THE PATRONUS SPELL
Just say a few magic words and the habit is gone. I have no doubt that's exactly what we'd all like. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Nevertheless, I'm going to describe a little trick. Life hack. A spell that makes it easier to get rid of any bad habit. I also mentioned this trick in my book and now I'm going to reveal it here.
Finish your food!
A lot of us were always made to finish our food from a young age. No exceptions. Just never leave leftovers, because it's a waste! We can't save the leftovers for later, NO! Just eat it all! You probably had that in kindergarten, maybe even in school.
When we finished the whole meal, we were praised ("When you eat it all, you get ice cream!"). Maybe even rewarded. If there was anything left on the plate, we were scolded. And so our minds developed an automated pattern of behavior at an early age, one that was reinforced with each repetition. What is it?
Finish all the food=Followed by pleasant things, pleasant feelings
Not finishing your food = Unpleasant things, unpleasant feelings follow
Our body and mind are adapted to protect us from adversity. Both from danger and from unpleasant feelings (which are closely linked, as an unpleasant feeling indicates danger, but more on that another time). So they try to do everything they can to avoid it. Often this ends up causing us even more trouble.
So, you probably already know that, thanks to what I described above, we tend to eat all the food that is prepared. No matter how much we eat.
This habit is not directly related to emotional eating. But it does support it beautifully. It makes the "monster" stronger and more invincible. But I'm going to show you a weapon you can use against it. And that is:
The Patronus Spell
Why the patron's spell? If you're a Harry Potter fan, you'll understand why I called it that.
But I only mentioned this trick in my book on emotional eating as a little bonus. Why? It's just a little "pee" for the mind. You have to go one habit at a time. And it's not gonna change your life radically. You have to understand a lot of other things and start from the ground up. If you suffer from emotional eating, I recommend you check out my eBook, in which I describe how you can get rid of it. From my own experience.
But if you are annoyed by a particular habit, such as the just-learned need to eat ALL the food you see, then the patron's spell is perfect for you. But before I explain what to do, let's talk about why to do it.
Mind
At each moment the mind performs four acts:
- identification
- compare
- analysis
- decision-making
What does that mean? Let's explain it in simple terms. The mind identifies a stimulus: for example, a plate of food. It then compares it with what it has stored in its memory. So it "searches" for all the plates of food you've ever seen. It analyses the situation that has arisen about it and then decides what to do about it.
So your mind, when comparing and analyzing, "realizes" that when you didn't finish all the food, unpleasant feelings followed. And so it forces you to eat all the food.
The solution is to change what the mind compares the stimulus to.
At the moment, you have only a sea of situations in your library where finishing your meal was a pleasant feeling or a matter of course. Of course, there is no way to erase this sea. But we can add something to it and thus change the content of the "library". And the less attention the "sea" is given, the less active it will be.
How to do it
Our goal is to create the opposite of the memories we have. At the moment, we have experienced that a vacuumed plate means a pleasant feeling. We're going to create the opposite. How?
- Load your plate too full of food
- Eat to your heart's content
- Once you are full, push the plate with the rest of the food away from you
- Let yourself be flooded with a pleasant feeling, a pleasant memory and enjoy it for a while
- If you don't have a strong enough will and you finish your meal anyway, remember a really unpleasant memory
- Apply the procedure regularly every day for at least one month
This will reverse the feelings about the stimulus in your memories. The "library" that the mind compares the stimulus to and then analyzes it. After a while, the new pattern will be so strong that it will dominate the "library". So your mind will realize that if you eat through satiety, unpleasant feelings will follow. If you successfully put the food down, you will feel great.
In order for it to work as it should, your positive (/negative) feeling must be strong enough (do you see why Patron's spell?). You can think of your sexy body that you will get because of it. You can think about how happy you are with yourself. You can think of anything that gives you strong pleasurable feelings.
You can also help yourself by visualizing. Imagine what makes you happy. But it's important to associate the feeling with pushing the plate away.
Not just food
However, this trick doesn't only work on habits that involve food. It works for absolutely anything. But don't combine too many at once, because then it might not have any effect. Focus on only 1-2 at a time.
What else did this trick help me with? First of all, with procrastination. All the work I do on any project makes me really happy and I feel great when I get into it. However, in the past when I tried to create something, I got too caught up in it a few times. Not knowing which way to go and not knowing what to do first. So the work was confusing, exhausting and everything was too much for me. It was challenging and it was going nowhere. And that's what my mind associates work with.
So I often found it difficult to get started. Anything. The mind had the idea that it would be too exhausting. And so I found it more enjoyable to watch soap operas or whatever.
But this trick made getting started easier and easier from the beginning.
The Will
Of course, it's not entirely without work either. It takes willpower. It takes the will to start working and it takes the will to put down the plate. Willpower can also be trained, but that's for another article. The important thing is that over time, the will to do the same thing will be needed less and less thanks to this trick.
My goal is always to explain not only WHAT to do, but also WHY to do it. But at the same time in a digestible way. So I hope that the article was not confusing for you and at the same time I explained everything properly! And if not, let me know! Like me on Instagram, or on Facebook! Instagram, nebo na Facebook!
Of course, I will also be glad if you write me that the article has given you something!
