Evolving Solutions for Weight Control

Since Spirituality & Health featured what’s called the “Solution” almost 10 years ago (see “That Insatiable Craving,” S&H Spring 1999 at spiritualityhealth.com), the method for solving stress-related problems like overeating has evolved. Why? Neuroscience now suggests that the most effective treatment for stress is joy.

The new Solution follows two tenets of neuroplasticity. The first is that neurons that “fire together, wire together” and create neural circuits. Each experience — each episode of stress, for example — fires neural circuits that reinforce stress. With enough repetitions, feeling anxious, depressed, and hungry becomes our natural state.

Fortunately, neurons that “fire apart, wire apart.” The more often that the neural circuits which activate a

feeling of joy are fired, the weaker those circuits that create the opposite — stress — become. So habitual joy breaks the neural stress circuits.

Now Solution participants learn to check in with themselves throughout the day and assess their stress level using a 5-point scale:

1    =    Balanced and Rewarded
2    =    Balanced
3    =    Verge of Stress Response
4    =    Stressed
5    =    Full-Blown Stress Response

Once they know their number, they can reach for a specific tool or practice to move closer to 1. For example, try the following practice when you’re at 3 (on the verge of a stress response). To move toward 1, simply complete these sentences:

I feel angry that . . .
I feel sad that . . .
I feel afraid that . . .
I feel guilty that . . .
I feel grateful that . . .
I feel happy that . . .
I feel secure that . . .
I feel proud that . . .

Over time, this practice can rewire your brain and change your happiness set point.  For research on the new system of rewiring the brain, go to www.solutionmethod.org.

Laurel Mellin is an associate clinical professor of Family and Community Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.