You Just Gotta Eat Your Food
This is not about eating food.... Or, it may be for you. We'll see.
It's really about "the manual override," and you'll see why I used this title in a minute.
So, I've been talking ad nauseam on Wisdom, on Facebook, on Instagram, and on my podcast about the manual override, which is the process one goes through by taking the knowledge they have acquired through their learning and using it to override the programming reinforced by the neural pathways in the brain.
It is the part EVERYONE HATES.
People love the "uncovering" part. That part is essential.
The digging through old crap and finding where the hurt lies, and the doing the "resolving" and the "releasing" and the "letting go." That part is our favorite part. It feels good.
The learning part also feels good, because we're like "wow! Mad cool! So this is why I want to always drink on Thursdays at around 7:00 o'clock!"
But the brain, whose one job is to keep you living and breathing, unfortunately still has corresponding old neural pathways leftover from the old programming and the old you. In THAT INSTANCE, you must manually override them until the new programming takes over.
So, I titled this "you just gotta eat your food," because of a conversation I had over the weekend with a very close friend who does similar work as I do.
He was talking about being in a conversation with someone, and they went on about the 30 years of therapy they've had, and yet, despite that, it seemed they hadn't embodied any of their learning.
I told him about my connection to a psychologist here in New York currently working with people in active addiction. He's a harm reduction guy, and we hit it off first thing. However, he USED TO work with people with eating disorders.
He acknowledged that they're some of the most resilient people, because they have to do all the inner work, just like the rest of us. They have to release old shit, change the story, renegotiate their identities, let go of guilt and shame.... AND THEN AFTER ALL OF THAT.... they have to eat their food.
It is critical, ESSENTIAL TO LIFE, that they eat their food.
"Eating their food" is the manual override. They have to eat, and eat tomorrow, and eat the next day, and eat the next day, until the old neural pathway has been rewired.
Because if not, they're gonna die.
The rest of us, though, we love to pussyfoot.
We love the whole "ohhhhh I know why this is," and we go through it, and we learn the reasons why we are shooting ourselves in the foot.... And then we just do nothing, because we're not "gonna die."
So, for example, if you have trouble with sales, first you have to examine why you're telling the story about sales (I had to do this. The first time I asked someone for 100 bucks I almost threw up.)
You have to identify the story. You have to identify the guilt and shame. (My parents lost everything they owned when I was a child.)
Then, you have to renegotiate your identity around it.
Alllllll this inner work.
But thennnnn.... You gotta eat your food.
Manual override. Action action action. Again and again and again and again.
Same with people pleasing.
Identify the story (person was praised by family for performing so they build a child ego that insists performance is essential to survival)
Identify the guilt and shame (person has guilt and shame for being conniving to receive praise, and/or not standing up for themselves to avoid negative feedback)
Renegotiate your identity (this doesn't serve me. I am not this.)
And THENNNNNNNNN.... EAT YOUR FOOD.
Manual override, over and over and over again.
Your brain will literally have your body in anxious convulsions because your child ego is still in there thinking you gotta please to stay alive.
Manual. Override. Use the rational mind to get beyond the rational mind.
Over and over and over again until the new pathway is reinforced.
That's it. Hope you're having a great start to your week.
Email me with any questions.
Stay Beautiful, and we'll talk soon
Andee
