"If you choose to not deal with an issue, then you give up your right of control over the issue and it will select the path of least resistance." — Susan Del Gatto
Procrastination. We all do it.
But have you ever wondered WHY? Or considered how significant of an impact it has on your health?
While you might find yourself feeling ashamed and frustrated with your tendency to procrastinate, it's not entirely your fault.
We're actually hardwired to do so.
Every day there's a battle happening inside your brain between the limbic system (the older and automatic part of your brain that drives you to seek pleasure and avoid pain) and the prefrontal cortex (the younger and less dominant part of your brain that makes critical thinking and planning possible).
From our brain's perspective, the more pain we avoid the greater our likelihood of survival, regardless of the source or severity of that pain.
Which means that something as benign as forcing ourselves to sit down and do our taxes can be perceived by your brain as a threat that needs to be avoided at all costs...by doing something pleasurable (like scrolling on Instagram) instead.
Now, I think we are all aware of how avoiding doing the things we need to do can negatively impact our health and our lives,
But something that you may not have considered is that the majority of your "bad habits" are actually just things you do to avoid doing something else that your brain perceives to be painful.
A great example of this is afternoon snacking.
Or as I like to call it, procrastinEATING.
Many of the high achieving women that I work with confess that they struggle with "feeling snacky" in the middle of their work day.
And as a result they've tried a plethora of strategies to avoid snacking.
Things like:
Using willpower and telling themselves they weren't going to snack
Having healthier snack options available
Staying away from the employee break room at all costs
Yet despite their best intentions, they would still find themselves battling with an urge to snack in the afternoons.
Why is that?
👉 Their strategy only focused on the behavior of snacking, rather than digging deeper to uncover what they were trying to avoid doing by snacking instead.
Because as I said earlier, your brain is on a mission to avoid pain...including painful emotions.
And for many women, emotions like boredom, stress, uncertainty and self-doubt play a recurring role in an average work day.
So even if you try to remove the habit of snacking, your brain will continue to seek out ways to avoid those uncomfortable emotions...
Which can result in scarfing down a stale donut left over from the morning meeting while thinking to yourself "I don't even want this" or "Why am I eating this?"
So if we want to overcome the habit of procrastinEATING we must first get clear on:
1) The specific uncomfortable emotion(s) we are trying to avoid
AND
2) The situations/environments that we most often experience these emotions in
...so that we can build a set of skills to make us more resilient to those uncomfortable emotions and establish a set of strategies to make it easier to engage in a healthier coping mechanisms.
But that won't happen from cutting out carbs, doing Whole30 or following a meal plan...
So if you are ready to put an end to habits that are wrecking your health, like procrastinEATING, fill out a coaching application HERE to see if you are a good fit.
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