And you are shifting your sense of reality from a narrow-
minded focus on what exists in the physical world to the broad-minded
embrace of what exists in the realm of Spirit, for what exists in the realm of
Spirit is in fact more real.Perhaps the fear -mind will taunt you. “This is three-dimensional reality ,
Buster . This is real. You may as well accept  it.” But for the purposes of this
visualization, know that you don’ t have to accept it. The masters of
metaphysical transformation have realized this secret of the ages: that the
physical dimension is just one dimension, and it is the follower , not the
leader , of the others. Mind, spirit, and imagination rule—if you will allow
them to. In order to succeed at this course, own the power of your imagination. Do
not be limited in any way at all  by what you think of as possible, probable,
or logical. No one and nothing can limit your power to imagine what you
want. You want a beautiful body? Go for it. Imagine it. Allow the image to
permeate your consciousness. Embrace it. Do not hold it at bay . You want a
bodybuilder ’s physique? Go for it. Own it. Open up the prison of your
mind, and for once, with full permission given by yourself to yourself,
allow yourself to want what you r eally want. If you ask yourself what you
want and the answer is a second bowl of ice cream or a second slice of
cake, then ask yourself what you really  want. Y ou will find that as you own
your desire for the body of your dreams, your desire for that second bowl of
ice cream will begin to wane. Who you are and who you are not cannot exist simultaneously . In any
moment when you remember who you are—that you are a child of God, at
one with Him and with all the universe—then your imposter self ceases to
exist. Allow yourself to be—with all your real desires and hopes and dreams—
and see the perfect shape of things to come. Breathe in the images and feel
the joy of their presence. Allow God in all His mysterious power to do the
rest. Dear God,  
Please deliver me to  
my own true self. Please make of my body  
a perfect container  
for who Y ou cr eated me to be. And teach me how to live within it  in happiness and peace. Amen
OceanofPDF .comLESSON 5
START A LOVE AFFAIR WITH FOOD
You probably read this chapter title over a couple of times thinking that
you’d caught a typo. Perhaps you thought I must have meant end your love
affair with food, not start one. But nope, you read it right the first time. It’ s
time for you to start a real love af fair with food. What you’ve had up to this point has been an obsessive relationship, and
an obsessive relationship is not love. Whether with a substance or with a
person, an obsessive relationship is a dance of the wounded … a carnival of
pain … but not a real love af fair, because ther e is no love ther e. To think
you need food that you don’ t really need, to practically inhale food, to crave
food, to obsess about food, to binge on and then alternately avoid food, to
control food and need to be rigid around it—none of these bespeak a love
affair. Pain and compulsion and self-hate are not love. The true lover of food is able to take time with it. She can savor  food,
and non-neurotically delight in it. She can chew it thoroughly and actually
taste it. She can eat without guilt and stop eating without too great an ef fort. She can celebrate how food is contributing to her health. She can wonder at
it and appreciate its beauty . She can linger over a fruit stand and study the
curves of a pear . She can gaze at a pomegranate and feel awe at the fact that
thousands of years ago, people ate these, too. She can shop for groceries
without wondering if anyone is watching her or judging her . She can gaze at
a pretty bunch of grapes and consider whether she’d prefer them in her
stomach or in a crystal bowl on her table. She can take one bite of
something delicious, ecstatically breathe in the taste, and enjoy waiting
before taking another bite. For her , the spaces in between each bite are part
of the joy of her experience. No, the compulsive overeater is no lover of food. When it comes to your
enjoyment of eating, your best days are not behind you but ahead of you.The eating patterns of an overeater are chaotic, fearful, furtive, and out of
control. And yet, these dysfunctional patterns are not your deeper problem. They are symptoms  of the problem. Y our deeper problem is the hysteria in
your gut—the silent, traumatized shriek of “I’m empty! Fill me! I’m empty! Fill me!”—the irrational and irresistible ener gy that has wormed its way
into your brain, stationed itself in your nervous system, and won’ t let go
until you’ve eaten the whole thing. This course is a plan in dissolving your
hysteria and filling your emptiness by replacing it with love. Years ago, after a spate of horrifying incidents in which high-school
students perpetrated acts of violence against teachers and classmates, I
noticed an interesting but, I thought, disturbing kind of discipline imposed
at my daughter ’s school. All of a sudden the students had not five minutes
between class but only two. Passing notes in class was punishable by
serious time in detention. Outdoor activities of all kinds were forbidden,
and “downtime” of any sort was also verboten. I lobbied the school administration, ar guing that while I myself worked
hard all day , every once in a while I needed to get up from my desk, stretch,
do something silly for five minutes, go get some air … take a break! Kids
are human and need that, too! In encountering the school’ s resistance to my ar gument, I realized what
had gone on here. This school—and perhaps others as well—had come up
with a plan to prevent and discourage negative socialization by suppressing
any socialization whatsoever . Don’ t let kids meet each other; something
awful might happen! Don’ t let them form relationships; they might hurt
each other! Don’ t let them relax; they might use the time to hatch some
awful plan! So, what is the plan her e? I thought. Train them to be
dehumanized zombies and then all will be well? My daughter left that school soon thereafter , but what stayed in my mind
was the odd irrationality of trying to keep kids separate from each other at
school. The answer to antisocial behavior among our children is not that we
suppress socialization, but that we teach and model positive  socialization
for them. For me, that’ s a really big “Duuuhh!”
So it is with dysfunctional eating. The solution to overeating is obviously
not to deny yourself food altogether; the answer is not to deny yourself at
all. Y ou don’ t need to for get food, run away from food, deny yourself food,
or avoid food. And the last thing you need to do if you want to stop thinkingobsessively about food is to tell yourself not to think about it! Doing so is
an invitation for such thoughts to overwhelm you. Food is not only your problem, it is also your teacher . It is a reflection of
an even deeper problem, an opportunity and an invitation to face that which
underlies your compulsive eating. Y our only real problem—everyone’ s only
real problem—is a separation from Divine Mind. Every step taken with
love in mind is a step back to it, and thus to who you really are. This course aims to put genuine love back into your relationship with
food: not counterfeit love, not substitute love, but genuine love. Love and
gratitude that food nourishes and sustains you. Love and gratitude that
meals can build bonds among families and friends. Love and gratitude that
food is something you have the right to enjoy , once you learn to relate to it
with divine detachment. Detachment means that you can take it or leave it; you can enjoy food if
you’re hungry , but you can leave it alone if you’re not. Love, as always, is
the key to making things right. By learning to love food, you will stop
obsessing about it. And the obsession, not the food, is your actual problem. Obsession, whether toward a substance or a person, occurs when you’re
open to giving and yet don’ t know how to receive. Y ou keep grasping for
more because you’re not feeling anything coming back. As a child, perhaps,
nothing was coming back, so now you keep trying to get more of something
you’re already convinced isn’ t really there. As you build a relationship with
food that does give back, you’ll begin to experience a relationship in which
love has replaced obsession. The only way to attain healthy neutrality toward food is by learning to
love it, and the only food you can really love is food that loves you back. Does a hot-fudge sundae love you, do you think? It’ s true that it can give
you a momentary high, but so can crystal meth. For me, a special char ge
from hot-fudge sundaes was connected to the fact that when I was a child,
my mother would always take me to Howard Johnson’ s for a sundae to
celebrate things like making a good grade or winning a contest at school. Unfortunately , my brain was then imprinted with the message that big wins
should be accompanied by a hot-fudge sundae. It took me years to
disconnect from that, and only recently did it occur to me that my mother
came up with this celebratory ritual as an excuse to indulge her desire forice cream! (Once you’re a mother yourself, you understand your own
mother so much better . …)
No, hot-fudge sundaes do not love me and they do not love you. They are
full of sugar and processed chemicals that bring us anything but love. Those
things feed cancer , increase cholesterol, decrease growth hormones, weaken
eyesight, interfere with protein absorption, cause food aller gies, contribute
to diabetes and cardiovascular disease, impair the structure of DNA, create
difficulty concentrating, reduce defenses against infectious diseases, lead to
osteoporosis, and more. I wouldn’ t call any of those things love. At the same time, this is not to say that eating a hot-fudge sundae is
forbidden for the rest of your life. It’ s simply to say that as you evolve to
your highest sense of self, you won’ t even want  to eat a whole hot-fudge
sundae; the experience will no longer feel like love to you. Foods that love you are those that contribute to your well-being. From
fruits to vegetables to whole grains, they make your body strong, fight
illness, produce great skin, and keep you functioning normally . Vegetables
make brain cells grow and function correctly , fruits provide healthy sugar
and give you ener gy, and whole grains can help reduce the risk of cancer
and cardiovascular disease. And in today’ s world, there are more and more
ways to find healthy food that is truly tasty . There might be healthier stores
and restaurants you pass by frequently that you just never thought of going
into … and now is the time. Your problem may not be that you eat so often, but that you do not eat
well. Particularly in today’ s world, while it’ s easy to eat poorly , it’s
unnecessary . Today we’re in the midst of a food revolution, and that is very
good news for the compulsive overeater . Restaurants now feature the best in nutritious, or ganic, even vegan,
meals. And even when they don’ t, you can learn to order from a menu in a
way that benefits you. Beautiful magazines feature healthy recipes and food
displays. Raw food, or ganic produce, and other optimal food choices
abound. Is it always easy , convenient, or inexpensive to make wise food
choices? Perhaps not. But let’ s be very clear: it isn’ t easy , convenient, or
inexpensive to be a food addict either . Once you know what it is and how to do it, healthy eating is not a
punishment but a reward. It’ s not time for you to give something up somuch as it is time for you to take something on. It isn’ t time to deny
yourself but rather a time to gift yourself with real nourishment and health. It’s sad to realize, but people who spend the most time with food tend to
not be those taking cooking classes, learning creative recipes, or even eating
the best meals. Even if the overeater is going to a fine restaurant in the
evening, the chances are good she will have stuf fed herself with so much
junk food by late afternoon that the actual succulence of eating a good
dinner and truly enjoying it will be denied her . By the time she eats the
meal, she’ll be feeding her psychological appetite perhaps, but not her
stomach because it’ s already full. When it comes to the actual joy of eating,
the overeater tends to be deprived. It’s time to change that. Let’ s begin your love af fair with food. This lesson comes with assignments, and all that matters is that you do
them. Even if you’re still eating unwisely while performing them, that’ s all
right. Don’ t wait to do these tasks until your overeating is under control,
since doing them is what stops the overeating! Y ou’re not repudiating old
habits now , but rather building new ones. And it takes time to build new
habits. The changes being ushered into your life with these lessons will take
a while to trickle down from your intellect to your nervous system, and
developing patience is part of the process. Impatience is nothing but the fear -mind trying to convince you it’ s
hopeless and therefore you shouldn’ t even try . It’s also the voice that tells
you to eat the next bite before you’ve even finished chewing the last one, so
remember that that voice is not your friend. You must be your friend now . And a friend is kind, so despite whatever self-disgust you feel, it is
important that you be kind to yourself. This isn’ t a course in self-discipline,
but in many ways it is a course in self-love. You’ve turned unhealthy eating into a ritual, a kind of magical and secret
ceremony in which you’ve looked to the darkness for what darkness cannot
provide. Y ou will learn to build a new ritual now: the ritual of healthy , wise,
non-secretive, and loving eating. It all begins with a beautiful napkin. Now in addition to thinking that’ s the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard,
you might also be thinking that you already have plenty of napkins, thank
you, and you do not need another one! Y our drawers might be brimming
with napkins—you might have inherited linen from your grandmother orbought an embroidered set from Italy or France. None of that matters now;
you need a new one. For the ones you have belong to the old you. It serves you at this point to understand the power of ritual. This course is
asking a lot of you … from making lists, to writing out feelings, to
procuring new items, to doing ceremony , and so forth. It is very much a to-
do kind of book. Y et these actions are not gratuitous; they form a specific
curriculum in fundamentally altering your mental habit patterns—thought-
forms that have had you forever looping back to very self-destructive
behavior . It does not matter how quickly you move through these lessons, but it
does matter how specifically and thoroughly you do them. Y ou are giving a
tremendous gift to yourself—even when you can’ t help thinking, Oh come
on, I have to do that? —if you simply do the lessons as they are described. If
they don’ t work, then they don’ t work. But if they do work, your life will
change forever . A new napkin is important; you can’ t build new rituals using tools that
represent the old. And the last person in the world who should be
discounting the power of ritual is someone who regularly performs the
rituals of secret and excessive eating: driving around in the middle of the
night aroused by the thought of food the way a heroin addict is aroused by
the thought of heroin; opening and closing the refrigerator a hundred times
in order to check whether Mommy’ s love might be in there now; and
scanning supermarkets for hours in a heightened emotional state just
looking at all the food, whether or not you’re going to buy anything. No,
don’t try ar guing that you’r e not into ritual. Nor should you discount the
notion of brain triggers, when it clearly doesn’ t take too much of a stress
factor to send you straight into the arms of food most likely to give you a
temporary high and then long-term despair . You will undermine your negative rituals by replacing them with sacred
ones. These will naturally lead to healthy eating, which will naturally lead
to weight loss. Amen. Back to the napkin. It must be beautiful, as beauty is sacred. And this
needn’ t cost you much money; you can buy a beautiful napkin for very
little, definitely less than you would spend on your next binge. Choose any
color and any style. Just make sure it’ s something you love.Next you’re going to buy a plate, and no, once again, the plates you
already have will not do. Just as Orthodox Jews have a dif ferent set of
dishes for Sabbath and holiday dinners—meals consecrated by God—so
you are going to obtain a sacred plate for use during this process. Y ou are
rehabilitating your food appetites by making them holy . I know you might feel that your relationship with food is so
dysfunctional … that your addictive patterns are so ingrained and have gone
on for so long … that there’ s simply no way to turn things around at this
point. Once again, if you had only yourself to rely on in order to make these
changes, then your anxiety would be justified. You are not alone, however . You have placed your problem in divine
hands, and divine power is transforming you. That is why you are turning
every step of your rebuilding process into a sacred experience. Y ou’re
taking every step with God in mind. You will interrupt old patterns by replacing them with something
beautiful and good. For where there is light, darkness cannot be. Where
there is a connection to the sacred, compulsion cannot stand. In the
presence of the real you, all that is not you will simply fall away . The elements that make up this lesson are these:
• One new , beautiful napkin
• One new , beautiful glass
• One or two new , beautiful plates
• One new , beautiful knife
• One new , beautiful fork
• One new , beautiful spoon
• One new , beautiful place mat
• Two candlesticks (they can be ones you already have)
• Two new , beautiful candles
• One beautiful piece of music, especially wonderful to play while dining
Your family members, friends, or whoever you might live with are not
being left out of this exercise, and you might wish to tell them that. The actof dedicating a single place setting is simply a response to the demands of
your own healing, and not anything you’re doing to separate yourself from
others. What is not allowed here are paper napkins; a paper or rubber place mat;
paper or plastic plates; or a plastic knife, fork, or spoon. All of those
suggest eating on the run, and one of the patterns we’re moving away from
is quick eating. Quick eating is a dangerous trigger for the compulsive
overeater . It triggers more quick eating, and quick eating means more food. Quick eating is a way of triggering a chemical rush and achieving an
addictive high. It is very important, in laying the foundation for the new
you, to cultivate a slower life. For by slowing down certain aspects of your
life, you’ll become a slower eater . And by eating more slowly , you are more
likely to eat well. A friend of mine told me about a dinner party she once attended in Los
Angeles, along with a woman who was eating so quickly that she could
hardly stuf f the food in her mouth fast enough. Referring to a city about an
hour outside L.A., a man at the table whispered to my friend, “She’ s eating
like Hitler ’s in Pomona.”
There are many reasons, certainly , for why you might eat like an army is
chasing you. Maybe you feel guilty about eating whatever you’re eating and
want to get it over with fast so no one sees you. Maybe you have so much
despair associated with eating anything that you eat quickly in an ef fort to
eat the despair . Maybe as a child you had to eat quickly simply in order to
get enough food. It doesn’ t matter the reason. Sacred ritual moves molecules, transforming
energy in both your mind and body . A beautiful napkin, a beautiful plate, a
beautiful glass, a beautiful knife, a beautiful fork, a beautiful spoon, and a
beautiful place mat will help you. Candles will help. And they are not
immediately going into your kitchen or even into your dining room. They
are going onto your altar , until you are ready to inhabit the ener gy they
represent. You will place everything on your altar in a beautiful array , as you
prepare a feast for the real you … the eater who has not quite arrived yet,
but is being beckoned as you read this. The you whose appetite is elegantly
aligned with the spirit within you. And part of how we beckon her is by
laying out her table setting and placing it on the altar .To paraphrase a well-known adage, set the table and she will come. Reflection and Prayer
Closing your eyes, see your altar and the table setting you have placed
upon it. Now see with your inner eye a vision of an angel arriving and
sitting before your new table setting. T o witness the beauty , to enjoy the
experience, to bless what is happening, to merely be. Allow yourself to
witness this for as long as you can. Perhaps the angel will invite you to sit as well, or perhaps you will find
yourself merely witnessing what is happening. Whatever you see, simply
allow the images to live within you. And pray …
Dear God,  
Please r ebuild my temple  
and r estor e my body . Please r epair my r elationship with food. May that which I have used to hurt myself  
become a blessing, and a blessing only , 
in my life. Help me to for give myself for my misuse of food,  
and teach me how to begin again. May I learn to eat in a holy way . Thank Y ou, God. Amen
OceanofPDF .comLESSON 6
BUILD A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOOD FOOD
When my daughter was a little girl, she had a very distinct way of
entering into social situations. If we went to a party or to a new school or
playground, she would stand very close to me, tightly hugging my leg and
not letting go. At the same time, she was intently observing the other
children, watching them closely as they went about their activities. When she felt she had seen what she needed to see, having absorbed
whatever information she needed in order to feel secure in joining in, she
would let go of my leg and enter easily into socializing with the other girls
and boys. There was no point in saying, “Go on, honey , play with the other
children!” as soon as we arrived, because she wouldn’ t. Yet there was never
a need to coax her either , because she would get there in her own time. She
simply had her process. She needed to see what was going on and sort of
feel her way into a situation. Then, when she was ready , she would go. I developed a great respect for my daughter ’s way of empowering herself
inwardly before moving into such situations. I saw how well it worked for
her. She had a child’ s way of simply knowing what her needs were and
honoring them naturally . In this lesson, we are honoring your need to both develop better eating
habits and move toward them naturally , gradually , and in your own way . As mentioned before, there is no need to wait until you’re doing well on
a diet, losing weight, or even enthusiastic about any of the lessons in this
course before doing them. They are meant to be your companion when
you’re eating well, and your companion if and when you’re slipping. Whether you’re feeling good or feeling despair , just keep on going. The last lesson introduced you to the thought that you’re beginning a
love af fair with good food. But the natural pattern of any love af fair is that
the initial high begins to wear of f; the real-life, day-in, day-out nature ofrelationships begins to settle in, and your mind is tempted to distraction by
something with more pizzazz. Like, say , a pizza or chocolate cake after all
that salad … or a bagel instead of another bloody apple. And it’ s okay that
you feel that way; if you didn’ t, you would not be human. So whether you’re eating cake or eating an apple, this lesson will usher
you into a real relationship with food, one in which not every day will
necessarily be a dramatic one, not every meal will of fer an ecstatic high,
and not every pain will be assuaged. But let me remind you that the
relationship with food you have now is not something that of fers such
comforts either … it just pretends to. The daily drama of an obsessive relationship with food is not the high
drama of nourishment and enjoyment, but a low , cheap, pain-filled drama. The ecstatic high of excessive and unhealthy eating is not a real high at all,
but a chemically triggered, addictive act of self-destruction. Y our pain is
assuaged by overeating for only a very short period of time, after which it
comes back exponentially . This course does not ask you to be free of
compulsion, but it does ask that you try to be more honest with yourself. Be
honest enough to know that while good food might seem boring right now ,
unhealthy or excessive food is not your friend. Once again, that does not mean to force yourself. If you’re making
yourself stop, you’re only going to start again anyway . Just open your eyes
to what’ s actually happening, and the day will come when you will simply
no longer wish to hurt yourself. Y ou will no longer want to overeat. Y ou
will be done with that, and something new will begin. Years ago I discovered that green grapes were helpful to me in cutting
down my sugar consumption. Friends told me that while grapes are a
natural substance, they still contain sugar . But there’ s no comparison
between the poison that is refined sugar and the natural sugar in ripe green
grapes. At that time I began a love af fair with grapes, which continues to this
day. But I didn’ t one day say to myself, “That’ s it! No more refined sugar!”
Rather , there was a gradual process by which I discovered what works for
me. I would eat green grapes along with  whatever refined sugar I was
eating. If I was eating a piece of cake, I’d put some green grapes on my
plate as well. I don’ t know why I did this. Like my daughter , I simply had a
natural knowing of how best to transition myself from one state to another .And so do you. In time, my body began to get its sweet kick from green grapes, maybe
not as kicky as from cake, but kicky enough. And after even more time, my
body began to register not only the kick of cake when I ate it, but also the
fog it brought to my mind, the manic state it would produce within me that
was then followed by physical sluggishness. I began to not want  to go there. My body had an innate knowing of what it really wanted, and when I gave
it the chance to regulate itself, then its natural intelligence and propensity
for self-care kicked in. I wasn’ t taking some authoritarian attitude toward my body: “Do this! Don’ t do that!” Rather , I worked with my body , making it an ally and not an
enemy in my healing. I honored my emotional need to withdraw only
gradually from my dysfunctional way of eating too much refined sugar ,
recognizing that my attachment to it had not formed in a day and would
need some time to wind down. And I gave myself the gift of introducing
into my system more healthy food choices, like I was showing up for a new
relationship. Which I was! A doctor once said to me, “Y our body doesn’ t want  to be sick.” And your
body doesn’ t want to be overweight. Just as your heart knows how to beat
and your lungs know how to breathe, your body knows how to calibrate its
weight to that which serves the maximal functioning of your body as a
whole. But artificial substances have created within you artificial appetites. When natural substances are reintroduced to your body , then your natural
appetites  will come again to the fore. And as with anything, you must give
them a chance. So it is that this lesson entails a trip to the store, to buy one thing and one
thing only . Your task is to buy a piece of fruit. You can buy any piece of fruit you choose. But there is a ritual to be
honored here, which is why it would be best—if you do not have to pick up
other things on this shopping trip—that all you purchase is this one item. And it’ s important, if possible, that you procure the fruit yourself rather
than having someone else pick it up for you. Y our being involved in the
entirety of the process will make the ritual more impactful. The first thing to do when you arrive home is to wash your fruit. The
second thing to do is to look at it. Simply sit down in a chair and look at it.Have you ever really looked at a pear before? Or a pomegranate? Or an
apple? Have you ever noted its specific coloring, or its shape, or its size? I once attended a couples’ seminar where the trainer made both members
of a couple just look at the other . Neither one was allowed to say a word. The exercise had to do with seeing  each other . And while it might seem that
there is little comparison between your ability to see another human being
and your ability to see a piece of fruit, there is, indeed, a connection. It
doesn’ t matter what it is you’re seeing; what matters is that you see. And
one of the reasons wholesome food seems boring to you, one of the reasons
it seems not enough to you, one of the reasons it seems less than delicious
to you, is because you’re not seeing  it. Is there anything man has created that can begin to compare with the
majesty of a mountain? Is there anything man has created that can begin to
compare with the beauty of a flower? Is there anything man has created that
can begin to compare with the power of a river or the force of a rainstorm? Then why is it that when it comes to food, people have developed this
ridiculous notion that we’ve somehow improved on God? That chemically
processed food is somehow preferable  to what nature has to of fer? There is perfection in nature, perfection in you, and perfection in food as
nature created it. Y our own perfection is invoked by nature’ s perfection. A
walk through nature calms and restores you emotionally , and natural food
calms and restores you physically . Once again, if you’re still compelled to eat chemically processed foods,
then eat them. The enemy is not the food, and the enemy is not you; the
enemy is your obsession to eat unhealthy food and to eat it excessively . And
that’s okay for now . The obsessive enemy will begin to dissolve as you
learn to become more of a friend to yourself. Going to the store and buying that one piece of fruit is a friendly  thing to
do for yourself. As you begin to really see the food, your relationship with
it will begin to grow . And this relationship will give to you in ways that you
cannot even imagine right now . Refined, chemically processed foods can give you a temporary high—
that is understood. But then, if eaten excessively , they give you discomfort,
sickness, despair , embarrassment, and self-hatred. Y ou know that, but take a
moment—just a moment—to truly think about what it means. Remember
that speed is your enemy , whether speed eating or speed thinking. Allowyourself to digest what it means that unhealthy eating is destr oying your
life. Natural foods—seasonal, plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts,
and whole grains—restore your body , revitalize your mind, give you
energy, make you more beautiful, slow the aging process, make you happier
with yourself, taste even better than the other stuf f once your taste buds
have been restored, and improve your relationships with others because of
all of the above. Don’ t even worry now about saying no to what you don’ t
want; just try to say yes—however weak and weary a yes—to what is
offered to you by nature’ s bounty . Thousands of years ago, hundreds of years ago—and in some places,
even today—people ate the food that they themselves grew . Food was part
of the natural cycle of life, not something just added on to an otherwise
harried existence. There was season, proportion, and rhythm to food’ s
presence in people’ s lives. And those people were not some other race of
being; they were your ancestors. The imprint of such naturalness is within
you, based on evolutionary imperatives created over millions of years and
imbedded within your cells. Your cells have not for gotten any of this; only you have. Animals
instinctively know what to eat, and so does the real you. Y ou’re not
listening to your body’ s wisdom when you eat unwisely; you are overriding
your body’ s wisdom when you eat unwisely . You’re listening to the chatter
in your mind but not to the imperatives of your body . And as you get to
know your body again, as you begin to relate to it with greater respect and
honor , then your relationship to its natural support system will grow
stronger as well. For that is what food is: the body’ s support system. It
maintains health and keeps the body alive. T o abuse it is to abuse your
body , and to abuse your body is to abuse yourself. As always, a connection to the sacred is the way to reweave yourself into
the natural harmonies of the universe. Knowing this, now take your piece of
fruit—representing all healthy food with which you wish to build a new
relationship—and place it upon your altar . Dedicate it in your heart to the
divine, which both created and sustains you. Give thanks for your creation
and for your sustenance, and pray to be returned to your right relationship
with food. That is all you need do. God will do the rest.Reflection and Prayer
Closing your eyes and taking a long, deep breath, allow yourself to sink
into the inner temple in your mind. There you will see your sacred altar ,
surrounded by beauty that is invisible to the mortal eye. First, see the place setting that has been sitting on your altar , and now see
the piece of fruit you’ve laid upon it. W atch as an image of the divine—
whatever image occurs to you—now appears before the fruit and blesses it. Then the being lovingly hands it to you. Having been in holy hands, the
fruit is now consecrated unto all that is good and healthy and wise and sane. See yourself take the fruit, and place it in your mouth. Allow the meditation to continue for as long as is comfortable. Listen to
any other message that Divine Mind gives you. W itness both the images
and the thoughts that illumine your mind as you do. Dear God,  
Please bless the food  
that sits befor e me. May it be filled with Y our spirit  
and may it feed me with Y our love. May it nourish me  
that I might help nourish others. May I never for get those who have no food. Dear God,  
please r emember them, too. Amen
OceanofPDF .comLESSON 7
LOVE YOUR BODY
Love, and love only , produces miracles. Y our primary work in doing this
course is to identify where there is a lack of love in your life, and be willing
to address it. That includes your love of self, and your body is part of who you are. If
you love your body when you’re thin but hate it when you’re not, then you
love yourself conditionally , which is not love at all. If you can’ t love your
body , you can’ t really love yourself. “But how can I love my body when I hate the way it looks?” you might
ask. Begin by asking yourself: What are you hating your body for? For being
overweight? It didn’ t do this to you; you did this to it! You haven’ t been
abused by your body; your body has been abused by you. And yet, unlike
you, it has continued to hold up its side of the relationship. It has continued
to function as best it can, even though you have made it harder . It has borne
excess pounds, even though it has been a burden to do so. And it has
continued to support you, even though you have often failed to support it. Is it your body you hate, or its size? And since all negative emotions
derive from fear , if you hate your body , you must fear something. What is
that? Do you fear ridicule? Or is your deeper fear—one that overrides your
fear of being overweight—a fear that you’ll be punished if you try to “play
big” in life? What an irony , that those who are physically the biggest could
be dealing with a fear of playing big. Again, what are you afraid of? Do you actually hate your body at all? Or have you simply learned  to
hate it because others hurt you so much when you were thin? Can you remember who the first person was who envied, hated, or
judged your body? Do you remember the moment you looked at your body
and made a quick decision to cover it up? W as the only way to feel you“belonged” in your family to eat as excessively as your parents and siblings
did? W as the only way to feel loved in your family to be as overweight as
they were? W ere you considered hoity-toity or stuck-up if you sought a
thinner , healthier body? W as there a particular person who either looked at
you strangely or said something of f-color when you were a child, making
you feel shame at the thought of a beautiful body? At what point did you
subconsciously decide that you didn’ t deserve to be thin? You can now rid yourself of the ghosts in your head. W ith God’ s help,
you can for give those who in their ignorance might have led you down a
path of pain. Y ou can now surrender your limiting beliefs. And you can
renew and revitalize all aspects of yourself. Your body has not done anything to you; it has merely reflected the
raging battlefield in your mind. W ith this lesson, try to for give your body
for what it did not do. That is the first step in for giving yourself for what
you did do. It’ s correct to say there’ s been a huge misunderstanding, and the
goal of this lesson is to repair and restore the relationship between you and
your physical self. When you were born, your body was perfect. Just as your spiritual self
expressed itself innocently and authentically at birth, so did your physical
self. Both spiritually as well as physically , the perfect imprint of your
original self has not been obliterated—it has only temporarily been covered
over by fear -laden thoughts. Y our mind and your body have the ability to
return to their spiritual programming when you yourself program them to
do so. Y our body never for got how to be perfect; you have merely resisted
its perfection. Just as there are rituals and brain triggers that produce overeating, there
are rituals and brain triggers that produce wise eating. These rituals and
triggers remind  the body of its original perfection, so it can return more
easily to its perfect form and functioning. Your relationship to food is related to millions of years of evolution, but
so is your relationship to your body . There is archaeological evidence—on
view at any museum exhibit of ancient artifacts—that thousands of years
ago people were adorning themselves with clothes, jewelry , and other forms
of decoration. The wish to appear beautiful is an ancient impulse, not some
trick invented by modern advertisers to mess with your mind. Y et there isample evidence that in various cultures throughout the ages, the idea of
beauty has been vastly disparate. For the purposes of this course, what we mean by beauty is what is
beautiful to you; the point here is that your desire to be beautiful is a natural
one, and a feeling to which you are entitled. Maybe you’ve been afraid of being thin as a result of a dangerous
experience in your past, and only now can you face your fear and replace it
with love. In fact, being thinner does not inherently make you vulnerable to
danger . Being overweight, however , does make you vulnerable … to
embarrassment, self-hate, discomfort, ridicule, and disease. Begin by making an apology to yourself—just a simple movement inside
your heart, asking for giveness for having mistreated such a divine and
magnificent gift as your physical body . Your body did nothing to deserve
mistreatment, nor did you. But patterns of self-abuse were set into motion
within you years ago, and now you must acknowledge these patterns, take
full responsibility for them, atone for them, and ask God to remove these
patterns so they can be cast out of your psyche. It’ s been a long time since
you knew the experience of healthy self-love, certainly in relation to your
body , and that is the miracle we pray for now . Let’s be very clear: If you are an addict, your mistreatment of your body
has been extreme. It has been violent. If you have any doubt about this, stop
for a moment, go into your bedroom, undress in front of a mirror , and take a
good look at yourself. There you will see the scars of war: stretch marks,
saggy bags of flesh produced by years of yo-yo dieting, maybe even
surgical scars. Physically as well as psychologically , you’ve been waging
war against yourself for a very long time. But now it is time for peace. Just as with your relationship to food, your
return to right relationship with your body is not something that can be fully
accomplished in an instant. It would be self-defeating to expect this
relationship to be fully perfected quickly after so many years of neglect. Y et
the truce can begin. Let’s make a start. This lesson involves some nice oil—even olive oil would do. Anointment
by oil is a ritual used throughout the Bible, carrying a deep spiritual
significance. W ith this lesson, you will anoint yourself with oil.From the bottoms of your feet to the tips of your fingers, allow yourself
to emotionally lean into your body , not recoil from it. In wishing to lose
weight, you want your body to do something wonderful for you—and as
with any relationship, it is wise to first give what you wish to receive. Give
to it. Rub the oil into your body with acceptance, with love if you can, and
with grief if necessary … but do not refuse it this gift. T ake time over every
inch of your body , paying attention to each limb, each curve, each scar , and
each joint. Do not rush. Accept, af firm, apologize, and for give. You are learning to begin again. Y ou are training your mind to give
proper attention and respect to your body—in how you feed it, how you
take care of it, how you adorn it, and how you use it. This ritual marks both
the end of an abusive relationship and the beginning of an honorable one. It would be unwise to perform this ritual in a messy bedroom or cluttered
bathroom. Both mess and clutter are reflections of a distressed mind, and
you deserve better from yourself. At least for now , clear up and beautify the
area in which you are going to douse your body with oil. Unless you are
standing in a shower , place a nice towel beneath you. Nothing with ragged
edges or stains, please. Y ou are developing the habits of beauty; the process
is as important as the goal, because the goal is ultimately inher ent in the
process. Remember that ancient kings and queens performed this ritual, and the
energy they were summoning when they did so—of grace, strength, power ,
and beauty—is the same ener gy you are summoning now . Such ener gy is an
eternal constant of the universe; it is not something that graces only a
precious few , but rather an ener gy that is summoned by whoever summons
it. A powerful, beautiful you is the real you, a being of light at the center of
the universe, placed there by divine auspices and rightfully proud and
dignified and joyful. No matter what the experiences of the world have
done to convince you otherwise, this is a course in reclaiming truths that
were always true. Having performed this ritual, wrap yourself in a towel, and when the oil
is dry , place a nice robe or other soft garment on your body . Sit quietly and
allow yourself to integrate the experience of reconnecting with your body . Meditate, play music, or do anything that brings you relaxation and peace.This is not a course in wishing that your body were dif ferent. It is a
course in loving your body as it is, knowing that in the space of that love it
will automatically and miraculously rise to its highest expression. Of itself,
it will self-correct. Now we continue. It is time to move your body . Overweight people have often given up on movement and exercise,
carrying a “What’ s the point?” attitude of resignation and despair . And that
is understandable. But it was a former you who had those attitudes, and the
old you produced a former body . Your body might still look the same, but
already it is not the same. A new you is emer ging now , and from it will
emer ge a new body . The real you loves to move, and so does your body
when it is allowed to express itself naturally . By reconnecting to your body ,
you are going to learn to listen  to your body . Once again, don’ t set yourself up for failure. This lesson does not ask you
to run a mile around the track or immediately go out and join a gym. T en
minutes of exercise you enjoy is better for you right now than an hour of
exercise you hate. Until you can get to a place where you feel good about
exercise rather than using it as an instrument of guilt, then you are not ready
for more. The purpose you ascribe to something determines its ef fect on
your life. Y ou cannot bully yourself into a process of self-love. Gradual  is
the word here, and patient is the process. You are simply asked to take a walk. Walking is often underrated. It increases your metabolism and helps
reconnect you to yourself. It gets your muscles moving, relaying to your
body a dif ferent message than it receives when you just sit around all day . It
puts you in your body . You’ve emotionally disowned your body for a long
time, and it’ s now time to own it again. As you walk, don’ t count calories. Don’ t obsess about how much it can
or cannot do to help you lose weight. This walk is not just about your body;
it’s about your spirit. It’ s about what you’re walking away from and what
you’re walking toward. Y ou are walking toward your destiny now … your
future, your beauty , and your happiness. It is in itself a ritual of rebirth. You’ve fed your body excessive food, perhaps, but too little true love and
care. And you will learn to change that now . A loving approach to eating
will develop more easily when you take a more loving approach to your
body in general.Stroll through a museum and look at paintings painted a hundred or more
years ago. Notice how people had such beautiful bodies … yet they didn’ t
belong to gyms! They didn’ t exercise as a separate part of life, gritting their
teeth but doing it anyway as a way to look good. No. Adequate movement,
which itself amounts to exercise, occurred naturally as simply a part of right
living. And that is what you want it to be for you. Exercise isn’ t some punishment you’re going to have to endure as a price
you pay for being thin. Instead, it’ s an aspect of right relationship with your
body , something you give to it in exchange for all it does for you. Y our
body wants  to move; movement helps your muscles, your heart, your lungs,
your brain. Give your body what it really wants, and it will give to you what
you really want. Speaking of ancient wisdom, yoga—a Hindu practice thousands of years
old—has a near -miraculous way of reconnecting body to spirit. It is a
powerful conjunction of physical and spiritual ener gy, and can be as gentle
or as strenuous as you make it. Y oga’s simple movements make it a
particularly good practice for the recovering overeater , as it begins with
basic postures that in a very easy way put you in touch with your own body . It restores your physical functioning in amazing ways, including your
appetite for food. Whether or not scientists have completely figured out
why it works so well, anyone who practices yoga has felt its benefits. Once again, you don’ t have to sign up for a series of classes, setting
yourself up to fail at something one more time! Rather , just start gently . There are links to yoga videos on the Internet, and yoga television programs
abound. Y ou don’ t have to begin with an hour class somewhere. Just get
yourself a yoga mat. Give yourself that gift. Watch a yoga video, and take just two minutes to try out one of the
postures you see on it. Those two minutes will provide a benefit that you
had not experienced yesterday . And as two turns to five, and then five turns
to ten, and ten turns to a genuine desire to attend a yoga class, your body
will awaken to the remembrance that it is part of a perfect universe. Your relationship to your body has been damaged, and there is no
pretending that it has not been. Like an estranged couple, you are now
seeking to reunite your inner and outer selves. And in the process—as you
rebuild your relationship with your body—you will reawaken to how
supportive of you it really is, how powerful it really is, and how lovely itreally is. It will take more than a day to achieve the kind of sweet and
delightful relationship with your body to which you are entitled, but you
have begun. As with any relationship, now you must feed it. Not just with
healthy food—but with kindness. And movement. And love. Place your bottle of oil on your altar as a sign of your anointment—
anointment of both body and soul. Reflection and Prayer
With your eyes closed, ask Divine Mind to guide you. See your body—
exactly as it is—walking toward you. Notice your reactions to it, and where
there is not love, see love begin to flow . Allow a mystical process of love
and for giveness to occur , as your soul begins to inhabit your body in a
whole new way . Allow your spirit to infuse your body , and witness now as
your body begins to reshape itself. See an elixir of golden light pouring
over your entire body . Feel the miracle of this new beginning. Breathe in
and out deeply , and surrender all. Dear God,  
May I for give my body , 
and may my body for give me. Repair my r elationship  
to this container of my soul. Forgive me for abusing it. Restor e my mind to sanity  
and my body to its pr oper shape. Miraculously heal me,  
dear God. I cannot do this by myself. Amen
OceanofPDF .comLESSON 8
SURRENDER TO THE DIVINE
Try to surrender to the divine not just in order to lose weight, but in order
to heal your mind. Although losing weight is your primary goal, the
monkey has to get of f your back before the pounds will fall of f your hips. An out-of-control appetite for food originates in your mind, not your body . While your mind is grasping hysterically for food, your stomach is often
moaning, “Please, no more.”
Almost everyone feels overstimulated at times … pressured … anxious
… frightened of something. Dif ferent people have dif ferent ways of dealing
with this anxiety , some of which are healthy and some of which are not. As
an unhealthy eater , you obviously eat unwisely in an ef fort to try to calm the
anxiety monster . You use food to achieve calm, yet the calm you achieve by
overeating is a temporary calm at best. The chemical reaction that goes of f
in your brain when you eat that cake or bread or whatever is no dif ferent
from the hit a drug addict receives when the needle pierces the vein. Y our
anxiety will always come back in full force, both through physical stress
and feelings of guilt. Your compulsion is like a roller coaster in a horror house, a carnival ride
of self-hate:
1. Anxiety:  “I’m anxious about my job [marriage, debt, or what have
you].”
2. Effort to achieve calm:  “I’ll eat this bag of chips.”
3. Anxiety:  “I can’ t believe I just ate those chips. Oh God, I hate myself.”
At this point, you’ve doubled your anxiety: you have the same situational
stress, plus the stress of having just fallen of f the food wagon. Now you’lleat more as a way to numb yourself, given the pain of this new dose of self-
hate. 4. Effort to achieve calm:  “I wonder what else there is to eat around
here.”
5. Anxiety:  “I feel so sick. And so screwed up. I really  hate myself.”
And the roller coaster continues. …
The only way to break this cycle is to deconstruct it. The only way to
truly tame your anxiety is to dissolve it. The only way to calm your hysteria
is to reach beyond it to the source of inner peace. And the only force
powerful enough to take you there and keep you there is Divine Mind. Many people call on God once a disaster has struck, yet the smart thing
to do is to call on Him even befor e a disaster strikes. Don’ t just pray once
your car has landed in a ditch; pray before you leave your driveway . Divine
Mind is not just your comforter after a problem occurs, but also a
preventive measure that helps keep problems at bay . Your task is to align
your mortal mind with Divine Mind, as fear can attach itself to the mortal
but not to the divine. When you call on Divine Mind, you’re not calling on a power outside
yourself. Y ou’re calling on a power that dwells within you. Spirit is a
perfection that lies within all things, both protecting against chaos and
reasserting harmony when chaos has happened. Spirit makes your weight perfect because it makes everything  perfect. Your weight is one of many areas of your life that will fall into divine right
order as you begin to give all things divine more attention and care. You can’ t get rid of your compulsion, but Spirit can. And most important
of all: once you ask it to, it will. It will remove your dysfunctional hunger
by feeding you what you really want. What do you really hunger for? Each day for three days, write this in your journal pages, 30 times in the
morning and 30 times at night:
Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love.Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, Please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love.Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right mind. T each me
how to love. Write this in your own handwriting rather than electronically . It is
important that you try to write the sentence a full 30 times every morning
and every evening, as the combination of writing and praying will have a
significant impact on your psyche. By saying this prayer , you’re not asking God to take away your desire for
food, and you’re certainly not asking Him to take away your hunger . What
you are asking is that He take away your craving—whether it’ s an obsessive
craving or a less obvious, more gentle yet ever -present sense of “gotta have
it”—so that the monkey you carry around on your back will get of f and stay
off forever . You might have built many dams to keep the water of your craving from
flooding your psyche and wreaking havoc on your internal landscape. Y et
always, ultimately , the dam would break and the water would come rushingin. Now we are asking God to reroute the water . To send it away and send it
away forever . Whatever you eat during the day , exercise the power of prayer by saying
inwardly to yourself, Dear God, please feed my hunger and r estor e my right
mind. Whether you’re eating celery or you’re eating cookies, just say the
prayer . Whether you think this is powerful or you think it’ s hogwash, just
say the prayer . Whether you’ve been doing this with every bite all day or
have only now remembered to do it, just say the prayer . Even if you’re eating an entire cake, you can still pray while you’re
eating. See in your mind’ s eye an angel sitting with you. The angel is not
there to judge you but to help you. The prayer might not bring an immediate
halt to your craving, that is true. But it will begin the dismantling process. One antibiotic pill doesn’ t knock out your infection on the first day ,
either—you have to take the whole round of antibiotics. If you have an
infection, you don’ t say after taking one pill, “I still have a cough, so
obviously this isn’ t working.” Prayer is spiritual medicine. It boosts your
spiritual immune system by increasing the depth of your surrender . Whether
or not you believe it works is irrelevant. It doesn’ t matter what you think
about surrendering to the divine. All that matters is that you surrender . Compulsive unwise eating is a battle you wage against yourself; Spirit is
the power that saves  you from yourself. It is a tincture of hope. When your
mind is surrendered to the source of all good, dysfunctional forces cannot
stand for long. Like physical exercise, spiritual exercise works if you do it. Surrendering to the divine is an issue of mental discipline, in which you
train yourself to put God first. This is not dif ficult; it is simply dif ferent. In
all things, spiritual surrender marks the end of struggle and the beginning of
true ease. In the moment when you are dealing with a compulsive ur ge, even the
deepest religious faith can be rendered inef fective by the power of
addiction. W ith this lesson, you learn to cultivate the mental discipline of
calling on God as a regular practice. Don’ t call on Divine Mind to help you
only in the hour of your need, but rather call on it as a way to cultivate and
maintain serenity . This lesson will help dismantle your resistance to doing
that. It empowers you to reach beyond your hysteria and ultimately dissolve
it, by reestablishing your connection to the source of inner peace.In the moments when you are not surrendered to love, you are bound by
fear. When you are not consciously and proactively calling down the light,
you are vulnerable to darkness. And it is light, not darkness, for which your
spirit yearns. Spiritually , you want to lose weight not just to become less
flesh, but to become more spirit. Every moment when you eat
inappropriately is simply a moment when you are starving for Spirit’ s love,
can’t find it where it actually exists, and therefore struggle to find it
elsewhere. You are learning to look into the eyes of fear and stare it down. T o reach
for Spirit and feel it reach back. T o pray for a healing of your mind and to
experience your deliverance. Y ou are waking up to your spiritual reality . One day you will walk up to the refrigerator , open the door , and find
yourself only looking for what’ s good for you. It will dawn on you that you
are behaving, without even thinking about it, along a new line. Y ou are
searching for healthy and appropriate food, and nothing else. There has
been a pattern interruption, something you didn’ t consciously make happen
through an act of will. It represents a new synapse, a new pattern emer ging,
and thus new hope. Y ou did your part, and God did His. Y ou gave Him your
heart, and He gave you a miracle. But you cannot ask for divine help in one area of your life without being
willing to surrender every  area of your life. Y ou can’ t just surrender food;
you must try to surrender every thought and feeling. For every thought and
feeling contributes either to your disease or to its healing. Spiritual surrender is a full-throttle willingness to let go of everything—
every thought, every pattern, and every desire—that blocks love from
entering into you and extending through you. If you’re unkind, that blocks
your healing. If you withhold for giveness, that blocks your healing. If
you’re dishonest, that blocks your healing. Every issue in your life is related
somehow to your struggle with food. Nothing is separate from who you are
and what you’re manifesting. And that’ s what makes this issue in your life
an invitation to become your most beautiful self—not only on the outside,
but on the inside, too. Remember to place your journal back on your altar when you are done. This will uplift the ener gy of your prayers.Reflection and Prayer
As you did in Lesson 3, close your eyes and see your body infused with
light. Once again, every cell is filled with an elixir poured forth from Divine
Mind. Spirit surrounds you as you release yourself fully into the arms of
love. Hold this image for at least five minutes. Breathe out your burdens and
breathe in the light. See it pour into your body and extend outward from
your flesh until you are bathed all around in a golden glow . Continue this
visualization for as long as it feels comfortable to do so. Continue with whatever food plan works for you. But whatever and
whenever you eat, surrender the experience to God. There is no way to fail
here. Whatever you eat, see it as a Divine experience, and in time the
experience will be transmuted. The point now is not what you eat or don’ t
eat, or whether you exercise or do not exercise. The point is to turn your
relationship with your body , with food, with exercise—with everything—
into a spiritual experience. Dear God,  
I know Y ou know  
that I need r epair . I am so r emoved  
from the wisdom of my body
and the love in my heart  
when it comes to food. I am overwhelmed by the thought  
of healing myself,  
and so I pray , dear God,  
that Y ou will do this for me. Change my thoughts,  
heal my cells,  
repair my appetites,  
restor e my body . Such praise I give,  
and thanks, dear God. AmenOceanofPDF .comLESSON 9
INHABIT YOUR BODY
I don’ t remember , when I was very young, either hating my body or
loving it. I simply remember inhabiting it with a child’ s natural innocence
and enjoyment. As a little girl, I remember joyfully parading around my
house in ruf fled underwear . I remember wearing a bikini—we called it a
“two-piece” then—and having no breasts yet to fill it out. I remember being
so little (or so T exan) that we didn’ t call it “naked,” we called it
“nekked!”—and there was nothing sexual or shameful about it. Later , however , something happened. It didn’ t happen for me in one
traumatic moment; it happened gradually and insidiously , as it does for
many people. I was never molested as a child or physically or emotionally
traumatized by a specific event. But an accumulation of toxic moments
became an oceanic wave of anxiety that permeated my mind and turned my
body into a point of confusion. For reasons that remained buried within my subconscious for a very long
time, I came to emotionally disown my body . Twisted thought-forms came
into my mind via so many sources, both personal and cultural, that the only
way I knew how to cope with them was to disown the part of me they
referred to. What had once been a thing of pleasure became a painful
subject. I simply dissociated from what I couldn’ t figure out. My body
became like a house I no longer lived in. For some people, dissociation from a natural and healthy sense of their
body occurs as a result of a traumatic event or experience. For others,
adolescence itself is traumatic. It ultimately doesn’ t matter so much how the
trauma occurred, as much as that you repair the gaping wound it left within
you. Whatever is broken in your body began with brokenness in your heart. Being a food compulsive, the chances are very good that the history of yourrelationship with your body is complicated; with this lesson, you will
identify your wounds in order to best address your pain. The criminality of rape, molestation, and so forth—as well as our need to
protect against such transgressions as a society—has been well established. But the lesser assault of toxic thought-forms can lead to serious
consequences as well. Whether your personal history involves sudden
trauma or gradual trauma, your task is to understand it so it can be healed. As an example, on the next several pages I have listed the personal
history that led to my own dissociation from my body . Your list will be in
some ways dif ferent from and perhaps in some ways similar to mine. One
thing most of us do share is a psychological crisis that came to a head
around the age of puberty . Thoughts of innocence turned to thoughts of
pain, and that which was healthy began to be sick. Sick Thought #1: My body isn’ t good enough.
_OceanofPDF.com_A_Course_In_Weight_Loss_-_Marianne_Williamson.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        And you are shifting your sense of reality from a narrow-
minded focus on what exists in the physical world to the broad-minded
embrace of what exists in the realm of Spirit, for what exists in the realm of
Spirit is in fact more real. Perhaps the fear -mind will taunt you. “This is three-dimensional reality,
Buster. This is real. You may as well accept  it. ” But for the purposes of this
visualization, know that you don’ t have to accept it. The masters of
metaphysical transformation have realized this secret of the ages: that the
physical dimension is just one dimension, and it is the follower, not the
leader, of the others. Mind, spirit, and imagination rule—if you will allow
them to. In order to succeed at this course, own the power of your imagination. Do
not be limited in any way at all  by what you think of as possible, probable,
or logical. No one and nothing can limit your power to imagine what you
want. You want a beautiful body. Go for it. Imagine it. Allow the image to
permeate your consciousness. Embrace it. Do not hold it at bay. You want a
bodybuilder ’s physique.
The focus of this course is to help you build a healthy and loving relationship with food and your body.
According to the text, what is the focus of this course?
The author does not agree with suppressing or denying oneself food, as this is not a sustainable or healthy solution.
What is the author's perspective on the idea of suppressing or denying oneself food?
The author advises against suppressing or denying oneself food, and instead suggests embracing a loving and healthy relationship with food, focusing on nourishing the body with wholesome and natural foods.
What is the author's advice on how to change one's eating habits?
The author does not condone trying to control or manipulate one's body, but rather encourages a loving and accepting relationship with one's physical form.
What is the author's stance on the idea of trying to control or manipulate one's body?
The author emphasizes the importance of surrendering to the divine and seeking spiritual guidance, rather than trying to control or suppress one's emotions or body.
What is the author's approach to overcoming anxiety and compulsive eating?