Many years ago I heard a wonderful story about a woman who wanted to lose some weight because it was making it difficult for her to create the life she really wanted. Now even though Louise wanted to lose the weight, she wasn’t able to stop eating some of the foods she knew were contributing to her weight problem, so she went to the doctor to see if he could assist her.
The doctor asked Louise to fill out a record of everything she had eaten in the last week. When he saw the record he said, “Here is your problem. You can’t possibly lose any weight eating a cheeseburger, French fries, and drinking a milkshake every day.” “Well, I know that’s the problem,” said Louise, “but even though I have really tried, I haven’t been able to give them up.” “I thought you might be able to help me figure out why.”
“Could you give up one small part of the meal?” “I think I could do that”, replied Louise.
So the first week Louise gave up the French fries. The second week she also gave up drinking a milkshake. The third week she gave up the cheese on the burger. Now the fourth week there was a problem. The doctor wanted her to give up the hamburger bun. Louise said she couldn’t, but she felt she could give up the burger. It was then that Louise realized that she had only had a craving for the hamburger bun. She had been eating all of the other stuff with her hamburger bun, because that’s what she’d been raised to do.
You can’t just order a hamburger bun. That was strange! It made her feel embarrassed, weird and out of place. So instead she let the opinions of others dictate her choices and in the process she couldn’t create the life she really wanted.
Have you ever let the beliefs and opinions of others dictate your choices? Are you currently holding onto behavior that is weighing you down and keeping you from creating the life you want? If you are, is there something that you could give up this week that could help pave the way to a life that is better suited for you? This step could be as simple as saying, “hold the mayo” or “no onion please”.
When we decide we want to bring about change, how can we know what is actually weighing us down or preventing us from creating the life we want? The gauges on the dashboard of our car let us know what is going on inside the engine of our car. The gauges on our body are our emotions. They are designed to let us know if a situation is good or not good for our biology. This information is critical to implementing change.
When a situation is not good for our biology, our system becomes stressed and our subconscious mind automatically takes over. The subconscious mind is where the beliefs and behavior patterns we acquired in the first 6 years of life are stored. If all of the beliefs and behavior you learned from your family are positive and supportive of the life you want to create then there isn’t any problem. On the other hand, if you acquired behavior or beliefs about yourself or the world that aren’t accurate for you, then they can hinder your ability to manifest the life you really want.
The story continues: Louise let go of the French fries, the milkshakes, the cheese, the lettuce, the tomato, the mayo and the burger and lived happily ever after with the one thing that gave her warmth, nourishment, and deep sense of her self.
With this in mind, I invite you to explore some of the FREE ICWIB art activities and videos, because they are a wonderful way to help you go of the ‘French fries’ and ‘milkshakes’ in your life.
Imagine for a moment how different the world would be if every man, woman, and child in the world was able to learn how to use the ICWIB activities to let go of what they no longer needed and create a more meaningful life. Maybe together we can make this change happen!
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