Self-Discovery and Self-Acceptance

Painful emotions can prevent us from being successful with our weight loss attempts.  Understanding those emotions and working through them can transform our lives in many ways but we have to be willing to learn and improve ourselves.  A gentleman called Jim Rohn stated, “I used to say, ‘I sure hope things will change’.  Then I learned that the only way things are going to change for me is when I change”.  We should all think of ourselves as a work in progress.  If whatever you are doing isn’t working for you then you must be flexible enough to change your plan of action.

Christopher Westera has written a wonderful article called “The Eight Emotional Transformation Recipe”.  He suggests that by following his 8 steps you will have greater clarity and an increase in consciousness that will help you to let go of painful emotions and give you the spirit of openness and acceptance:

1. Accept full responsibility for the emotion even if you don’t fully believe it right now you need to tell yourself, “I create my reality, and I am creating this emotion right now”.
2. Name the emotion by positively identifying feelings such as disappointment, shame, anxiety etc.  This will increase your awareness, clarity and consciousness.
3. Let go of the story – The story is whatever is outside yourself that caused the emotion.
4. Bless the emotion by accepting it as a necessary learning step in order to move on to the next step.
5. Feel the emotion physically in your body without judging or resistance.  Christopher Westera states that what you resist persists and that you need to become a kind of observer of your own processes.
6. Ask for clarity – In order to grow you need to ask yourself, “What do I need to learn from this emotion” and “What effective belief do I own that created this emotion?”
7. Identify the belief – At the root of nearly every painful emotion there is an ineffective belief.  For example, you may believe that you must make everyone happy, or that you can’t be loved if you are not perfect or you believe that you are simply not worth it.
8. Replace the belief – Replace the belief with a more effective belief by telling yourself that you choose to reject the ineffective belief and that you are replacing it with an empowering belief.

By following theses 8 steps, changes will occur that will lead you to self-acceptance and in turn greater success in your weight loss efforts.

George Eliot has a wonderful quote that states, “It is never too late to be what you might have been”.