Day 25 True North

True North 

Day 25

Sorry I forgot to post last night. Thank you, Nance, for letting me know! 

Tonight, after making the video, I attended a lecture by Dr. Doug Lisle, psychologist. Some of his videos have been good but somewhat annoying to me so I wasn't really enthusiastic about going. I'm so glad I did.

Dr. Lisle cowrote the book, The Pleasure Trap, with Dr. Goldhamer, the founder of this place. They clearly identify in that book how we are super charging our tastebuds and nervous system to need very concentrated combinations of salt, sugar, and fat. He talked about how foods in nature, the ones that are good for us, don't combine these things, especially at very concentrated levels. We are simply, addicted to them. It is tempting here to think you have to be 100% perfect to overcome this. Admittedly, just like any addition, that would be ideal. But, is it possible? Feasible? Sustainable? 

He has identified another powerful force called the Ego Trap and it helped put a ton together for me tonight. Essentially he looks at everything in terms of survival of the organism. We do what we do to 1) avoid pain, 2) minimize energy output, and 3) seek pleasure. It all has to do with us innately driven to survive. When we give these super charged foods to our bodies, they naturally and very quickly are super stimulated and our brain latches onto them like - "this is a lot of calories and my taste buds/neurons are firing without much effort - get more!"And -"these vegetables are now bland and don't give me many calories or bang for the buck, avoid!" 

Anyhow, after watching many many people resolutely come through True North and the prison system, wanting so badly to change their lives but falling on their faces time and time again, they realized something else was going on. It gets complicated here but, my oversimplification is this: if we feel there is someone in our lives that has unrealistic expectations of us as we try something hard, we will give up. If we don't think we can do something but others think we can, we will avoid the situation to save face. We must make ambitious, exciting goals with measurable outcomes to feel alive; that is how we are wired. But, if we are going to get out of these traps, we need to get away from unrealistic, perfectionistic expectations. It sounds like, duh, here. His talk was really good and in depth, though. 

Here's a link to a talk he gave about this. I think I had some major breakthroughs for myself through this. Let me know if it helps you too.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vbeHVecDlM

Night night. Love to all! Cath