{"id":6085,"date":"2013-10-09T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-09T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lightbearers.org\/?p=6085"},"modified":"2018-06-07T11:55:58","modified_gmt":"2018-06-07T19:55:58","slug":"in-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lightbearers.org\/blog\/in-control\/","title":{"rendered":"In Control"},"content":{"rendered":"

Duncan Ryan was only 42 and weighed 508 pounds. At five feet eleven inches, he was considered morbidly obese. At that weight it doesn\u2019t matter how tall one is, more fat than anything else is being carried around. Duncan is not alone. One out of three Americans is in a similar boat. On a cruise ship with his wife, Duncan \u201ccould barely wedge himself into his cabin. He spent most of the trip at the buffet. \u2018I was literally touching both sides of the shower,\u2019 he says. \u2018It was out of control.\u2019\u201d1<\/sup><\/p>\n

Is there something in your life that feels out of control? Perhaps you are dangerously overweight. Maybe certain behaviors need to be reined in. You know what needs to be done, but it\u2019s not happening.<\/p>\n

In the 1950s, researchers attached an electrode to a specific part of a rat\u2019s brain. They were investigating whether rats might be made uncomfortable by electrical stimulation of that area. Instead they found that the rats kept going back for more. When given a lever in which they could stimulate this area of the brain themselves, they would press it as much as 700 times per hour. All day and night the rats would push the lever, refusing food and sleep.<\/p>\n

There can be a very large gulf between wanting or anticipating happiness and the actual experience of it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Years later they put electrodes on the same part of human brains. Soon the humans were acting much like the rats, doing whatever it took to stimulate that part of the brain and foregoing necessities like food to experience it. The participants said they liked it, but it didn\u2019t result in happiness. Instead they felt frustrated, anxious, and couldn\u2019t get the desired satisfaction. The researchers concluded that they were experiencing what the brain interpreted as a promise of happiness, a promise of reward. The brain thinks something good is about to happen. The anticipation becomes so strong that the individual continues dead-end behavior.<\/p>\n

There can be a very large gulf between wanting or anticipating happiness and the actual experience of it. Often we find a chasm between wanting to achieve a goal, such as losing weight, and actually doing it. So many physiological and psychological variables exist in what may feel like an abyss. The effects of life\u2019s disappointment, sin, and pain reside there, but so do willpower and self-control; essential ingredients to happiness as well as success.<\/p>\n

The part of the rat and human brain that, when activated, keeps us going back for more is where out-of-control begins for many. Often it takes something pretty loud to help us realize that the lever we are repeatedly pushing isn\u2019t really working for us. For Ryan, it took sleep apnea that woke him up every 20 minutes, constant exhaustion, chest pains, and then a hospital stay for double pneumonia during which nurses could not find a strong enough bed to hold him. When goals seem impossible, where do you start? Doctors said if Ryan could lose 150 pounds he could have a gastric bypass surgery as an aid in further weight loss. \u201cHis wife had other ideas. She said, \u2018If you can lose 150 pounds, you can lose the rest.\u2019\u201d2<\/sup><\/p>\n

Like a muscle, willpower can and will become stronger with use, with \u201cthe exercise of the will.\u201d3<\/sup> Waiting until it is easy, or you feel like it, or when it is no longer painful, uncomfortable, or unsavory, is not exercising the will. It is exercised as choices are made and executed against inclination. It focuses on the goal and not on the immediate inconvenience or challenge.<\/p>\n

Like a muscle the will needs rejuvenation. Certain lifestyle habits have been found to recharge, while others such as sleep deprivation and poor nutrition zap the willpower battery. Stanford health psychologist Kelly McGonigal, PhD, has examined the latest research on willpower and says, \u201cNutrition comes into play because it also influences how available energy is for the brain. Something as simple as eating a more plant-based, less-processed diet makes energy more available to the brain and can improve every aspect of willpower….\u201d4<\/sup><\/p>\n

McGonigal also highlights how important a role model or supporter is. Who you hang out with makes a difference. Others\u2019 good or bad habits influence us. Find someone whose willpower and encouragement is infectious, someone who shares your goals. For Ryan, this was his wife. She willed for him to lose the weight without the surgery. He ran with it. Well, at first it was barely a two-minute walk. The second day at the gym, however, he was able to walk four minutes on the treadmill. Eventually he was running.<\/p>\n

Often the excuse is given that willpower is weak. Perhaps, but \u201cit is too frequently the case that the will is exercised in a wrong direction.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ryan chose to give up his twice-a-day-McDonalds habit and bags of candy. He didn\u2019t base this decision on how he felt about McDonalds. He based it on something that became more important to him than McDonalds. Willpower is exercised when body and brain work together. No matter how fervent the desire, it won\u2019t cut it alone. \u201cDesires for goodness… are right, as far as they go; but if we stop here, they avail nothing.\u201d5<\/sup> The will \u201cis the spring of all your actions… It is the governing power in the nature of man, bringing all the other faculties under its sway. The will is not the taste or the inclination, but it is the deciding power which works in the children of men unto obedience to God or unto disobedience.\u201d6<\/sup> Often the excuse is given that willpower is weak. Perhaps, but \u201cit is too frequently the case that the will is exercised in a wrong direction.\u201d7<\/sup> Rather than looking at willpower as what makes us do what we don\u2019t want to do, take it as a heaven-ordained tool or weapon and achieve what we really want.<\/p>\n

Ryan got down to 188 pounds. \u201cBut he still wasn\u2019t happy with his results. \u2018I didn\u2019t think I looked good,\u2019 he says. \u2018I was gaunt and soft.\u2019\u201d Then he started weight training. \u2018\u201cEverything finally clicked for me,\u2019 he says. The former fat man adjusted his diet to support his new workouts and began packing on 30 pounds of pure muscle. Today, at 215 pounds, he takes great pride in the fact that he looks as good as he feels.\u201d8<\/sup><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not easy to let go of stimulation lever tapping. It has raised our hopes, but in the end it hasn\u2019t delivered. If you desire to be free of such behavior, take courage. \u201cYou cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may desire; but you can control the will, and you can make an entire change in your life.\u201d9<\/sup> When the power of the will is united with divine strength \u201cnothing shall be impossible\u201d (Luke 1:37). God will equip you to be in control.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Brandon Guameri, \u201cSuccess Story; Duncan Ryan<\/a>,\u201d Men\u2019s Fitness<\/li>\n
  2. Ibid.<\/li>\n
  3. Ellen G. White, Mind Character & Personality, p. 686.<\/li>\n
  4. Lia Steakly, \u201cThe Science of Willpower<\/a>,\u201d Scope, 12\/29\/11<\/li>\n
  5. Ellen G White, Mind Character & Personality, p. 685.<\/li>\n
  6. Ibid.<\/li>\n
  7. Ibid., p. 689.<\/li>\n
  8. Brandon Guameri, \u201cSuccess Story; Duncan Ryan<\/a>,\u201d Men\u2019s Fitness<\/li>\n
  9. Ellen G. White, Mind Character & Personality, p. 694.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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