Improvise

Light at Last - a blog about weight loss

Dorothy Rodwell, LMFT

July 26, 2015

Things come to my mind

As I swing higher and see

The joy in my life

Yes, it’s time to use the motion of the swing to make it easy to keep the body calm and the mind alert.  With that in place, now we can improvise and consider an entire new swing set.  Imagine a swing held up by birds flying through the air.  They are doing the heavy work and you just enjoy the flight swinging as much as you wish.  You can glide at times and work harder at times depending on the air currents and whatever you wish to pay attention to in the clouds or just seeing the vista below.

Is that appealing?  If there is a different swing set that you wish to build, now is the time to begin.  What wild animal, light, or star enables you to embrace the freedom and power of the swing and your body in the swing?  Take a bit of time to try on different ideas and choose the one that brings the most lightness to your body and mind.

Breathe that image into your body and feel it filling up your body with a sense of comfort. You may close your eyes and enjoy the feeling of moving toward that image.  As you do this notice that two things you have been wanting to do to achieve your weight loss come to mind.  Hold them up to the image one by one and notice that they are light and doable for a week.  At the end of a week you may notice how they worked and continue them or not.  That will be the time to add two more things to your enjoyment of eating in a way that satisfies the senses and allows any emotions to seek other ways of expressing themselves.  Eating for the body is our first task to begin as this allows the subtle signs of hunger and fullness to become more clear.  It may be that you wish to eat more slowly (add 50% more time  - if it took you 10 minutes to eat, then take 15 minutes now) and breathe more consciously.  Being on the swing makes it easy to think about those two behaviors as happening right now and realizing how just thinking of them is the task.  Once you have the thought, seeing yourself 5 pounds lighter on the way to 10 pounds lighter, hearing a friend commenting on how you are losing weight  and feeling really good as you notice how your clothes are loose, you have the power to enjoy the swing.

Keep the end in sight.  Consider eating each meal and how you feel and compare that to how you feel at the end when that is over and you see/feel results.  Yes, it may be just like those who exercise on days when they would rather not but they do it anyway.

Improvise – do things differently to suit where you are right now!  Using the power of the subconscious (emotional mind) offers a way to supercharge your efforts and get the results you seek.

Enjoy your new swing set. Be Light at Last.

Look Beyond The Obvious

Light at Last - a blog about weight loss

Dorothy Rodwell, LMFT

July 19, 2015

Knowing the future

Keeping the ending in sight

I am light at last

How long does change really take?  Yes, we can think that in order to set a weight loss goal and regime it will take lots of effort and a long time.  And we can also think that with a new paradigm of how to approach this lifelong relationship with food and ourselves it can naturally flow and it doesn’t matter how long it takes as there is no endpoint.

There are people who do not think about food as much as they focus on what is happening in their life that brings joy.  But food does bring me joy, you might say – and that would be true.  However the overweight, lumpy body, feeling bad pattern erodes that joy.  Let’s get rid of that endless loop and tune up the mind to reorganize in a way that leads to what we want.

How do we begin?  Let’s begin by talking about goals.  The idea of SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely) is one that we see a lot used a lot for weight loss. And yes, for the logical mind this is a valid way to set and get a goal.  And yet, for the emotional/intuitive mind this approach does not work so well. 

It’s all about using the type of planning process that works for you.  If the logical approach works, great.  If not, consider using a different way of planning to get started and then a hybid approach may be just fine. 

The emotional mind responds to stories, symbols and metaphors.  So, I see you eating out with friends and talking about how much you enjoy your new way of eating.  You are telling them how great you feel and how much energy you have.  Wow, if you had known you would feel this good, you would have done this a long time ago. Five pounds down on the way to ten. You feel light and enjoy a sense of well being in your body and mind. Each time you sit down to eat, you take a deep breath and enjoy the relaxation associated with really enjoying eating with all your senses.

 It was like when you learned to ride a bicycle and using training wheels.  There came a day when you got a bigger bicycle without those wheels. Wow, that was scary and you stayed with those training wheels.  And then one day, you decided to try that other bicycle and you learned to ride it within days.  After that, there was no turning back.

Swinging on the swing, you notice that there are times when you just want to float and do little except notice the sensation of being above the ground in the air supported safely.  Other times, you want to be active and see how high you can go.  Those are the times you pump your legs and move your body as leverage into the movement of the swing.  And then you glide for as long as you wish until the swing stops moving and it’s time to begin again.

Look Beyond the Obvious

Light at Last - a blog about weight loss

Dorothy Rodwell, LMFT

July 12, 2015

Holding things softly

Strengthens my ability

To caress my life

Try this.

 Hold a pen in one hand and a pencil in the other.  Feel how much they weigh.  Does one weigh more than the other?  (If they feel the same, find another pen or pencil that feels heavier or lighter).  Great!

Now press down tightly on both the pen and the pencil.  Which one feels heavier?  Press harder. Now which one feels heavier?  At this point folks tell me that they can’t tell the difference.  Why?  The action of using strength to press hard makes small distinctions impossible.

Look beyond the obvious

If you are like me, you have read many books and articles about weight loss and dieting.  And many of them have some appealing features and make some sense.  So why do they not work?  I want them to work.

I’m thinking that many of them can work just fine once we are tuned up to use them.  When our sympathetic nervous system is activated (fight or flight) our logical mind is less effective because our emotional mind is engaged.  Small details are not noticed at all.

Just trying to make sense of the contradictory and complex explanations of what is going on takes a lot of attention and focus.  And there we have it! Let’s release that urgency to understand and make something happen response in the body and instead strengthen the rest and digest part of the nervous system.

And now we can enjoy swinging even more as we notice every breath of air and our response to it! 

Imagine being in a swing and getting that push to get started! Be free..... 

Light at Last

Dorothy Rodwell, LMFT