Master Body-Mind Attention Shifting: to beat food cravings, impulsive shopping and become better communicator.

What if the fastest way to beat cravings, cool heated words, and stop impulse buys is as simple as changing what you pay attention to? In today's episode we explore a practical, science-informed method for redirecting focus and shifting body state so urges lose their grip and better choices get easier. Along the way, we share real examples from coaching and daily life that show how quickly a craving fades when you anchor your mind elsewhere. The same play...

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  Hello and welcome back to another episode of Change Wired Podcast. My name is Angela Shorina, I'm your host, I'm your partner in change and personal and collective transformation, your executive leadership, high performance coach, and just someone who is really passionate about unlocking more of our human potential. So we get to create amazing, mind-boggling, and world-changing things and live extraordinary lives. Today, guys, we are talking about, well, we are always talking about transformation and self-change, personal development, personal

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  growth. Today, you're gonna learn by the end of this podcast, one tool then you'll need to practice, which will allow you to solve problems like removing, reducing, eliminating cravings for unhealthy foods, or regretting less things that you say to other people, or making silly and not-so-smart business or work decisions, or saving money via avoiding impulse shopping. One tool, and it will help with all of this. And the good news, just like with any skill,

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  even if you're not that great at it, or not that great in some areas, but better than in, but better in others, you can train this skill, just like repetitions in the gym. You know, when you want to grow a bicep, you don't go to the gym, do one wrap, and then expect your bicep to grow. No, you do the wraps, and then, over time, when other conditions are met, like your nutrition, you grow your bicep. But the point is, nothing in this life, almost nothing, works one and done. You gotta put in consistent work and repetitions, especially when it comes to building your skills, mindset skills, or your physical skills, or your work skills.

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  So what is this tool? In one word, your attention. A little bit more explanation. Learning how to redirect your attention. So your cravings, your impulses, your urges don't control you, but you are more in control of them. And hey, guys, in this world, you can't control a lot of things, like other people, the weather, the economy, how your business is gonna go, or how your customers will react to your idea, how lucky you're gonna get. Like, a lot of things you just can't control. But one thing you can control and learn how to control better is your own attention.

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  And what is not in your control is what thoughts or emotions or urges and impulses come to you. But you are in control of how long you're gonna linger there and what you're gonna do based of that. So you are in control of that. So your attention. How this episode, the idea for this episode came to be? Yesterday, I went for our usual entrepreneurial hike in the mountains in Cape Town. Well, mountains may be a big word. It's more like climbing a small mountain, walking and scrambling a little bit. But anyhow, so the idea came to be on the way back. I was talking to a friend of mine

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  and he shared with me how he struggles with food cravings. Like, he has this great discipline of directing his focus, his attention to more helpful thoughts. But when it comes to physical sensations, which a craving for, let's say, a certain food, usually it's partially physical. A lot of it is physical. And then there is a psychological part that you experience as well. Like, you can't stop thinking of it or feeling a certain way.

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  He was saying that he don't seem to be able to control that until he satisfies the craving. And what was fascinating for me that he's really actually good at controlling his focus and attention in areas like not allowing negative thoughts or thoughts of self doubt to direct his actions or affect his state, his mood. But this area, he is not as skilled with his attention and that what fascinated me. And if you are struggling with a craving, you want to understand a couple of things. A, it is to a big degree physiological.

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  Especially strong cravings come from things like your blood sugar dysregularities. Like if your blood sugar goes up and goes down really rapidly, you start craving things, even though it's not like you are starving and your body fat is, you know, close to to zero or to a very small percentage. No, it's just your blood sugar goes back down and your body, because your brain, for example, depends on it and all of the other organs depend on your blood sugar a lot. Your body needs to bring it up. And what one of the surest ways to bring it up is to eat some food. And that's why you get those cravings.

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  And the more processed food, the more usually processed sugars and high and fast carbohydrates it has, the faster, the higher your blood sugar will go. And so if your brain knows, for example, that when you eat some sweets, your blood sugar goes up, then you're going to develop craving for that when your blood sugar goes down. The point of this, not for you to understand the whole process, I did nutrition certifications and learned and studied quite a lot about these processes. But the point is, you want to understand that a lot of this craving is this physiological process, which can be changed, satisfied in different ways.

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  And unless you are diabetic or have a certain condition, that blood sugar drop, A, it's temporal and B, nothing.

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  Fatal or serious gonna happen if you just sit there and wait it out. But of course, waiting it out is usually very difficult. And so what is actually a more effective way to use that craving until your body figures figures out a way to balance it out. Again, if you don't have any conditions like diabetes or something that can be dangerous to your life, your craving will go away and your body will stabilize your blood sugar. But it will need a little bit of time and your craving are usually very intense and very like demanding. You gotta satisfy it right now, right now. So the first thing, again, you want to understand it's physiological to a huge degree. And the second thing that you can change that physiology by different, by doing different things.

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  And not only that, by doing those things, you will also redirect your attention, your focus. And your craving, your impulse, your urge for anything is only as intense as you are focused on it. So when you are able to redirect your attention and by doing that, focusing on, doing that by focusing on something else, changing your physiology at the same time is the most powerful combination. Your craving will subside and also your body will stabilize whatever it needs to balance out. And all of a sudden, that craving will go lower and lower and lower until it doesn't

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  really have any power and like, yeah, you know, I can wait another day for that. So what is the solution here? The first, because it is physiological and also you, your attention is there, you ideally want to do a thing that's gonna change your physiology, your biochemistry, how your blood and everything and your blood pressure and heart rate work. So you wanna kind of change this up and then in a way that also shifts your attention. What can you do to do so? You can take a shower. Shower, I believe, is one of the most undervalued self-development or urge avoidance, impulse avoidance tools out there. And cold shower, yes.

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  You know, when, especially if you are not experienced with cold water, when you blast yourself with cold water, your focus and attention will and body chemistry will shift immediately. You're like, oh, my God. And you'll forget about your food craving right away, I can guarantee. But if you don't feel like necessarily blasting yourself with cold shower, maybe it's in the middle of the night and you wanna fall asleep. Hot shower will actually work as well. It will raise your body temperature. It will change your blood chemistry. It will shift how your body works at that moment, all the like different metabolic processes. And when you just get into that shower

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  and you pay attention to the swarms and your sensation of water running on your body, your focus, your attention will also start shifting. And you will notice that craving will start subsiding more and more and more. If you wanna amplify the effect of shifting your focus and attention, music, listen to the music, which actually also drives your brain. It makes your brain pay attention to the rhythm. It makes your brain follow the music, follow the lyrics, especially if you can chant it to yourself or start singing, not necessarily loud, if there is someone in your apartment. But taking a shower, closing your eyes, listening to the music, maybe even singing to yourself,

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  and you'll notice how your brain-body state will start shifting and your craving will subside. I don't know about you, but I had this experience so many times. You would sit there and thinking about this, I don't know, a piece of pastry, chocolate, a cookie or something. You're like, yeah, I really need it. And then something comes up in your work and you're like, oh, my God, I gotta solve it right now. And all of a sudden, you forget all about the cookies and everything and you're zoned in for the next couple of hours, solving this problem. It's like the hunger never happened, right?

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  And once you catch yourself in those moments, you realize, huh, that thing that I thought was so strong, that craving for a chocolate or a cookie, actually is just my attention. And once my attention shifts to something that feels more urgent and more important, that craving disappears because your body prioritizes your focus and attention where it seems to be most needed. And obviously, most of us are not dying of hunger. So solving the problem that can come up at work is more important where you have your social status and things really can turn out to be badly, right? Or you have to run out somewhere and solve a problem, I don't know, for your kid, your spouse, your coworker.

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  Like you forget about all that maybe till the end of the day and you don't have dinner and you don't even think about that because there are so many other things happening. So where your attention goes, your craving follows. And with the cravings, with the urges, with the impulses, all you have to do very often is find a way to switch your focus and attention that works for you. Some of the, well, maybe unconventional for you, but actually common ways that people like to distract themselves or shift their attention and focus is gaming. Like some online games, some mobile games have been used to help people to manage their weight, actually.

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  Like Candy Crush and, yeah, I think the name is sort of unfortunate. But it works. People would play a game and forget about food. Because what researchers learned is a lot of cravings for food is just your attention and your focus. And once you switch it to something that attracts your attention just as much, like some sort of game, you forget about food. And that is again, one of the most powerful tools to make yourself a more long-term thinking person, or someone who takes responsibility for taking more long-term decisions and actions. How it can help you to have better relationships, for example. When, have you had this experience ever?

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  When you were under emotions and you said something to a person, a person that you actually care about, and then you regretted it almost like a moment later, and you're like, I didn't mean that. And so shifting your focus, controlling your attention helps you to prevent those moments happening because you can be present in the moment and think about, ah, actually, I don't really care if I'm right or wrong, but I care more about saving or building a good relationship. And I care more about making this person feel good and building again, good relationship, being kind to each other than about this like argument or urge to be right.

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  And then you shift your attention to like, yeah, you know, this is more important, the relationship, the long-term outcome. And you shift your attention there and all of a sudden that urge to say certain things disappears. You know, like, yeah, I'll let it go. It doesn't matter that much as this more long-term outcome. How can you also use that for, to become more mindful shopper? I don't know if this ever happened to you as well, but very often I would go online and see something on Instagram or just online, maybe Amazon have put up some ads somewhere either, I don't know, in my email on some website. I'm like, yeah, I gotta have it.

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  And you start researching and you go on Amazon maybe, and all of a sudden this thing might feel like, or for me, this book or this supplement might feel, ah, I need to have it. How is it that I still don't have it? And it's almost impossible to stop yourself. But what I learned is that if I just let it sit there for an hour and I give myself this rule, well, you can have it, but you can look at it tomorrow. And even an hour passes by and all of a sudden like, what was, what was it? What was I thinking? I don't even freaking remember. And uh, forget about tomorrow, it just out of sight, out of mind, my attention, my focus shifts somewhere.

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  And I just avoided spending, I don't know, tw- twenty dollars, fifty dollars, but it all matters, you know, it all accumulates. And I'm like, yeah, I don't really need it. Or sometimes I go by the bakery and I'm like, yeah, it looks so delicious, I gotta have it. But then you start talking to someone or you listen to a podcast and you forget about that. I'm like, I'm so glad I didn't have it. Now I'm still staying with my long-term goals and I really don't care about that pastry beyond walking by it. So once you start realizing that most of your urges, most of your cravings, most of the impulses are strong only for that bit,

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  that moment, that minute or two, like, yeah, I can distract myself for a minute or two. And you gotta find your ways that truly distract you. Sometimes it happens naturally again, something urgent at work or with your family member or with your friend. But sometimes you gotta find those ways, like that shower, like dancing to the music, like going for a walk, like, you know, listening to an audiobook or a podcast or watching this entertain- entertaining video. Or yes, maybe playing Candy Crush, like for me, Duolingo is almost like Candy Crush. So whenever I need to distract myself, I just do Duolingo. A bonus is that I'm learning a new language, so win-win.

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  Instead of eating cookies that might not be a win-win, thinking long-term. So the point is, the shifting of your attention, you can learn how to do it better. Especially if you analyze the situations where you'd like to do better. You can try different things to shift this focus and attention. And very often, it's all that needed to, for you to start thinking more long-term and more for the things or actions that you are proud of. What else? What can help you to shift attentions? Attention, breathing. At some point, it helped me to stop emotional eating. I realized that I was eating out of stress. And breath work, actually, when you do it intentionally

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  and you notice that you are anxious or stressed or worried, you can just sit down. Or if you feel like you're craving food because you are stressed and you feel like I gotta have something to calm myself down, you can actually sit down and maybe even do it in the shower. And you can practice this breath work. I usually give myself eight repetitions of breath work. Four counts in, eight counts out. Four counts in, eight counts out. And I really focus, dial in on this breathing process. I put all of my attention there. Sometimes I also do hyperventilation, which is like

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  and then you breathe out. It's also called sometimes Wim Hof breathing, hyperventilation, like many different ways to call it. But breath work, also such a great state shifter and focus shifter. And the reason why it works so freaking well is because it changes your heart rate. Your heart rate follows your breathing, just like your breathing follows your heart rate the other way around. So when you control your breath rate, how fast, long and deep you breathe, your heart rate changes. Because of that, your hormonal balance changes as well. Things like cortisol and adrenaline might shift as well. Your blood sugar might and will shift to some degree as well.

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  And all of a sudden, physiologically, you start feeling differently. And all of a sudden, your emotions and your thoughts will also follow your body. You know, there is this great thing that I learned. And heard many times from Andrew Huberman, who says, if the problem is in the mind, the answer is often in the body. What it means is, if you can't or have difficulties shifting what's happening in your mind, like, for me personally, this period had been quite tough, tough for whichever reason. Emotions and thoughts, just a lot of self doubt. And I had to learn how to apply my own tools better to shift that.

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  Otherwise, my actions suffer and my life suffers because of that as well. So what I would do, I would, I know that breathing works. So I would just do it like some religious practice. Just breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. And then the hard moment passes and you keep doing what you planned to do in the first place. But anxiety came up and you're like, I don't wanna do it. I'm gonna look stupid or it will never work. Right? So breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. And then all of a sudden, you feel like doing what you need to do a lot more. So to sum up this episode, if you wanna be more mindful speaker

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  in your relationships, for example, or at work, not flipping out at people when problems arise or somebody does something wrong, but instead thinking more long term. Okay, long term, what I actually want from this relationship? What kind of vibe do I wanna have at work, right? So shifting your focus or your attention will help you that. It will help you to shop less impulsively and more mindfully by shifting your focus, your attention. If you're struggling with certain food patterns, eating patterns, like I did, like many people do in our environment, which screams at you, eat me, eat me, eat me. And all of that stuff that screams at you is not like apples or bananas.

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  It's all the crap that you don't wanna have in your body to feel and do your best.

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  So another again way to use to build up the skill is to start learning how to shift your physiology and your attention, your focus. Physiology, guys, why it's so also great to learn how to shift your physiological state or how your body feels, what's happening in your body, because your mind, your brain will follow your body no matter what. If you blast yourself with cold shower, your brain has to obey, to pay attention to what's happening. There is no way your brain will keep thinking about some cookie or pizza if you blast yourself with cold shower, especially if you're not used to that. Believe me, if you don't believe me, try it out.

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  The next time craving comes, get into the cold shower, you'll see. But just think about this idea that so often when you have a craving, an urge, an impulse to buy, to eat, to say that thing, if you just direct your attention and focus somewhere else, like something happens at work, or somebody calls your name, or is somewhere like in your house, for example, or you might intentionally start playing a game, or you dance or go for a walk, or whatever that might be, you shift your attention, you notice that, you know, I don't actually wanna do that thing, and that thing is silly, and I wanna do something else.

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  Practice this, and you'll notice how you become better and better and better. And by the way, just because you start getting better at one arena, let's say, less impulsive shopping, or less impulsive speaking, in a bad way, or less impulsive eating, once you get better in one, in one area, it's gonna be easier to become better in other area, but it's not always a guarantee that that will automatically happen. Very often, for each scenario, you will slightly have to tweak what you gotta do to solve that specific situation. To sum it up, and to give you an assignment.

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  Very often, all you have to do to deal better with cravings, with impulses, with urges is to change how your body feels and to change where your focus is. And some of the best tools combine shifting your body, your physiology with shifting your focus. Shower, hot or cold, dancing, music, playing mobile games. You can even look it up, Candy Crush for losing weight. Coding for some, something that really takes your attention away. Maybe listening to a book or podcast, breathing, watching some entertaining video, getting out there, going for a walk, going rollerblading, pick up a kettlebell in your house and do some swings.

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  So change your physiology, shift your thinking, and a lot of impulses and urges will completely disappear. Unless you're really starving and then you just need to eat some good food. Thank you, guys, for tuning in. Thank you for listening. I hope this episode was insightful and helpful. Please, if you do find it insightful and helpful and think that some of the people you know might find it useful as well, please do share. Also, rate, review on any platform you find this podcast. Share it with people so we all get better, closer to unlocking more and more of our potential. And till next time, keep learning, keep changing, keep growing.