HALT Revisited
I have previously written about my respect and appreciation for the 12 step recovery programs. Both the steps and the many recommendations for emotional and spiritual health can benefit everyone. Some of us are blessed to not have immediate life threatening addictive illness, but everyone I know, including me, can benefit from the practices and principles of the program. As we know, of course, the same wisdom is contained in the teachings of Jesus, Buddha and others. The 12-step program, however, probably has the clearest, easiest to use, program for daily addressing spiritual growth.
I recently completed a drive from Dunedin, Florida to Wheeling, West Virginia where I formerly lived and worked. I am in the process of moving back to Wheeling. The process of selling my villa, looking for new place in Wheeling, dealing with moving companies and all the other details connected with moving many miles has provided me with many reminders of the challenge of serenity and spiritual growth – or lack thereof. I noticed myself:
Be far, however, the principle which I most noticed was that of HALT- hungry, angry, lonely, tired. I was reminded time and time again that when my normal schedule for rest, nutritional intake, sleep, physical exercise and daily spiritual practice is interrupted for any amount of time I first get grumpy and then mean-spirited and angry. It is not pretty. I was particularly aware of this on the second day of driving towards the end of the trip. The trip had been long but overall had gone well. My trusty friend, the voice of the woman on my built in GPS had guided me away from the approaching tropical storms and the worst of the construction traffic. I had taken breaks and checked in with friends via phone and the internet. The list of blessings could easily have filled up several pages. Yet, I noticed myself making a mental list of all the people who had not performed their job to my satisfaction over the past year or so. The list may have covered more pages than the list of blessings. Public service people, managers of business enterprises, politicians, clergy, and others had not done what any healthy, competent person would have done.
“Ahh”, I said to myself. “Isn’t this interesting.” My brain is searching for ways to complain and to put emotional distance between me and others. Although it took me a few minutes of this misery to realize that I needed to push the HALT memory button. When one is emotionally, physically and spiritually tired and when one is simultaneously withholding healthy food and exercise the brain is overloaded and cannot see colors (positives). It searches for reasons to distance oneself from people and responsibilities. The loneliness and angry are actually symptoms of the HT. The anger is a response to the empty internal gas tanks. The loneliness is a result of the anger which has been pushing away potentially supported people. Strictly speaking the process is really: HT=A = L. HALT, however, is catchy and easy to remember acronym. It works even if it may not accurately reflect the sequence of events.
The magic of HALT or HT=A= L is that it an easy way to remind oneself that the brain is not working on all cylinders and one is going to have to switch to manual to correct its flawed perceptions and conclusions. When one regularly works the steps of spiritual growth and remind oneself of the principles of spiritual growth one will begin to notice when the brain is out of gas and one cannot trust or reinforce its perceptions. Then one can follow the recommendations of the Buddhist nun, Pema Chodron and other teachers to not feed the negative thoughts. One just non-judgmentally notices the thought. One might say to oneself, “Isn’t that interesting.” Then one might remind oneself to breath.
If one goggles eomega.org and then looks for an article by Pema Chodron entitled “Life without the story line” one can read the following:
“The propensity to feel sorry for ourselves, the propensity to be jealous, the propensity to get angry—our habitual, all-too-familiar emotional responses are like seeds that we just keep watering and nurturing. But every time we pause and stay present with the underlying energy, we stop reinforcing these propensities and begin to open ourselves to refreshingly new possibilities.”
Whether we think of it as not feeding and nurturing the negative thoughts, dropping the story line, or just noticing without comment the goal is realizing, without judgement that the thoughts are at best incomplete and, at worse, lies.
Just as our car will not function without gas and the house will not heat or cool without a source of energy, our marvelously designed physical body will not function with the various physical, nutritional, emotional and spiritual fuels. Conditions such as illness also will not allow it to function well.
Today I can be grateful for the frequent symptoms of my need to take care of myself if I want to be the best I can be. Although the symptoms might not feel like gifts at the time in truth I need these reminders lest I feed the judgmental thoughts and become arrogant and self- righteous.
Written September 2, 2016.
I have previously written about my respect and appreciation for the 12 step recovery programs. Both the steps and the many recommendations for emotional and spiritual health can benefit everyone. Some of us are blessed to not have immediate life threatening addictive illness, but everyone I know, including me, can benefit from the practices and principles of the program. As we know, of course, the same wisdom is contained in the teachings of Jesus, Buddha and others. The 12-step program, however, probably has the clearest, easiest to use, program for daily addressing spiritual growth.
I recently completed a drive from Dunedin, Florida to Wheeling, West Virginia where I formerly lived and worked. I am in the process of moving back to Wheeling. The process of selling my villa, looking for new place in Wheeling, dealing with moving companies and all the other details connected with moving many miles has provided me with many reminders of the challenge of serenity and spiritual growth – or lack thereof. I noticed myself:
- Frustrated with the fact that I could not control over people, places and things.
- Devoid of any faith that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity
- Only capable of turning my will over the care of God as I understand him/her for a fraction of a second.
- Frequently able to realize that I was again wanting to be in charge of other people, places and things and having judgmental thoughts when I could not.
Be far, however, the principle which I most noticed was that of HALT- hungry, angry, lonely, tired. I was reminded time and time again that when my normal schedule for rest, nutritional intake, sleep, physical exercise and daily spiritual practice is interrupted for any amount of time I first get grumpy and then mean-spirited and angry. It is not pretty. I was particularly aware of this on the second day of driving towards the end of the trip. The trip had been long but overall had gone well. My trusty friend, the voice of the woman on my built in GPS had guided me away from the approaching tropical storms and the worst of the construction traffic. I had taken breaks and checked in with friends via phone and the internet. The list of blessings could easily have filled up several pages. Yet, I noticed myself making a mental list of all the people who had not performed their job to my satisfaction over the past year or so. The list may have covered more pages than the list of blessings. Public service people, managers of business enterprises, politicians, clergy, and others had not done what any healthy, competent person would have done.
“Ahh”, I said to myself. “Isn’t this interesting.” My brain is searching for ways to complain and to put emotional distance between me and others. Although it took me a few minutes of this misery to realize that I needed to push the HALT memory button. When one is emotionally, physically and spiritually tired and when one is simultaneously withholding healthy food and exercise the brain is overloaded and cannot see colors (positives). It searches for reasons to distance oneself from people and responsibilities. The loneliness and angry are actually symptoms of the HT. The anger is a response to the empty internal gas tanks. The loneliness is a result of the anger which has been pushing away potentially supported people. Strictly speaking the process is really: HT=A = L. HALT, however, is catchy and easy to remember acronym. It works even if it may not accurately reflect the sequence of events.
The magic of HALT or HT=A= L is that it an easy way to remind oneself that the brain is not working on all cylinders and one is going to have to switch to manual to correct its flawed perceptions and conclusions. When one regularly works the steps of spiritual growth and remind oneself of the principles of spiritual growth one will begin to notice when the brain is out of gas and one cannot trust or reinforce its perceptions. Then one can follow the recommendations of the Buddhist nun, Pema Chodron and other teachers to not feed the negative thoughts. One just non-judgmentally notices the thought. One might say to oneself, “Isn’t that interesting.” Then one might remind oneself to breath.
If one goggles eomega.org and then looks for an article by Pema Chodron entitled “Life without the story line” one can read the following:
“The propensity to feel sorry for ourselves, the propensity to be jealous, the propensity to get angry—our habitual, all-too-familiar emotional responses are like seeds that we just keep watering and nurturing. But every time we pause and stay present with the underlying energy, we stop reinforcing these propensities and begin to open ourselves to refreshingly new possibilities.”
Whether we think of it as not feeding and nurturing the negative thoughts, dropping the story line, or just noticing without comment the goal is realizing, without judgement that the thoughts are at best incomplete and, at worse, lies.
Just as our car will not function without gas and the house will not heat or cool without a source of energy, our marvelously designed physical body will not function with the various physical, nutritional, emotional and spiritual fuels. Conditions such as illness also will not allow it to function well.
Today I can be grateful for the frequent symptoms of my need to take care of myself if I want to be the best I can be. Although the symptoms might not feel like gifts at the time in truth I need these reminders lest I feed the judgmental thoughts and become arrogant and self- righteous.
Written September 2, 2016.
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