Wake Me Up: Morning Positivity - Morning Motivation - Impulse Control | How to Manage Your Impulses

Episode Date: May 8, 2023

Ever feel like you're in a vicious cycle with a bad habit? This morning, get inspired to finally take control of your unhealthy impulses. Want to be more focused? Wish distractions would just melt away? Sign up for the WMU Focus Course! If you're interested in joining, all you need to do is sign up for the course here: https://wakemeuppod.gumroad.com/l/focus. Get ad-free access to the entire WMU catalog + bonus content + 25% discount on WMU courses by joining the WMU Premium Feed. Sign up and start your 7-day free trial at https://wakemeup.supercast.com/. Follow the show on Spotify - Apple Podcasts - Amazon - Podchaser Say hi or request an episode at www.wakemeuppodcast.com/contact. See visual guides for the yoga and stretches in WMU episodes at www.wakemeuppodcast.com/stretches. And find the podcast on Instagram and TikTok. **Only partake in the physical movements suggested in Wake Me Up episodes if you are physically able and in safe surroundings. All movements are done at the individual's own risk. Be safe, and always consult a doctor if you have any questions or concerns.** Have a wonderful day 😃 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wake Me Up is made possible thanks to the generous help of our advertisers and premium supporters. If you'd like to support Wake Me Up, listen ad-free, and get access to the entire catalog plus bonus episodes, then follow the link in the show notes to sign up for Wake Me Up premium. Now before our episode begins, here's a quick word from our sponsors. Hey there, and welcome to Wake Me Up. I'm your host, Tyler, as always, and I'm so grateful that you're here. year today. This week, we'll be talking about how to control our impulses. These urges, compulsions, mindless habits, they are a part of our human nature. But when those impulses lead us to an unhealthy behavior, that's when it becomes a problem. Most of us have probably tried to get rid of one of these impulses. But so often, we end up falling back into the exact same

habits we're trying to get rid of. This is a struggle we all face. We all know how frustrating that cycle is, becoming consumed by the impulse, fighting hard to work through it, but finally giving in and facing self-gilt afterwards. There are few feelings worse

than feeling like you've let yourself down. But I promise it doesn't have to be that way. Today and throughout the rest of this week, we'll be talking about how we can take control of our impulses and turn them into positive, healthy, and more productive habits. But before we get started, let's take one moment to pause. Whatever you have to do today, whatever's going on in the outside world, just let it fall away for a moment.

Focus your attention internally. Take a deep breath in, filling all the whole. the way up, hold, and then exhale, release, and just let the air fall back out. No need to force it. One more, even deeper this time. Inhale, hold the exhale, release. Fantastic. Now, another beautiful day awaits. So if you're still in bed, use this opportunity to roll over and make your way up and out of bed. Feel free to go ahead and get your morning started, doing whatever it is that you like to do with your morning routine. And while you do that, let's talk about impulses. We've all felt them.

That deep pull against your self-control. That feeling of needing to give in to what you don't want. There are an endless amount of impulses we feel in a day. Some of them are helpful. Some of them are neutral. Some of them, if left uncontrolled, can become problematic. Maybe it's just a knee-jerk reaction that makes you give in. Maybe you're thinking about it long and hard, sometimes succeeding in overcoming it and sometimes not.

Whatever it is, we've all been there, and we know how desperate that feeling can be. The longer you push it down, the stronger the urge rises back up, until it feels like it consumes you completely. That thing you've been denying yourself suddenly becomes all you can think about. So finally, you give in and you breathe a sigh of relief, but it only lasts for a moment. More likely than not, the guilt begins to set in soon after.

We tell ourselves we're better than that. How could we have caved in? We swear not to succumb to those impulses again, but without knowing it, we find ourselves back in this vicious cycle time and time again. I promise you, though, there is a way to break free. But the first step in doing so is acknowledging why we feel these impulses in the first place. When we act impulsively, we're often satisfying an immediate momentary desire. It's instant gratification, something that will bring us pleasure now,

a quick dopamine hit in this moment. And that makes sense. Our brains are dopamine seekers, and it's been advantageous to us in many ways. The reward of dopamine was really hard to come by for most of human history. But now, it's easier than ever, and it often requires no effort at all.

The danger in repeatedly giving into these impulses is that we can develop harmful habits and patterns. My friend, feeding a momentary impulse is not going to make you happy because true happiness isn't momentary. It's something we work for a long time to build and maintain. We're looking to feed a deep, spiritual hunger that can't be satisfied by the momentary and material. But in the moment, small bites of dopamine are easy and they feel good.

Let's be clear. There's nothing wrong with a good dopamine. and there's many positive dopamine rushes that we get on a daily basis. The problem arises when that dopamine rush is attached to something that's harmful to our health or our long-term vision or goals. And when that's the case, we have to face the truth. It is a coping mechanism. We all have holes that we seek to fill in different ways. Giving into those unhealthy impulses does provide us temporary. relief. But after that dopamine dissipates, the emptiness remains. And sometimes it leaves us feeling

emptier than before. To feel full, we have to acknowledge this feeling of emptiness and accept that we can't fill it with quick hits and material things. Succoming to a harmful impulse is like putting a little bandage on a giant wound. It's a round peg and a square hole. It's just not going to solve the problem. To be whole, we need to turn inwards and address the root cause of the impulse. We have to face the emptiness and sit with the feeling. Remember, an unhealthy impulse is just a coping mechanism. So we don't need to ask why the impulse. We need to ask, why the pain?

What am I coping from? That's what we'll be diving into through the rest of this week. If we want to feel fulfilled and happy, we have to be willing to face the things that cause us pain. Otherwise, we will succumb to our impulses over and over again. We won't grow. We won't overcome them. We won't change for the better. We'll continue our patterns of self-sabotage.

But the good news is that impulses are by definition momentary. Just like we talked about last week, everything will pass. And that's true of impulses too. So you can develop the skills to overcome them. And once you get impulse control down pat, you will feel as though you've been driving with the emergency break on your entire life. You will start flying towards your goals. You will feel more fulfilled, happy, balanced, and stable every single day.

And this isn't to say that all impulses are bad or need to be abandoned completely. But we shouldn't go through life driven by impulses that are harming us and holding us back. We should at least decide to act on them consciously, fully aware and accepting of the consequences. There's an indescribable freedom that will come when you practice this. You are now in control of those urges and desire. you can choose to take them or leave them. Impulses can become choices instead of desperate attempts to fill a void

so that it now becomes your choice, not your mindless habit, your unhealthy impulse, to have another piece of chocolate or stay up late watching another episode of that TV show. And that's all good if it is your choice to accept the consequences that come with doing so.

When you can grab the reins in an impulsive moment, you no longer become a puppet to your impulses. You become the master of your own life. Well, that's all I have this time. Thanks so much for choosing to spend your morning with me. I encourage you to start paying attention to the impulses you have throughout the day. You may be aware of some already, but I'm willing to bet you're not aware of all of them. and make sure you pay special attention to those impulses that might be harming you. The rest of this week, we'll be putting impulse control into practice.

Tomorrow, we'll be doing a really powerful meditation to get down to the root causes of our unhealthy impulses. On Wednesday, we'll be doing affirmations that you can use when you need to control an impulse. And on Thursday, on Wake Me Up Premium, I'll be talking about the mind-body connection, a really important concept to understand, especially when it comes to impulse control. So I hope to see you there. Until next time, go out, and have an absolutely fantastic day.