CONTENTS
A sad tale
Sugar balance stability - guard it like gold
A regular sleep schedule
Emotional stability
Repeated emergencies and misuse
And the final big deal - the cascading chain!
It's a no brainer!
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A SAD TALE
We do "acts of destabilization" - those behaviors that destabilize our systems and thrown us out of whack in our functioning. Of course, we get some payoff of some sort from that behavior. But I'll guarantee that the costs of functioning poorly, plus the time to restabilize, will be greater than the payoff.
A momentary sugar “treat” (like a little kid living on impulse) and the sugar balance is thrown off for hours, with the body getting busy at trying to restabilize, using considerable energy.
An indulgence in being off on your sleep schedule. Then a few days cost of being a bit “drunk” in lack of alertness and functioning, feeling a bit off (or at least being “off” even if one is not noticing it.
An unnecessary upset generating a chemical cascade throwing the body into a fight/flight mode and then the body trying to stabilize. Short term thrown off and long term body damage. And losing the quality of the experience of life,having to come down off the self-criticism or continued upset or the loss in focus on better things.
And the latter two throw off the blood sugar stabilization, too!
Unacceptable. Not to be tolerated.
Why give life away? Why give up the quality of life?
It is, indeed, sad to see that we let that happen.
SUGAR BALANCE STABILITY – GUARD IT LIKE GOLD
Keeping one’s blood sugar stable is vital. Growing up and not eating from impulse or to quash a slight discomfort or bit of anxiety. Operating from the long term perspective of greater good.
Making a decision while in your higher brain, making sure there are none of the “enemy” (treats) available in the house, eating small meals with protein, exercising – all are doable and essential. Without compromise.
Even in the relatively short term, the positive reward of a sugar indulgence is offset by a dropping of the blood sugar and feeling not so good for a longer time, not to speak of the long term damage of the addiction (yes, addiction).
A REGULAR STABLE SLEEP SCHEDULE
Without stable sleep, your body doesn’t work. It takes days to reestablish the functioning of the body – and every day “off” balance lowers the immunity system and sets up potential damage. And we don’t feel as good – giving up our birthright (to feel good) and quality of life for that “off” time. The small benefit of the little, or big, indulgence is not worth the much greater cost over the next few days. The efficiency of the next few days is thrown off and excess eating goes up, virtually guaranteed. It’s harder to keep the sugar balanced in a tired body. Fatigue is costly.
And, then, there is a question of whether there was a benefit in the first place, as one doesn’t really feel as good operating at a deficit while one is indulging in staying up later plus if an activity is done the next day it is done better and one feels better at the same time. It is doubtful whether there is a short term gain at all, but for sure there is a medium term and a long term cost.
We must make an unbreakable commitment to a regular sleep schedule, going to bed at a regular time before midnight and sleeping until one would wake up without an alarm clock.
Get that circadian rhythm back and then keep it in place, so that the body can do its job at the highest level!
EMOTIONAL STABILITY
Triggering off the fight/flight response, sometimes a 100 times a day, causes the parts of the body not needed for danger responses to lose blood and/or be shut off, as the body mobilizes the necessary parts for handling the danger.
Cortisol, adrenaline, huge baths of chemicals attacking the body if they are not dissipated - and we don't do the dissipation that was build into the fight/flight response.
We were supposed to use the chemicals up in running or in fighting, but we don't have this physical offset. We're supposed to rest, collapsing after a big run from a tiger or a big battle. We are supposed to surge, rest, surge, rest, and so on and on. But instead we constantly rev our engines up in a surge, surge, surge, surge, on and on - and we begin to break at the seams, blow our gaskets, ruin our engine, destroy our systems - not enough so you'd notice on a daily basis, but scientifically undoubtably we are damaged.
Yes, the damage long term is immense, but the cost of the short term not feeling good is the greatest cost - which no man, in his right mind would choose to incur.
Not developing the ability to be calm is a foolish choice. Seeing reality for what it is, instead of making up threats, is an essential training that we all need so we can keep calm, but the other side effect is that life actually seems much better (even great, dare I say it, if you get really good at it). Use the emotional stabilizing effects recommended on this site, both in terms of the breathing/relaxing practices and, especially, in the Belief Changing Process, which will cause the illusions of danger to disappear - for a much more stable, much more positive life.
REPEATED EMERGENCIES AND MISUSE
We can do fine mobilizing the body for emergencies, but those occur very, very, very seldom, almost never. So it is easy to recover with little damage because of the infrequency - and the body stays strong.
But it makes no sense to cause the body to experience emergency like situations every day, often several times a day. We can "blow it off" as just being normal or no big deal, but the fact is that it creates huge scientifically provable damage - long term and also in the relatively short term in terms of the quality of life and its being experienced.
AND THE FINAL BIG DEAL - THE CASCADING CHAIN!
And all these things do not happen in isolation, as if they were not related. There is a downward spiral, a vicious circle, a causal chain (see Cause And Effect).
Sleep off → Emotion sensitivity ↑ → Eat for comfort → Sugar off → Emotion sensitivity ↑
Upset → Chemicals Imbalance ↑ → Anxiety feeling ↑ → Eat to calm → Emotion sensitivity ↑ → Upset ↑
Upsets, sugar instability → Can't sleep well → Upsets, sugar instability ↑ Can't sleep well
And on and on and on. Get out of balance in one and you are likely to get out of balance in another. You can't afford to start the cascade. Take all cautions and use all strategies to avoid this.
IT’S A NO BRAINER
It’s no contest in looking at the low benefits compared to the costs, what is called a “no brainer” as it is so obvious. If one makes a decision other than to not give in to the short term impulse, then one is operating without using one’s higher brain – a real pity, as it has a lot of benefits.
Plus your brain does not operate well when your body is out of whack, so there is a “no brainer” in another sense – you have no operating higher brain when you’re “off”. The loss of brain function is not a good idea. Duh!
Stability is the only choice.
