Pods give us a place to organize, self-discipline, as well as to motivate. It is here, within their walls, that we clean & clear disorder & as well as bring in new choices. Pods save us decision making time & for most of us, that can mean a lot. Pods give the different areas of our life, including our goals a home, a place to live & to grow. Every goal has many parts & it's not uncommon for certain parts to have their own Pod homes. In the last blog/workshop I invited you into my breakfast Pod, one of the most important Pods on my path, for it was in this area of my life, that disorder disassembled the rest of my day, almost ruining my life.
In my own quest for balanced eating, I decided to build Pods for each meal, as well as for snacks. I also have specialty Pods for eating out in restaurants, as well as socializing around food. I have Pods for food shopping & food preparation. The reason I place so much focus on the habits surrounding my eating is because these very habits took me to the door of the killer diseases. While my habits are much better now, I still keep the Pods for motivation & self-direction. Their interior decor has changed over the years, but I still have some of the same pictures on the walls.
Pods are like little rooms or houses. They don't stay clean & orderly by themselves. This means "inner housework." Oh no...!! More self-work? Yes & why not? We're talking about your life, not just for today or tomorrow or until you fit into those jeans in your closet. That's not what this is about. The reality is that if you do not get your ducks in a row, you stand a very good chance, just like I did, of developing one of the killer diseases. And, if you are a parent, you are also responsible for your children's Pods. Trust me...I can read your mind. "My kids will never agree to this." "I can't do more than I'm doing." "I'll think about this, but this is not a good time to make changes." "I'm too stressed to address any of this."
Let's step back for a moment. If this is what you believe, then this is what you will receive. That would be fine if this were only about your jeans, but it is not. I'd like to suggest that you practice a little future-paced imaginology here. Relax & bring yourSelf inside your physician's office. The mood is a bit grim. You can feel it. You are being handed the results of some tests, either for yourSelf or a family member. The words you hear are somber."I wish I had better news for you. If only you had changed some of those things we talked about last year. It could have made all the difference, but now, there is nothing much that can be done." Now, bring yourSelf back to the present & take a relief breath. It's time to do some housework...
But first....NOTE TO NEW READERS:
This experiential blog/workshop is based on my new book, "How Many Cookies Will It Take to Make Me Happy?" If you are new to my writing, you might want to read the earlier mini-chapters. They are available on FaceBook, The PublishersMarketPlace & at the following link. Remember to scan down to find the earliest chapters & work your way up. http://beyonddisorderlyeating.blogspot.com/
A bit of background.... we are working with creative Interactive Self-Hypnosis imagery, planting suggestions directly into the creative subconscious mind as you read along. What appears like a story is a series of self-hypnotic sessions, designed to bring about desired lifestyle changes. The inner mind is creative & rather child-like, loving to play with images, especially when they are emotionalized. Just like the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words", well-planted mind images, can be worth hours of therapy. We can actually change or motivate in 1/200th of a second. So come along & look forward to some lifestyle-changing events.
PRIMARY OR DEEP DIRT
Anyone who ever cleaned house knows that there is a difference between deep dirt, surface dirt & clutter. When we enter a new Pod, we may be surprised to find out that it really isn't new. Take my breakfast Pod as an example. I've had breakfast habits from the time I was a child. If I look around, I can find all of them. My childhood breakfasts were about what my mother gave me to eat. I can still taste the hot, grainy cereal & looking forward to summer when the cherrios box would appear. In those years I deplored hot cereal. Eggs were for Sunday only.This had nothing to do with cholesterol, for no one ever thought about that in those years. Eggs were special & were always counted. It was in these years that I developed a deep love of cheerios & can still taste them, even though I haven't eaten them in decades. If my childSelf was to do the shopping, there would be several boxes in my cupboard....just so I wouldn't run out. I'd eat them for breakfast, for an afternoon snack & have a big bowl before going to sleep. This is an example of "primary or deep dirt." There is a rule in my breakfast Pod regarding cereal. The only one allowed is steel-cut or Irish oatmeal...it holds the blood sugar stable & is high in fiber.
I have plenty of "deep dirt" areas, much of it primary, meaning that it comes from way back in my life. Here's a glimpse at some of mine. Perhaps we share some of the same dirt. Donuts, especially jelly with powdered sugar, waffles, pancakes, chilled chocolate covered donuts & left over pizza. As I entered my teen years I started to skip breakfast & had a candy bar in the middle of the morning, preferably a frozen milky way that was a bit soft, but still cold. Notice how special some of these choices were. " These foods & I had & still have a special relationship. That's a part of the "deep dirt. As I entered college & nursing school, I still skipped breakfast but started drinking lots of black coffee. By lunch time I was a starving, jittery mess, but would only allow myself a small lunch, UNLESS I binged. That's another Pod history of "deep dirt."
SURFACE DIRT & CLUTTER
Lighter or surface dirt tends to appear when life is disorderly & lack of planning has slipped in the door. For example, if I ran out of my healthy breakfast choices, especially the steel oats. It takes a good half hour to cook them & if I'm not paying attention, I may run out. I certainly could substitute an egg or make a small omelet, but it's usually on those days that the "deep dirt" returns, suggesting that I just forget about breakfast & grab some coffee on the way to work. This is an example of how something so simple, yet so important can fall apart & how the subconscious mind can be pulled into the "dirt" by those pernicious emotions. Another kind of surface dirt that comes to bother me is a lack of appetite in the morning, especially if I've binged the night before. Now you can begin to see how everything is connected & how easy it can be to fall back into disorderly eating.
In the next blog I'll clean up some of these areas hypnotically, so you will get the idea.
( continued in next blog/workshop)
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Copyright 2009 Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
May not be copied or reproduced without permission of the author.
Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht is author of Sugar...the Hidden Eating Disorder & How to Lick It. She is also the writer/producer of over 350 mp3/CD programs in the areas of medicine, health, prevention, addictions, self-development & sports for adults & children.
http://www.hypnosis-audio.com
http://www.sugar-addiction.com
http://www.international-medical-health-writers.com
