Abundance of anxiety-causing agents our perceptual hardware is simply not evolved to deal with, e.g. traffic, overpopulation and the media feeding you bad news every day.

Habitual, lifelong overstimulation of pleasure centres through the most basic meeting of Circuit I needs, e.g. eating rich, cooked, high-carb food instead of the bland raw fruit and vegetables and lean meats we are evolved to eat.

Meditation to clear the thought loop of craving. I.e. cravings are a lot easier to deal with IF you are not constantly thinking about them. If you can't control your own thoughts in this way, you need to build a regular meditation habit right now. The physical craving will still persist for a short time however.

Pranayama to deal with the cravings. Breathing itself also generates pleasure and the purpose of pranayama is to use breathing techniques to stimulate the pleasure centres so anxieties/cravings are reduced. This is an art that must be practised. The best way to do it can only be found by yourself through trial and error.

Stand up so spine is completely straight and lungs can fully flex, or sit down in any decent spine-straight position.

Cover right nostril with right thumb. Inhale slowly, filling the lungs all the way up. As you inhale, imagine energy flowing into your head and staying there. Put your head back slowly as you do this as though you are "drinking in the air". Your eyes should be closed and looking towards the centre of the forehead.

Cover left nostril with right forefinger. Exhale slowly, keeping eyes closed and looking towards the centre of your forehead. Imagine that the energy that moved into your head on the inhale gets trapped and stays in your head during the exhale

Repeat as necessary.

Healthy: Feeling enjoyably horny and wanting to mate with a partner is completely fine and is recommended for your emotional wellbeing.

Addictive: Wanting an orgasm "just for the chemical hit" or "because you are bored" or "because you are depressed and want cheering up" - these are addictive behaviours.

Healthy: Eating healthy food you are evolved to eat (guidelines: anything you could find on an African savannah when you are hungry .

(guidelines: anything you could find on an African savannah . Addictive: Eating high-stimulation foods (high carb or salt content) because they make you feel good, or comfort you. These are surefire addictive behaviours.

Healthy: Sleeping when you are tired and rising when you are refreshed.

Addictive: Sleeping in because you can't be bothered to get up, or don't want to face the day, or "because it feels so good".

Healthy: Daily social contact is recommended.

Addictive: Partying every night and sacrificing your sleep, money and health for the sake of excessive socializing.

Healthy: Enjoying your partner during your time with him/her and expressing affection genuinely, in the moment.

Addictive: Pining after them when they're not around, and allowing yourself to wallow in "missing them". Hollywood and society generally would have you believe this is a "beautiful thing". It's not. It's an addiction wreaking havoc on your Circuit I biosurvival meter. If you catch yourself doing this, breeeeeeeathe then change thought patterns immediately. This will be extremely beneficial for the relationship too since it reduces neediness.

Healthy: Enjoying your free time doing things you like.

Addictive: Using your hobbies as an excuse to procrastinate and put things off.

For a brief outline of the Eight Circuit Model, visit the following link: http://deoxy.org/8circuit.htm . For an in-depth look, read the book Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson.All addiction is a Circuit I phenomenon. Circuit I concerns consumption. The goal of all animal behaviours is the same: to move the Circuit I slider from 'Needing' at the bottom to 'Satisfied' at the top. Satisfaction is signalled to the animal by a sense of pleasure – the brain's pleasure centres are lit, and while they are lit, the brain's anxiety centres are dimmed. This also works vice versa. When the brain's anxiety centres are lit, they force a dimming of the pleasure centres. It is impossible to feel both pleasure and anxiety/fear/pain (they are all one) simultaneously. A trigger for the anxiety centres forces a state of withdrawal from the source of anxiety. At the same time, sustained pleasure forces a state of advance towards the pleasure source, or towards other pleasure sources. It is this latter mechanism that allows addictions to "link up" and reinforce one another.They are linked via a feedback loop that occurs during stimulation. Opioids and serotonin are released as part of the brain's immediate reward system. However, dopamine is also released to get you to seek MORE of the good thing you are experiencing. So eating turns into bingeing. Drugs which directly artificially raise dopamine levels, such as alcohol, coffee and cigarettes, are particularly potent at sustaining this dopamine-driven feedback loop of craving and bingeing.The problem in the developed world is twofold:Every time you do something to aid your own survival or reproduction, your pleasure centres will light in reward for the behaviour, and dopamine will be released to have you seek more. There is a major problem with this mechanism in the developed world.You are constantly shooting for a target JUST out of your reach. Hence addiction occurs across a broad range of fields, all connected with this Circuit I compulsion to hit a target that's set too high.Anyto do the following constitutes an addiction and should be considered for immediate removal:-Eating sugary foods-Eating complex carbohydrates such as bread, potatoes, pastry etc.-Craving salty foods-Smoking cigarettes-Drinking alcohol-Drinking caffeine-Taking drugs-Checking Facebook-Checking Personal Power Meditation-Pining for your lover-Pining for social contact-Pining for sex/orgasm-Masturbation for masturbation's sake-Needing social validation, and to be recognized as "okay"-Needing others to laugh at your jokes-Missing your family-Lusting for money or other symbols of biosurvival security-Gambling-Needing to listen to a specific song you have in your headAddictions are always felt in the stomach. That is no coincidence: the original Circuit I purpose was consumption – simply taking in enough nutrients to survive. Cravings for cigarettes are felt in the stomach. Anxiety for needing drugs is felt as a sinking sensation in the stomach. Pining for your lover is called being "lovesick". Missing your family is called being "homesick". If no one laughs at your jokes you get a sinking sensation in your stomach. Everything from the above list, if you suffer cravings for them, has at some point in your life been psychologically linked into your Circuit I biosurvival needs.The sinking sensation in your stomach is a signal to alert you that Circuit I needs are not being fulfilled, and anxiety has now been activated to get you to sort it out. Once you enter anxiety, your brain won't let you off the hook until some pleasure has occurred. Remember: Pleasure always soothes anxiety, and anxiety always causes the cessation of pleasure. The bigger the perceived threat to your biosurvival, the bigger the anxiety response, and the bigger the required pleasure hit to soothe it. The developed world has a PLETHORA of false and exaggerated biosurvival threat events that your outdated perceptual hardware is not equipped to process correctly. Traffic, overpopulation and the constant stream of bad news being beamed into your head by the media are just a few examples of these.It is no wonder that the West has so many smokers, alcoholics, obese people, sex and porn addicts and drug users. The pleasure hit required to alleviate this (constantly-triggered) anxiety response is big enough, and to compound the problem,The solution to all addictions is meditation plus pranayama breathing.I've chosen pranayama because a) It's effective and b) People generally tend to swap one addiction for another, e.g. smoking with eating or chewing gum. Therefore you are still a slave to the external stimulant. By using pranayama however we are making you self-sufficient. Pranayama is also completely healthy, since you are just inhaling air.So your 3-step programme for removing all addictions is as follows:1. Give upyour addictions simultaneously. Anything that causes compulsive behaviour (a feeling like you are not in control of yourself) and most things off the list above need to go. See the section "Moderation" below on what constitutes "compulsive behaviour".2. Move to a raw fruit and vegetable diet. Meat is allowed and will provide salt, which will drastically reduce cravings, since salt is something that strongly stimulates the pleasure centres. Carbs are out. Junk is out. You can have as much raw fruit and vegetables as you feel you need to satisfy hunger.3. During the first day, you will be overcome by hunger and other cravings. Every time you get this sensation of NEED (Circuit I), immediately clear the thought loop of the desired item from your mind using meditation (this should take a matter of seconds for an experienced meditator), THEN attend to stimulating the pleasure centres using pranayama. I don't care if this takes 10 minutes to fulfil a craving using breathing. It's better than being a slave to your addictions.My current pranayama method for dealing with cravings:This should feel really good. It will light up pleasure centres and cause cravings to subside. It may take 5 minutes of doing this. You might find it takes as little as 10 seconds however.Don't just try this once and decide it doesn't work. That is your addictions trying to change your behaviour. You need to practise this and find ways that work for YOU. Pranayama is an art not a science and must be tailored for the individual through trial and error. Do a search on YouTube to find other pranayama techniques if this one doesn't work for you.This section aims to help you separate "basic human need" from "addiction" so you can better understand how to manage stimulation. Remember: Habitual overstimulation always becomes an addiction.If there is a time when youwant to enjoy overindulgence, take my advice and pick a weekend, and overindulge for a whole 24 hours.Now watch how your cravings for MORE return the next day, and how long it takes you to get back to your good routine after a heavy blowout.Never on this board will you catch me say "DON'T DO THIS!" - I only offer warnings. If you do do overindulgent blowouts, expect your body to crave more stimulation the next day and for extreme diligence to be required to get yourself back on the good routine.By the end of the first day you should notice that your cravings have begun to subside. Your energy levels are now naturally high due to avoiding the "carb crash" (massive insulin release after meals) associated with the carb-laden Western diet. Your sleep will be easier, cleaner and more refreshing. The habit is a lot easier to continue the next day, as you will awake feeling refreshed and alert. This is due to removal of the sedation effects of insulin release following the constant intake of carbohydrate that makes up the standard Western diet. The first few days feel very similar to the first few days on an anti-depressant. Your mood will improve considerably as your body detoxes and rebalances.Within a week you will have lost around 7lbs (3kg) in weight. This trend will continue. The food you DO eat will begin to become as tasty as the high-stimulation foods you were on before as your body recalibrates to the new stimulation input levels.Energy levels and sex drive will be higher. Anxieties will be lower. Sex and eating food will be more satisfying since your pleasure threshold quickly gets lower due to the blander diet and reduced external stimulation.Eating high-stimulation foods once your body has adjusted to the low-stimulation diet will induce euphoria. It is at this point that you realize quite how addicted most people are to their high-stimulation foods.This diet and way of living makes exercise feel natural and enjoyable. You will have a "lighter step" about you when practising exercise and everything will flow more easily. Stamina will be increased, and weight loss will be rapid. Exercise also releases opioids such as endorphin which provide pleasure, therefore further reducing your cravings for external stimulation.Your natural tendency on this regimen will be to WANT to exercise. This is due to the removal of the sedative effects of insulin.Your thinking will be very clear on this regime, especially once the cravings have subsided. Addiction and anxiety tug on the awareness, so removing them frees up more mental resources for clarity and focus. Your meditation will benefit extremely from this regime.A year and a half ago, when I discovered this regimen, I ate nothing but raw fresh fruit and vegetables during the day, followed by an evening meal of something like a steak with some salad or vegetables. I allowed myself SOME carbs with the evening meal if I felt like it. I wasn't too strict. Even so, I lost 3 stone (42lbs, or 19kg) in the first 2 months.However I didn't deal with the cravings issue, as I didn't know about pranayama back then, and also didn't really understand how people in the West are simply addicted to everything. I carried on drinking and eventually abandoned the diet and put on about 14lbs again, and I managed to stay at that weight.Currently I am working on being more strict with this diet. I still intend to drink at weekends and have the occasional overindulgence. This wouldn't be Personal Power Meditation if we didn't enjoy the spoils of our efforts.However I understand the risks of falling off the wagon, and know how to get back on it.The main benefit I am currently seeing is reduced anxieties. This is because it takes less pleasure to "soothe" anxieties, since my pleasure threshold has been lowered. Combined with dealing with anxieties directly by changing the ways in which you think about them (which is a topic for a different post, and in fact most of the topics on this forum are about doing just that), this new regimen has led to a really happy, and simple life.