Pay no Mind to Your Mind:It's Not Healthy
By: Harold Mounce
It has come to my attention, after all of these years, that
my mind does not always act in my best interest. In fact, I
sometimes wonder if I have enough control over it to even claim
it as my own.
Take the times I've tried to quit smoking. My mind would
pester me constantly until I would start back. After numerous
attempts over many years, I was finally able to beat down the
real enemy--my mind, not the nicotine.
My mind would tell me that I had earned the right to smoke.
That I had worked hard, had very few other vices and why worry
about the harm to my health. Didn't my uncle Bunyan still smoke
at the age of 90? My mind pointed out that I could quit smoking
and die in an automobile accident. Look at all the fun I could
have had by continuing to smoke.
I was only able to quit after I learned to ignore my mind,
and that's no easy feat. To this day eight years later, it has
not given up, and at every stressful situation, it offers me a
cigarette, and my hand, like that of a robot, grabs at my left
shirt pocket.
I am now in a death grip with my mind on a daily basis about
my weight. While I am shopping for oat bran, fruit, fiber laden
and iron rich foods, my mind is shopping for ice cream, pastry
and candy bars. When I find the strength to resist white sugar,
and white flour and remain true to my diet, my mind begins to
point out old fat people and remarks how healthy they look. It
says things to me like, "You really ought to have another piece
of pie, your face looks drawn. You need to fleshen up a bit."
When I have trouble sleeping and am tossing and turning,
wide awake at 2 a.m., do I get support from my mind. No, I do
not. It is then that it becomes even more chatty and continually
reminds me that if I go to sleep instantly, I'll only get three
hours of sleep and will really feel beat the next day. Of
course, I worry about that for a half hour.
Let me caution you, your mind is not your friend. My mind
has taken me places bare handed that I shouldn't have gone with a
loaded shotgun. When a traffic cop is scowling at me and writing
out the ticket, where do you think my mind is. It's flitting off
somewhere else, cooking up yet another mess to get me into. It`s
certainly not there explaining to the cop, as it did to me, that
all police radar alarms are set at 10 miles over the speed limit,
and it's OK to roll along at 74 mph.
It plays on my weaknesses and says, "Go ahead! Buy it.
You'll find the money to make the payments somewhere." Or the
one that works too often, "Just send flowers, there's nothing you
can do for him now."
It's plain to see that my minds no friend of mine. I hear
about people losing their minds. That must be nice.
(For Information on How to Maintain Good Health and our website call 800253-9517
It has come to my attention, after all of these years, that
my mind does not always act in my best interest. In fact, I
sometimes wonder if I have enough control over it to even claim
it as my own.
Take the times I've tried to quit smoking. My mind would
pester me constantly until I would start back. After numerous
attempts over many years, I was finally able to beat down the
real enemy--my mind, not the nicotine.
My mind would tell me that I had earned the right to smoke.
That I had worked hard, had very few other vices and why worry
about the harm to my health. Didn't my uncle Bunyan still smoke
at the age of 90? My mind pointed out that I could quit smoking
and die in an automobile accident. Look at all the fun I could
have had by continuing to smoke.
I was only able to quit after I learned to ignore my mind,
and that's no easy feat. To this day eight years later, it has
not given up, and at every stressful situation, it offers me a
cigarette, and my hand, like that of a robot, grabs at my left
shirt pocket.
I am now in a death grip with my mind on a daily basis about
my weight. While I am shopping for oat bran, fruit, fiber laden
and iron rich foods, my mind is shopping for ice cream, pastry
and candy bars. When I find the strength to resist white sugar,
and white flour and remain true to my diet, my mind begins to
point out old fat people and remarks how healthy they look. It
says things to me like, "You really ought to have another piece
of pie, your face looks drawn. You need to fleshen up a bit."
When I have trouble sleeping and am tossing and turning,
wide awake at 2 a.m., do I get support from my mind. No, I do
not. It is then that it becomes even more chatty and continually
reminds me that if I go to sleep instantly, I'll only get three
hours of sleep and will really feel beat the next day. Of
course, I worry about that for a half hour.
Let me caution you, your mind is not your friend. My mind
has taken me places bare handed that I shouldn't have gone with a
loaded shotgun. When a traffic cop is scowling at me and writing
out the ticket, where do you think my mind is. It's flitting off
somewhere else, cooking up yet another mess to get me into. It`s
certainly not there explaining to the cop, as it did to me, that
all police radar alarms are set at 10 miles over the speed limit,
and it's OK to roll along at 74 mph.
It plays on my weaknesses and says, "Go ahead! Buy it.
You'll find the money to make the payments somewhere." Or the
one that works too often, "Just send flowers, there's nothing you
can do for him now."
It's plain to see that my minds no friend of mine. I hear
about people losing their minds. That must be nice.
(For Information on How to Maintain Good Health and our website call 800253-9517
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