Living Lighter

June 19, 2019

There are often underlying psychological barriers that can prevent us from achieving long-term weight loss. Sometimes, we feel emotionally or spiritually hungry when physically our body is full, and those hunger pangs feel very real. For example, one day I was at the airport, and I felt like I wanted to eat something. I knew I wasn’t hungry, because, after a weekend of celebrating my younger relative’s high school graduation, I felt uncomfortably full. And yet, make no mistake, I really wanted to eat.

I set my mind to figure out why I felt this hunger. Since eating is a physical activity, I decided to approach the problem from the physical dimension. What exactly was my body feeling in terms of sensations? I entered a mindful state, quieted my thoughts, and allowed myself to really experience my inner sensations. Apart from the uncomfortable fullness, I became aware of a vague set of sensations in my abdomen — possibly a movement of energy — right around the bottom of my rib cage at the solar plexus.

I asked myself for an image or a word to describe what I was feeling. The word “sadness” came to mind. My energy levels felt low. This came as a surprise because I did not have a perception of being sad. However, suddenly it all made sense. My body craved the pleasure of eating as a way to counteract this subliminal sense of sadness. Of course, if had I given in to the craving, I would have quickly had a negative emotional reaction to overeating. That’s often the way the limbic, emotional mind works; it operates strictly in the moment.

What’s more, the whole experience brings to the forefront the problem with why questions. Too often, we leave why questions when we have a reason or an explanation for why things are the way they are. Stopping there, hoping the insight will change our situation, often fails to lead to change. When we ask why questions to generate explanations, we tend to get stuck. It’s only when we use the information to change the course of our experience that we experience inner change and a healthier lifestyle.

NLP co-founder Richard Bandler observed that feelings inside the body are not static. They pulse, they move, they spin. If you want to feel different, have the feelings move differently. But how? This may seem odd, or even impossible, yet our thoughts and desires can exert significant influence over our internal sensations. For spinning feelings, Bandler’s recommendation is very simple: imagine them spinning in the opposite direction. In my case, I sensed that this energy was spinning clockwise around my solar plexus. I imagined it spinning in the opposite direction.

Though I had not felt noticeably sad before, I felt my mood brighten. Within moments, my desire to eat also vanished. I consciously imagined the feeling spinning counterclockwise, and my mood lightened even further. Soon, I tumbled to a new insight, one I had felt before but had never satisfactorily described before. This moment helped me gain a new understanding of just how powerful the mind is, and how you can use your mind to improve your health and maintain your weight.

In order to be lighter, live lighter.