One thing for sure, maintaining a healthy weight means managing the multiple facets of compulsive, emotional & stress eating & for that one needs a high level of motivation. For me personally, I looked outside of mySelf for this motivation, often expecting someone to jump in & save me from my disorderly eating. But, since much of it was a secret, there was no one to jump in. For me, this was very frightening, because I was afraid of my own Self. I remember thinking, that if left alone, it would be possible for me to kill mySelf with food. One day I made a list of all the foods I would be willing to eat that day IF I were alone with no one to stop me. Reading that list was a very uncomfortable peak into my true addictive Self.
Now, I was taking a new approach & had commited myself to being on the Path. My old shoes were gone & I was breaking in the new ones, but even in the new shoes, I needed more than Knowledge to keep going forward, especially in the world in which I existed. I was very much alone with my changes & even if I wanted others to motivate me, few were up to that task as they were so unmotivated themselves. I came to realize that I lived in a world of disorderly eaters, even those who lived in denial, convincing themselves that they had healthy habits. Their focus was achieving & keeping a low scale weight, no matter what the price. I knew I would not walk that path again...ever.
So, what were my options to stay the course? Much has been written about "outer motivation", but little about "inner motivation." I remember wishing that I had a personal coach who would follow me around, whispering positive affirmations in my ear, as I walked through the many destructive triggers on my life path. I was immediately reminded that I was always looking for something more, while I already had everything I needed. I just needed to practice being awake & aware. We wake up through the desire to be awake & then learn to pay attention to our thoughts & the images that accompany them. We learn that thoughts & images can be changed. Images are small subconscious mind programs that when fused with high level emotions, become motivational catalysts.
In the last chapter I was delighted to be introduced to the image of the magical rock garden. There I was to communicate with my past Selves who were happy to re-introduce me to my past inner strengths & the power that I had available to me. I remember wondering if there were other areas on the Path that could provide the same & once again, before the question was formulated, the answer was presented to me. Just as I have past Selves, I also have a large array of future Selves, going right up to my most powerful future Self, the one at the extreme end of the path. This was my "end of life" Self who had all the answers, as well as all the plans leading up to the answers.
In the beginning, I was horrified with the idea of looking into my future, for getting old was not high on my list, but in this series of images, I was soon to experience some of my most powerful inner motivators. Let's review something first. There are two ways to motivate the Self....going towards something positive....or away from something negative. The latter is better known as fear motivation. In other words, "do as I say, or you will experience something very terrible...like death." I firmly believe that you get what you think about & so I was not a fan of fear-based motivation. I remained very curious about my future Selves, especially my oldest Self, wondering how any of them could possibly motivate me without using fear tactics.
As I began my journey into the imagery of my future Selves, I was already aware that there were very special tools for these inner creative beings. I'll take you into my experience in a moment, but before that...
A 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.
RESILIENT GIFTS FROM THE FUTURE SELVES
Regression & future pacing shouldn't be so mysterious. Each time we look at a photo album we become involved with our past Selves & each day we look in the mirror, visiting an older Self who yesterday existed as a future Self. We also talk about these future Selves, thinking how that ice cream will put weight on us. The results of that ice cream are being delivered to our future Selves & not just one of them, but many of them. The more deliveries, the more problems for our Selves down the Path. As I travel down my future Path, messages are delivered to me by the entities that exist there. Strangely enought, these messages are not the same ones that I hear in my consciousness. Instead, these are positive affirmations, accompanied by images on signposts. This is the beauty of practicing Interactive Self-Hypnosis or imaginology.
I can image my oldest Self who lives at the end of the Path, encouraging me to come forward. The fear I anticipated is magically removed, as I drift along, as if my feet weren't needed to move me. She is in the Light & I find her very loving, welcoming & without judgment. She has a sense of humor & I find mySelf smiling in her presence. She tells me that "everything turned out just perfectly." I had done a wonderful job in cleaning & clearing my life & had learned the most important life lesson, that I was in charge of my own life & therefore my own choices. Others were simply life students who shared life with me, but who were not "me", nor were they in charge of "me." As I became more self-responsible, bringing daily changes into my life, each of them became healthier. They then passed their health onto the next older Self. My Self of today actually "gifted" each of them. She asked me to look down the Path towards my today Self, so I could actually visualize the piles of gifts on the future Path. Some of these were healthy food baskets from each meal, exercise, stress managing with meditation & positive affirmations....so many gifts, all delivered by mySelf to these powerful women in my life. Becoming aware & realizing the impact of my daily actions would perform as rebound motivation, as each future Self responded back to me as each gift was received.
She touched my hand, allowing me to feel the collective energy of who I am & what I'm about.
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.
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