Thanks, Glaxony,
My imagination used to serve me up dire consequenses galore, once upon a time. I could easily have put on a hair shirt and marched about with signs saying, "Repent. The end of the world is near."
I didn't...but I did pay attention to the dates predicted! As they came and went, I was relieved, and began to realize there were other forces at work for betterment of life on this planet.
I was amazed to see that I CAN alter not only my own feelings of comfort, but, somehow, others'.
Simplicity is part of it. All the complicated things were confusing. You know that old phrase about 'splitting hairs', where a person goes ever deeper into 'reasons' and possibilities?
Well, it's true. I was doing it to clutch on to any straw that might save me from the whirlpool. Eventually I caught on to one good idea...fake it.
I wanted to lose weight. Some book had suggested 'visualization'. I figured that my body already knew how to be sixteen, though I was 46...so I fixed on a picture of myself at sixteen, tacked it to my bathroom mirror, bought a grain mill, threw out white flour and
White Sugar , and so on.
I also forgot to look at the picture, but my common sense told me that I didn't want to ACT like a sixteen-year-old, :D, just look like one.
I ignored all voices of doubt, even my own. I felt like I had stepped into a new and unexplored avenue.
W-e-e-ell, I can tell you...be careful what you wish for!!!
Every part of my life changed! Some important parts of it within days! AND I found I was NOT prepared to handle all of the differences...though I did manage to stay true to my principles. I began to learn, fast.
Do you know what was a very big deal to me? As the weight fell off, people in the street, who I knew as acquaintances, said 'Hello' to me first, BEFORE I said 'Hello' to them!
That might not mean much to most people, but it floored me. I hadn't realized how 'low' I had drifted...and others had unconsciously reacted to it.
That's when I began to recognize 'corks'.
Corks are the stoppers to the things we want to do...and they are everywhere. There's one out in my garage right now. It's a British India carpet we bought from a long-time friend and have used it well. BUT it is rolled and bent on top of half a garage full of 'stuff' which is piled to the rafters...all very nicely sorted and boxed, mind you, but that darn carpet is just too heavy for us, and it needs cleaning.
Until that 'cork' is pulled from the garage, there is no way we could even hope to get at or sell off the rest of our 'stuff'.
Do you see what I mean about 'corks'?
They can be anything that we 'allow' to get in our way...for sentimental reasons, or out of habit, or because we have mistakenly believed it to be important to our well-being.
...Like a rabbit's foot, or our 'lucky' shoes.
Commitment to a child IS important; a dislike of any green food is NOT.
What if you were never confused about your thinking? What if you 'allowed' that your best ideas would come to you at the exact moment you needed them?
What if a slower, gentler, supportive approach to body care is what is needed now?
I am in no position to judge what you or anyone should do, of course. I only know that, for me, doing only the 'same old' optionals, gets me only the 'same old' results.
There IS no question about the basics, however. There is no question about my commitment to my son, or his family, or the extended family I married, or to my dh. (He's a keeper.) Nothing I say or do or believe in should ever harm them in any way...that's a given, and my life's responsibility.
But the optionals, the stuff I 'could' change...well, that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish! And, 'can't' just doesn't come into it.
'Scuse me rambling, Glaxony. Sometimes I just gotta rattle on...see what it is I really think.
Do you know how important you are to folks around here? You'd blush!!!
My best,
Fledgling