The Peaceful Path to Weight Loss
If I told you there’s a simple thing you could do every day that promises to bring inner peace into your life and help you release weight, would you do it?
What if I told you it was easy? And only a breath away.
What if I told you it was meditation?
Releasing weight successfully, and permanently, requires harmony between your mind and body. Meditation helps create this vital balance. There are many well-documented positive physical effects of meditation. For example, it reduces stress hormones in your body so you feel calmer, changes the cells in your brain to improve cognitive function and reduces blood pressure.
But there is so much more.
Meditation is one of the most powerful things you can do to help you connect with your inner wisdom and hear the voice of your intuition. A consistent meditation practice helps you create a clear pathway to hear the whispers of Divine guidance—your wise self—speaking to you.
How Meditation Helps you Release Weight
You see, it’s difficult to hear the voice of your soul, and your body, when your mind is cluttered with thoughts—either positive or negative. While negative thoughts drain your physical and emotional energy, positive or neutral thoughts can also get in the way of hearing your intuition. That’s because a cluttered mind is an anxious mind and blocks inspiration from flowing through you.
When you meditate, you actually emit different brain waves that help those whispers of insight reach your conscious mind. You become more attuned to perceptions beyond the five senses.
You may be like lots of people who believe they can’t meditate because they “can’t stop thinking.” You may have tried to sit still and not succeeded. That’s okay. We all have thousands of thoughts going through our minds all the time.
The goal of meditation isn’t to stop all your thoughts. The goal is to simply train your mind to slow down, to focus on one thing—such as your breath or a mantra—and over time create small moments of space in between your thoughts. It is within this space—what spiritual teacher Deepak Chopra calls “the gap”—that you can connect with a larger intelligence or consciousness.
Our minds are filled with thoughts every day, usually the same negative ones over and over. Can you relate to these?
“I shouldn’t have eaten that.”
“I hate my body and being at this weight.”
“I know I should exercise but I just can’t.”
“I’ll never lose weight.”
“I feel hopeless.”
This negative mind chatter can feel endless and inescapable. But when you enter the stillness of space between those thoughts, you begin to connect with your deepest, most loving self.
And the effects of meditation expand well beyond those 15 or 20 minutes sitting on your pillow. You may not receive guidance during meditation itself—although you may. More likely, you’ll begin to see and hear guidance in your daily life as you notice synchronistic events occurring more frequently.
For example, seeing someone reading a book on nutrition that you overheard someone else talking about (a nudge from the Universe to read that book), finding a flyer for a discounted gym membership in your neighborhood (the Universe whispering, “Go ahead, you can do this…”), feeling inspired to eat a certain nutritious food or go for a walk (your Higher Power giving you confidence). Without conscious effort, your ability to be guided to what you and your body need flows more easily.
Getting Started
There are many different forms of meditation. Here’s a simple and effective method I like:
Find a quiet space with no distractions. It’s best not to lie down to avoid falling asleep. Sit in a chair, or cross-legged on a pillow. Keep your back straight so your energy flows easily along your spine. Begin by gently closing your eyes and focus your attention on your breathing, noticing each inhalation and each exhalation.
Many thoughts will enter your mind. That’s okay. Without judgment, just note your awareness of the thought and gently redirect your attention back to the breath. As you strengthen your ability to refocus on the breath, you experience moments of stillness and quiet. But don’t judge yourself if that doesn’t happen right away—it takes consistent practice. Start with five minutes daily. As you progress, continue for about 15 or 20 minutes, once or twice daily.
Everything you need is inside of you—confidence about releasing weight, inspiration to eat wholesome foods, emotional and physical energy to exercise. This enlightened guidance can only come through a quiet mind.
Become still. And listen.
How do you think meditation can help you release weight?
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davehogg/
