The New York Times today has two articles on the difficulty of losing weight (makes sense, it being the first of January; time to make those resolutions!). The first is in the travel section and is about the Biggest Loser camp, the second is in the magazine and is called The Fat Trap. Each is interesting in its own way. The travel article is mostly about the physical set-up of a resort designed to take off pounds quickly with an enforced combination of diet and exercise.
The magazine article, though, is a fascinating piece about how those of us who are obese or overweight face a very difficult time overcoming our genetic tendency to being that way. Will power can only take us so far when it comes to facing the overwhelming power of our hormonal legacies. It describes a few people who have reduced their weight and kept it off for at least a year and the conclusion seems to be that one must be ever-vigilant to have any hope of success. They make it sound like a rather grim process. (Note, too, the before and after pictures of the one couple featured in this portion of the article: they look pretty happy in the photo when they are fat and fairly grim when thin. Hardly good promotion of the joyfulness of the process!)
I think that we must reframe the whole idea of being vigilant. Yes, this is a lifetime effort, just like being an alcoholic or, for that matter, diabetic or gluten-intolerant is a lifetime thing. But it's not a life sentence. It need not be such a downer or a downer at all. It need not even be a struggle. We have the power to take charge of our eating lives, but it's not will power, it's spiritual power that we need. I know this sounds rather woo-woo and precious, but it is borne out by the experience of countless people. What creates transformation is a transformative experience. But I think it's a mistake to think that such an experience is a sudden thing; for most of us it is an ongoing and growing belief that we can tap a power that has no source and no end, the power of our own unlimited potential to be awake.
This world of addiction, violence, despair, grasping and such things is a narrow, dark place in which we are constantly looking for something outside ourselves to fill the emptiness. Because it can't, we grasp for more to try even harder. The expansive, gigantic, free world exists in our hearts, not out there somewhere. It is available to us anytime and anywhere. We need no accessories to access it; we need not look good while doing it. We are all we need, all we are, right here and right now. It really is as simple as that.
The magazine article, though, is a fascinating piece about how those of us who are obese or overweight face a very difficult time overcoming our genetic tendency to being that way. Will power can only take us so far when it comes to facing the overwhelming power of our hormonal legacies. It describes a few people who have reduced their weight and kept it off for at least a year and the conclusion seems to be that one must be ever-vigilant to have any hope of success. They make it sound like a rather grim process. (Note, too, the before and after pictures of the one couple featured in this portion of the article: they look pretty happy in the photo when they are fat and fairly grim when thin. Hardly good promotion of the joyfulness of the process!)
I think that we must reframe the whole idea of being vigilant. Yes, this is a lifetime effort, just like being an alcoholic or, for that matter, diabetic or gluten-intolerant is a lifetime thing. But it's not a life sentence. It need not be such a downer or a downer at all. It need not even be a struggle. We have the power to take charge of our eating lives, but it's not will power, it's spiritual power that we need. I know this sounds rather woo-woo and precious, but it is borne out by the experience of countless people. What creates transformation is a transformative experience. But I think it's a mistake to think that such an experience is a sudden thing; for most of us it is an ongoing and growing belief that we can tap a power that has no source and no end, the power of our own unlimited potential to be awake.
This world of addiction, violence, despair, grasping and such things is a narrow, dark place in which we are constantly looking for something outside ourselves to fill the emptiness. Because it can't, we grasp for more to try even harder. The expansive, gigantic, free world exists in our hearts, not out there somewhere. It is available to us anytime and anywhere. We need no accessories to access it; we need not look good while doing it. We are all we need, all we are, right here and right now. It really is as simple as that.
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