Your Emotions are a Titan, Your Mind a Flea

Tomorrow I will have been a vegan for 20 days, a third of my 60-day cholesterol experiment. There have been a few minor temptations so far, but it has been surprisingly easy.

That’s the power of emotional, visceral drive and intent versus intellectual intent alone. As important as our humanity (cerebral cortex) is, we must understand and befriend our animal nature if we hope to change deeply-ingrained habits. Attempting to change using only your mind usually creates a fight against yourself (intellect versus emotion) and ends in failure. (Hint: your emotions are a titan, your mind a flea.)

So get “everyone” onboard with your intentions. Agree on your goals with your mind, spirit, and body, and watch yourself kick some serious ass.

Setting and Achieving Goals

Do you fail to set goals or fail to see them through?

Three reasons people don't set and achieve goals come to mind:

1. Fear of failure.

2. Fear of change.
 
3. Fear of what others think.

See the common component? FEAR. The cure?

1. Build your confidence through a long series of many small successes. Don't try to jump from the bottom of the ladder to the top. Climb the rungs. Take each step. And remember, the definition of failure is not failing. It's giving up.

2. Although staying the same feels safe and it's easy, it's also the death of dreams, hope, and accomplishment. The human body and mind were created to MOVE. Life is action. Change is the caterpillar giving up everything and gaining the ability to fly.

3. Validate yourself first. When you really believe in what you're doing, the need for external validation and the effect of external negativity is reduced. Some people are threatened by success in others and thus criticize or insult them in an attempt to make themselves feel better about living in their world of forgotten dreams where everything is someone else's fault. Don't listen to them. You have everything you need to be who you want to be, and what you don't have, you can get. (More goals!)

Now set those goals and reach for your dreams. You may not achieve them all, or even many, and that is fine! You're moving, you're investing in yourself, and you're LIVING. (Successful people fail a LOT. That's because they try a lot of things.)

So don't be afraid of failure, change, or the opinions of others. This is your life to live and your shoes to walk in. Your life situation *might* be beyond your control, but your attitude isn't. So go for what you want. It's yours. And there is only one thing that can stop you: fear. (Don't let it.)

The Problem with New Information

It's not hard to understand why we are scared of new knowledge. Everything we learn adds new brush strokes to the canvas of our life. And sometimes these new colors and shapes begin to change the picture on that canvas.

If we're overly-attached to our old and static views, the new additions may seem to be ruining that perfectly good and serviceable picture. And because we are comforted by the familiar - even a familiar that no longer serves us or even hurts us - this emerging picture may disturb us.

But let us challenge ourselves to not get our security from digging in our heels against an ever-moving, evolving world, but from our ability to adapt and change in the face of new information.

Hemlock

It's a lot easier to prevent toxic chemicals from entering your body than it is to remove them, and it's a lot easier to prevent toxic people from entering your heart than it is to remove them.

Whatever we take into us, whether food or people, become a part of us, so if those foods or people are poisonous, them we poison ourselves.

Practice preventive medicine both in the choice of food and the choice of people you bring in to your body and your life.