Publisher: 1980-02-01 00:00:00
Published Date: February 1, 1980
Source: Rod & Staff
Copyright: © 1980 MSIA
From the February 1980 Rod & Staff:
The following information about “being overweight” was shared by J-R at a June 1979 training. We’d like to share it with you:
Let’s look for just a little while at the process of overweight and how that happens. When we latch on to something, we give it our energy and it then may have power over us. And its power is the energy we have given to it. Pain can work this way. Anxiety or tension come upon you and you tense up an area of the body probably unconsciously. Some time later, you become aware that your shoulder hurts or your neck hurts or your back hurts … and this could be minutes later, hours later, days later, or sometimes, years later. You become AWARE of the pain-and you give energy to it “Oh, God, my back hurts!” Once that awareness is upon you, it can be difficult not to give energy to that. There is a tendency to sit in it, focus on it, cause it to recycle on you.
Depression can work much the same way. You feel “depression” coming on; you know the feeling it’s real familiar. So you latch on to it and say, “Oh, darn, I really feel depressed.” And there it is.
Overweight works in a similar way. It’s blocked energy; it’s energy that we’ve somehow taken and latched on to and then for whatever reasons we’re not willing to let it go. The pattern might look like this: Here I am. I weigh about 170 pounds. I look in the mirror. I look pretty good. I feel pretty good. And then I have a disturbing thought “My girlfriend is going out with another guy that she likes better than me:’ I contract. That feels a little better because it feels less vulnerable. When I was little and I would contract, I would get fed. So that’s familiar. So I eat. I put on a little weight. The weight is extra energy. The extra energy makes it possible for me to more comfortably handle the negativity that I’m experiencing. So I feel okay about it.
Then a little while later, I look in the mirror and it’s 8 pretty noticeable that I’ve gained weight, so I think, “Oh, drat, I’m getting fat.” I contract, I eat, I add a little extra energy to handle the negativity, and I’m comfortable again. Until the next time I look in the mirror or have a painful thought.
I eat to stop the pain; I have the pain because I’m fat; the eating goes to weight, the weight to fat. I get heavier. So what happens is that I have more energy coming into me than I’m using. So in order to contain the energy that I won’t use, that I’m supressing, I have to have more body weight. And the cycle continues.
Another way to look at this is through the action of the basic self. When you take in more energy-in the way of food than you can use, you start increasing the heat in the body in the attempt to burn off the calories. That puts energy into the system, which, if it doesn’t get used becomes nervousness. So you become nervous; and then you eat something, which gives the basic self something to do. It has to get busy and get that food digested, so it’s busy and the apparent nervousness goes away. Temporarily.
These patterns are just automatic, simple-minded, physical processes. It isn’t something you have to understand. It’s the way it is. When you see yourself as overweight or you see someone else as overweight, is it something that you have to understand? You can tell at one glance that they are overweight and know that they are stuffing energy and having difficulty finding a way to keep their energy flows balanced. The power that holds the excess weight to you is the invisible power called your life. And you aren’t knowing that power directly. You don’t know what your life looks like. You know what your body looks like, but your life might look more like the air in the room-and what does that look like? It’s pretty much invisible. You know the power that is your life by how it is reflected back to you through other people and situations. And your willingness to participate in the power that is your life and the energy that you create in your life will determine whether or not you get stuck in “blocked” or “locked in” energy patterns.
There are times in your life when you have the chance to “unlock” the energy that has been blocked. If you are willing to go for that and to do that, you may find that you become involved in a cathartic type of experience for a short time (it may seem like an illness), and then, on the other side of that, you find a new freedom in your life. You may find great power to accomplish all sorts of things that have been on the “back burner” for years. You may suddenly find a burst of energy and enthusiasm to create all sorts of new things for yourself. The energy is flowing. You’re free. And generally this freedom will reflect in the body and you will find that your body becomes lighter: your movements become freer. You have more energy, are less tired and your joy becomes so much greater than you ever thought possible.
When these things break free for you, you would be wise to use the opportunity to really break yourself free and move to the greatest expression of that freedom possible. And to not look back to the past for your reference points. If you do stop and turn and look hack, you run the risk of bringing the “old” back to yourself. The old patterns are familiar and in many ways they are comfortable, especially to the basic self. So it’s easy to get caught up in those familiar patterns, even when you have stepped free of them. Once you’re free, keep moving forward. It will be your freedom. Freedom is maintained by eternal vigilance.