The Beast Within

There was an old 70's book and movie called The Beast Within. It is about a boy who is born with some kind of inborn, animal type of fury. As a teenager, something sets him off and he goes on a murdering rampage. The premise is that this "beast within" takes over and makes him do violent things. I guess the overall theme of the story is that we all have these underlying, uncontrollable urges. Or maybe it is that humans are savage by nature or something.

The non-fiction book, The Beast Within (by Jack Trimpey and Lois Trimpey) refers to the self-defeating voice within people with eating disorders. This internal beast is always playing on fear and shame of the anorexic, bulimic or over-eater. This nagging voice is the one that makes illogical statements about how a person has to eat constantly to feel better or that they are no good or if they lose weight they will have another bad relationship. Or.... The list goes on.

I believe that most of us have some kind of "beast within." That negative voice that tries to shoot down everything that you wanted to accomplish. "You can't ask that girl out, she'll laugh at you." "Run 5 miles? Who You?" The whole neighborhood will laugh at chubby woman power walking." "You ask for a raise, they might just fire you."

Sometimes you ask yourself: "What do I want in life?" Live and work in Asia? A cool career? Help underprivileged children? A hard, fit body? Whatever the goal, the beast likes to quash it fast. The beast wants you to stay in the same place or wallow in self disgust. The big response is often YOU CAN'T!

Usually one cannot even get started without a ton of excuses pouring down. Not young enough. Too young. Too fat. Too stupid. Not enough time. Your mother would not like it. Your high school coach would not trust you with it. Etc. etc. Whatever the excuse, very few of them have any merit at all. They are almost always right out to lunch.

There are a few ways to handle this beast within.

1. Get over procrastination by engaging in the activity. That's right, just do the activity for 5 minutes. Almost everyone can walk, run, swim, lift weights, practice yoga or work on their pet project for 5 flipping minutes. Maybe 15 minutes for some people. There are many mornings when I do not feel like running or training. Or writing another book or article. Heck, some days, I don't even "feel" like getting out of bed. I find that if I just do something for 5-10 minutes, my enthusiasm drops into place and I am closer to being in the groove.

2. Recognize that everyone has off days or set backs. If a sports team, actor or carpenter decided that they were only going to perform when they were really inspired, then nothing would get done. Recognize that EVERYONE has off days. There are days when some athletes play like amateurs, actors show up on set feeling depressed or the carpenter just had a fight with his wife. They still do their job. Maybe not perfect work that day, but they still perform.

3. Find some kind of therapy or mental strategy for drawing out this beast within and recognize it for what it is. When I mention therapy, I do not mean lying on a couch, pouring your guts out to a clinical psychologist. That route works for some people. I mean to do your own personal exploration by trying methods like, Rational Recovery®, Psycho-Cybernetics Affirmations or even Michael Losier's Law of Attraction.

a. The RR method was designed for eating disorders. Instead of being concerned over what you are eating, the therapy finds out what is "eating them," and then rationalizing with the irrational. For instance, a compulsive over-eater might think that if they try a diet or exercise program, they might fail and look like a loser. The RR method would counter this irrational statement with something like: "Diet and exercise is good for my health. I want to be healthier."

b. Psycho-Cybernetics, by Maxwell Maltz, M.D. also rationalizes with the person regarding their self-image or "Servo-Mechanism." Someone might think that their fingers are too stubby and that they are always "screwing up" because of it. Consequently, they will "prove" this fact by fumbling about with anything manual. By digging a little deeper, this person might find that they ruined some things as a child and were told by a parent how clumsy that they were. So, logically, a couple of broken items do not make a totally incompetent human. This person would be instructed to recall all of the successful things that he did with his hands and then visualize doing more complicated things like jigsaw puzzles and models. Eventually, the person does overcome this bad self image or negative Servo-Mechanism.

c. Affirmations are not just repeating something over and over again to brainwash yourself into a belief. People misinterpret affirmations as just robotic repetition. It does not work that way. You have to write down what you want to be true (eg. I, Doug am fit and strong) THEN write down the first response that pops into your head. (Eg. No, you're not, you are flabby and weak). Then, you repeat this process until the responses switch or become more accurate. (eg. Well, I did climb the Grouse Mountain Grind and I can get fitter if I try). You then can make your affirmation more accurate (eg. My exercise is making me fitter and stronger. I am enjoying my new health.) Your response will probably try to disagree (eg. Yeah, for now, but you'll quit), but will eventually start agreeing (eg. Yes it did feel good yesterday). Check out my article on ezine.com under Programming a Slimmer Body: Using Affirmations.

d. The Law of Attraction. Michael Losier's method is a series of positive statements and avoidance of negative statements. He immediately removes words like don't, can't and won't and replaces them with do, can and will. For instance, "Don't be late" is replaced with "be punctual." Michael also mentions a series of exercises to develop more clarity in goals. Instead of "I have perfect health" he encourages "I am progressing to better health." (I totally agree with Michael's progressive attitude.) Since many people have difficulty in figuring out what they want, Michael, suggests to first write down what you DO NOT want. Across from what you do not want (eg. Rude customers), write down what you want (eg. Happy customers). Then cross out what you did not want.

Other methods are in my book: Stomach Flattening. Don't just read about these tools. Take the 15 minutes to actually try them. These methods are pure gold when you get one of them to work for you. If you feel self conscious, just go to the local coffee shop or library and sit down with some paper and write away. Good luck.