The Gift of Letting go

“What we resist persists.” – Carl Jung

How is the “holiday season” treating you? Do you put a lot of emotional energy into it – either positive energy or negative energy? Either way, it is likely that what you experience is directly related to your expectations. Expectations are a vibration that draw the anticipated experience towards you. In this way, you seed the future.

Carl Jung’s quote is a snappy way of summing up this energetic principle: what we put our energy and our attention into is what we create and sustain.

This principle applies to our health journeys as well: if we put our energy and effort into “needing to control” what we eat and don’t eat, for example, we are affirming that there is a problem that needs to be managed. That thought-belief has an energy that makes the struggle self-perpetuating.

Taking the positive approach, where we are building health and resilience rather than putting effort into controlling our “bad” habits, eventually leads to the bad habits just falling away because we stopped putting energy into them.

Alignment of effort

Some of you may protest, “But if I don’t put effort into controlling what and how much I eat, I will go way overboard, I get out of control.”  I’ve been there, and there is some truth to that.

But what if you just re-framed the “controlling what you eat” to “feeding yourself well”? This subtle shift in energy – of identity – will lead to a different experience. Try pausing to feel-into each phrase and see how it feels energetically in your body. [Pro Tip: Every thought you have has a vibration, and those vibrations are sent out into your sphere creating the framework for your experiences; it is in this way that you are creating your future, your reality.]

Your shift from anticipating or expecting the need for control to anticipating or expecting a healthy, moderate eating plan – and all that plan will do for you physically, emotionally and psychologically -- will absolutely change your experience. It is a shift of identity from someone who needs to manage what they eat to someone who joyously, intuitively eats what will nourish their body.

Of course, if you identify with struggling with your weight, drinking too much, being someone who doesn’t exercise enough, then that is the reality you will experience and perpetuate. And this can be a sincere challenge for some; the struggle is all we’ve known. Identifying with the struggle is as much the habit that needs to shift as is snacking between meals or dessert after dinner.

How much energy do you inadvertently put into the struggle, into remaining the same? This principle is sometimes referred to as the Law of Reversed Effort and is something to consider if you’ve been stuck in the same place for a while.

The Law of Assumption

The idea of seeding your future with your thoughts and feelings is closely related to the Law of Assumption, whereby what you assume to be true will be. In this season, that might show up as the belief that "this is how we do Christmas," as if it were etched in stone. If you don't want to spend 3 months recovering from overdoing it this holiday season, then you can soften or change that assumption to something more health-supporting, like "we indulge, but not too much," or, "this season we're going to try some new recipes that are more healthful."

The gift of letting go

With the solstice and New Year approaching, it is an auspicious time for letting go of the old and embracing the new. And so this is the gift I’d like to give to you: the gift of letting go.

·       You have the creative power to become someone who doesn’t struggle with their weight or eating habits.

·       Use the affirmation: I used to be someone who struggled with their weight, but now I’m learning to love and nourish my body.

·       You have the creative power of identifying yourself as someone who is taking good care of themselves.

·       Use the affirmation: I am someone who takes care of themselves.

·       You have the creative power to shift from relying on willpower to someone who is genuinely disinterested in eating the things that don’t serve your health goals.

·       Use the affirmation: I am someone who is genuinely disinterested in eating sugar and flour products and drinking much alcohol.

If you’re ready to let go of habits that no longer serve you, all you have to do is decide to be someone different, and practice having the thoughts and beliefs of that new identity. Identity is causative.

Practice having new thoughts. Practice, practice, practice. When you find yourself saying something negative or limiting to yourself, say "that doesn't have to be true."

For behavior changes to to stick, it takes as much practice changing our thoughts and beliefs as it is to stick with changes to our eating regime.

Every day we practice being who we want to become.

Every day we let go of who we used to be.

A formula for success

Letting go (of our attachment to our habits, of who we used to be)
+ becoming (envisioning and feeling-into who and how we want to be)
= sustainable, lasting change.

And sustainable change has nothing to do with willpower, rather, it is about learning to discipline what you think and believe.

This solstice and holiday season, I invite you to take stock of what you are ready to let go of, and begin taking action (or continuing to take action) on who you are becoming.

May you experience the brightness, knowingness and beingness and that is your higher self.

To your health & well being,

Andrea