3. Unhealthy impulses: Outcompete them with your values - Deepstash
The Psychology of Willpower

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The Psychology of Willpower

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3. Unhealthy impulses: Outcompete them with your values

All too often, our best intentions get sabotaged by our own minds: impulsive reactions, cravings, fears, and the like.

Resist these unhealthy impulses and cravings by shifting your focus onto your values: why you want to resist that impulse in the first place?

If you’re feeling the impulse to eat a second serving of dessert, don't just repeat 'don’t eat the dessert', over and over. Instead think about why you want to resist that craving in the first place. Maybe you value loosing weight and improving your health, or looking good at the beach this summer

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MORE IDEAS ON THIS

Hurt us how?

Anxiety. The vast majority of anxiety comes from unhelpful thinking about the future. Know when to use your mental time travel ability.

Shame. Many instances of depression and low self-esteem are driven by powerful mental habits of self-criticism and self-judgment. Though these painful ment...

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And teach your brain that difficult emotions aren't dangerous

Even though you may intellectually know you're not ok,if you're in the habit of avoiding talking about how you feel, you’re training your brain to think that painful feelings are things to be avoided and feared and that is a set-up for emotional fragility and pain.

By taking even 3 seconds ...

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Clarify and Justify your Values

Then, once you’ve figured out at least one good value behind your desire to resist your craving, clarify and justify it: what are its benefits and advantages? What are the benefits of losing weight and getting healthy? What will you be able to do when you're healthier? How will it make you feel:...

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Know how you really feel

First of all, Do you really know how you feel? Sure you know that you feel upset. But what emotions specifically are you feeling?

  • Are you feeling angry? If so, what type of anger—frustrated, mad, irritated?
  • Or maybe you’re feeling hurt… But what type of hurt? D...

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The Antidote to destructive mental time travel:

Cultivate the ability to hold your attention in the present moment. Use your ability to mentally time travel mindfully, not mindlessly

When faced with a challenging situation, keep your attention on that current situation, don't replay any upsetting past event to add to what you're already ...

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How to deal with the 3 Factors that Sabotage our Mental Strength

Like any kind of training, building mental strength requires a commitment to good habits and practices over time. However, some of these practices can be daunting especially if you have to think of how big of a change in character and lifestyle you have to make in order to be mentally strong. Y...

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1.Emotional Dishonesty: Not Being honest about how you feelings

This habit is so simple that it’s incredibly easy to miss.

There'a a chance that you're not quite as honest about your emotions—especially the really difficult ones—as you’d like to believe.

ou had a big argument with your spouse last night. This morning, your coworker asks you how yo...

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Mental strength is the ability to control your mind instead of being controlled by it.

Becoming mentally strong doesn’t mean you are able to completely control everything that goes on in your head.

Mental strength means understanding which parts of y...

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2. Destructive Mental Time Travel: Resisting the unnecessary

The majority of emotional suffering is a direct result of too much mental time travel.

Mental time travel is the amazing ability we have to think about the future with our imagination or relive events from the past out of memory. While this can serve as a warning and help us plan and prepar...

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CURATED FROM

CURATED BY

samsalt

Jack of all people-related trades, master of none. Majored in Psychology, Customer Service Assoc for a few Years, HR Officer for 4, Manager and ESL Teacher for over 11 yrs now, an artist since birth.

Mental illness can creep up when you least expect it. It pays to be mentally strong & prepared at all times

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