I was a psychologist for 20 years when I began to experience serious chest pain. Before I could say," Wait! I'm too young!" I had my chest cracked open and quadruple bypass surgery.
This shouldn't have been a shock, because I was warned for years that my lifestyle was killing me. My doctor urged me to exercise more, lose weight, and smell the roses. I followed this advice for awhile, but soon I was back to my same old ways.
After surgery, I wrote a book, A Change of Heart, and opened the Center for Cardiac Wellness. My second book, Cardiac Wellness: How to Sustain the Lifestyle Changes you need for a Healthy Heart, is based on my experience counseling hundreds of heart patients over the past 11 years.
A Lifestyle disease
We now understand that heart disease is essentially a disease of lifestyle. No less an expert than Dr. Dean Ornish says "many people can begin to reverse their heart disease simply by changing their lifestyle."
Yet understanding alone clearly isn't enough to motivate people to sustain heart healthy lifestyle changes. Consider this alarming statistic quoted by Dr. Edward Miller, Dean of the Medical School at John Hopkins University
"If you look at people after coronary artery by-pass grafting two years later,90% of them have not changed their lifestyle."
Why do reasonably intelligent people like me, fail to sustain lifestyle changes they need to keep them alive? The vast majority of my patients were simply too exhausted and depleted to sustain beneficial lifestyle choices.
Energy and Self Control
It takes energy (glucose) to fuel all your activities. Self control is one such activity. Without energy you cannot exercise self control or willpower. It's impossible to sustain a healthy lifestyle without self control.
But self control is a limited energy source. You can use it up in one area and not have it for the next area. Willpower is like a muscle. When used too intensely, it gets worn out and can fail.
"If you're at a party and exert energy trying to maintain a good impression, you'll be less likely to resist those potato chips"
Roy Baumeister, Ph.D., Florida State University.
Good news
The more you exercise the willpower muscle, the stronger it gets. Stick to an exercise program or control spending and you have more energy to resist junk food, tobacco and TV.
Willpower workouts don't have to be intense to be effective. Simple rituals of self control, like noticing whenever you are being judgmental, will have payoffs down the road the next time they are tempted.
Profile of a Heart Patient:
•Heart patients are fighters. They are battling heart problems, toxic feelings, and unresolved issues of the past
•Exhausted, there is little energy for self control
Two Prong approach to sustain a heart healthy lifestyle
1) Stop the energy drain by reviewing false beliefs
2) Follow 9 steps to beef up your willpower muscle.
False beliefs drain your energy by requiring you to suppress or avoid troublesome feelings, thoughts or actions. My heart patients often accepted these 8 false beliefs as "helpful" guidelines to living.
1 - Keep your guard up - don't be vulnerable.
2 - Put on a happy face - big boys don't cry.
3 - We are our genes - it's not my fault.
4 - Keep up with the joneses -you can't have enough
5 - Bite your tongue - keep your feelings to yourself
6 - Just be logical - emotions just get in the way
7 - What's done is done - forget the past
8 - Keep your act together - hide your weaknesses
The nine steps increase your willpower muscle by requiring you to exercise self discipline.
1 Open your mind - recognize defensiveness
2 Tune in to your thoughts - hear all sides of your dialogue
3 Take responsibility - you're not a victim. You can change
4 Accept what is - be grateful for what you have
5 Release the demons -sharing feelings reduces their power
6 Be authentic - let others know you, warts and all
7 Live in the moment -handle past hurts and future worries
8 Let the love in -take off your mask
9 Create a new mission - let values guide your actions
A new mission in life is more than a change in what you do. It is a change in who you are being. You don't see people in the same way and false beliefs tend to disappear. Energy that was bound in self defense is freed up to make healthy choices; you become the one in ten who is able to sustain a heart healthy lifestyle.
Lawrence A. Decker, Ph.D Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lawrence_Decker,_Ph.D. |
By Lawrence Decker, Ph.D.
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