Gay Hendricks begins this series with his own dramatic weight-loss story. He was fat until age 24, at which time he weighed 340 pounds, when a life-changing experience allowed him to see deeply into himself and to understand the concerns and emotions behind much of his behavior, and especially his eating and his own body image. He shares four secrets that allowed him to make this change – secrets that can help anyone to follow the same path.
Deep, easy breathing can make you feel vibrant throughout your day. Gay Hendricks offers a technique he has taught to thousands of his students over the years. He offers specific instructions on a way to breathe, involving specific movements (that make you look like you are nodding “yes”) and slowing down the rate of breathing. Breathing correctly can help you align your body’s intelligence with your mind’s intelligence. One result is that you can have greater success making and keeping commitments to yourself.
As Gay Hendricks began the process of losing his hundred-plus pounds, he realized he needed to learn how to embrace his emotions. He needed to let down his 300-pound wall of defense and build up a new emotional awareness in himself. It has caused him to wonder whether perhaps we should start learning the skills of emotional awareness in kindergarten.He lists physical reactions associated with certain emotions (such as fear, sadness, joy and anger) and how they can be confused with hunger and fatigue, with problematic results. He relates his own awakening experience, where he came to understand the complexity of his “defense” mechanisms, to the importance of being alert to our own emotions and their power.
Being fat brought Gay Hendricks to an insight that forever changed his life, which goes right along with the exploration of our emotions – any emotion, even such unpleasant ones as anger or fear, takes place against a background of spirit. If you let yourself feel the emotion without judging it, you’ll feel your spirit behind the emotion.He offers exercises and techniques to help recognize and disarm emotions, helping you to relax into the welcoming embrace of spirit. And then he helps you discover the foods that nourish your spirit – one bite at a time and at your own speed. No food is really “right” or “wrong.” When you take a bite of food, ask yourself, “Will this feed my spirit?”Gradually you’ll learn to tell the difference between foods and amounts that nourish your spirit – that enable you to expand into it – and foods that bury your spirit deeper within you, making you contract away from it. So you’ll naturally begin to choose the foods the perfect foods to feed your spirit.