Monday night on Oprah's Life Class, her guest was Tony Robbins - a LONG time favorite of mine - I've been following him for years and years, and it was great to see him on television. The point of his seminar last night was "Letting go of your story." I've heard that seminar many times and have seen that concept dozens of times with dozens of different authors/presenters (reading, CDs on tape, web-seminars, etc.) but the point was underscored and took on a new meaning with the WW topic at the meeting last night, about Anchors.
It was a particularly poignant meeting - something unusual, but it was a small group, and almost everyone had something personal and meaningful to contribute. The question was posed - Looking back at challenges you have faced (not necessarily weight loss), what traits and beliefs have you found that you have about yourself that got you through the challenge. Thinking back to my challenge of coming through knee replacement surgery and recovery, and more recently, a challenge of getting several papers edited that I had promised within one week, I answered, "I have found that I am NOT lazy." Other people answered that they found out they are stronger than they had believed they were; were patient; have ability to gain new perspectives; can be creative; etc.
Then we discussed how these character traits can be applied to our weight loss journey, and why, if we believe these things about ourselves, why do we not think they apply to our weight loss journey. At that point the proverbial light bulb went on for me, and I realized that we were exactly talking about our stories and how, if we do not change our stories, we will never change our lives. In other words, I can say with certainty - I am not lazy... but why do I revert to an old story when it comes to dieting, and call myself lazy: I don't want to weigh, measure, track, exercise, plan meals, pay attention to portions, etc. Why, when it comes to other things do we KNOW that we are strong, creative, patient... but when it comes to weight loss we pull out our old stories and say: I am weak, I want to lose all the weight yesterday, I give up, I can't wrap my mind around planning and finding new ways to cook?
Why are we so resistant to letting the old stories go, and begin new ones with traits we KNOW we possess? The meeting went on to say how we need to attach these traits to "anchors" - a mantra, a physical thing like a charm, a gesture, a word - so that when we are about to stray from our weight loss programs, we "pull out" the anchor and right away call upon our new story that will get us through challenges that we may face.
Imagine today if you had no story - no history - who would you be? The fun part of this is that you CAN be whomever you want to be. I want to be someone who sticks with a weight-loss plan - both by monitoring the foods I eat and by moving my body. That's my new story, and I'm stickin' to it.
Miriam
You can do it, Miriam! Thanks for sharing this. Very powerful!
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Miriam! Don't know how I missed this as I usually check who has posted on their blogs. It's a bit like the beginning of the 100 Day Challenge when we wrote down what we did in the past and how we plan to do it differently this time - only this is even better as it's taking traits we've already proven we have! I need to ponder this and decide what traits I can bring to this journey. We are all survivors in different ways and for different reasons, right?
DeleteHope you're enjoying your weekend - is it a long one for you?