Impulsive Behaviors:
What to do if They're Harming You
by www.Sedona.com
We all indulge in impulsive behaviors from time to time, such as overeating on Thanksgiving or having too much to drink on New Year's Eve. It seems this tendency to reap a reward while we can may have been engrained in us for our very survival.
Consider our ancient hunter-gatherer ancestors. When they came across a morsel of food, it behooved them to eat it right away because they didn't know when they'd find anymore.
An experiment with blue jays, conducted by a team of University of Minnesota researchers, also confirmed that animals tend to act impulsively when it comes to food, presumably also for the sake of survival. (Interestingly, a recent study on chimps by researchers at Georgia State University in Atlanta found that they can resist acting impulsively, as humans can, particularly if they're distracted with toys.)
But while impulsive behavior may have been beneficial for our ancestors, in modern times acting impulsively - in regard to food, shopping, sex, gambling, drinking, etc. - can be devastating.
"Impulsiveness is considered a big behavior problem for humans," said David Stephens, a professor of ecology, evolution and behavior at the University of Minnesota's College of Biological Sciences. "Some humans do better at binary decisions like 'a little now or a lot later' than others. When psychologists study kids who are good at waiting for a reward, they find those kids generally do better in life. It looks as though this is a key to success in the modern world, so why is it so hard for us to accept delays? The answer may be because we evolved as foragers who encountered no penalties for taking resources impulsively."
Today, of course, there are penalties for being impulsive. Too much overeating will lead to weight gain, obesity and related health problems like diabetes. Imbibing on alcohol in excess can lead to alcoholism or worse, turn you into an alcoholic.
Being impulsive with shopping or gambling, meanwhile, can send you into financial ruin. And acting too impulsively about sex could destroy a personal relationship or result in a sexually transmitted disease.
People who act impulsively are also at an increased risk of alcoholism, according to scientists from the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center. Children who act impulsively are also at risk, as they're more likely to engage in substance abuse or have behavior and learning problems.
Releasing the Feelings That Cause Impulsive Behaviors
"Any strong feeling that we do not release can cause us to react impulsively instead of act proactively," says Hale Dwoskin, CEO and director of Sedona Training Associates.
This is why it's so important to let go of your urges for self-sabotaging impulsive behaviors using The Sedona Method. This do-it-yourself tool will show you how to tap into your inner ability to release impulsive urges immediately, on the spot.
According to Dwoskin, the most common feelings that cause you to over-shop, gamble, drink or engage in other impulsive behaviors are:
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The lust for more and for different experience
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The feeling of incompleteness that we often try to fill up with impulsive activity
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The fear of living life fully and wanting to escape instead
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The feeling of wanting to lose control
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The feeling that somehow if we have more or win we will finally be OK
As you begin working with The Sedona Method, these are the feelings you can focus on releasing so that you're able to regain full control of your actions and your life.
Sources
Proceedings of the Royal Society Volume 271, Number 1556/December 07, 2004
Biology Letters August 23, 2007
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research Volume 31 Issue 1 Page 156-165, January 2007
Science Daily
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