The Power Within

Each week I meet some people who have no difficulty controlling their portions, and others who struggle because of fatigue, work stress, family stress or inner distress.

One inspiring story was that of a woman who suffered a major accident, leaving her in severe chronic pain, such that she is on an array of potent narcotic painkillers. At the same time she walks with a cane, so is unable to do much (if any) activity. In spite of this she succeeded in losing between 4 and 5 pounds this week. How was she able to do this when things such as her pain, medications and activity limitations weren't working in her favour?

It all comes down to the power or the mind. We have the ability to control how we think, and we have the power to exercise the mind. The action of the mind over the physical body is powerful, but we don't tap into it enough.

You are extremely powerful because your mind is extremely powerful. Your mind possesses innumerable powers that must be awakened if you want to access them. Through proper training of the mind, we can learn to harness its power so that it can continually move us in the direction of our goals or whatever purpose we want to develop in life.

Unfortunately, many of us give in to the ‘power of food' and don't practice developing a powerful, positive, success-oriented state of mind. We live in a continuous stream of disorganized, random and reactive thoughts. This leaves us in a constant state of stress, feeling overwhelmed and not in control. Worse, we feel chronically tired.

We have to be so careful of what we think because thought is energy. If we want to create opportunities of control over food and not succumb to life's stresses we must develop new habits of thinking. We have to build a dominant thought structure that will allow us to realize more of our ability to control our reactive feeling toward food.

Is it an excuse that a birthday party or barbeque threw you off your eating? Were you exercising the power of your mind at that moment? Were you thinking of the original goal you set for yourself of losing 20 pounds, or did you just react to the occasion and not think it through? We do have a choice; it is never an easy one, but success has never been described by anyone as easy.

Is snacking really a ‘thought-through' exercise or simply a reaction to the fatigue or the boredom that you might be feeling?

Put your powerful mind in gear (constantly, not just now and then) and remember what you want to achieve for yourself. You will feel so good when you don't give into the occasion or the emotion.

The woman that I mentioned above (in constant pain, on multiple medications, unable to exercise) was determined that she needed to lose weight and so she controlled her portions. She had every excuse to eat, but made a mindful decision not to.

You possess that same power of the mind. Do you give into the emotion of the moment and eat, or do you ‘switch-on' your determination to stay on track and not make excuses no matter what the situation or internal feeling that exists?

Success is determined by our habitual trend of thought. So which is the stronger in you: success thoughts or failure thoughts?

Keep trying. You can do it. Don't ever give up.

Dr. Doug