Will Positive Thinking Make You Thin?
There's an interesting section in the book The Secret called The Secret and Your Body. It takes a look at what Rhonda Byrne calls the Creative Process for people who are overweight. This repeats the idea in the DVD that if you think about something, you create more of it, therefore think about what you want, not what you don't want. If you want to lose weight, she suggests, let go of your limiting beliefs and believe that you can eat whatever you want and you'll always be the perfect weight.
Does the Woo Woo Factor Work?
Can you think yourself into a totally different physical state? There are stories of people with multiple personalities, where one personality is allergic to something and another isn't. I don't know if those are really true or not. And you can certainly think yourself into a different emotional state. But can you sit and believe hard enough to make yourself thin? Can you think yourself into a faster metabolism? Maybe it can be done. I haven't been able to yet. But here is what I have noticed.
Attention and Energy
If I spend all of my time thinking about my weight and food, especially if I'm not happy with either, I eat more. If I'm focused solely on my weight, it seems to stay there for me to keep an eye on. When I get involved with other stuff and eating and weight aren't at the top of my priority list, I generally drop back to my normal weight. My energy goes where my attention is. My mother had an annoying habit of saying to family members, "Stop thinking about yourself and go do something." Same thing. When it comes to weight, you'll still need to eat less and be more active, but when your attention shifts, you life will shift.
A Chocolate Ice Cream Cone Is Just a Chocolate Ice Cream Cone
Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer had an interesting conversation about a chocolate ice cream cone. How does someone perceive a chocolate (put in your favorite flavor) cone? To some people, the cone is the enemy. Temptation and calories all rolled into one. To others it's a trip down memory lane. To others it's a treat. If you take a step back, you will see that a chocolate ice cream cone is nothing more and nothing less than that – a chocolate ice cream cone.
Rhonda Byrne says that "it is your thought that food is responsible for putting on weight that actually has food put on weight." I'm going to suggest that your thoughts and emotions about food that help create your relationship with food and how you react around it. If you want to call those "fat thoughts" or "thin thoughts", go ahead. Your attention will affect your intention, and your actions will affect your results. Does that sound like Mike's formula?
Thoughts + Feelings + Actions = Results
