ANTIDOTES TO TOXIC BEHAVIOR: NOURISHING AND TOXIC RISK-TAKING

Resolutions and programs cut off the healthy self-regulating processes that are the essence of spontaneous, easy-flowing behavior. They smother spontaneity with deliberate, forced, premeditated behavior. Programming also cuts off the continuity of awareness and the feedback we normally use to regulate our ongoing behavior. It encourages us to ignore both our awareness of what we are experiencing and our awareness of how others are reacting to us.

Forced behavior and deliberateness usually turn other people off in intimate relating.

Enhancing nourishing behavior and avoiding toxic behavior is realistic only when there are reasonable options that do not involve excessively detrimental consequences. A university has real power over its students: A student must study if he is to achieve the goal for which he came to school in the first place. If he wants his degree, he must "jump the hurdles" even when he experiences them as time-wasting, boring, or otherwise toxic. He must comply with the curriculum set forth by the university in order to obtain his degree. The nourishing person, however, will try to select the program that offers the most satisfaction.

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