We all know that it is a challenge to resist temptations. There is one important thing you should know and master to succeed. What is it?
Today you will meet effective ways of mastering the triggers of temptations. Then it will be easier to keep the right weight, budget, meet deadlines or achieve any other goal you have set.
My last post gave you an idea of how to prepare a long-term strategy against temptations and how to curb your inner drive, especially thoughts and emotions. Today let's continue and you will be fully equipped to win any temptation, just want it and be persistent.
How to Transform Your Triggers of Temptation
You have already learnt that you need to want to resist temptations, prepare an action plan and address your weak points. You have also learnt how to defer yielding to temptation and change your habits, and thinking patterns, and how master your emotions.
You also know that meditation and visualisation can help you and the presence of other people is very beneficial (provided that they help, not tempt you even more).
1. Change of Environment and Habits
This is the first effective way that you can do it. Start from burning all the ships bringing you to the trigger of temptation.
1. 1. Burn the Ships
This approach is also helpful in the case of addressing triggers of temptation. Just be creative enough and then repeat the habit often enough so it will become second nature. What can you do in particular? To burn the ships for doing something you want to avoid:
Choose a different, longer route to your favourite shop, betting office, casino etc.
Choose a route which makes it more difficult to reach these places.
Put sweet and other tempting objects further from you, e.g. in a different room. But the best strategy is getting rid of them totally, i.e., not keeping them and not buying them anymore.
Make it more difficult to access Facebook and other web pages which take up your time, diverting you from the right things. This also applies to your desktop/ mobile games.
Buy only as much food/other things, like clothes, as you need.
Find an alternative for a bad trigger and make it easy t access, e.g., apples instead of sweets.
1. 2. Make it Easier to Do Good Things
We often procrastinate and avoid doing good things because they seem to be too difficult. hence, prepare in advance and make the task/activity easier to do. How? here are a couple of ideas:
Make it easier to reach - prepare exercise tackle or study books at the sight in advance. Assign some time the previous day BEFORE starting your work/exercises.
Create positive triggers, igniting positive habits. Examples? Putting on your shoes as a trigger for going jogging, putting some toothpaste on a toothbrush to brush your teeth, putting a bookmark to a book you use for studying or a file used at work
Create a neat folder system/filing system in your office/study room.
Change the location of things to have them in eyesight (e.g., a bulletin board with to-do tasks or inspiring affirmations, books neatly wrapped or with inspiring flashcards stuck on them). In this way, your subconscious mind will consider these things as important and inviting.
2. Manage Tempters
This strategy is beneficial both for inner drive and triggers. As I wrote in the previous article, surrounding ourselves with helpful people can help us resist the temptation to abandon doing tasks (exercises, work, study)
However, we are also surrounded by tempters, i.e. friends and family members who tempt us directly or by their habits.
Let's say you want to lose weight and abstain from eating sugar. However, your friends like meeting in cafes and eating cakes themselves. You are not only tempted by these cakes but are also influenced by peer pressure.
To avoid temptation, the best option is to avoid going to cafes. But... how to do that without offending and even losing your friends?
Other people have a huge influence on how temptations and breaking them will proceed. Assertiveness would be the best option. Communicate to them politely but firmly that, for example, you do not eat x and prefer to meet somewhere else.
And the question you need to ask is: Do I need to keep in contact with them? Do they help me grow, and achieve my goals?
Of course, you refuse to go to this cafe because of your resolutions/goals but if they want to eat cakes, let them do it. Never preach. More than that, you can ASK them to help you with keeping your resolution/reaching your goal. As true friends, they should understand it.
Meet new people who will share your attitude and eliminate those who defer you from your goals and resolutions.
3. Peruse the Trigger with a Critical Eye
Is the temptation so beneficial? If you analyse the trigger through a magnifying glass, like a scientist, examining each component, then this trigger may not be so attractive. How can examine your triggers?
3.1. The Critical Analysis of Tangible Triggers
Let's look at food. Check the components - what does the frozen pizza, consist of? Sugar, yeast, wheat, some vitamins, lots of trans fat, processed red meat and additives, like BHA/BHT, citric acid and dextrose.
What about milk chocolate? Ground cocoa nibs, cocoa butter, milk solids, sugar and an emulsifier are the main ingredients.
Let's look at crisps then: fresh potatoes, vegetable oil and flavourings (or additives, e.g., antioxidants; preservatives such as ascorbic acid, sodium phosphate, sodium bisulfite; emulsifiers; and sufficient added dextrose to control browning, flavour enhancers like monosodium glutamate).
Are you tempted to smoke another cigarette? Check this first:
The complex mixture of chemicals in tobacco smoke includes carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, benzene, formaldehyde, nicotine, phenol, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs). - National Library of Medicine
List your most irresistible triggers and find scientific facts about them, plus which of these ingredients are harmful. You can also examine the consequences of yielding to temptation: do these triggers make you tired, sick or maybe sleepy?
Moreover, you can associate different emotions with a given trigger, imagining that it is the only thing you can use/eat/enjoy. Furthermore, you would be forced to continue even after being fully satisfied. When would you say 'Enough is enough'?
3.2. The Critical Analysis of Intangible Triggers
As you know, not only food or smoking/drugs can be the trigger of temptation. What about playing games on Facebook, thoughtlessly browsing webpages or watching TV?
Again, examine how you truly feel after following your habits and even more who takes advantage of your resources - time, money, energy, willpower...
For example, playing games online consumes your time, and money (if you want to go through more advanced levels), plus your precious energy is sent to create other people's and other beings' dreams, not yours. You might only have an illusion of happiness and temporary satisfaction after winning a hard level.
But if you think about how many dreams that are yours could you have met in the meantime? List what alternative things you could do if the time, money, and energy spent on playing games were invested somewhere else.
Also, bear in mind that, e.g. TV is not about you. The program is created by someone else, who can sell you anything and even use mind control, and social engineering and just prey on your instincts. Even if you are invited to take part in a quiz show and win the main prize.
3.3. Know Your Triggers' Drawbacks
List all the triggers that tempt you the most often or are the most difficult to resist. Then prepare a cold, written analysis, e.g. list all the toxic ingredients of a cigarette. Learn them by heart and visualise their devastating impact on your body, mind and soul. Will you be alive in the next couple of years?
3.4. Train a New Habit
Once you know how your triggers and their not necessarily positive background are, train a new habit. Every time, when a trigger is within reach of your five senses, visualise the brutal truth about it. Magnify the bad consequences, and nasty well-being - physical, mental and spiritual.
A Word of Caution
The overlay technique (i.e. cold analysis of the trigger) is effective as long as your inner drive does not kick on. What do I mean here? If you are a vegetarian and have just had your meal, the meat will be repulsive.
However, in the case of extreme starvation, you will eat anything available, including meat.
Hence it is important not to be deluged with stress, avoid physical and mental fatigue and manage your emotions wisely.
4. Find Alternatives
It might not be enough to train the habit of applying some cold, scientific evidence against your triggers. Then you need to take a further step; define an alternative.
Our mind does not accept the void and one trigger can be substituted by another one. If you do not control which trigger will be used, chances are that you jump from one temptation to another.
So again, take your diary and divide one page into two columns List your triggers on the left and alternatives on the right. Then, for each alternative, list all its advantages over the original trigger.
Next, train the habit of substitution destructive triggers with alternative, beneficial ones. Every time you have a craving for something, e.g. a sweet, cigarette, playing a game, having a one-night stand, say,
“I really want sweet right now because I’m tired. I can get a similar boost by drinking green tea, instead."
“I really want to have a fag right now because I’m stressed and need to relax. I can get a similar boost by doing some squats, instead."
“I really want to play this game right now because I’m stressed and need to relax. I can get a similar boost by listening to some uplifting music and meditation, instead."
“This person is very attractive and I haven't had good sex lately, so I’m thinking about going home with them. Since I want to save my relationship, I’m going to think of a few ways I can feel closer to my partner.”
5. Be Assertive
Sometimes triggers happen during social encounters. I have mentioned this problem in my previous article. What can you do if your aunt, mother, or friend treats you as a guest with a nice apple tart while you have decided to lose some weight and know how bad sugar is?
The best option is to be polite but assertive. More about assertiveness. if it is overwhelming, mock the most challenging situations in front of a mirror or with your friend first.
6. Meditation and Asking God for Help
Ask God and Higher Beings for help. You can do it through meditation. Connect with the Beings of Light. You can also create your inner strength, seeing yourself as able to resist any temptation.
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 collective energy can create miracles. Send your intention to the Universe. Transform your life and the world.
More about meditation
Credits to Pacific Source and WikiHow.
In a Nutshell
Triggers of any temptation can be managed and pacified, provided that you have the right plan, create desirable habits and manipulate your environment in a way that makes the trigger weaker.
Depending on the kind of temptation, your trigger has to be exposed (i.e. doing good habits, like exercise) or eliminated (e.g. eating junk food).
Good luck with pacifying the triggers of your temptation. With lots of love and luck,
Vicky
About
Vicky is an experienced holistic writer and coach who inspires, motivates, and encourages everyone to become the best version of themselves - physically, mentally, and spiritually.
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