How many times have you tried to cut down or quit something?  Diets?  Smoking? Drinking? Workouts?  Here’s how it usually goes…

I’m fat / a drunk / broke / tired / unhappy with my life.

I eat too much / laze around the house / drink too much / smoke too much / do too much / spend too much.

I’ll quit smoking / stop eating junk / quit lazing around the house / stop drinking so much / cut out whatever is unnecessary from my schedule / cut back on shopping.

Look at this pattern.  We see the LACK in our lives, CRITICIZE ourselves, and then DEPRIVE ourselves of something we currently enjoy.

Is it any wonder most of our goals and resolutions slip away so quickly, if we ever find the motivation to even begin?  Focusing on lack and what we don’t want only makes us want it more.  Depriving and punishing ourselves when we have already had a hard enough life feels awful! What person wants to feel deprived?  NO ONE!

Here’s what I’ve been coming to realize.  I have some really old stuff I spent most of my life carrying around inside me because I didn’t know how to heal it.  As I pursue holistic healing, I discover how much I’ve been feeling guilty and sad and turning to all the wrong places to feel comforted and loved, or to numb out.  Focusing on removing even more habits from my life feels like punishment and I FEEL even more UNLOVED by the only person I’m truly waiting to heal that pain…BY ME!

Now I’m trying something that feels so much better!  I’m not focusing on what’s wrong with me or quitting.  I am focusing on ADDING MORE SELF LOVE to my life.  Putting good things into my meals and snacks and taking healthy supplements feels so good that I don’t want junk foods as much. The more I focus on feeling Divine love as every bite of earth-cultivated healthy foods enters my body to nourish and strengthen me, and how good I feel eating that way, the less I crave numbing sugars or clogging fats.  I don’t give anything up or deprive; I moderate.  More exercise increases the flow of Divinely gifted life-force blood throughout our bodies; awareness of that makes me feel more loved.    Divine breath is hindered by smoking, so adding meditations and exercise and increasing awareness of the Breath helps us feel more loved and notice how it struggles to move through us, making us want to smoke less.

We develop habits over time that slow us down, weight us down, and make us feel bad.  The key to unlocking our physical potential begins in the heart.  It is a journey we are all here to take, and I’m moving along mine with more love and acceptance, and less criticism, one moment at a time.  I pray the same for you as we all learn to love more and judge less.  This like all else begins with self.

Namaste and much love to you,

Sheryl Sitts, Founder
Journey of Possibilities