Before You Make A New Year's Resolution, Consider This

With New Year’s Eve quickly approaching, it is the time of “fresh starts” and “resolutions” leading many to consider starting a new diet. Every year, it begins the same way, weight slowly accumulating, leading up to holiday indulgence, creating a scenario where people overindulge under the pretense that come the new year, they are going to be on a diet anyway.  A great plan, except for the reality that few if any accomplish weight loss goals set for the New Year, and most diets will fail by the second week into 2014, indicating that the premise may have been flawed, to begin with.

The entire concept of a diet often ends up being an exercise in self-punishment, tinged with a lot of self-judgment, and criticism bound up in feelings of diminished self-worth, and a bit of regret.  That is not to say that people cannot lose weight by eating well, but if any aspect of this new plan has emotionally charged restrictions, negative self-talk, or judgmental self-evaluations the plan will eventually unravel.

Good new beginnings, which can last and grow, creating other new beginnings are best generated out of lots of love, some well-placed forgiveness, and compassionate understanding. Weight loss is no different. We gain weight because of a disconnection, it may be the result of ingesting too much food; although in my experience that is rarely the actual issue.  Sometimes the issue is one of food quality, and/or toxicity and damage to the endocrine system, and/or weight is gained as a protection from emotional insults both real and perceived.  In my experience, all of these factors play a part in almost every case of significant weight gain.  Continually trying to starve or restrict one's diet to solve an emotional problem, a toxicity problem, or one of poor food quality will have very little actual success over the long term.

No matter what the cause, to allow healing potential to enter our cells, we must first establish a tangible emotional connection to whatever system has been damaged/ignored.  In the simplest manner, this is accomplished by talking to the system/cell/issue, it may sound something like:  “hey, I don’t think I have been paying attention, I think much of my attention has been focused on how I don’t look like I want, or feel like I want, or all the things I have to get done and I don’t think I have ever stopped to think about the stress all of that plus the demands of my life have put on you” (to your cells.)

Now, you have opened the dialogue, in Qi Gong, we say, where your mind goes, your Qi goes, now, your Qi can orient its self on your cells, or your DNA, your muscles, on any part of your body you specifically talk to.  Once, there, try this exercise with a strong intent to begin to heal the rest of what is lodged there.

I love you

I am sorry

Please forgive me

Thank You

With each statement, honestly feel the emotion, and all possibilities within this realm, sorry for excess stress, for getting so easily angered by ridiculous drivers, by nasty emails, or difficult co-workers, for not resting when you knew it was needed, for not listening to a desire for more water, less fried food, more exercise, a deeper breath, or a day off.  And thank you for still persisting, despite all of the challenges, for allowing your body to move through each day, to experience life and for trying even when there was no reciprocal gratitude being expressed.

Beginning here, for any challenging relationships, those with ourselves or those with others creates a place from which tangible change can be experienced.  In this new year, as you consider things you would like to have a different experience of, give consideration and attention to them in a new way, beginning the conversation in a spirit of compassionate understanding, awareness, forgiveness, and gratitude.