[Rose of Cairo]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

So the question for Rose to consider here is whether she would have lost weight more effectively if:

(a) she had held positive thoughts about losing weight, and done nothing else; or

(b) she had held positive thoughts about losing weight, and carried those positive thoughts with her, into activities (such as exercise and diet) which she had believed would help her lose weight.

Remember - as you jog for 20 minutes with the intention of losing weight, you are holding the intention of losing weight, for 20 minutes.

ALG, I think I understood your original post. You meant that if there is a known conventional way to do something, we should just use it. Like, if my teeth ache, it's easier to just go to a dentist rather than to sit on my sofa only intending the teeth to heal by themselves. That's what you meant, didn't you? (and we can use the LoA to attract a good dentist or whatever).

But look, sometimes you think you know how to do it, but actually what you believe to know is the wrong way to do it. And sometimes doing it the wrong way can even kill the manifestation of your intention. That's why I find it much better to let the universe show you the way. Like with this losing weight story. I'm sorry I write so much about it. It's an important topic for me, and I'd like to help all the overweight people reading this too. Many people who have never been overweight write about how to lose weight without having a clue, that's just not fair.

What I'm advocating is not intending and doing nothing else, like sitting on the sofa for months only intending like crazy. But the point is the actions must result out of the intention. You must be pulled naturally to these actions by some synchronicities. Without thinking of your intention in that moment. Additionally carrying some positive thoughts into activities I think will make me lose weight doesn't always work. Because it's me thinking they will make me lose weight, but I'm not as smart as the universe, and those things maybe don't work for me. But the universe knows how to do it much better than I do.

Imagine I intend to lose weight and have very positive thoughts about it and carry them into activities I think will make me lose weight. I'll try the conventional way, like eating healthy stuff in 5-6 meals a day, drinking a lot of water, doing cardio training and lifting weights and so on. Have you ever been overweight, ALG? When you're overweight, jogging for 20 minutes is a torture. Every step will painfully remind you how much overweight you are. So you will never ever hold a positive intention all this time! You'll be just forced to think about how heavy you are, and that your articulations already are hurting after three minutes, and that you're sweating so much, that you're ashamed because some people look at you, that you want to lose that damn fat at last, and that you cannot breathe anymore... It's just not true that jogging for 20 minutes with the intention of losing weight = holding the intention of losing weight for 20 minutes. In 20 minutes jogging you'll have 20 000 negative thoughts about you being overweight and you'll focus a lot on your fat. Maybe some people succeed at maintaining a positive state of mind in such a situation, well I admire them!!! (I don't mean thin people or people who want to lose little 5kg, I mean really overweight people.)

My point is, it's not always easy or even possible to carry positive thoughts into some action I think will help me to reach my goals. Doing what I think is good can in some cases create so many negative thoughts that it will kill my intention, even if initially I was carrying positive thoughts with me. It is much, much easier to let my intention carry me into some action the universe knows will help me to reach my goal, without me being aware of them helping me to reach my goal. Maybe that's things I would never have thought about.

For example, after having intended to lose weight, I noticed that every time I ate, I wasn't hungry anymore after five bites. But half an hour later, I was hungry again. Damnit, I thought, how can this be possible! Then accidentally I read on the net about Brendan Brazier, a vegan professional triathlete, saying he grazes instead of having meals. I had never heard of grazing before that, and decided out of some intuition to give it a try. And that was great for me! My digestion went much better and I'm sure it helps me losing weight now. But please note that I did not think of losing weight at that time. It was just an alternative eating habit I tried, to stop being hungry. I did not think it would help me lose weight.

Later, I began moving more. But again, not to lose weight! When I saw a bus or an elevator, I just had some repulsive feelings about being caged in such a metallic machine, and thought "uuugh, actually I feel like walking today!". So I began with walking, cycling, going up the stairs... As I wasn't torturing myself with weight loss measures anymore, I felt much happier too, free, and began dancing around a lot with no reason. If you count everything together, the cycling, walking, going the stairs, bouncing aroung, wildly dancing in the kitchen... I guess I move a lot, and this helps to lose weight. But I never ever think of losing weight doing it! It's not at all like exercising at the gym because you want to lose weight. It's just being happy.

Other synchronicity, out of some intuition again, I began buying some books about women, their relationship with their mother, mother-daughter rivality, sexual identity of women, gender roles in our society, sexual abuse, how men are perceived as dangerous, how society is pressuring women into being pretty, such stuff. I realized that I had a lot of problems with those topics and decided to address those issues with EFT. Later, I realized that exactly those problems were an important reason why I became (and stayed) overweight. Addressing those issues was an important condition to be able to lose weight, I know that now. But at that moment, I didn't know it.

You see: I wrote "a few months nothing happened". Yes, with my weight nothing happened. But in my life a lot of changes happened and my actions changed too. It was a big alignement, that was absolute necessary first. But it happened on some natural, subconscious, intuitive way. Not because I made a plan or decided to do it. Why should I make a plan to become thin, if I am already thin?? (In my mind - I had visualized myself thin, so I already was thin) It just happened to me. That's why for me it feels like "I do nothing". It's really totally effortless! I am thin! The physical reality is a detail, it will align itself with my reality on its own, it just needs a bit of time.

If I had done what I thought would help me losing weight, I would have exercised more and eaten less, and this would have created negative thoughts all the time. Again, it's extremely difficult to keep a positive mindset if something you do daily like eating or exercising always reminds you of your problem. How can I truly believe I am thin if I suffer while exercising like an obese person and have to take care of what I eat all the time?? Do thin persons really count every piece of chocolate they eat?? Come on...! And if I had done what I think would help me to lose weight, I would never have grazed, or used EFT to address some obscure psychological issues, or moved just because of being happy. But maybe grazing, EFT and freely moving around was exactly what my body needed first in order to be able to lose weight. The universe knew it, I didn't.

That's why I'm saying, don't decide what you think you should do and additionally carry positive thoughts into it. No, just intend it, visualize it, feel it, and then trust that the path to your goal will be shown to you.

The path will be shown to you!

I'm sorry this post is very long and quite repetitive and unclear. I'm tired... I hope you understand anyway.

edit: torilink, impaul99, Anagogy, yes!!! I agree with you so much. You say it much better than I do. Thank you!