Temptations. Can you resist them? How can you combat your inner drive and prepare an effective long-term strategy for winning temptations? Discover it all today.
I will not be writing about religious ways of resisting temptations. You will find a whole system that will work long-term. More than that, the tools described here will concern all your dimensions: body, mind, emotions and soul. Are you ready to discover and use these tools?
Because the topic of winning temptations is very broad, I have decided to write two articles about it: today's one and this one published next week. Today you will discover how to prepare an effective long-term strategy and curb your inner drive to yield temptations.
Why Is It So Hard to Resist Temptation?
First, let's face your obstacles. We know that temptation can become more difficult to resist the longer an individual has been making an effort to maintain self-control or self-discipline. Why is it hard to resist temptations? Here are some reasons, I have to point here that they are not all of the options possible:
Deprivation of your physical, mental emotional and spiritual energy - it's easier to surrender to temptation while being tired or at the end of the day.
Stress makes it easier to surrender - You want to overcome stress using any available solution
It is easier to surrender than resist temptation. Resistance needs making some effort, surrendering not.
Low willpower. - There will be more about willpower management in two weeks' time.
Lack of awareness that something may be dangerous - for someone doing some things for the first one, uninformed about consequences (walking on the cliffs during windy weather because then the photos taken would be interesting).
Unwillingness to leave your comfort zone - it is much easier to order a pizza than to cook something yourself.
How to Win a Temptation Part One
Now the time has come to apply the promised tools. Do your best to use all of them and work according to the order presented in this article and next week's tips.
1. Decide That You WANT to Undertake the Venture
You know that it is hard to resist temptation. Hence, find some opposite reasons - why you may want to win. Let's do some written exercises.
First, list all the bad consequences of surrendering temptations in similar cases in the past. Look how uncomfortable it would be to experience them again. Answer the questions:
What will you lose yielding to temptation?
Are you sore you want to pay the price?
Can you indeed pay for it?
On the other page of your diary, list all your gains achieved by winning your temptations. How well will you do with pursuing your goals? How will your relationships, finance or health improve?
2. Analyse Your Starting Point - Meet Your Temptations
Have you done the exercise described in my previous blog post? If yes, continue reading and apply the next tools. if not, do the exercise in writing now. Just answer these questions:
When are you tempted the most often?
WhatWho tempts you the most?
How do stress, bad mood, and tiredness affect your ability to resist temptations?
3. Transform Your Hidden Motivation
As I wrote in my last article five kinds of inner drives determine if temptation will occur or not and how easily you will resist or surrender.:
Deprivation (of food, water, sleep, love, sex etc.)
Low willpower and energy level (being tired)
Emotions (both positive and negative, e.g., delirium, rapture, despair and fury)
Stress and the urge to cent it.
Spiritual inclinations (soul plan, traits, karma)
Now I will give you some useful advice on what to do to transform your hidden motivation.
3.1. Consider Your Day Routine and Habits
After-work activities can be unpredictable and fluctuate by the day so you are tempted to skip doing something valuable, like your evening workout to accommodate other activities. In this case, do your workout first thing in the morning or during your lunch hour.
Also, beware of what you do in the evening, concerning eating. Once you had your supper, commit not to touch any kind of food.
Discover all the moments of your daily routine when you are tempted the most often and in the strongest way. What could you change in your daily routine to decrease the frequency and strength of temptations?
3.2. Manage Your Emotions
Temperance is a virtue, although I do not recommend rigid control of your emotions. But during excitement or depression be aware that many things, not tempting on other occasions, can be irresistible, including those that are harmful to your health.
How well do you know your ways of managing emotions? What do you usually do to quell anger or depression? How do you behave while elated? Think of your past experiences and write down a couple of examples when tempting was irresistible and you yielded.
3.3 Master Your Thoughts
This one is obvious. Learn how to master your mind so that any tempting thought is not dangerous and overwhelming. Notice when the tempting thoughts are the most fierce and talk to your mind. You can say,
Dear mind, it does not serve me, choose other thought.
More reading about thoughts and the mind:
3.4. Increase Your Willpower
According to American Psychological Association, "willpower is the ability to resist short-term gratification in pursuit of long-term goals or objectives." In other words, you can resist your temptation because something will be more beneficial in the long run.
The topic is too broad to discuss in one paragraph so I invite a separate article about willpower. Check Awaken Happy Life in two weeks' time Then you will not only polish your skills of winning temptations but grow overall.
3.5. Get Others Involved
It is much easier to win temptation when someone is around you, provided that this person will not tempt you as well. It is proved that while living with someone, you curb your, e.g., eating habits, buy less food in one go and spend time more efficiently.
At work, the collective goal of meeting some deadlines and the fact that other people are watching how you do your job can also curb procrastination.
It is also easier to stick to healthy habits. For example, it will be more difficult to yield to the temptation of skipping your fitness classes if your friend goes there with you.
More reading about relationships:
3.6. Defer Your Yielding to Temptation
This strategy is the best in the case of temptations concerning eating junk food or procrastination. Just tell yourself that you will yield to temptation after 15 minutes. During this time your desire will weaken enough to win the temptation.
Why is this technique working? Because it is easier to wait for something, knowing that you can have it, than living with the thought that it is unavailable, like a forbidden fruit that always tastes the best.
For example, let's say you are trying to lose weight but you keep cravings for ice cream. Set a timer for 15 minutes, then start doing another task. Your focus will shift to the task. Then, after 15 minutes, set another 15 minutes and wait. Continue this process as long as you forget about your temptation.
This method has another advantage: you can work more efficiently, having 15 minutes for your disposal, nearly like in a Pomodoro technique. So you can kill two birds with one stone.
3.7. Visualize
Visualisation can also be used in the case of resisting temptations. It is similar to meditation but based on the mental aspect of your being. Close your eyes and see the object of your temptation. Picture yourself saying “no” to whatever it is tempting you. Again you can practise visualisation during the 15-minute time of deferring the yield to temptations.
Where else can you use visualisation? In the case of working on long-term goals, like saving money of studying for an exam. Let's say that you want to save for buying a house or studying for your Master's exam. In the meantime, you can see a new phone in the shop or find an interesting program on TV. They are both against your main goals. What can you do?
Visualise yourself being repelled by the agent trying to sell you this new phone. Imagine this agent as incompetent and plausible, the phone is more expensive than you thought and the sales agent insists on bill pay and buying extra insurance. By contrast, see how assertive you are and how quickly you leave this shop.
In the case of an interesting TV program, see how many nasty commercials will destroy your watching and how angry and tired you become when the program is finished. Plus you feel guilty that the exam is getting closer and you have not studied again. See the face of that winner while pressing the "turn off" button on your TV.
Meditate
Asking the Beings of Light and God for help can help you manage your inner drive to yield temptations. Just find some time to meditate any time you struggle. During the 15 minutes of deferring yielding to temptation, you can have enough time to connect with higher beings and choke the tempting stimulus. Learn more about how to meditate.
Let's meditate together
Connect by telepathy during meditation on Saturdays at 8 pm GMT. I will meditate with you and other people so that our joint energy can create miracles. Send your intention to the Universe. Transform your life and the world.
More about meditation
Credits to Pacificsource, WikiHow and Psychology Today.
In a Nutshell
Winning temptation is not an easy task. You can influence your inner drive or trigger. Prepare a good plan for long-term victory over temptations. Once you have one, use one or more of these tools: meditation, visualisation, willpower increase, deferring technique, master your thoughts and emotions and change your daily routine. Good luck. Wirth lots of love and light,
Vicky
About
Vicky is an experienced holistic writer and coach that inspires, motivates, and encourages everyone to become the best version of themselves - physically, mentally, and spiritually.
DISCLAIMER
The content of Awaken Happy Life is published for educational and informative purposes only. It does not substitute medical or any other professional advice. Please seek professional care if you believe you may have a condition. The author of Awaken Happy Life is not liable for any consequences of applying any piece of advice published on this website by the reader.