New Year’s resolutions

The only New Year’s resolution that really matters

December 29, 2017 73 Comments

“We physicians and scientists have nothing to lose by a reexamination of fundamental assumptions of our models of health: on the contrary, we face the extraordinary possibility of fashioning a system that emphasizes life instead of death, and unity and oneness instead of fragmentation, darkness and isolation. –Larry Dossey, M.D.
evy

According to the Wall Street Journal, 132 million Americans (that’s 41 percent) will make a New Year’s resolution. A good quarter of those potentially life-changing commitments will have something to do with diet and health.

But here’s the rub—most of what we know about diet and health is incorrect. It’s a series of beliefs that we’ve all agreed upon and therefore reproduce in physical reality. These beliefs about our physicality are placeholders until we can, as Dr. Dossey suggests, fashion a new system.

Which is why I’m going to tell you three stories that not only defy our beliefs about health but actually provide clues to the only resolution you really need.

1. First story is about Amelia Boone. She’s a full-time corporate attorney and a four-time world champion obstacle racer. Sports Illustrated calls her one of the fittest women in the world. Wanna know what she eats before each race? A Kellogg’s pop-tart. Needless to say, the sugary, calorie-filled pastry is not widely regarded as health food. Except to one of the fittest women in the world.

2. The BBC did a documentary about a group of Brits who overcame all sorts of ailments and illnesses by listening to Britney Spears songs.

My point? The only thing we need to change about our health is our thoughts and our beliefs.

3. The last story is about Evy McDonald, a nurse I learned about from my songwriter friend Greg Tamblyn (listen to his song below).

In 1980, Evy was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. By the time doctors finally determined her illness, she was, to use her own words, “a bowl of jello in a wheelchair.” The doctor told her, at best, she had six months to live.

After raging about the unfairness of it all for a day or two, she had this thought: “Since I’m dying anyway, why not use the short time I have left to finally learn to love myself unconditionally?”

For years, she despised her body. She was overweight, for one thing. The polio she’d had as a child left her with two withered limbs and well, she was hard-pressed to find anything she really liked about her physical body.

But she was determined. Three times a day, she’d roll her wheelchair to the mirror and sit naked. She wouldn’t leave until she’d find new positives to add to a list. Her hair was pretty, for starters. She decided that whatever it took, she was going to learn to accept herself. She also resolved to give all negative feelings and thoughts over to the bigger thing.

At some point, she crossed some kind of miraculous threshold. She actually began to feel love and compassion for herself. She began to see her body as a miracle of creation, to see herself as a blessed being who could experience joy.

Strength began to return to her limbs. She eventually began to walk, to feed and to clothe herself. She became the first person to completely recover from ALS and thirty-seven years later, she’s still ALS-free.

So, what’s the only resolution worth having? To become completely content with yourself exactly as you are. And to know that it is ONLY your thoughts and beliefs that can ever affect you.

I know there are lots of diets and rules and cultural paradigms that you’re probably contemplating right now. But do yourself a favor. Don’t resolve to change your body. Resolve to change your mind.

You can use any disturbance in your life (health, weight, whatever you believe needs to be changed) as an opportunity to expand your horizons, as a chance to evolve to a higher level.

As the Course in Miracles clearly states, the only healing that is necessary is giving up old beliefs and changing the way you think, feel and interact with the world.

As usual, I’ll be going through the lessons of the Course in Miracles this year. I plan to blog about my 2018 journey. If you feel so inclined, I’d love to have you join in.

Thanks, my friends, for being so amazingly awesome, so extraordinarily epic. I hope to see you all next year.

Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the just-released, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.

The most dangerous 4-letter word in the English language

December 28, 2016 18 Comments

“Once you get your thinking clean, you can move mountains.”—Steve Jobs

We were talking about New Year’s resolutions in one of my power posses last week. It reminded me of this blog post I wrote several years ago.

Today, I’d like to address the most dangerous four-letter word in the English language. This word that I’ve specifically banned from my vocabulary is especially damning when combined with something you’re trying to do: lose weight, attract money, get a hot date.

The word is “hard,” as in “It’s hard to……”

You know you’ve said it:

“It’s hard to change old habits.”
“It’s hard to find a better job.”
“It’s hard to empty my mind when meditating.”

Because our beliefs are so powerful, literally sculpting our lives on a
moment-by-moment basis, to believe (and especially to say out loud) that anything is difficult is extremely counterproductive.

Still, even those of us who know about (and happily use) the power of our thoughts sometimes speak that ugly word.

I prefer the words “smooth” and “easy” and repeat those beautiful sentiments as often as I can.

I affirm that whatever I want to accomplish is smooth and easy. In fact, the less I do, the better things turn out. The more I hand over to the universe (the field of potentiality that is SO much smarter than me), the better my life becomes.

Because I occasionally still see limitations, still believe the headlines, still believe in old school conditioning, I’m much better off affirming smooth and easy and turning things over to the big guy.

A friend of mine, by simply changing her phraseology, has lost 18 pounds in the last month. She hasn’t changed her diet or started a new exercise program. She simply started believing that losing weight is easy, a piece of cake.

What diet program (or New Year’s resolution) could be more simple or doable than that?

Pam Grout is the author of 18 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the recently released, Thank and Grow Rich: a 30-day Experiment in Shameless Gratitude and Unabashed Joy.