In this vlog I share a breakthrough realization of how my mindfulness practice was more than sitting and trying to find some "Zen" state, but how it carried over into my every day life . I share how the impulse control and mindfulness I developed in my daily practice helped me to kick my ice-cream habit (more like an addiction) and create the space in my life to no longer be driven by distractions and impulse, but rather being led by the things I wanted in my life.
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Daily mindfulness practice, impulse control.
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Oh yeah, I definitely remember those first few
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times sitting there and actually more than a first
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few times, first few weeks, sitting
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there in my mindfulness, in meditation
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practice and just ask myself
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"What is this all about?" this
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coming back to the breath and what does
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it have to do with anything
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really relevant in my life?
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One of the things that
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I learned early on, wasn't that
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meditation was about emptying my
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mind and coming to this Zen state
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as much as it was about
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having an inventory
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and knowing what was going on
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in my brain. And all of
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the different inputs and impulses that
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my body and my mind were just
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an automatic pilot reacting to.
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And then it's time when I
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began to recognize that I can get to
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a place where all these inputs
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were coming in and all these impulses
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coming in just as fast as ever,
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but they weren't having me react
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to them. I was able to create
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some space between all of these
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inputs coming in and then how
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I reacted to them
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So that new found ability to create
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space, I soon realized
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carried over into my real world.
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And it helped me
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basically kick my ice cream addiction.
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Anyone who
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has known me for any portion of
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my life, knows
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that I love ice cream.
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In college
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I have my food budget and
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boys going to store and ice cream is on sale,
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guess what.
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I might just be eating ice cream that week for breakfast, lunch
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and dinner.
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At one point of my life, I found myself
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looking at my ice cream
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habits and going...hmm this is a little
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bit more than just liking ice cream
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It had gotten
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to the point where
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on Friday nights, after
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work and I'm driving home,
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I'd stop at the grocery store,
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pick up my favorite pine of
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ice cream and I'd
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begin to eat it as I left the store.
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I would push it up
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from the bottom, like a
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push a pop,
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and eat it out of the top of the container,
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no spoon or utensils.
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And the crazy thing was, that impulse
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to eat that ice cream began about
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Friday afternoon, right after lunch
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and grow even more
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as I'm driving home. And as I began
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to go down certain roads,
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it was just a huge impulse.
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And I'd like to think about going through my mind
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that whole time I'm driving home, it's
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ice cream...ice cream...ice cream, this ice cream, thatice cream
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which one I'm going to choose, would I choose
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half gallon of pine, that that are
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it's on and on and on...it was just build
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and build and build. It was automatic pilot
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and I knew I had to put
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a change to this.
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Now, it didn't happen over night, it wasn't
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one little breathing exercise and it was gone.
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But through my breathing exercises
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I began
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to realize that space
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I could create within an impulse.
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And so I'd have that impulse to
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start thinking about the ice cream, and I go,
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hey, I've got
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work to do, there's something else I need to do
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and I changed my focus to begin to
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down play. Then I'd get in my car
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and I've started driving home and I get that
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impulse. And
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I'd say, hey, you know what's
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going on. And you know
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over the first couple of weeks,
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first month, the truth is those impulses
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were not more times than that, I would end
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up, you know,
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picking up the ice cream.
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But then I'd use my impulse
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control, not to start eating
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that ice cream until I got home.
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Then I'd use my impulse control
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not to try to eat all of it.
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And as time
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went on, when those impulses came
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I was able to create more
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and more space between
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that impulse.
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And with that added space
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what I was able to do is begin to create
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new inroads and new habits
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and new pathways that
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eventually overwrote
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those old
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habits that I'd gotten into when
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it came to eating ice cream.
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So, what the simple practice
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of the day of coming back
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to the breath did was give me
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that tool of creating
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space which
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eventually allowed me
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to put whatever I wanted
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into that space. And not
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be driven by distraction
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or impulse.
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But rather
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being lead by the things that
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I wanted in my life.
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Practice Of the Day - Mindfulness without the monastery.
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www.FeelingLikeSuperman.com
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Then as I'm driving
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down the road and I get to the end and there was a
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little bit of milky
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cream at the bottom, I'd just sit back
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and enjoy the
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the last little taste of goodness.
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