Cravings, desire, thought - the problem with it all
Hello, Octagonese. How are you doing? I'm missing you on the radio tonight, guys. I hope it's going well. Ryan's treating you well.
Speaker 1:I think Dean's on it today. I'll be back abusing Dean on the radio. Don't you worry. And, hopefully, Ryan one day, me and him, will have a scrap on radio. Happy days.
Speaker 1:But again, we're halfway through week six. That's mad, isn't it? These weeks are flying by. But I'm loving the stories in the group, so please keep sharing them and the results you're getting. But yeah, I think speaking to rhinovirus as well, like there's so much change that happens in people's lives doing these challenges beyond just weight loss, you know, that we forget.
Speaker 1:It's like, you know, I don't care. I don't don't really care if you do a before and after photo. I'm not gonna ask you, like, it's a necessary evil as a as a business to ask sometimes, oh, can we share some before and after photos because it shows the physical proof? That's what we know everybody wants to come with. That's what we know everyone starts with.
Speaker 1:Want to come to us first, lose weight, and then they realize there's a lot more. And it's like you can't sell a lot more without going through the first process of understanding weight loss isn't the most important thing. Do you mean it's like a trap in a sense. It's like, oh, how do we get that? But we don't care about the physical stuff.
Speaker 1:Obviously, we can in a sense, but life changes. That's what that's what I love hearing them. I wanna hear more, guys. How are you feeling mindset wise in work with your partners, with your family, with your kids, all these stuff. I wanna hear these stories in the group.
Speaker 1:I'm missing the radio or missing picking up on it and I have to listen back to them, but I wanna hear them. And it brings me to a point really is like, have you truly truly understood that doing this whole macros mindset training all this stuff, how little, the number of fat lost plays in your true happiness. Have you realized that yet? Like have you realized that holding up four or five pounds more fat than you really want to doesn't actually change how happy you are, how you look at the world, how joyful you are in the days? Have you realized that yet?
Speaker 1:Because if you keep thinking that you need to lose those four pounds, you're gonna be happy. Your mind playing tricks, new. It's false, guys. It's a false narrative by the mind. Please don't fall for it.
Speaker 1:I don't want you to fall for it. I spoke to Dean on the other turtle radio tonight about when I went away in that weekend, talk about that Krishnamurti, retreat center, speaking about the mind and thoughts. So maybe we can start inquiring a bit now, see if this hits home. I'm not sure what it might do. So let's go into it.
Speaker 1:So if we look into most of our problems, most of our problems are caused by thought. Right? So our thoughts create desire. So desire is something in the future that we don't have right now. It could be ten seconds in the future, hour in the future, three weeks in the future.
Speaker 1:We desire something because we don't have it right now. So desire, we need movement in with desire. Desire is movement because you have to go through time to get what we desire. And then when we get it, we desire more and more and more and it keeps going, it's a movement. So desire and thought are the same because you can't have desire without thought.
Speaker 1:You with me? Because obvious. And if desire is something of time movement, then desire and thought and time are the same thing. So there is no psychological time without thought. This physical time the world is going around and you know, the to darkness and our bodies will degrade all the time, physical time, but psychologically we create the past and future.
Speaker 1:So thought is the same as desire. Desire is of time. So desire is time. Are you with me so far? Okay.
Speaker 1:And in the fourteen day challenge, doing the free challenge macros, this is what I'm talking about. So we when we have, it could be a shower thought, it could be when the mind is still, it could be when we're observing ourselves, when we're seeing the fact and the truth, when we see without choice, when we just look at things without wanting to change it, without labeling it, we just see the fact. That's when the mind is still, that's when we get insights. I'll give you a real life example of an insight and how insights are not a product of thought, before comes in after to kind of explain it. So here's the post.
Speaker 1:Lengthy confession post. When I got given the calorie goal of 2,600 I thought to myself there's no way I'll eat that. I don't even eat that now on the weekend and I am no stranger to tracking my meals on MyFitnessPal. I do it most days and thought I was being truthful with what I was putting in there. So yesterday, I tracked literally every gram of food I ate and every mil of milk in the cups of tea.
Speaker 1:I purposely ate the same kind of meals I've been doing when tracking on my fitness pal as lit as a little experiment with myself to find out if I was really underestimating portion sizes, etcetera. But by the end of the day, I was almost at my 2,600 calorie goal, and that's without the crisps and a couple of biscuits I normally would have had throughout the day. So it's no wonder I've been slowly gaining weight every month. I've probably been eating 3,000 calories a day for the last two years. I also look back to my food diary in my fitness pal, and I can see where those those days I know I had a glass of wine, and I have an input that are there, probably through guilt.
Speaker 1:I've been cheating myself all this time and not even realize I'm doing it and I had a good laugh at the sheer audacity of myself thinking I must be an exception to the science. I don't even eat that much and I'm still piling pongs on and ready to face day two loving this and loved the live last night. So informative. K. So by observing the day, observing herself, she's had insights and breakthrough.
Speaker 1:And inside that, that's happened straight away. If you think of what's happened there, that her mindset is now can changed for life. It hasn't changed over time. It's changed from observing that day, and she's literally seen an insight that, oh my god. When I do observe, I see what's actually happening.
Speaker 1:The fact is I'm consuming way more. I'm consuming all these calories and I see that now because I'm not trying to not trying to guilt myself which is thought. I'm not trying to tell myself I'm not eating that much thought. I'm not trying to do all this thought process like no way this fighting her. She is eventually gone.
Speaker 1:I will see the day and that's it. I'm gonna see it. And in that seeing, the truth comes out. Does that make sense? I don't know if it is making sense.
Speaker 1:It makes sense to me. So we have these insights when we're not really thinking a lot, when we're not overthinking stuff. We have insights when the mind is still. When the mind is observing, we have insights. So the insights aren't of thought, they are of stillness.
Speaker 1:And these insights change the current of your thoughts forever. Do know what I'm saying? So her thought process now has completely changed forever because in in even in two years time, she might put in the weight on and she'd go, you know what? When I was observing without without judging myself, observing, just seeing the fact, I was eating way more than I thought, and I thought I wasn't eating much. And actually, right now and you you literally can't accept the old you because you've seen other you've had this insight into the reality of the truth, and it's forever changed the way you're thinking.
Speaker 1:Do know I'm saying? It's forever changed the way you're thinking. You can't go back once you've seen the truth. And that's the amazing thing about this kind of insight. And we tend to get this insight when we aren't thinking.
Speaker 1:Now there's a really good example of this creative wise, with Mozart. So Mozart used to write his songs when playing pool or they called billards whatever. He used to throw a, ball on the left cushion and hit the back cushion, hit the right cushion and come back to him. So as he threw the ball, he would let his conscious mind track the ball, right, and then he would let the other part, other unconscious whatever be still and then in that stillness where he was not thinking, he would write the notes out for songs. And then he would start humming them and stuff around the table and then they would come in thought would then see and add more to it.
Speaker 1:But he was having his insights not of thought, was just doing that and then write in. Think of crazy that is and if it all makes sense. It makes sense to me. So insights are not of thought. Thought is all the problems.
Speaker 1:Thought is all the problems. All the problem comes from thought. We have a thought and then we have an image of we have a thought which then we have words attached to the thought. We have a thought like, oh, I'm hungry and then we have I shouldn't be hungry and then that's a negative and then because I'm a negative thought I think the image of me is I'm an idiot, and I'm hungry, and I'm a I'm a failure, and it just keeps going, and it keeps going, and going, and going. And we when you think about it, if you're stress eating and comfort eating, one part of you doesn't want to have that cake, then the other side of you wants to have that cake.
Speaker 1:So there's one side of the self you, your name, the thinker, doesn't want to have it, then the thoughts wants to have it, you are fighting yourself. Right? And then you're thinking this overthinking, don't want do with this thinking, thinking, fighting, thinking, fighting. And you think by more thinking, you're gonna get out of that mess. Will a dog, if a dog goes faster chasing his tail, will it catch his tail?
Speaker 1:No, obviously not. That's what we do though. We're like a dog chasing his tail. We think if we go faster and faster and faster and faster, we're gonna catch it. But when we're in those moments, we keep thinking thinking, instead of just seeing how ridiculous it is we got that dog chasing his tail, you look ridiculous it is and you go, that's stupid.
Speaker 1:That is literally, is just ridiculous. Why, what is going on here? You're just fighting yourself. You look at it and it stops and then that power over you is gone. The power, the urge to fight and resist and crave and want, all the product of thought when you see it, it go it vanishes, it drops off.
Speaker 1:Do you see that? So craving is a product of thought and hunger is a physical body. Our body's got its own intelligence obviously like, you know, if I asked you now, is how you think thought thinks it's intelligent, right? That thought is not intelligent. Thought is a mechanical thing based off memory and experience.
Speaker 1:It's just a, you know, mechanical thing, it's over and around, thing. Ask yourself now ask your thoughts, the me, the self to tell you exactly where your gallbladder is right now. Or to tell you where the end of your small intestine is or to tell you where your, pancreas is, exact location of your pancreas. It can't it can't tell you. It can't say it's right here but your thoughts and your body and your mind.
Speaker 1:That makes sense? How does he not know? How does he not know where everything is in his body? Because it's not as intelligent as he thinks it is. Doesn't know these things.
Speaker 1:Body's got its own intelligence. And when you're hungry, he's telling you something, And you can you can listen to it. Or thought can take that intelligence of a bit of hunger and run away with it and think it's Mars is crazy. You need to eat loads of stuff now. But it's not it's not true.
Speaker 1:Craving, but on the other hand, is a purely of thought. Because you think craving is something in the future, right? You crave in something you don't have right now. It's a it's a prod it's a thought it's a time thing. Time desire thought craving, same thing.
Speaker 1:You know, greed is the same thing. Want something more. All of these are the same it's all the same thing. If you think about it, greed, desire, pleasure, you want something that you don't currently have, you want more pleasure, you wanna hold on to pleasure. All of these are products of thought.
Speaker 1:That's all I want to say. I just want to say this phrase get outside of your own head, stuff like this. There's there's there's the reason why people say these things. This is true. Sometimes we do need to get out of this small part of our mind.
Speaker 1:So if you think about it, if you think of your mind as this big huge thing, the super, super intelligent and full of energy in life. And there's a small part of this mind that thinks it's super important. It's just the mechanical part. It thinks it's alive. It thinks it's important.
Speaker 1:It thinks it's got the answers to everything. And it does. It's clever in the sense that it can create stuff, but it's the insight from the rest of the mind when it sees that does stuff and the thought thinks it's thought. But if you look at thought as a small part, right, and you look at the rest of the mind as the seeing, the intelligent part of full of energy thing and you see stuff as opposed to always looking through thought, because thought is limited in its sense, it can only see through experience and memory and things of time desire, that's all it can think about, that's all it can go with. Thought is time.
Speaker 1:So thought, desire, all this stuff, you don't think about itself and it can only see through itself, which is of limited capacity because this only sees through memory and experience and conditioning, society, all this stuff. But the outside of this, if you picture it, is like the mind, the full mind. And I can see without a center, you can just see. I don't know if any of this is making sense to you guys but I went away, I've read also for ages, I've pondered it and there's no map to it. There's no path to do this and that.
Speaker 1:It's just like you speak to people and you have these realizations by yourself because all these things, we all experience all these things, pleasure, sorrow, pain, desire. All every human being has the same thing in terms of those. And that's the battlefield. Speak to someone Turtle Radio yesterday about it. It's like, you know, the battlefield like dietitian came on Turtle Radio on the challenge is like, yeah, I'm a dietitian and I know exactly what to do but I'm still stress eating, emotional eating and I'm learning those snacks get a better me.
Speaker 1:I'm eating loads of cooked chocolates. And I'm like, exactly. We've all got the same problems which is the problem of thought, crawlers and carnage. So yeah that's all I wanted to say really. I just want you to start seeing the falseness of the self and the thoughts and the consciousness fighting itself and just see it.
Speaker 1:And in moments today where you feel your thoughts are getting you stressed out and all this stuff and you're taking every thought comes in seriously and all blah, blah, blah, and you crave in and all this stuff. Just remember, if you're craving and you keep thinking about the craving, the thinking is not gonna get out of the craving because the craving is the thinking. So you need to basically just observe it without wanting to change it. And try and get out of that head, get out your own head for a bit, get out of that self only vision and into the full vision of the mind and see how ridiculous the infighting is down there, as opposed to keep trying to think. Because that's why going for a walk works, Think about it.
Speaker 1:I'm craving, go for a walk, why is that gonna help? Well, when we go for a walk, we let the mind go still sometimes. We walk, we wumble and then the goes still. And sometimes we have, like, little insights because the mind is completely still and we're not thinking of stuff. Sometimes we're thinking loads of stuff.
Speaker 1:But in the end, thoughts gone on to someone else then. That's the thought. It's like a dog. It's gone after someone else. There's no craving anymore.
Speaker 1:It's got someone else to go after. More pleasure, more desire, more greed, more sadness, more sorrow, other places. And then off it goes and again and again and again and again, dog running on its tail. Just look at it. It's a it's it's it's silly.
Speaker 1:It's a silly thing. And, yeah, that's it guys. Let me know what you think. Look into it yourself. Want you to do it.
Speaker 1:Want you to think. I want you to tell me what you think. And, yeah, enjoy your day. Book club tonight, stoicism and add to happiness. I've seen some comments like it's tough book to read.
Speaker 1:Yeah, full on. It is a stoicism philosophy book and psychotherapy book in one. But it is very rewarding to learn the depth of the stoicism as opposed to the superficial stuff people talk about on social media and stuff, know, it's easy to say the courts and all that but the really the fundamental, the backstory of it, the base of it, what's built on history, all that stuff's very important to understand fully. And once you understand it like that, there's no going back in. You understand the core of stoicism and it's going to help you apply the stoicism you read later on.
Speaker 1:It makes older stoicism kind of phrases and stuff that said make more sense and things start click clicking. I've used this example before, I remember doing physics in AS level and I had like Ds and all odds, didn't get it at the time, was like stressed and stressed and all, I didn't revise enough. Then when I did A level, the AS level was so easy just clicked because I just kept going learning more and more. But then I went back and, like, learned the base again properly this time with more insights and more whatever, and I just smashed it in. So sometimes we revisit things and we see it for it's what it is as opposed to, you know, we think we've learned it, but we haven't.
Speaker 1:The more you go back to the more you get out of it. So see you in Book Club. Enjoy yourself. Have a good day. Live one day at a time, obviously.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, see you soon.
