The seventh of the Festive Holiday Horrors is all the TEMPTATIONS that abound with the Festivities and even worse, continue for the better part of a month, before life returns to ‘normal’.
What are the TEMPTATIONS that come after you?
There are the ones you know you absolutely do not have a chance to resist?
There are the automatic ones, where you respond to a stimulus without thinking if that is what you CHOOSE to do (such as answer the phone).
Then there are the TEMPTATIONS that sneak up on you, you have been lured in before you know it.
Or even worse, the ones that look on the surface as though they may be OK and it is not until you are well into it that you realise, a TEMPTATION has caught you again.
But wait! Isn’t it NICE to give into a few TEMPTATIONS? After all, isn’t that what the holidays are all about, a little indulgence is GOOD for you – and – YES it is!
Do you have some other TEMPTATIONS to add? And what to do about all of them?
The Mind Chi Happiness – GRATITUDE
You may wonder how GRATITUDE might assist your overcoming all those TEMPTATIONS.
Consider why do you give in to them?
What makes them TEMPTATIONS for you?
What is the need that the TEMPTATION fills (at least temporarily)?
What answers do you have to the above questions?
Might it be that you are feeling a lack of something?
Maybe love, recognition, peace, fulfilment, confidence, contentment or joy?
Once you become aware that TEMPTATION is masking a real feeling, then you can have a fresh look at it.
Once you identify the underlying cause you can look at what you can do about that and even if that may take some fixing, you have at least pulled the real cause and the TEMPTATION apart. That awareness alone, gives you much strength to resist.
And how can you use GRATITUDE as the antidote to the TEMPTATION?
As you look back at the underlying cause of your TEMPTATION and see there is a lack of something, taking just one minute to consider ALL the things for which you could be grateful will start to compensate in many ways.
Remembering all the good things in your life has been shown to increase your resistance to infection, make you more resilient to the strain of life’s stresses, and help you to see what IS working in your life and therefor how much you do have to appreciate. Suddenly all the underlying lacks that make those TEMPTATIONS so very irresistible, seem to diminish. Try it, you have nothing to lose and very much to gain.
To be extra sure it is good to plan ahead.
Where have you suffered the pitfalls of TEMPTATIONS before? If it was that you did really suffer in previous years, then considering a plan NOW to help you, will reap dividends.
Might you just graciously send your regrets to the invitation?
Might you go with a friend or partner who you know will keep you in check. It is important to have an agreement that at the specific cut off point, you do NOT argue, remember they are doing you a favour, and so shift your behaviour at once.
Might you wear a particular piece, say on your wrist, so you can see it easily, and it reminds you to go easy?
On the potentially automatic response TEMPTATIONS, when the stimulus occurs, even if your hand has already reached out, you have a nanosecond of intercept control. TAKE IT! Remember, because it rings you do NOT have to answer, you answer because you want to and it is convenient and someone with whom you want to speak. Holding the reins of control is one of the most powerful strain relievers of all life’s stresses.
Then you can use some TEMPTATIONS (with a tinge of moderation) as special rewards when you have done some things that were a bit difficult to do. Select them carefully and be sure that you will not suffer as a result. Put a safety net in place and off you go to have a well-earned reward and a bit of good TEMPTATION. En JOY!
To summarise the 8 Mind Chi Happinesses to Overcome the TEMPTATIONS
Look for the underlying causes of why you are TEMPTED.
- Having isolated the cause let this awareness deplete TEMPTATION power.
- Use the power of GRATITUDE to appreciate all you DO have.
- Plan ahead to curtail danger TEMPTATION places and put strategies in place.
- Agree with a buddy to remind you when you have reached a pre-agreed limit.
- STICK to that agreement and STOP the behaviour at once.
- Use the nanosecond response gap to ACT rather than react, e.g. phones.
- Allow yourself some special TEMPTATIONS as a special reward for yourself.
For the other Festive Holiday Horrors, please click here.
(c) Mind Chi 2011
