Forming Habits

A habit is formed in approximately 20 days, whether it is a good habit or a bad habit. Therefore, if a person repeats an act over and over again it will result in a habit that is difficult to modify. A habit can be, let’s say eating ice cream for a week straight every night. The subconscious will crave and send signals to the conscious mind, calling over and over again for that habit formed ice cream.
We just lost an award winning actor named, Philip Seymour Hoffman, who overdosed on drugs. He had been suffering from this addiction for many years. He was clean for several years, but it takes just one time to set off in the subconscious that yearning, once again, for that drug or alcohol. If that person were to subside for 20 consecutive days, that yearning would minimize and they will be on their way to a clean spell which may be maintained.
The subconscious is that powerful of a convincer. If understood better we could maximize it to its fullest potential. But you can be certain of this, that subconscious can change your life for the better. Just try today to use it. Ask it repeatedly for what you most desire. But that desire must be sincere and wanted very badly. Let’s say we want to write a book, not just any book, but one you’ve been wanting to write for years. You must impress upon the subconscious mind that you need to accomplish this given task.
Repeat the request over and over again throughout the day. Come up with a name for the book, and find a potential photo for the cover of the book. Now print the name of the proposed book onto the photo, make 10 copies of the cover and post them everywhere you will see them. Also write below the photo the date of anticipated completion of the manuscript. Now, when someone asks what you are doing, you proudly tell them that you are writing a book.
Your subconscious mind will take over and find a way to accommodate you in this new and exciting endeavor. This system works on any problem and in achieving any goal that you are capable of achieving, from completing a marathon to building some structure. The subconscious will work overtime, 24 hours a day to find the answer to what you have instructed it to solve.
The homeless have put themselves in a rut that is difficult to escape from. The habit, or addiction is that difficult to brake, but it is doable. The heart and mind together must desire a change more than anything previously has been desired. Only then can change begin to take hold. Remember, before an alcoholic can begin to change they must accept that they have a problem, and they must seek a solution to this problem.
The A.A. Preambler
Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.

The 12 Steps Of AA

1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable.
2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5: Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8: Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Let’s look at some success stories of individuals who made the tough choice to change their thinking from negative to positive and get back into society: