✨A close friend, as we were about to have dinner together the other day, announced that they had embarked on a new lifestyle by making significant changes to their diet. They had started being far more conscious about what they feed to their body. And this already had resulted in the recent shedding of 4 kg of excess body weight only in a couple of weeks, despite the weight loss not being the ultimate goal.
Learning about this lifestyle change made me so happy! My friend was glowing.
✨Everytime I get news of such conscious shifts from loved ones, on the outside I smile and say something along the lines of “Wow, this sounds great! I want to hear all about it!” and on the inside I go “Yes! Welcome to the club! Congratulations on the first step in taking charge of your health and wellbeing in the way we all should be!”
My friend was then telling me about all the things they used to eat and drink that were now gone either from their life forever, or would be consumed in strict moderation- only as an occasional treat.
Oftentimes in these conversations, particularly with regards to changes around nutrition I will be asked: Do you think I will be able to keep to it?
My answer is always the same: You are currently doing great. Acknowledge and celebrate you have taken the steps and made the changes.
You will keep to your new lifestyle only if this change is stemmed from beyond an ego-personality level. If this was a decision to satisfy your ego, the answer is “No."
You won’t be able to keep to it.
However, if this change is coming about from your ‘whole’ being, then “Yes!”
You will keep to it. Because the shift is coming from within- not without. There might have been an outside trigger, but on the inside you were ready and aligned. And you will sustain your new lifestyle.
✨When your whole being- body, mind, soul is ready to make the change, change is instantaneous and irreversible.
Below are some personal examples:
September 2016: One evening as I was trying to watch (with no joy) a popular (!) tv show with others, I heard a character making a reference to animal cruelty. I felt so sad that I became vegetarian. There and then.
February 2017: While having Sunday brunch at a local cafe, I realised vegetarianism was not giving me the inner peace I thought it would and I switched to veganism. I knew no one who was plant-based and I did not know how I would adapt to it. I did not care. I was going to find a way. The inner-peace I felt was immediate. I have been plant-based since then.
June 2022: I decided I was going to bring ‘swimming’ into my weekly physical activity routine- and ‘in all seasons’, even in the cold and dark of January, when remaining in a warm bed for an extra half an hour in the morning feels far more attractive than plunging in the rather cold pool water at the gym. This has been such a beneficial wellbeing decision as water relaxes me and activates my creativity like nothing else. Never looked back.
August 2022: Completely stopped alcohol after a discussion during a Reiki class on effects alcohol has on our energy bodies (as well as the negative impact on our physical body which we all know about).
🌞If 10 years ago someone told me I was going to stop eating cheese and eggs for good, I would laugh hard with disbelief and add “Even if I wanted to, which I don’t, I could never do that!”...
🌞If I was told a couple of years ago that I would not want to have wine or champagne again, and not even a cold beer on a hot summer’s day, I would not even take the concept seriously…
🌞Nobody could ever convince me to swim in the winter, in the cold- let alone a couple of times in the week. No way…
🌞I thought I could never ever let go of photographs, presents, belongings of dearest loved ones. Ever. But I did… One item at a time. Because that was the healthy thing to do. Even if the memories of the people I loved felt good, the attachment to these things didn’t.
And I don’t even miss or think about any of the things above. Not a single bit. It is crazy -right? Going from “ There is no way I can live without this." to "Wow! Living without it actually feels quite good.”
The moment the things that need to be released are released, other wonderful things come in. As in: Out “alcohol”, in “swimming”.
✨Once your whole being- body, mind, soul agrees with the change, when the change you would like to make is fully value-aligned, it will be easy.
It might happen in time or in a single moment. But it won’t be hard. Not at all.
If it feels hard, you are not there yet. But you know you can get there and you will.
And there is the ‘letting go’ of all sorts of relationships- being totally detached from people while still being able to have unconditional love for them. But that is another blog post :)
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