How to lose weight naturally and permanently without exercising and dieting Joyance Hall

For many who gain weight due to regular overeating for psychological reasons, I wish to introduce five natural ways to lose weight. Please start with the first episode, in which I discussed why we are not our mind and why our regular overeating has nothing to do with our body’s needs but with our identification with the overeating habit of the mind. In this episode, I am going to discuss the fifth natural way to lose weight; that is, loving ourselves without condition. The truth is quite simple. If we can love ourselves without condition, we will not overeat. Unconditional love is causeless and reasonless, and thus it is not of the mind. Therefore, whenever we feel unconditional love to ourselves, we are free from the mind and its overeating habit. We know that occasional overindulging in foods seldom causes significant weight gain. Many of our vicious set-backs often are the result of giving-up entirely after several relapses, due to self-doubt, self-shame, and self-abandonment. Loving ourselves unconditionally means we love what we are and where we are in any moment regardless of what we have or haven’t done and can or cannot do. For example, after strict diet and vigorous exercises, we lose some weight and feel lighter and happy. Suddenly we relapse and ruin our arduous effort. Instead of eating again to cope with our shame and despair, we close our eyes and feel unconditional love to ourselves. We know we are after all a human with a collectively conditioned body-mind, and we know there is nothing to be forgiven, for we would’ve done differently had we not unknowingly identified with the mind’s overeating habit again in those moments. Immersing in this unconditional love, we give our own humanness a break: we look at our silliness with a sense of humor, we look at our weakness with a tender heart, and we look at the empty bag of the potato chips with an awe that our ingenuous mind has tricked us again. In so doing, we anchor effortlessly in our energy field of love and free ourselves from the mind and its overeating conditioning. There is another reason why unconditional self-love is of a great importance for our weight loss journey. As some of us may have already experienced, we cannot transcend our mind once and for all. As long as the mind is here to stay, so is its overeating habit, and so is our unconscious identification with it or awareness of it. Therefore, the transcendence of the overeating habit is a living process on a moment to moment basis. We can be vigilant for months but then unknowingly follow the mind’s different reasons to overeat again and again. This is when unconditional self-love keeps us on the journey. If we can love ourselves in spite of our relapses, it is not possible to give up on ourselves. And we know we are okay as long as we do not give up. Loving ourselves unconditionally is not telling ourselves that we love us without condition. It is to let the love that we are flow forth. In other words, it is to feel our innate love in the silent state of the mind. We then realize that this inner love is unconditional, for whenever we feel it, it is ever here and now, in spite of our setbacks. And we continue our weight-loss journey not because we have to but because we are passionate about it, for where there is love, there is passion. What is unconditional love? In the deepest sense, it is our intuitively felt oneness with life, and it is the pure awareness that becomes aware of itself and recognizes itself in each and all existence. Since unconditional love cannot be separately obtained or given, to love ourselves is also to love others and to allow others to love us. Therefore, loving ourselves without condition is actually a selfless act. Relaxing in unconditional self-love, we then love life and everything that exists because of love. We do not overeat because we love our body and no longer need food to fill our deep yearning for love.

For many who gain weight due to regular overeating for psychological reasons, I wish to introduce five natural ways to lose weight. Please start with the first episode, in which I discussed why we are not our mind and why our regular overeating has nothing to do with our body’s needs but with our identification with the overeating habit of the mind. In this episode, I am going to discuss the fourth natural way to lose weight; that is, feeling our emotion as it arises. Some of us are emotional overeaters. Regardless of whether we are hungry or not, we follow our mind’s coping strategy and eat compulsively and continually to distract ourselves from unpleasant emotions, such as loneliness, sadness, fear, and anger. We eat to escape from our negative emotions, but our overeating often triggers ensuing negative emotions such as shame and despair. We then eat again to cope with the new ones. This cycles on and results in our steady weight gain. For those of us who overeat to deal with our considered unbearable emotions, to lose weight is to learn how to face such emotions as they emerge, instead of following the mind’s habitual strategy of indulging in foods. First of all, it is important to understand that human emotions are not personal. I discussed in the first episode that we are not our thoughts but the awareness of them. In the same way, we are not our emotions but the awareness of them. Therefore, we need not be afraid of them nor escape from them. Emotions are energy forms passing through our awareness. We suffer not from them but from our desire for them and our fear of them. In reality, when we try to retain or avoid certain emotions, the opposite becomes true. For example, when we are immersed in deep love and suddenly wish this wonderful feeling last forever, we instantly move out from our energy field of love to the conceptual love of the mind. The latter is a thought form devoid of true feeling. On the other hand, when we try to suppress or avoid a negative emotion, we give reality and importance to it and thus retain it in our psyche, from which it will resurface sooner or later. The natural way to live with our emotion is not to move away from it but to move into it, feeling deeply and wholeheartedly into the emotion as it comes up. For example, when you suddenly become anxious, immediately close your eyes, shift your attention to your breath, and then feel deeply into this so-termed anxiety. More often than not, you’ll find that you are not as anxious as you thought, or you may find your anxiety is replaced by a sense of neutrality or even peace. The entire spectrum of human emotions is to be embraced. They facilitate the expansion of our consciousness. By experiencing anger, we become knowingly appreciative of peace. By experiencing sadness, we know we choose joy. Through feeling any emotion, we are guided into our energy field and innate virtuous qualities. Since our energy field is ever present, we are instantaneously in the present moment, free from the mind and its habitual coping strategy of escaping negative emotions through overindulging in foods. In practicality, it is easier and pleasant to feel our emotion than escape from it by devouring foods when we are not hungry. It’s easy because we can feel it effortlessly as it arises. It’s pleasant because often we can feel into our natural qualities such as deep peace. The key here is not to buy into the fear or resistance of the mind but to simply let ourselves feel the emerging emotion. In the silent state of the mind, you will know that you do not need to eat to cope with it, for it has already passed through. Generally, thoughts trigger emotions and sustain them. In most cases, when we free ourselves from negative thoughts, we are free from negative emotions. From time to time, you may find that some emotions cannot be transcended quickly upon feeling them. Perpetuating emotions ask us to inquire and uproot the deep-seated beliefs which uphold

For many who gain weight due to regular overeating for psychological reasons, I wish to introduce five natural ways to lose weight. If you stumble upon this episode, please also visit the first episode, in which I discussed why we are not our mind and why our regular overeating has nothing to do with our body’s needs but with our identification with the overeating habit of the mind. In this episode, I am going to discuss the third natural way to lose weight; that is, eating what we love and loving what we eat. You may agree that, in most cases, it is not what we eat but our frequent overindulging that causes us to gain weight. This is a good news, for to lose weight and maintain it, we cannot restrict ourselves from the foods we love. Any restriction is an effort and the effort is of the mind. Our mind is created to help us live in this physical world through efforts such as remembering, judging, attaching, resisting, etc. The moment we deprive ourselves of our favorite foods, we are trapped in the effort of the mind and hence also in its overeating habit. Our weight-loss journey will be a short one, for anything requiring effort demands constant exertion and determination which the mind cannot offer. It’s our own experience that our mind ceaselessly debates with itself; for example, we make rules for ourselves today and then find reasons to ignore them tomorrow. In addition, the more we deny ourselves the foods we love, the stronger we crave them. That is why restriction often leads to revengeful binging. The wisdom here is this: if we truly allow ourselves to eat what we love and love what we eat, it is impossible for us to overeat. Let me explain why. First, when we eat what we love without restriction, we know we are the freedom of the moment. The mind cannot function in freedom because it needs bondage or resistance to operate. You may remember that, in any moment you feel free, you feel light and happy. This is because the past unpleasant memories and future worries of the mind are not there. And, when we love what we eat, we give ourselves permission to enjoy what we love wholeheartedly. The mind is always relaxed in its natural quietude when there is heart-felt love. For example, we become thoughtless and do not know what to say when we are deeply touched and feel immense love within. When the mind is silent, gone are its cravings for foods and reasons for overindulging. Second, when we allow our love to flow out to our foods, it is not possible to feel lack, shame, resentment, etc. at the same time. Thus, there is no need to continue eating to escape from our negative emotions. Third, when we love what we are eating, we are present in that moment, not in the overeating habit of the mind. And, when our awareness is not obscured by the noise of the mind, we are attuned to our body and spontaneously operate on its intelligence. We eat when we are hungry, and we stop eating when we are full. Or, since joy and love go hand in hand with contentment and fulfillment, we may find ourselves no longer eating after an adequate portion. Some of us like certain so-called “junk food”. Usually, a small amount of it does not harm our body. And it is very likely that, as we are not ensnared in our mind’s old habits but being the freedom of our own passion in each moment, one day we may find ourselves enjoying some healthier food instead. To summarize, when we eat what we love and love what we eat, we naturally free ourselves from the mind and its overeating conditioning. We then eat only for eating with our senses.

When we move our attention to seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting, as well as feeling during the process of eating, we spontaneously withdraw ourselves from the mind and thus, from its overeating habit. If we relax into the present moment and eat with our senses, it is not possible to overeat. Try this: take the delicious cake out of the fridge with joy and gratitude; carefully cut a piece of it and artfully center it on the plate; truly look at it and see its colors and textures; smell it tender-heartedly; and then take a bite, letting your taste buds tell you their critical reviews. It is very likely that you feel deep contentment and know that one piece is just perfect. Since eating is not only one of the joys of existence but also essential for existence, one would presume that we give our undivided attention to this important and pleasant aspect of life; however, more often than not, the opposite is true. Many of us eat so fast that we barely register what we eat, how we eat, and how much we eat. We do not give sufficient time for our stomach to assess its condition. And in the cases our stomach complains, we seldom hear or feel it, for we are distracted by the noises of the mind. When we eat with our friends, co-workers, or family, we are often so engrossed in our conversations that we eat our meal without even noticing it. Even when we eat alone, we are still trapped in incessant thinking. We think about past, future, and so-believed important matters. When we are not eating with our senses, there can be no true satisfaction; thus, the eating continues. And since we are not aware how much we’ve already had, we often overeat. Eating with our senses is to eat only for eating. We are fully present for the entire process of eating. We arrange time for our meals and take our time to enjoy them; we appreciate the ways our foods are prepared; we look and truly see them; we touch and truly feel them; we take in their unique aromas; we chew our foods slowly, feel their textures, and let the flavors sink in; and we even listen to the sounds they produce. When we eat with our senses, we are at one with them. We stop eating when our stomach tells us so. Here is a bonus: when we eat with our senses, we are peaceful and joyous, for our attention is on our favorite foods and the way we enjoy them, not in the past or future concerns of the mind. When we eat with others, we can still engage in casual conversations but immediately shift our attention back to our senses and eating process, consciously not involving ourselves in deep and long discussions. This practice is good for our digestion as well, for our body can then supply more blood flow to our digestive system that would’ve been used by our brain for obsessive thinking. Having an urge to overindulge? Instead of going forward or suppressing it, you peacefully feel it, letting your feeling tell the truth in that moment. You may realize that your craving is not as strong as you thought. Wanting to have another helping? Instead of thinking you should or shouldn’t, feel your stomach and let its intelligence guide your action. You may become aware that you are already full. When we feel, we spontaneously move out of the mind and its overeating conditioning.

To understand why we can lose weight through consciously observing our mind, we must recognize how our mind regularly causes us to overeat. Many of us have unconsciously adopted the prevailing belief that we are our mind. The mind is an ingenious tool but not a wise master for us. Like everything that exists, it has its own shadow. The memories and habits of the mind help us navigate and react quickly in our daily living, but they also bring troubles to us when being blindly followed. For example, the first time we feel lonely, our mind finds relief through indulging in our favorite foods. Later, it remembers such short-lived comfort and copes with our daily stress through eating. Soon after, it is conditioned to get through challenging times by overindulging in foods. Since we think we are our mind, we eat for its coping strategy and conditioning. In other words, our regular overeating has nothing to do with our body’s needs but with our identification with the overeating habit of the mind. Why shouldn’t we identify with our mind? This is because, in reality, we are not our mind. It is our own experience that we are aware of everything including thoughts and emotions and also aware that we are aware. We know without any doubt that our awareness is here prior, in between, and after the appearing and disappearing of thoughts and emotions. And it is evident that thoughts, emotions, and external life events come and go, but our awareness of them remains unchanging. Since our awareness is ever present, it is accurate to say that we are not the thoughts and emotions of the mind but the awareness that is aware of them. One of the natural ways to be free from the control of the mind is to consciously observe it. It means that we not only observe our mind but, more importantly, know we are the observer of it. Consequently, we are free from it, because without the separation we wouldn’t be able to observe it, and because when we know we are the observer, we know we are not the observed. In addition, the action of observing instantly brings us to the present moment, spontaneously out of the habits of the mind. To transcend our overeating urge, we need no effort but to become knowingly aware of it without thinking about it. The moment we know we are observing this seemingly irresistible urge of the mind, we free ourselves from it. Otherwise, we would have become it, devouring all and moving on to the mind’s habitual post-gorge shame and depression. In the instant we shift our attention to our own awareness – the observer, the mind loses its control over us, for it only affects us when we unconsciously identify with it, mistaking it as ourselves and believing we have to follow our urge. When we become conscious that a familiar overindulging thought arises in our awareness, we know we have a choice to take it or let it pass, simply by recognizing its value or irrelevance for that moment. For example, at a party, you enjoy many delicious foods and feel that you are very full. Suddenly you hear a voice in your head telling you that you can have more because you will exercise more tomorrow. If you unknowingly identify with your mind and believe this is your voice, you will go for more. If you are aware that this is the conditioned thought that has popped up many times under similar situations, you then have a choice to either use it or ignore it. Often you will not follow the voice, for it has lost its cajoling power over you when you know you are not it. I remember, a few years ago, one night I felt heartburn before bedtime, so I ate some bread. I continued my middle night snack for a few weeks even after I no longer had heartburn, simply because I followed a reoccurring thought that it was about time to have some bread I liked. This conditioning of the mind was disidentified the day I suddenly became aware that I was following the habit of the mind but not the necessity of the moment.