Consider the brain a bio-computer and you, its haphazard programmer. You have been inputting data and setting up programs since childhood. Every smile, criticism, kind word and insult is a source of data. But much of that data was false. Through corrupted data, you may have come to believe that you are clumsy, useless, hopeless, fat, ugly, stupid, weak and cowardly. Those beliefs have determined your actions and powerfully affected your thinking process. Each distorted thought has entered the subconscious, stirring waves of emotion, shame, guilt, fear and rejection, each wave adding to the overwhelming feeling of worthlessness. A feeling that shouts, “you are a failure!”

It is easy to give up. You don’t have to try when you believe that you’re going to fail. But when you give up you feel helpless, empty, and want relief. The food industry is ready to profit from that emptiness.

The diet industry has spent millions on putting a Band-Aid on a symptom. Our bodies are sick and overweight because our minds are filled with toxic thoughts that destroy self-worth, motivation and discipline.

We come to believe our problems with negative emotions are psychological. We may even seek medical cures. Minor results come, but most of the time we are discouraged. If you have been controlled by food, thinking obsessively and battling through each diet, you will find freedom. It will take work, but there will be no waiting for results. Everything you will learn in the following pages will increase your self-control by assisting you in disciplining your thought life. This understanding will help you gain control over not only your diet, but also many other areas of your life. As you start to feel more secure, your defenses will fall away, and you will feel the presence of God. There will be times when you will feel immersed in the comfort of peace. You will feel love in a way that you have never known. You will become emotionally stable. Discipline will be seen in the little things. You will smile easily, share willingly, laugh readily, enjoy life, have enthusiasm, and most of all, you will have a sense of joy and a feeling in the quietness of your soul that says… “All is well.”
Sounds too good. Like a miracle? Give your body a few weeks on a light diet of fruits and vegetables and amazing things will happen. Cells regenerate, the skin softens and veins are cleansed. The lymph glands, liver and kidneys detoxify as you experience the awesome wonder of healing.
Just as the body can recover from disease, the mind can also recover. God can heal emotional wounds, patterns of obsession, compulsion and addiction. But only if you fill your mind with encouragement. You have let your mind run its random course, only to find emotional pain that steals your self-control. It is time to recover your mind and let it be renewed.

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