3 ms·

Self-control only applies to situations where your rational mind overrules irrational impulses. If eating righting and exercising requires self-control, it is

by dkarl 16y ago

Self-control only applies to situations where your rational mind overrules irrational impulses. If eating righting and exercising requires self-control, it is because your mind has a deep conviction that it's actually best for you to eat a lot and not exercise. You've figured out the right strategy, but your faith in it is as shallow as your rational mind. At deeper levels, you're still deluded. However, you can deepen your convictions through carefully examined and honestly felt experience. For example, through regular exercise, you can learn to associate exercise with the good feelings and good results it produces. (It's interesting how neatly this meshes with the Buddhist belief that harmful behavior arises from delusion, and that delusion is maintained not only by ignorance but by compulsive doubt of what one rationally knows to be true.) Unfortunately, your false beliefs (exercise is pointless, exercise will make me feel bad, ordering a pizza will make me feel good, I'm not the kind of quality person who exercises and eats right anyway) start to come back when you stop exercising and eating right. I don't believe you can ever completely eradicate them. An addict is always an addict. For some reason, early-imprinted delusions are always more comfortable than our learned wisdom, and we tend to revert to them under stress. So the fight is never-ending, though happily it demands less self-discipline as time passes.

_debug_ 16y ago
Very insightful, thanks!
mattmanser 16y ago
Backed up by anything? As this seems a little like wishful thinking. From what I've read, generally speaking weightloss from dieting/exercise is usually 1.5-2 stones then you put back on .5 stone. Some people then revert back to original weight as they adopt their previous lifestyle. It's got little to do with beliefs and delusions, far more to do with treating losing weight as a temporary thing then reverting to a previous lifestyle, thinking all I have to do is eat a little less, drink a little less than I did once I'm x stone. They end the diet with 'and now I shall be good because I'm happy' without actually intending to change their original lifestyle. They never intended to keep up the diet indefinitely. So they never had a belief that a diet was how they should live the rest of their life, but made no serious attempt to change their lifestyle. That's my impression of it anyway, having done this once to myself and now pondering on how I'm back to my original weight. On a related note, I've certainly read of people saying that you can build up periods of concentration (e.g. in this instance it was writing), start slow with a couple of hours and build up every day and eventually you can work yourself up to long periods of time of concentration without noticing it. This is perhaps a habit changing method. I don't know, I'm no expert, that's just my best guess.
- dkarl 16y ago
  Backed up with my own weight loss and fitness. Anyone who thinks dieting is a temporary state is doomed; it's easy to categorize that as a delusion. Your mind has a natural anxiety about breaking habits (it's rather superstitious) and also a natural aversion to putting effort into anything. That's why it's so easy to do something when you have enthusiasm for it and so hard once the enthusiasm wears off: enthusiasm is essentially excitement based on the belief that something will generate positive results. I don't know why enthusiasm seems to peak quickly and then die off, but I treat it as an opportunity to form new habits and to educate myself through experiences that would be difficult to bring about otherwise because of my natural laziness. Most long-lasting changes in my life are the residual effects of waves of enthusiasm that carried me for a while and then subsided. I've never been able to make changes strictly incrementally; it's always three steps forward and one step back (which I guess is that .5 stone you're talking about.)
- YogSothoth 16y ago
  I cannot think of any exercise that's more likely to build up one's self control over time than meditation. The ability to keep one's attention squarely on the meditation object (typically the breath) for as long as one wishes improves self control and focus immensely over time. If you've never experienced it, the feeling of having zero thoughts in your head for an extended period of time is just absolutely stunning/amazing/whatever - worth experiencing like you wouldn't believe.

by dkarl 16y ago

_debug_ 16y ago

Very insightful, thanks!

mattmanser 16y ago

Backed up by anything? As this seems a little like wishful thinking. From what I've read, generally speaking weightloss from dieting/exercise is usually 1.5-2 stones then you put back on .5 stone. Some people then revert back to original weight as they adopt their previous lifestyle. It's got little to do with beliefs and delusions, far more to do with treating losing weight as a temporary thing then reverting to a previous lifestyle, thinking all I have to do is eat a little less, drink a little less than I did once I'm x stone. They end the diet with 'and now I shall be good because I'm happy' without actually intending to change their original lifestyle. They never intended to keep up the diet indefinitely. So they never had a belief that a diet was how they should live the rest of their life, but made no serious attempt to change their lifestyle. That's my impression of it anyway, having done this once to myself and now pondering on how I'm back to my original weight. On a related note, I've certainly read of people saying that you can build up periods of concentration (e.g. in this instance it was writing), start slow with a couple of hours and build up every day and eventually you can work yourself up to long periods of time of concentration without noticing it. This is perhaps a habit changing method. I don't know, I'm no expert, that's just my best guess.

dkarl 16y ago
Backed up with my own weight loss and fitness. Anyone who thinks dieting is a temporary state is doomed; it's easy to categorize that as a delusion. Your mind has a natural anxiety about breaking habits (it's rather superstitious) and also a natural aversion to putting effort into anything. That's why it's so easy to do something when you have enthusiasm for it and so hard once the enthusiasm wears off: enthusiasm is essentially excitement based on the belief that something will generate positive results. I don't know why enthusiasm seems to peak quickly and then die off, but I treat it as an opportunity to form new habits and to educate myself through experiences that would be difficult to bring about otherwise because of my natural laziness. Most long-lasting changes in my life are the residual effects of waves of enthusiasm that carried me for a while and then subsided. I've never been able to make changes strictly incrementally; it's always three steps forward and one step back (which I guess is that .5 stone you're talking about.)
YogSothoth 16y ago
I cannot think of any exercise that's more likely to build up one's self control over time than meditation. The ability to keep one's attention squarely on the meditation object (typically the breath) for as long as one wishes improves self control and focus immensely over time. If you've never experienced it, the feeling of having zero thoughts in your head for an extended period of time is just absolutely stunning/amazing/whatever - worth experiencing like you wouldn't believe.