Taming the Thought Craving

On my research I stumbled upon this technique of Relabeling Thought Craving
so we don't have to solely rely on avoidance and willpower, here's a slice of it, the link is at the bottom of my post.

Combining mindfulness techniques of conscious awareness and cognitive behavior techniques of thought and behavioral change, the 4 Steps program is effective in helping you to realize 2 goals:

1. Overcoming immediate urges to engage in a destructive behavior
2. Retraining your brain through conscious awareness so that urges weaken and occur less frequently over time

The philosophy behind the program is that your mind and your brain are not the same. Your brain influences your thoughts (your mind) and through this it can influence behaviors (such as drinking, or gambling etc.).

However, the same process can occur in reverse – your mind can also influence and change your brain and in doing so can help keep you from behaviors you feel to be negative. Through directed, intentional and conscious thinking (mindfulness) you can retrain your brain to stop sending harmful messages to your mind.

• When your brain sends an urge message and you give into it – you strengthen the brain pattern
• When your brain sends an urge message and you fight it – you also strengthen that brain pattern
• But when your brain sends an urge message and you acknowledge it, recognize its true source and re-label it as a false and harmful message – you weaken the brain pattern

Over time, as you practice the 4 Steps and as you deal intentionally with urges, you break the power of these false messages from your brain.

Here’s how it works:

The 4 Steps to Breaking Free from Behavioral Addiction

1. Relabel
2. Reattribute
3. Refocus
4. Revalue

complete article:
http://www.choosehelp.com/topics/ad...-step-program-to-beating-behavioral-addiction