I learned about each of the four concepts in the acronym H.A.L.T. on their own… but together they are synergy and greatness.   Thank you so much to my dear Catalyst Camper who shared a game-changing acronym that was too good to not share.  It’s a known concept, though in smaller circles than I think it should be.

H.A.L.T.

These four words can change your life in a huge way!

I’m pretty sure most people don’t set out to sabotage themselves.

For me in the past self-sabotage has been a very unconscious and very instant and very righteous (!) reaction to anxious feelings I just can’t handle and I can’t find the cause. Instead, I had a teenage life where I’ve lost jobs, created strife in relationships and  made my own life smaller to satisfy this anxiety.

Have you? 

I’ve even, at times, come up with conclusive theories that maybe the world wasn’t a supportive place for me.  You know how it goes… when you keep running into similar annoying, painful problems it’s tempting to think “it’s just the way it is.”

It isn’t though.  It isn’t just the way it is.

H.A.L.T.

Hungry.  Angry. Lonely. Tired.

These four states of being can show up in cravings to be destructive to satisfy anxiety.  Addicts seek a drink or drugs to push down feelings.  Even non-addicts do it!  Smokers smoke more.  Love addicts find people to escape from life with…

Are you grasping at straws and having irrational reactions, lashing out or otherwise losing your cool in ways that don’t feel good? 

Catastrophic emotional reactions can show up in this H.A.L.T. state.  Like the time I didn’t sleep and stormed out of a job.  Or the angry, sick ex-boyfriend of mine who, in a split second, crashed our whole relationship with a massive over-reaction that he described as having gripped him in immobilizing anxiety…. and later, he regretted it deeply.  It’s the way that a bad date or a breakup can wind up in a bottle of wine that makes things worse…

Trying to immediately fix irrational anxiety we can destroy ourselves in a viscous cycle that can be quite easily short-circuited.

H.A.L.T. is an awesome word because it literally means “stop” and the process of putting H.A.L.T. into action is super simple:

1. Stop whatever you’re doing or thinking or about to launch out as anger or frustration or self-destruction.
2. As yourself: am I hungry, angry, lonely or tired? 
3. Take care of what’s really wrong.  (*I am typically both hungry and tired)
4. Go back to your day…!

Think of all the needless conflict you can avoid by just taking first step and breathing instead of reacting!

I’ve been in situations with healers and self-help training where you are not allowed to attend if you don’t eat and sleep properly and drink enough water (and, sometimes even take vitamins) because without these things in place we open ourselves up to all kinds of irrational emotions that defeat our self-examining purpose.

Did you eat enough today? Did you sleep enough? These things are easy to fix.

Are you lonely? Are you angry?  These are seemingly bigger ideas, but they’re all perspective. It’s when I hit my journal and write like crazy.  It’s when I reach for my phone and call my closest friends.  It’s when I see how I’ve been acting and see how I’ve created my present state…

H.A.L.T. can be an amazing filter.  It can save you and your loved-ones from chaos and strife.  It can end self-destruction.  And it leaves you feeling truly fantastic.

xoxo Dana

P.S.: It’s on for just one more day!!! The Catalyst Camp is coming soon for the New Year!!! Get ready to open up your life to the new like never before! It’s 8 weeks of de-cluttering and supercharging life in radical ways.  & you can start the FREE decluttering videos soon right HERE!

xoxo!!!