From: ygc0525@yahoo.com   
      
   The Polar Bear Effect   
      
   Why Resistance is Futile   
      
   Try a little experiment for me. For 10 seconds by the clock, think about   
   anything you like, as long as it has no relationship whatever, not even a   
   tangential one, to polar bears. That means no bears of any kind, no furry   
   white rugs, no snow or ice, no igloos, nothing that connects to polar bears   
   in your mind. Got it? Go. 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5 . . . 6 . . . 7   
   . . . 8 . . . 9 . . . 10. Okay, now relax.   
      
   So, were you able to keep all polar bear-related thoughts out of your   
   consciousness for the allotted time? Probably not, and even if you managed   
   to keep such thoughts away for 10 seconds, you've had a bunch of them since   
   you stopped trying not to think about them -- look, there goes one now. In   
   fact, you've had more thoughts linked to polar bears since you started   
   reading this chapter than you might have had all day -- all week, all   
   year -- if I hadn't told you not to think them.   
      
   This experiment was designed by Daniel Wegner, a Harvard psychologist who   
   studies "the evasion of suppression." Wegner has shown that under any number   
   of circumstances, trying not to think or feel something makes our brains go   
   right to that very thing, whether it's insomnia, performance anxiety,   
   shocking sexual images involving all nine Supreme Court Justices, or a   
   hankering for fried chicken. The harder we try to suppress any mental state,   
   the more our thoughts move into that state, set up camp, open a six-pack,   
   and hunker down for the duration.   
      
   This phenomenon is known as the "ironic monitoring process," a label I love   
   because its acronym is "imp." It happens because telling the brain not to   
   think a thought is a paradoxical command. If I ordered you not to keep   
   anything red in your house, and for some unfathomable reason you decided to   
   obey me, the first thing you'd have to do is scurry through your house   
   looking for red things. Your attention would be preferentially drawn to the   
   very thing you were trying to offload. So, when you're dieting strictly,   
   trying very hard not to think about how much you'd love a burrito with spicy   
   marinated chicken and four kinds of cheese melting in golden swirls through   
   an avocado heaven of guacamole with a huge dollop of -- sorry. What was I   
   saying?   
      
   Oh yes. When you're trying not to think about your favorite gustatory   
   temptations, you'll think about them all the time, in great detail. That's   
   your imp-mind for you.   
      
   Wegner's research shows that under ideal conditions, when we're rested,   
   relaxed, and enjoying life, we can suppress thoughts and feelings fairly   
   successfully. But when we have a high "cognitive load," such as stress,   
   annoyance, or time pressure, trying to resist creates "mental states that go   
   beyond 'no change' to become the opposite of what is desired." This means   
   that the more desperately we try to control the plethora of factors that go   
   into losing weight, the more we create a kickback from our brains.   
      
   When I ran one of my dieting clients through this exercise, she immediately   
   diagnosed herself with "bi-polar-bear disorder." She'd spent most of her   
   life either suppressing food-related thoughts and behaviors, or experiencing   
   uncontrollable backlash, in which she did nothing but plan menus, shop,   
   cook, and eat. And eat. And eat. This dieting behavior is typical and   
   predictable, given the ironic logic of brain function. And the longer it   
   goes on, the worse it gets.   
      
   Reprinted from: The Four Day Win: End Your Diet War and Achieve Thinner   
   Peace by Martha Beck, PhD. Copyright © 2007 Martha Beck. (January   
   2007;$25.95US/$33.95CAN; 9781594866074) Permission granted by Rodale, Inc.,   
   Emmaus, PA 18098. Available wherever books are sold or directly from the   
   publisher by calling at (800) 848-4735.   
      
      
      
   Author   
   Martha Beck, PhD, is a Harvard-educated life coach and monthly columnist for   
   O, The Oprah Magazine. She is the author of the bestsellers Finding Your Own   
   North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live and the memoir   
   Expecting Adam. She lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with her family. Her hobbies   
   include excessive viewing of the Discovery Channel, occasional pondering,   
   and naps.   
      
   She can be contacted at www.thefourdaywin.com.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)