Internal Themostat analogy

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This blog is by, for and about recovery.

Recovery from... addictions, codependent tendencies, self destructive behaviors.

Approach Avoidance... what does that mean, exactly?

You decide you want something, you work towards getting it, as soon as you get close to achieving whatever that was... you screw it up.


Tony Robbins coined the term I use as the title of this blog.

I have a recovery blog specifically about the part of Tony Robbins' Personal Power 2 audio series that I think is Robbins' most important contribution to recovery...

Robbins didn't write his work with that in mind!

It turns out (well, I've discovered anyway) that the path one has to take to be 'successful' in business or the path one has to take to amass wealth, is identical to the path one has to take to recover from addictions or codependency.

That other blog of mine is http://globalbeliefs.blogspot.com

Robbins speaks of (and this is in the context of a business person or business owner) you discover that you are NOT where you want to be.

You notice that there is some 'distance' between where you currently are and where you want to be

You plot a course to get from here to there

Here's the analogy:

You have a 'thermostat'

You've "lit a fire under your a**"
Inside you sort of "heat up", the furnace kicks in, you've got to get a head of steam up if you (old railroad analogy here) intend to climb that steep hill.

You make progress towards getting 'up the hill' (I'm mixing metaphors and analogies I know)

BUT as soon as you get close to achieving what ever...

The 'air conditioning' kicks in!

The furnace kicked in, and you intentionally, consciously turned the furnace on.

When you got close to the target state...

You UNCONSCIOUSLY retarded forward progress!!!!!

...now why would you do that?

Part of you did it... there are more of us in here than just one of us!

(see previous post)

A part of you (your conscious self, your EGO, the part of you that's more left brain than right) is looking at another part of you (your inner child, your right brain) with CONTEMPT!

You're so used to being 'punitive' (self deprecating) that you actually think it's normal to do so!

You know what context 'acclimated' means?

If you're an Eskimo, or you live above the arctic circle, and you've been living in sub zero temperatures for months... as soon as the temp goes up to 10° above, compared to 40° below, now you think that's warm.

You've been 'acclimated' to it being below zero.

If you're an addict (which AUTOMATICALLY means you're a codependent) you're 'acclimated' to *beating yourself up*

That's where the approach avoidance comes from... no wonder you weren't aware of it.

Did you know that all you can hold in consciousness is 7 +/- 9 chunks of information at one time?

Are you even slightly aware of the thousands (maybe even 10s of 1000's) of bits of information your subconscious can hold?



There's a lot more of you under the water line than there is above it.

My grand daughter is waking up... I've got to close

We're all kinda schizophrenic

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ALL of us are kinda schizophrenic... really.

In a very real sense, we all have multiple personalities, even healthy people (by healthy I mean functional or relatively functional people, NO one is functional all of the time, Our TARGET STATE is Inter-dependence, not Codependency)


We have a left brain and a right brain, we have a pair of eyes and a pair of ears, presumably for depth perception (a that word, perception, a LOT more on that concept later)

our Mind (I make a distinction between brain and Mind) also records in stereo:

One set of records/ memories is "What Happened"
the other set of records is "How we Felt about What Happened"

and it's also VERY useful to note that for the vast majority of the time, the playing back (recollection of) those set of recordings is:
A) on autopilot
B) unconscious

By that I mean it usually never occurs to us that we can vary/ control the 'strength' of, the 'volume of' those play backs...

Not only that, most of us are completely oblivious of just how much that PLAYBACK colors, influences... actually CONTROLS the choices we make available to us.

Notice I said: WE MAKE AVAILABLE TO US, not shit is happening to us that is outside of our control... NO ONE IS DOING ANYTHING TO US, we connect the internal dots to assign meaning to incoming stimuli.


Reposted in 2008 from another of my blogs... updated with cross linking to corresponding concepts

More on us being/ having multiple personalities that we're not usually aware of:

More from "I'm OK--You're OK

Brain functions as high fidelity tape recorder

More from "I'm OK--You're OK" by Thomas Harris

Page 11

"In summary we may conclude:
1. The brain functions as a high-fidelity tape recorder.

2. The feelings which were associated with past experiences also are recorded and are inextricably locked to those experiences

3. Persons can exist in two states at the same time. The patient knew he was on the operating table talking with (Dr.) Penfield; he equally knew he was seeing the "Seven-Up Bottling Company... and Harrison Bakery." He was dual in that he was at the same time in the experience and outside of it, observing it.

(hmm, now I'm going to have to find the passage explaining that the patient was remembering something from work, looks like he worked at a 7Up plant and or a bakery, well this IS as blog & I can edit this later when I've more time)

4. These recorded experiences and feelings associated with them are available for replay today in as vivid a form as when they happened and provide much of the data which determines the nature of today's transactions. These experiences not only can be recalled but also relived. I not only remember how I felt. I feel the same way now.

(now this explains much of why codependents react in screwy ways to stuff in the here and now, and why healthier people think we're nuts, what's in our 'flight data recorder' is erroneous, what's in the healthy persons 'flight data recorded' is relatively sane)

Adult Children of Alcoholics feel more screwy than normal people.



Adult Child's Guide to What's Normal

The Drunk can blame the pint.

The Crack Addict can blame the 8ball he smoked (eighth of an ounce of crack to the uninitiated)

The Adult Child (which I'm saying is synonymous with Codependency) is doing addictive stuff, self destructive stuff and it appears he's doing it for NO reason???


==========
This article is for informational purposes only.
Please contact a licensed professional in your area
if you are in crisis or require mental health services
==========
This article is for informational purposes only.
Please contact a licensed professional in your area
if you are in crisis or require mental health services

Self Destructive Behavior - the Source

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Why is it that most people quit smoking and go back to it?

Why is it that most people go on diets, lose wieght and gain it right back?

Why is it that most people go into drug rehab and end up using again?

Why do we do self destructive behavior?

is it an illness or are we somehow deficient or people with addictive personalties?

Approach Avoidance

also known as Psychological Reversal

it's where you want X and your insides want Y

...and we're all mulitple personalities inside!

don't think so?

sit on a bus stop bench, or observe yourself in an elevator, you're the only person present... along comes someone, anyone... a person that's NOT you.

Now you're aware of them, you may or may not SAY anything to them, but the body language is screaming at both of you.

You're suddenly NOT going to pick your nose, you're guarded about what you're willing to let that other soul know about you.

jeez, this is really going to be a long post and I've so much to do
my grandaughter needs her diaper changed...more coming

Brain Functions as High Fidelity Tape Recorder

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