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Hank DeGroat

YOU WERE BORN TO THRIVE - PAIN AND PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS SOLVED

POD – EVERY DAY IMPULSE CONTROL

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.

CC Transcript Below

 

CC Transcript
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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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Filed Under: Blog, POD - Every Day Benefits, Solutions Home Page Tagged With: Benefits of Mindfulness, Stress Less

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