Starving the Habit - mjbanks

"A student, filled with emotion and crying, implored, 'why is there so much suffering?,' Suzuki Roshi replied, 'no reason.'" 

Starving the Habit - mjbanks

The logical action is preparation. At this point the better mentality is just beyond reach. So let's take a shot in the dark. 

"This is what YOU can achieve after 'X' number of days;" 

You're not going to do something you don't want, anything that you don't visualize, won't materialize, and this can be obsessive, but honest compulsions to improve or reduce or whatever aren't a source of imagination in past or future. Have goals and dreams will follow.

After "5 minutes" your "heart rate returns to normal." 

At this point, your psychological health improves in the present, 'i am' or 'i can' are good ways to start sentences. This presumably is a moment of clarity, a new moment is a new perspective, flying thru time can be a difficult choice when otherwise uncontrollable, tempus fugit. 

After "2-3 days" your "guilt and shame seems to decrease." 

Your segmentation from your promise to yourself is ending, statements like 'i am' are best, but 'i can' helps, even 'i will' is weak but better than nothing. In momentum, making healthy choices creates no guilt and escapes any actual responsible scrutiny, essentially bad habits are masked by illogical coping mechanisms, these temporary solutions provide accomplishment easily mistaken for the second step of rebooting, assumptions must be replaced with a self-described purpose.

After "7 days" your "brain fog lifts." 

Let's call this 10 days, as most overhauls of the human mind are in the acerbic wave following insomnia, perseverating, and emotion in its animal state. Clarity can see only the goals you've designed for yourself, and in action, training yourself in this new discipline reveals the difficulty, the mind will default to its protocols, which you define while conscious and in any new adventure can be as luminary as a dream, good or bad or hella rando, and many might revert illogically or relapse physically. The ability to see what is available is attached to what you know. The ability to see something and not instinctively react emotionally is a sign of intelligence, but is very rare if you're still 'uncivilized' or dangerous. 

After "14 days" your "prolactin starts to drop."

Here's the part that makes or breaks the verbal human. Imagine you're thirsty, the choice is get something to drink. The intellectual hurdle, problem-solving, where new 'tricks' are forming and the desire to over-train or become motivated by pure emotion, too many priorities instills the need to evolve, without knowing that the subconscious is making conclusions that you will only realize later. Here we find both weak and deep pains of regret if any. This is your brain flexing its ability, as the brain needs order, it seeks order. To this point, like muscles becoming stronger, the human mind is channeling prototypical divinity, the body leading the mind leading the body creating confusion of necessity/luxury, the strong-willed are usually seeking answers all the same. 

After "14 - 21 days" while your brain is evolving you find that, "due to drop in prolactin, dopamine sensitivity increases, you can start to enjoy the little things in life again, no longer emotionally numb, energy levels start to increase big time, confidence also increases." 

Up to this point, regret was painful or ignored, and your bad habits had become roots. Fear of failure and pain of possibility is initiating logical responses at the darkest level of the imagination, and its a good time to remind yourself 'this is the challenge now, and I challenge it', this stage has multiplicity and exponential results, as your dopamine sensitivity increases, you'll see new multiple colors, this 'aftershock' of individualism or enlightenment thru a vocation/discipline can come not only three weeks later, but three months, three years, etc. later. This is the brain's way of telling yourself that something is a reward, you found water, your memory of survival is an education, and up to this point your bad habits have polluted your free will, those roots have blocked passage. Some would say that for something to become habit you have to do it 1000x and you'll be addicted to it, but really you have to throw out the old to make room for the new, and wait a couple/few weeks. 

After "30 days" your "cravings and flashbacks noticeably reduce."

Endurance and dedication are connected here logically, if not you may have to focus some, but largely the feeling of loss has gone, the most important thing to do now is let go of concept and structure, to follow logic, to stick to the plan like stars in the sky. That confusion of needs and wants in the past has camouflaged any difference between biological and metalogical life, but with clarity and goals, the ability for satiety is option again. Life, or your plan, will have meaning again, food will fill, sunsets will warm. 

After "30-60 days" "symptoms disappear or improve," the body begins to adapt and react naturally, and "Confidence keeps rising." 

The famous point of no return, the life-changing choices are half-to-half at every option, the decision between right and wrong is the only decision, even almost a sub-process or second opinion, to avoid any nervous decisions here, forget individuality and start thinking about others, what they want, debatably self-less, 'we come to serve' is a decent phrase, for being part of a goal, and part of a whole. Surface facts are thick and patience is required.

After "42 days" your "ΔFosB (DeltaFosB) that has accumulated around the nucleus accumbens starts to remove itself. This makes it possible for the neurons in the" (habit or substance) "addicted pathways to now start to slowly" dissolving "over time without use."

The neurons are the adaptive circuitry in the brain, when delta-fos-b clings to a neuron it tells your memory engrams to 'take the detour route,' which plays all hell with your characteristics and eventually personality. I've said many times, if there wasn't something wrong with the human condition, I'd be worried it's not the human condition. Synaptic pathways are still available for old ways, while new pathways are evolving, as you find rewards you build new instincts for success, patience and clarity and meditation are critical in this this stage, while the old habits fade from use. Like memories, the how-to's your brain has made will fade if unused. This stage, for the uninitiated, even the memory of a memory have cause a deep and painful regret, but is only a memory easily removed with right activity.

After "90 days" by some it's "considered a full reboot for most people, however people with severe" atrophy, repetitive stress, or damage "will need longer. Confidence still rising." 

Welcome to the beginning of a new you, since the time-frame isn't exact, the reboot could be complete and you're in the second stage of however many stages you want with a clean operating system, altho the choices remain, the benefits of good habit macrophages the bad. Up to now, you've had to remove temptations, only to need memory and instinct, then you relied on order and chaos theory, and now you can begin to trust yourself, you can think logically.

After "120 - 150 days" your "symptoms of severe" trauma(?) "disappear or improve."

You can define your character in the waking state, multitasking different solutions and goals, testing your logic before your patience, and things will be better than good. It will feel good to have and finish manageable goals, the ability to train your limits just to learn how to refrain from illogical behavior, abstain from violence and maintain your spirit animal, or shadow, or desires. Rewarding yourself will be easier, altho might yet have a sting of regret, 'how did i reward the wrong things for so long', 'what a dumb addiction' you might say, 'it is time to begin.' 

Choices can be good or bad only after they are made. 

"Oh, you know -- nothing I'm not used to, but it's amazing what you can get used to, huh?" ~ Dalton, Road House 

/mjbanks