Fwd: Week2-3

[Yiska Obadia]

Subject: Re: Week2-3
To: Robin Talley <robinn...@yahoo.com>

Robin,

 

Nice work my dear. Please post to the group. I think anyone reading will relate and it could be an opportunity for everyone.

 

Ah, yes, it's amazing when you start to pay attention just how much we judge, how much our heads get in the way.

 

There are a few things to know about judgment and then a few things to play with practicing.

 

Judgments obscure our access to what we really want, what our bodies want in any given moment. Yet we get scared to let go of judgments because we try to use judgment to motivate us to make better choices, only it doesn't work. It ends up creating more resistance within than anything.

 

I recommend 2 exercises from week 2 for working with this. One is to journal by stream of consciousness the following...if I didn't judge my food choices I'm afraid that I'd.... it will reveal some of your motivation to continue judging, then you may be willing to let it go, you may be willing to see that the usefulness of things that served once upon a time may have expired over time. The other is to do the mirror mirror on the wall exercise so you get to a place of truly accepting yourself as you are, so you can feel less pressure and attachment to change, and more just the pure motivation to listen to and tend your body and self. Also on page 80 in week 5, the allowing practice can help us have more room and permission not to be "perfect".

 

The main practice is to know that our minds will always judge and we will learn later on in the process how to use these judgments, but in the meanwhile you want to practice allowing the judgments, allowing your mind its chatter, noticing it, but then letting it go. You can challenge any thought or belief that comes up, asking if it's really so that that food is bad or good, challenging if it's really true that it's bad that you did or didn't do xyz...and are you willing to let that go for the sake of having another experience. And in week's 3 and 4 you will be engaging yourself in practices that will have you being more in your body and present to your senses over your brain.

 

So first, you're in perfect shape, just noticing where you are. There is no other place for you to be. Remain committed to writing everything down, even the next day, as you recall.

 

You can take on the practice of not eating later in the evening if it's becoming clear that that is what you're up to. This is an experiment we ask everyone to try on come week 4.

 

Please stay in contact, if you are not clear on anything as you go along. Let me know if what I've written here makes sense to you and let me know how it goes.

 

have a great week.
 

love, Yiska

 

 

 

On 11/25/07, Robin Talley <robinn...@yahoo.com > wrote:

Hi Yiska, Sorry I didn't e-mail last week but I kept putting it off and I looked up an another week has passed.

 

I am sending my post to your personal e-mail because there seems to be little activity on the board and I don't want to post to an inactive group...concerned mostly about bothering people with my e-mails. But if you think it serves, I am happy to put it up.

 

I am keeping my journal and the thing I've noticed the most is that 1) I am good in terms of following instructions, writing in my journal etc until some point in the evening after which all hell seems to break loose. Everything comes undone. I snack on handfulls of crackers and forget to write them down, I eat several helpings of food and don't really notice what I'm doing until later when I "come up for air" and consider the damage. I wonder if not eating anything past 6pm is the practice I need to take on for a while. It is in line with your "not eating 3 hrs before bed" suggestion although that's more like 4 hrs but I don't think I'll waste away.

 

The other thing I've noticed is that I judge literally every thing that does and does not pass my lips in the day time. I'm beginning to wonder how much of this problem is over analysis - eating coming from my head - rather than what my body is asking for. Truthfully, I have no idea what my body wants, but i can tell you what's good and bad - with accuracy that would even impress the herbal students - regarding just about every food choice not to mention combination known to man.

 

My problem lies more in being ok with good enough. It's as though if it can't be perfect (and as of yet, nothing has been) then screw it! Hand me a muffin and make it 4 pats of butter!

 

This process is proving to be incredibly useful and difficult at the same time. I have no idea how to stop the obsession to get it right, which as I stated before is likely at the root of my problem.

 

Hope you had a happy holiday,

Love - Robin

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--
POV Points of View Acupuncture
Yiska Obadia, L.Ac.
(212)-737-9000
(914)-450-6692
www.redefiningdiet.com
www.povacupuncture.com

--
POV Points of View Acupuncture
Yiska Obadia, L.Ac.
(212)-737-9000
(914)-450-6692
www.redefiningdiet.com
www.povacupuncture.com