Spiritual Lessons We Can Learn from Weight: Part 4

We live in a world where weight, body fat, and extra pounds are a pretty big deal. And yet, our strategies when it comes to weight loss aren’t working and are often causing us to do battle with our own bodies. The good news is, there’s a dimension that goes beyond what we can see and understand when it comes to weight and its loss. It’s the domain of the spiritual. Join Marc David, Founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, in this #IPEtv video where he shares about an important spiritual lesson we can discover from weight: true power. We think you’ll find this to be a fascinating and results oriented approach to weight.

In the comments below, please let us know your thoughts. We love hearing from you and we read and respond to every comment!

Below is a transcript of this week’s video:

Greetings friends, this is Marc David, founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating.

Today’s Topic: Spiritual Lessons We Can Learn from Weight: Part 4

Here’s the challenge:

We live in a world where weight, body fat, extra pounds, gaining it, and losing it are all a very big deal.

Our collective concern around weight is one of the biggest conundrums that impact the human heart and mind. The amount of pain and suffering around this topic is profound. Clearly, what we’re doing when it comes to weight loss doesn’t work very well when it comes to long-term sustainable changes.

I don’t take this topic lightly at all, and for that reason I think it’s important that we all do our best to shed more light on this subject.

And shining the light of skillful consciousness on the subject of weight means we look to other dimensions to help find pieces of the weight loss/weight gain puzzle that may be crucial to truly helping us get where we want to go.

In my 30+ years of research, clinical experience, inquiry, curiosity and deep care around this topic, I’m often led to a fascinating and unexpected place:

Spirituality.

Of course, if you don’t like that word or if it doesn’t apply to you, or if you’re an atheist, substitute the term “character growth and development.” And if you come from a faith or Bible-based approach, then substitute the term “how God is asking me to grow.”

And if you’re comfortable with the term spirituality, then here’s what I mean:

There’s a dimension that goes beyond what the eye can see. There’s a hidden architecture to the universe. There are unseen forces that move us and guide us that we tend to know very little about. And the great saints, sages, prophets, religious and spiritual leaders throughout history have all pretty much agreed that when we set our sights towards the realm of the spiritual or sacred – our vision begins to open up.

And by the way, when I say weight, I’m talking about the challenges we face in trying to lose it, in not weighing the number that we want, in dealing with the prejudices and judgments of others, and the challenge we face with our own harsh commentary about the body we’ve been given.

So here’s one of the bottom line spiritual lessons we can learn from weight:

True power.

And here’s what I mean:

A lot of us believe that when I have the body I want and the weight I want, I will be the most powerful and awesome version of me. The right weight will grant me my true power.

True power means I’m living and breathing the truth of who I am, I’m stepping into my fullness, I’m plugged into my God-given gifts and strengths, I’m not holding back, and there’s a certain unseen but potent force that animates my life and helps attract to me the kind of love and abundance that is our birthright.

True power takes us beyond the realm of financial power, or the power of being famous, or the power of being able to seduce people with a hot body.

True power lies somewhere deep within us.

It requires that we dig deeper.

It asks us to tap into it.

It’s not dependent on anything or anyone outside of us.

Ultimately, true power is the power of our connection to something greater – it’s the power that emanates from us when we know who we are, what we represent, and where we come from. There’s a greater and grander intelligence that created everything we see. Our connection to that intelligence is where true power comes from.

Losing a bunch of pounds of body fat has never given anyone access to their true power. If anything, our obsession and worries around weight distract us from who we really are and what our power really is.

And that’s why this spiritual lesson that weight can teach us is so important.

One of our main jobs in this life is to find our true power, access it, and use it to fuel who we are and how we show up in the world.

Losing some arbitrary number of pounds won’t get us there.

Can you think of a time when you had the exact weight you wanted? Did it land you squarely in your true power? Of course not. Maybe you felt a little more high, but that high was clearly only temporary – no different from any drug.

So yes, continue to make efforts towards weight loss if indeed you truly have weight to lose. But let go of thinking that you’ll become the magnificent YOU because of it.

Set your sights on the real reward. I hope this was helpful, my friends.