Announcing the Change Your Life and Resolution Workshop: a two hour workshop that will teach you not only what that hidden, unknown force is that keeps you from reaching your goals but the secret in how to rework it, reprogram yourself and succeed where you were never able to before! Details at www.Life-Mind.com or 661-904-5353. There are two opportunities to attend: Saturday, January 12 at 3 p.m. and Thursday, January 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Human beings are pre-programmed, genetically, philosophically and spiritually, to seek pleasure and avoid pain. It is this pain/pleasure principle that makes kicking a habit or addiction so difficult. I see all walks of life in my office; young teens who think they can regulate pot in their lives, soccer moms who just want to stop recreational, casual drinking, crystal meth users, young adults who just like to “party” and use coke, alcohol or ecstasy. You don’t have to be a fall-down drunk or hard core addict to make the discovery we all make when we decide to change a habit: that it is much more difficult than we think it’s going to be.
Absolutely everything we experience gets divided into these two categories: Pain or Pleasure. If it is pleasurable, the brain and mind make a record of that experience and store it. The more pleasurable, the more in the forefront of consciousness it is stored for easy retrieval. The mind’s job is to re-experience pleasure so it creates certain conditions to attain pleasure. It uses a tremendous amount of force and influence to get you to participate in the habit, even though it may be bad for you. Now, I don’t care what anyone says: drugs feel great. It feels great to get high, to have sex and to eat junk food, too! Since drugs go straight to the pleasure centers of the brain and feel great, the mind works overtime trying to re-experience it. It makes no difference that you consciously understand drugs or alcohol is bad for you, the pleasure principle overrides reason 10 to 1. Individual counseling or the Change Your Life workshop is an opportunity for change.
Scott Spackey is a State Certified Addiction Counselor, Life-Coach, Hypnotherapist, and Interventionist. For more information, please call 661-904-5353, email: Scott@Life-Mind.com and visit www.LIFE-MIND.com.