by Connie Hernandez, ND
As we greet the New Year, we’re naturally encouraged to celebrate new beginnings and new ways of being.
The trouble with New Year’s resolutions, though, of course is that we often begin with energy and enthusiasm, but then after a short while we find ourselves once again back in the Old Year.
What does it take to fulfill a New Year’s resolution?
Let’s take as an example a resolution to walk away from junk food.
It’s important to be specific. First, we need to define what junk food really means for us, and what we’ll allow, and what we won’t.
Truth is not always black or white. Take chocolate. There are plenty of reasons to consider chocolate a health food, as it can do lots of good things, for example:
- Lower blood pressure
- Prevent liver damage
- Function as an antibiotic and an antiplatelet
- Reduce inflammation and insulin resistance
- Increase the diversity of the gut microbiome
How do we differentiate what’s healthy and what’s junk? Again, we need to look at specifics. If it’s over 80% cacao with no milk and minimal sugar, is it still junk food? Must it be unsweetened, or sweetened only with monk fruit or stevia to be “healthful”?
How can we manage temptation? It lurks around every corner. Chocolate wafts its silent sweet calls to us from the grocery shelves and the lovely gourmet displays at the farmer’s market and the deli counter.
Your cabinets may contain chocolates of lesser quality, purchased with the best intentions by you, and by family members who’ll be happily, teasingly munching while you’re trying to go chocolate-free.
The chocolate calls to us not only outwardly but also from our firmly interiorized memories of breakfast hot chocolate, lunchtime chocolate milk, and our private memories of all the ice cream parlors of our lives.
Meanwhile, the rational mind argues, quite persuasively: “But chocolate milk is scientifically know to be a perfect recovery drink after exercise! Go ahead – your body will be happy!”
If your chocolate desire isn’t actually at the level of an addiction, a useful step would be to remove temptation from you living space.
“Environment is stronger than will Power,” as Paramhansa Yogananda often told his students.
By the way, Yogananda gave us a heart-lifting, hope-giving definition of will power. He defined will power as: “An increasingly smooth flow of energy and attention, directed toward a desired end.”
Now, doesn’t that sound a lot more “doable” than the typical grim-faced, scowling Puritan images of will?
Notice how Yogananda is subtly encouraging us to treat ourselves gently, with compassion, as we work hard to rid our lives of elements that aren’t doing us a whole lot of good.
“A desired end.” Wow! That’s nice. Will power must begin with a real heart’s wanting to do something that we know, very clearly, with our whole mind, will give us happiness in one or all of these forms: as greater health, love, strength, wisdom, and joy – and remove their opposites from our lives: illness, depression. bodily weakness, mental confusion, stupidity, and suffering.
At any rate, cleaning the cabinets of chocolate (or fill in the offending substances of your choice) and telling family members to keep them out of your sight, is a good start.
Another step would be to examine the reasons you’re grabbing for the chocolate bar or the leftover cake. Is there a substitute that’s just as satisfying, but healthier? How about a brand of chocolate that’s made without simple sugars? Or what if you could make your own chocolate munchies from 100% organic cacao, melted over a low flame and mixed with ground organic dates, or the like healthy sweetener?
Sometimes compromise is a reasonable and doable alternative to complete abstention.
What’s the source of our craving? Is it emotional? Is it physical? Dieticians now know that high-nutrient-density foods (like luscious salads, bowls of colorful fruit lightly sweetened with honey, etc.), absolutely kill hunger. On the other hand, trying to satisfy the body’s nutritional cravings by grabbing what’s close at hand – and that’s usually loaded with simple sugars, fats, and starchy carbs – really is futile. We want to cooperate with the body, not start a war that we’re bound to lose.
Be realistic –be scientific. It generally takes one to two weeks to get used to a new diet. Knowing that you’ll suffer a bit mentally (though you won’t be hungry), why not take whatever time you need to build up your resolve – read informative articles and books, watch videos, etc. – anything to feed your new good habit even before you get started. Above all, absorb the wisdom of people who actually vibrate with the positive effects of following their own advice. Good company is a superpower.
Would a juicy mango substitute for the delights of that special chocolate desert? Maybe. It depends. You’re an experiment of one – find out what works for you. True healing is highly individual!
A more fundamental step is to find pathways of understanding and feeling that will help you purge yourself of the desire for chocolate.
You might reason with yourself. Hmm, chocolate contains high levels of lead and cadmium, and I don’t want to bring those poisons into the sacred machinery of my body and mind.”
Or, “The making of chocolate is environmentally destructive and exploits laborers.’
Sadly, reasoning alone generally doesn’t provide enough power to overwhelm our food addictions and habits.
Will power, too, and wise insights are needed. Remember Yogananda’s definition of will: “An increasingly smooth flow of energy and attention toward a desired end.”
“Increasingly” suggests that we’re be feeding our good volition over time – as much time as it takes for us, individually.
You’ve probably heard of folks who’ve given up smoking by building their resolution gradually, as they studied the dangers of smoking, looked at hideous medical imagery of smoke-damaged lungs, discovered how exercise can give them an entirely new life with greatly expanded vistas of joy and satisfaction. All along, they affirmed, “There is no way that after five years I will be smoking, or that I will spend the rest of my life with this poison in me.” At the end of perhaps six months or a year, one bright morning they simply know from fathomless depths of inner certainty that they would never smoke again. And so it proved; at that point, giving up smoking was effortless, even though it had seemed at the start.
Affirmations are a powerful tool that plays well with our New Year’s resolutions.
In affirmations, you affirm something that you know to be true. You affirm the positive, in the present tense. At the level of chocolate, your affirmation might be “I choose to be conscious and consistent with my food choices. I know that I will feel better, and be better able to know the joy of helping others, by eating wisely chosen, delicious, deeply satisfying foods.”
Give yourself time! Our habits may have deep roots in this life and previous lives. Remember – the day will come when nobody will be able to tease you into breaking your resolve. You can win! I know you can.
Or you could dive more deeply. Whenever I doubt that I can succeed in doing in what I’ve set out to do, I use an affirmation that Sri Yogananda gave: “Within me lies the energy to accomplish all that I will to do. Behind my every act is God’s infinite power.”
There are two sides to affirmations. There’s the art, and there’s the science. Also – it’s never a one-and-done thing. It’s not something you practice for ten minutes at a yoga retreat and then forget when you go home. An affirmation that truly speaks to you will be like a friend, accompanying you through all parts of your life. It’s like a holy, incomprehensibly beautiful chant that your own higher being loves to sing. And, of course, like all good things, it needs to be invited to be a beloved guest in your life, and treated accordingly, with love, kindness, compassion, and respect. It’s like a stray kitten that will gradually, slowly, steadily, feel welcome and at home in the loving temple of your heart.
A holy affirmation-friend, especially when it’s been offered by a fully liberated great soul, has a very real power to reach into every level of your consciousness. It will set its song a-singing very literally in your body, heart, will, mind, and soul. Finally it will repattern your brain, enlighten your actions, and direct your life in new and more fulfilling directions.
In this regard, I can heartily recommend two books: Scientific Healing Affirmations by Paramhansa Yogananda, and Affirmations for Self-Healing, by Swami Kriyananda. Both books offer extremely helpful, compassionate instructions and advice for using affirmations effectively.
Basically, Yogananda suggested that we begin by repeating our affirmation loudly, then in a normal voice, then in a whisper, then silently, then silently while keeping our attention calmly and gently at the point between the eyebrows, the bodily center of superconscious where, Yogananda said, we can broadcast our prayers to God.
We don’t want to aspire merely to formulaic repetition – we want to repeat them as long as it takes to feel a shift of consciousness, and to truly understand the holy truth of the words.
At the same time, we should honor our own limitations and respect them – never forcing ourselves, from a misguided sense of grim duty, to keep repeating with willpower long after our mind and heart are exhausted. We should enjoy the affirmation – a good reason for carefully choosing one that resonates especially for us.
I am particularly partial to the affirmation mentioned above, as its effectivenss is magnified for me by my knowing that it came through an enlightened master who imbued it with the limitless power of God’s Truth. There are many such affirmations in his book, linked above.
You can add further power to your affirmations by marrying them to flower essences that address the underlying issues that may be keeping you from doing what you’ve resolved.
When the focus is on your consciousness and on affirming the power within you, rather than the idea that you are denying yourself something you crave, or the idea that the task before you simply requires too much effort, you will be successful in moving forward.
(Author’s note. I’m not demeaning chocolate! I adore chocolate and eat it almost daily, as I find the chocolate that I consume healthy, indeed. But I don’t crave it, nor do I find it difficult to drop it for weeks at a time.)
May Peace and Happiness be Ever Yours.
Drs. Connie and Marcel Hernandez
DrConnie@DrsHernandez.com
DrMarcel@DrsHernandez.com
650-796-9631 (voice and text)