Week 7 of the Slow Down Diet – The Power of Story

“The story we live and the metabolism we experience are intricately linked.” -Marc David

After a few weeks of travel back to the U.S. and then to Croatia’s Dalmatia coast for family  vacation, I am back.  I am pleased to report that by focusing on The Slow Down Diet principles during this hiatus, I’ve actually lost a few pounds!  Wow!  What a surprise — typically, when I travel, I gain weight.  Great news!!

Week seven on the surface seemed not much different than week six, but, as I’ve reflected and worked with the material, the significance of dividing thought-work and looking at the stories we live is quite brilliant.

Notes from Week Six

Unearthing our “personal religion” (limiting beliefs and thoughts) is really a life-long endeavor and one that we can help along by exploring the parts of our lives that are causing us sleepless nights.

One of my big aha’s was that I was really, really, really frantic about needing to lose weight before going home to Colorado.  After all, I was going to be seeing old friends and lots of my fellow Martha Beck Coaches — so, for them to think I’ve “got it together” I have to be slimmer.

Oh, interesting.  Really? I love how my mind comes up with these Statements of Truth as if nothing else could possibly be true. Underneath that particular thought is a whole host of approval-seeking, perfectionistic tendencies: my mind would have me buy into the story that I’m not good enough, ever.  I would have to say that at the heart of most of the pain I’ve experienced in my life is this set of beliefs.

Funny how no matter where I dig, it’s what I find.  The universe is kind that way and it beautifully illustrates to me, over and over, how you do one thing is how you do everything.

So, over the last few weeks, I have been using self-coaching and The Work and lots of compassion to probe into this labyrinth of beliefs.  As I mentioned, this is a life’s work, but I’ve found new freedom and lightness around these thoughts — however, I will continue to work with them.

It is important to note that, going into the trip to Colorado free of the belief that I had to be thinner for others to think I “have it together” was liberating.  And my friends?  Who haven’t seen me in years?  Two of them mentioned that I look happier than they’ve ever seen me and asked if I’ve lost weight.

The Metabolic Power of Story

“The universe is made up of stories, not atoms.”

-Muriel Rukeyser

Oh, the stories we tell ourselves.  After questioning and letting go of limiting thoughts, it’s time to tell a new story.  I have always lumped these two things together — unearthing negative beliefs and re-telling our stories, but I like this distinct separation.

In chapter 7, Marc David talks about re-telling our stories in positive, hopeful ways.  Martha Beck talks about the same process in Steering by Starlight, one of my all-time favorite books.

But Marc is clear that the way we tell ourselves our stories determines, at a cellular level, what happens in our bodies.  He links it directly to the stress-response and the pleasure-response.  Re-writing our stories, therefore, isn’t just pie-in-sky delusional — how we tell our stories is scientifically proven to change the way our bodies work.

Now, I’m not talking about lying to ourselves.  I’m talking about the inherent power we possess to see things in a positive light, to see the potential in each circumstance.  Each part of our past and present can be looked at with a critical, negative spin or a positive, hope-filled outlook.

Try it.  Take a story you tell yourself about your weight or your health or why you eat the foods you do– anything, really.  Tell the story in a positive light – liberal reinterpretation– answering the question, what is absolutely perfect about this?

Find the hope and the gift — it’s there.  There are lessons you couldn’t have lived without, there are avenues you wouldn’t have pursued had it not been, there are countless blessings, I promise.

I’ll be doing the same.  Meet me back here next week — I would love to hear about your powerful new stories.

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