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Familiar with the boiled frog syndrome?

This is how it goes. If you put a frog in a pot of hot water, it will swiftly jump out. The survival mechanism kicks right in and all systems get going.

On the other hand, if you put a frog in a pot of water and gently apply heat, the frog will stay. It will in fact start to enjoy the warmth. Mostly likely, it will feel very happy. Let it’s muscles relax. And by the time it begins to sense that the water is too hot for comfort, it is in such a state of beatific stupor, that it cannot muster enough muscle strength to jump out. So it just sits there and boils.

Now, why am I telling you this story? See any connections to addictions? It is the story of all addictions, is it not? Food, alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, shopping, TV, sports, workaholism — I could go on and on. What starts out as a good feeling slowly will traps us in, and unless we are alert, threatens our wellbeing (poor Tiger Woods, almost boiled that time).

So the question comes up as to how does one know whether one is headed towards boiling? There will be many sign posts along the way. Here is a quick checklist.

Is what I am doing numbing me out?
Is it dumbing me down?
Is it giving me less pleasure than I thought it would?
Is it getting to be boring and repititive?
Am I doing this more out of habit than from conscious desire?
Is it keeping me from doing something else I had in mind?
Do I use this to distract myself from what I think is a problem?

Of course this is not exhaustive, but you get the idea. It may take a little extra effort to jump out from the hot water once you realize you are in it. Better now than later. Now than not.

And sometimes one may need a helping hand to bring back that agility – a family member, a friend, a well-wisher, a truth-sayer, a helper, a coach or a counselor.

The instability around is symbolic of the water heating rapidly. It is shouting out “remain alert and agile”. Take a good look at your patterns and recognize the ones that are headed to boil. It is good to know that all problems have inherent within the solutions that we can grow from. Not growing is not an option.

So let’s not boil our frogs. Jump out to live another day in another place. Enjoy.

To reach for that helping hand, see my Mentorship Program

This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Energy Healing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.