Stare Down That Craving

I'd like to share something that has worked for me in the last year with my alcohol cravings and has now been working with my food cravings.
I had sort of forgotten about the following method until this week when I was reading the book "Destructive Emotions and How We Can Overcome Them" by Daniel Goleman. This book, that I've been reading for a few weeks now (I tend to read several books at a time so it sometimes takes me a while to get through them) is the narrative of a conference of scientists and meditation & Buddhist experts, including the Dalai Lama, discussing the mind and emotions and how meditation and Buddhist practices (not necessarily Buddhism itself), can and has been proven in some cases to assist in a variety of issues dealing with the mind and brain.

The following excerpt describes the "staring back" that I find quite helpful when dealing with cravings, which I consider a negative thought.

"The basic way to intervene has been called 'staring back' at the thought. When a [negative] thought arises, we need to watch it and look back at the source. We need to investigate the nature of that thought that seems so solid. As we stare at it, its apparent solidity will melt away and that thought will vanish without giving birth to a chain of thoughts. The point is not to try to block the arising of thoughts--this is not possible anyway--but not to let them invade our mind."

I challenge you to try this next time you "feel" you just HAVE to have that second bite of cake, that bag of chips, that glass of wine...or whatever your demon is; cigarettes, gambling, shopping-whatever it is that you know is just going to lead to regret and self-chastising the next day and might be quite harmful to your health and well being as well. Stare that feeling down. Why not give it a try? You might get results, you might not; what have you got to lose? It's free and not particularly time consuming.

Have a great weekend! Choose to be healthy! The choice is yours.
Ciao for now!