Good evening, folks. Tonight, I want to talk about breaking bad. Not the TV show, because I just don’t know that much about the TV show. So sorry, can’t help you.
What I want to talk about is breaking bad thought habits. Sometimes they can actually be thought addictions. If you’re one of those people that always thought an addiction was something physical like alcohol, heroin, cigarettes, you’re wrong. There really is sex addiction, and you all know gambling. We can become addicted to anything that gives us that cycle of we have a craving or an urge, and we associate it with the thing that we’re doing. And then we get the rush of dopamine, or whatever the hormonal changes and chemical reactions are going to be, because we’ve done that. And every time we do it, a lot of the time we need to then do it more, do it more, do it more, because it takes more and more and more to give us that same rush.
Now, I’ve never done it, but I know I’ve been told by people that with some … I think heroin, maybe. I just remember someone or reading about it years ago that the first time someone takes heroin, it’s like this incredible feeling, and then it’s the chasing of that constantly to try and get that back.
So I want to take it to the habits and the addictions that we can have all up here. And this is, it happens all around us. It absolutely happens all around us. And I will, hand on my heart, confess. I absolutely think I used to be addicted to the drama thought, the drama spiral of the what if-ing, and the questioning, and the chaos, and the last minute thinking. And it’s like an adrenaline rush, all that stuff. I absolutely think I was addicted to it. Definitely not anymore. Now I’m like, “Too much drama. I want to go that way.”
My mother was addicted to awfulizing. So give her a scenario and she could come up … which is ironic, given she was such a joyous party person, like she loved life. Man, she loved life. Give her a cheese plate, and a glass of wine, and a group of people, she was a happy lady. But we used to have this family joke. Any situation and mum’s brain would do what I called awfulizing. And for some people, their thought habit that is really bad might be a negative response to things. So you know, “Oh, my glasses are …”, this is mom, “Oh, my glasses are smudgy”. And when they have that negative response, it gives them the feeling that they’re searching for, because see, then I’ve got affirmation that I’m hopeless, in that kind of way. And the cycle continues, and it becomes a habit, and it becomes an addiction.
Also, you can do it in a positive loop. But we’re not going to talk about that, because that’s a good one, and you don’t want to break that habit of having positive thought cycles. But the negative thoughts cycles, absolutely, you want to try and hit the nail on the head. Oh, it’s kind of a [inaudible 00:03:30]. Hit the nail on the head on that one.
So what are some scenarios that it may be? You’re stuck in traffic, and you’re going to be late. So you get wound up, and there’s that drama happening inside you, and you’re hopeless because you’re late. Then there’s shame, then there’s guilt, because you didn’t let the people know. But you know, if you really thought about it, you’re always late, because you don’t set off early enough, because you actually kind of feed off all that internal angst that happens when you’re running late.
Now you might not … if someone was to say to you, look you in the eye and say, “Samantha, tell me, do you leave home late because you like feeding off the drama of running late, and the chaos that ensues, and then having to get things done really quickly?” No, normal sane human being is going to say, “No, that just sounds bloody stupid. Who would do that?” Well, you do. I promise you, you do have these habits. We all have them. And the negative ones are in many ways a hell of a lot more powerful than the positive ones, which is such a shame.
So the things I’m talking about are drama, negativity, pessimism, awfulizing, leaving things to the last minute, doomsday thoughts, lot of poverty kind of thoughts that cycles. All the, “I can’t afford, I can’t afford, I can’t afford, I can’t afford.” Meanwhile, they’ve got more money in the bank than other people, but they’re holding onto it, like a depression kind of era, “We’re going to run out of money, so we got to hold onto it.” Another, food is one. Food is absolutely one. The negative habit of chasing that, “Well I can’t not finish it, let it go to waste. There’s people starving, and what a waste of money.” And you get yourself so wound up, so you finish the food when you didn’t actually want it.
So we want to try and break all of those habits, and they’re bad thought habits. And they can be … sometimes, when we have those thought, we follow them up with an action, like the running late, like the eating, drinking, a whole lot of those kinds of things. And sometimes, they just remain a thought. We actually don’t take action on it. We stew, and it just goes around and around our brains, affects our hearts, hits our souls, knocks away at those confidence muscles. It makes us feel like shit.
So all I wanted you to do for the next 24 hours after you’ve watched this, is be aware of the thought patterns that you’re having. So a friend rings, for example. Is your first response, the first kind of conversation that you’re going into with that person out of habit? And if it is out of habit, is it a positive habit or a negative habit? Because, in that thought process, because the negative ones are the ones we want to get [inaudible 00:06:47].
So make a note of it, jot it down. And as we’ve talked about before, see if you can flip it. So if you weren’t thinking something negative or bitchy or dramatic in this situation, what could you be feeling? Okay, how would you feel? How would you show up in that conversation to not be having that negative spiral? If you were … let all that go and didn’t feed into it in your mind and in the conversation, and came up with something positive. Okay, so that’s all I want you to do, for 24 hours, give it a go. Let me know how you go, and let’s break some bad thought habits. Yes. Over.