The following is an excerpt from the "The Skinny Thinking Thought Diet" on-line course. If you would like to take the entire course, click here.
My name is Laura Katleman-Prue and for most of my life, I've had a really wacky relationship with food. I've tried and failed at most of the diets on the market, gained and lost hundreds of pound, kept four different sizes of clothing in my closet, and felt tremendous shame and sadness about my relationship with food and inability to keep my weight in line. Now, after following the inquiry process that I chronicled in Skinny Thinking and training myself to go on this same thought diet, I'm thin without worry or effort and I know I'll never gain the weight back. Why? Because I can't. I don't think about food anymore and if I don't think about it, I can't desire it and if I don't desire it, I won't eat too much of it, and I won't gain weight.
I really want to commend you for embarking on this journey with me. It is a courageous choice to change habits that have caused you to suffer. I call it the hero's journey. As you venture forth, you uplift yourself and everyone around you. It is a truly courageous and generous act to embrace your own growth and evolution. This thought diet is spiritual journey that will lead in the direction of true happiness and deeper into the cave of your own heart.
Without further ado, let's get started.
Here is the wonderful news I want to share with you! Yes, it is possible to be free from obsession with food and bodyweight! It is possible to live without worrying about what you will eat next, whether it will make you fat, or whether you'll have the willpower to eat in a way that keeps you from busting out of your jeans.
The subject of this course is seeing the whole truth about food and what's been going on in your relationship with it. No matter how long you've been struggling with food, you don't have to take your eating, weight, and body image issues to your grave. You can free yourself of them for good. All you have to do is follow the Five Steps by incorporating the daily five-minute exercises into your daily routine. How hard is it to find an extra five minutes a day? Aren't you worth it? You can do this!
The Ego and Essence in the Battle of the Bulge
The epic battle enacted under the guise of the battle of the bulge is the struggle between the ego, that negative chatterbox in our heads, and Essence, the spark of divinity within each of us. It's the suffering caused by this battle that moves us to break free from our unconscious patterns and conditioning and instead live in our natural state of Essence. In this state, we experience the peace and joy available in each moment and that can never be taken from us. This is the battle: resistance versus acceptance; the ego versus Essence; self-delusion versus the evolutionary impulse for Truth; the ego's small sliver of truth about food and the body rather than the whole picture.
The Villain
In our struggles with overweight, the ego in the form of the Relentless Critic is the judgmental voice inside our head, berating the way our body looks, telling us: "You're too fat." "Your legs are too skinny." "You're out of shape." "You'll never attract the kind of relationship you want unless you get into better shape."
When it comes to food, the ego, in the form of the Pleasure-Seeking Child, causes us to gain weight by telling us things like: "You've been working so hard and deserve a slice or two or three of cheesecake." "You should live a little and give yourself a treat." "Eating a bit more won't hurt even though you're already full." "You've had a lousy day, so why not make yourself feel better with a little Pleasure Food?" "Indulge now and worry about tomorrow, tomorrow."
Our Hero
Now that we've seen the villain in our story, it's time to meet our hero. Essence is our true self, what we were before we started listening to and believing in the ego. It's that internal place of calm and serenity that we've all visited in moments when the mind is quiet. Think back to a time when you've felt completely at peace. That delicious feeling is Essence. Even though we may not be aware of this consciously, each of us touches into it every day!
Connecting with Essence means entering the thought-free state. Although meditation is the most common way to move out of the mind, it can happen anywhere, anytime, as long as we're not caught up in thoughts or feelings. We can be noticing the clock on the wall, the leaf floating in the breeze, or our hand as we turn the page.
Any information that comes to us from the senses, unfiltered by thoughts, takes us to Essence. If we are to break the habit of listening to the negative mind, the habit that's responsible for our food issues, we have to cultivate a new habit of moving into the thought-free state, ideally for at least 10-15 minutes every day.
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