Slow it DOWN!

One of the things I've learned, over the course of my weight loss journey, is the need to SLOW THINGS DOWN.

In my HEAD. 

And yes, sometimes in my body as well. 

I do a lot of running around, trying to accomplish 'everything', my mind working continuously at 150 MPH, thinking of all the things I STILL have to do AFTER I've done whatever it is I'm doing....and my mind isn't on what I'm doing at that moment in time!

I'm either living in the past, reviewing old hurts or problems or resentments, fretting over them, maybe wishing I could or should have said or done something differently....(what a waste of time THAT is...what's done is done!)....OR

I'm living in the future, projecting what I'm going to do, why, how, etc.  What 'might' happen.  How to prevent whatever.  How to do things better.

Again, I'm NOT in the PRESENT MOMENT!

And then, the day feels like it 'got away from me'.  Because I wasn't LIVING it!  I was living in the past or the future instead.

When I concentrate on just BEING....remembering that I am a human BEing, not a human DOing....(one of my favorite sayings...)....and when I just 'let go and let God' sometimes, relaxing into the future, knowing things WILL work out, then I find I have all kinds of time to do the things I want to do.  Things that better myself.....things like exercise, or meditation, or deep breathing or stretching or reading or writing or whatever. 

Most of us compulsive eaters 'worry' ourselves to death.  We fret over what we said, how we said it, how someone else 'took' what we said, etc.

Instead of worrying, I'm learning to RELAX now, and slow things down.  Slow my MIND down from jumping to 16 conclusions and alway, always assuming I'm 'right'. 

The control freak in me is learning to accept NOT having control all the time.  And that's a good thing!  After all, while I can control the food I eat, I can't control EVERYTHING in life.  And sometimes, that's a good thing.

Whenever an event comes up....for instance, today is the 4th of July....I used to make up in my head exactly how the day 'had' to go, in order for me to have a good time.  I would do X, and others would do Y, and then this would happen, and that, and that.....for a 'perfect' day.

And you know what?  I was ALWAYS disappointed. 

Because we can't PREDICT life like that!  We can plan, sure....but we can't predict everything.  We especially can't predict the reactions other people will say or what they will do.  That's called freedom of choice, isn't it?  We can't 'make' people dance to our tune.

Once I learned to let GO of all that 'predicting' and 'controlling'....I found, to my amazement, the 'surprise' of life, of what happened on a daily basis, was a source of happiness for me!  Without establishing limits on what I could or could not do or say, and without predicting what others would do, I was pleasantly surprised at the nice things that happened, and I could handle the not-so-nice things. 

Slow down your thought process.  The next time you start fantasizing about a food or have a craving or whatever....STOP and think, and really slow everything down.  Chances are you are having a subconscious 'reaction' to something, automatically wanting to either 'fix' your hurt feelings or soothe yourself, or 'stuff' your own feelings down.  And neither choice is a good one.  Why not FACE life, instead?  What's the worst that could happen?

Meditation is an excellent tool to learn how to slow things down, as well.  I recently found a great cellphone app...it's called "Insight Timer", and it has timed, guided meditations that run anywhere from 5 minutes to 1/2 hour, that you can choose at will.  Pop your headphones in your ear, and sit quietly and listen.  It just may calm your entire spirit down a bit and enable you to say 'NO' to those foods that were calling you before.

...and it will give you the opportunity to just BE.  That's a beautiful thing!

Keep on keepin' on!

Linda
angiecat6@comcast.net