Here we are continuing from the last blog entry.
INNER MOTIVATION
As in all motivational work, read through the exercise and then close your eyes, reviewing what you just read as if a movie were playing on the movie screen right behind your closed eyes. Make certain you will not be disturbed as you read and work with these tools.
Waking up to your life path is good news. However some people do not see it this way. Usually this is because they do not have knowledge hooks or motivational containments. They awaken into a highly stressed time of life with no tools. This can be overwhelming and frightening. No one is born with life-management tools. Few notice they don't have them until a life path wake-up is experienced. People tend to dream-walk until they stub their toe or completely fall down. By reading this book you are awakening and hopefully you haven't stubbed too many toes.
Knowledge and understanding are keys to success. You will come to understand why you binge or have your other problems. You will be able to put down your fear in a containment. As you bring your problems to the light, you will see them clearly. The fog will lift. You will come to understand that managing your problems is not a curse, but a gift. The problem is waking you up. Your food and beverage changes will benefit you through the rest of your life. You will be your future experiences, moving away from medical complications into a healthy life.
Spend a moment imaging your binge, disorderly eating or addictions as a child wearing a tee shirt with it's name on the front. Pay attention, noticing it is only a child, and that you are an adult in charge of it. Locate your containments of knowledge that are growing as you read this material. Invite a sensation representing confidence to arise deeply inside yourself. Your subconscious mind knows where your confidence is located and will play it if you request it. Do so now right in eye view of your disorderly child, and notice it noticing you.
KNOWLEDGE HOOK
In school you began with ABC, and in this work you begin with basics as well. These become your touchstone. This is where you will return if you fall off course. In the next few chapters you will learn about food groups and what your cell managers need to run the cells of your body. Every cell in your body is an expert at what it does. Your heart cells know how to be heart cells. Liver cells follow their own job descriptions. If you were asked to step in and be a heart cell for a day you simply wouldn't have a clue. As we come to understand this rather child-like story, we can see the important reality underneath. We are totally responsible for what the cells receive in the way of nutrition and stress management. So, your job is quite simple. You need to provide that or else live with the negative outcomes that will eventually knock at your door.
You are learning to observe yourself in relation to food "as if" you were under your own microscope. You will get very good at self-observation and this will take you to safety, to higher health, as well as to optimum performance. Sometimes you will have to begin again, returning back to basics. This is not failure, but re-structuring. Whether you come back once, or a hundred times, this is where you come. It helps to know this. This way you won't be left wandering through life not knowing what to do or where to go. After all, you are only human!
Sugar and the body response to it, is the world’s most widespread addiction. This substance is everywhere and is socially accepted. Few people actually recognize the extent of their sugar addiction until becoming more aware of the moments surrounding their eating behaviors. The ability to see moments is key to successful addictions management, especially in relation to sugar as it is the underlying addiction to all addiction.
Managing sugar addiction and bingeing starts with preventive nutrition. It's important to remember that food and beverage are chemicals and react in the body as such. You have already read about your family medical and addictions history that affect your genetic wallpaper. How interesting that few people consider their food intake in relation to the workings of their body, much less their minds. What a gigantic mistake this is!
As strange as this sounds, food intake is seldom a consideration when stress management is needed. The food connection is also missed more than not in relation to addictions management. This is particularly unfortunate as proper nutritional management helps the addicted individual to get back into control. An important resource book on this subject that you might enjoy reading is "Seven Weeks to Sobriety: The Proven Program to Fight Alcoholism through Nutrition" by Joan Mathews Larson, Ph.D.
A visit to the local supermarket turns up tons of sugar choices for every age group. As you follow the exercises in this book, including the practice awareness shopping, you might be stunned by the sheer number of foods that boost sugar addiction. You may think that you are already aware, but hold that thought in abeyance until you complete the work presented here. For those of you who can't wait, a good eye opener is making a list of your favorite foods. If the title of this book appealed to you, I already know what's on your list!
Whether you are looking to improve health or obliterate an addiction, you must always begin your travels with what is placed in your mouth on a regular basis. As you work with the food logs presented in a later chapter you may get some big surprises. How quickly we tend to forget what enters our mouth! How unfortunate that in America our basic nutritional education is very limited, if present at all. This gives opportunity for food industry advertisers to position themselves as reliable sources of what we need to be eating. One doesn't have to look far to know that they are hardly a reliable source.
INNER MOTIVATION
When we find ourselves lost on a road and not knowing where to turn, it is comforting to have information. This book is designed like one of those road maps with lots of informational blocks surrounding the actual map. Relax deeply and see this image as it relates to your road map. You don't even need to close your eyes to do this work. You can image hypnotically with your eyes wide open. Of course if you want to shut them that is fine, but you don't have to. Return to the beginning of the last knowledge hook and re-read the paragraphs. After each paragraph see it as part of your road map. Just read and place the image. Each time you read a knowledge hook in this book, place it on your road map. These motivational areas surrounding your new knowledge will enhance each other. You are now in the process of powerful self-motivation.
KNOWLEDGE HOOK
Few people really know what it is like to feel 100% well. Most of the time when I ask patients when was the last time they really felt healthy, a look of surprise fills their face. The reason for this is that few people eat a well-balanced nutritional program for any length of time, or stay chemical free. Therefore they have not had the opportunity to notice the mind and body under those circumstances. Most people are completely unaware that they could be functioning on a much higher level; physically, mentally or emotionally. One important reason they may not be achieving these goals is that they are not aware, and not working on the nutritional aspects of their self-care program.
While this book is about disorderly eating, it is also about disease prevention. It’s about optimum functioning of both mind and body. Just through the reading, you are already employing powerful tools that slow your brain waves. You are releasing stress in this very moment. However, if your body is responding to food stress of any type, it is very difficult to achieve these results. Remember the mind and body are one. They are connected in every way. To function at a higher level, all cells must be cared for and kept in good physiological balance.
Most people don’t pay attention to what is going on in their body. They are disconnected unless a screamer appears. It is very unlikely a person will connect body sensations with foods they have eaten that particular day. If the change is rapid, such as a stomach ache, or intestinal upset, they may connect it, but if it presents with vague symptoms such as those accompanying tiredness, depression, anxiety, agitation, poor concentration, anger, moodiness, muscle cramping, headache, boredom, or insomnia, it is more than likely that they will place the blame on someone or something else, thereby missing the boat entirely. To complicate matters further, certain foods may cause reactions on one day, and not on another, making it more difficult to make that important connection.
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?" This book is not published as yet, but you have the opportunity to read it in it's unpublished state. 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.
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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