It’s less important how quickly you lose weight, and more important how
holistically  you lose weight; you want your mind, your emotions, and your
body to all lose weight. W eight that disappears from your body but not from
your soul is simply recycling outward for a while, but is almost certain to
return. It’ s self-defeating, therefore, to struggle to drop excess weight unless
you are also willing to drop the thought-forms that initially produced it and
now hold it in place. Judgment and blame are the weightiest thoughts of all, as they lack love. They are products of the fear -mind, representing the densest ener gy in the
universe—the perception of someone’ s guilt. Learning to for give both
yourself and others is the greatest gift you can give yourself on your path to
conscious weight loss. Compulsive eating separates you from others, and for giveness heals the
separation. Once again, you might have wonderful connections with people,
but any breakage at all is a place where the devil can get in. Unless you
address your relationship issues themselves, then they will always lurk in
the back of your mind, able to trip the addictive switch back to ON at any
time. In order to deal with your weight loss from a holistic perspective, you
must address your issues with relationships as seriously as you address your
issues with food. Losing weight will not of itself heal your relationships,
but healing your relationships will help you lose weight. Forgiveness is critical, as we all make little as well as big mistakes, and
little as well as big judgments. Cultivating a for giving attitude softens theedges of human contact. It’ s an aspect of what is called the Atonement, or
the correction of our perceptions from fear back to love. The purpose of this
lesson is to atone for any lack of for giveness on your part, releasing excess
weight that lies heavy on your heart. There are two basic filters through which to view all things: the filter of
the body , and the filter of the spirit. T o the extent that you view your life
only through the body’ s filter , you are bound to the body in a way that does
not serve you. Being bound to the body , you are at the ef fect of the body’ s
appetites. But when your eyes are lifted, giving you the capacity to see
beyond the body to the realm of your spirit, you’re given power over your
body that otherwise you do not have. Dwelling lightly within your body ,
your body becomes light. And how do you do that? How do you see beyond  the body? Y ou do it by
being willing to extend your focus beyond the dramas of the material plane,
remembering that beyond this drama there is the truer truth of who we all
are. Yes, a friend might have said something cruel to you—but in her heart,
she’s simply lost and lonely like everyone else. Y our friend does love you;
she was just disconnected from her love at the moment when she made that
hurtful comment. No matter what happens to you, you have a choice as to how to interpret
it. You will make that choice—consciously or subconsciously . You can
focus on the body’ s drama—your friend’ s unkind words, her mistake, her
betrayal. But if you do, you won’ t be able to escape the emotional
experience of being at the ef fect of her words. By choosing to focus on the material drama, particularly the drama of
guilt, you increase your attachment to the material plane and thus your
vulnerability to its dysfunctions. Y ou for give because you wish to stay
above the dramas of the material world, particularly the drama of your
compulsion. You can choose to focus on the innocence in your friend—on her divine
reality that is beyond, and truer , than her bodily self. All of us are made of
love, yet all of us make mistakes. In detaching from an overemphasis on
someone else’ s mistakes, you detach from an overemphasis on your own. And in overemphasizing your mistakes, you overemphasize your body . As
you reach across the wall of separateness—and there is no wall thicker thanthe wall of judgment—then the wall comes down. That is the miracle of
forgiveness. Forgiveness is like preventive medicine. It cancels out the lie at the
center of the fear -mind, robbing it of its ability to hurt you. The fear -mind
jams your personal radar system, disconnecting you from Divine Mind and
leading you toward thoughts and behaviors that destroy your inner peace. It
tells you that you are less than perfect, tearing you from the memory of
your divine self. From there, it’ s easy to convince you that no one else is
divinely perfect either . Fear-mind’ s mantra is: Guilt, guilt, and mor e guilt. It casts you into
judgmental consciousness—whether judgment of yourself or others—
dooming you to an emotional seesaw ride between love and fear . That
seesaw is emotionally unstable, and is one of the biggest threats to your
food sobriety . The fear -mind doesn’ t have to convince you to eat excessively so much
as it just has to convince you that someone is guilty , for the perception of
guilt is enough to throw you out of your right mind and thus into your
disease. An attitude of for giveness takes you of f—or keeps you of f—the
seesaw . Forgiveness is a selective remembering. It is a conscious choice to focus
on someone’ s innocence instead of his or her mistakes. In common
parlance, it usually amounts to simply cutting people more slack. This
serves you. Judgment and blame put stress on the body of whoever is doing
the judging and blaming, and stress is the time bomb at the center of your
addictive ur ge. It is in “staying above” the drama of the body that you dwell more
harmoniously within it. Y our body was not created to bear the burden of
your overattachment to it, but was created as a container for the light of
your spirit. It will more easily remember how to function perfectly when
you remember the perfection in everyone. Forgiveness is hugely powerful yet often fiercely resisted. A young man I
knew in an AIDS support group years ago once asked me, “Do I really have
to for give everybody? ” To which I responded, “W ell, I don’ t know … do
you have the flu, or do you have AIDS? Because if you only have the flu,
then, heck, just for give a few people … but if you have AIDS, then, yes, try
to for give everybody!”You certainly wouldn’ t ask a doctor , “Do I really have to take all the
medicine? T ake the entire round  of chemo? Can’ t I just do some  of it?” Nor
would you say , “Doc, can I just take the medicine when I feel bad?” No,
medicine is medicine. And you respect it enough to take the amount you
need. Forgiveness is more than just a good thing. It is key to right living and
thus to your healing—not just to be applied every once in a while, but to be
aimed for as a constant. None but enlightened masters achieve for giveness
all the time, but the ef fort itself keeps the arrows of attack at bay . Holding
on to judgment, blame, attack, defense, victimization, and so forth are
absolutely attacks on yourself. And you attack yourself with food. As you for give others, you begin to for give yourself. As you stop
focusing on their mistakes, you will stop punishing yourself for your own. Your ability to release what you think of as the sins of others will free you
to release yourself, putting down that particular weapon with which you
punish yourself so savagely . Forgiveness releases the past to divine correction and the future to new
possibilities. The past can’ t hurt you unless you bring it in the present with
you, and for giveness is a way of letting it go. Nothing anyone has ever done
to you has permanent ef fects unless you hold on to it permanently . Your first task with this lesson is to identify those whom you have not
forgiven. Know that even the slightest annoyance with someone is enough
to throw your system out of divine right order . Do not just focus here on the
people who have deeply betrayed or wounded you; think about even those
who, for reasons that are seemingly small, still tempt you to withhold your
love from them. For wherever you withhold your love, you deflect your
miracle. Use your journal pages to list the names of all people whom, in your
heart, you know you still judge. They can range from a parent to a political
figure. Y our anger at them, not who they are or what they have done, is
what matters. When a name occurs to you, write it down, along with the
feelings you associate with that person—anger , hurt, betrayal, contempt,
fear, and so forth. Explore your feelings as deeply as you can, and try not to
rush through the process. After you’ve explored your lack of for giveness,
write down these words: “I am willing to see this person dif ferently .” Write
that sentence three times, as it is very important.Painful circumstances can form a veil over your eyes, making it dif ficult
to appreciate others’ divine innocence when their behavior was so contrary
to it. By expressing a willingness to see them dif ferently , you call on the
power of Divine Mind. Y ou’ll receive divine help as long as you’re willing
to for give. Y ou’ll receive a reminder of who those people really are, beyond
the things you don’ t like about them. Sometimes all you need is a tweak in
consciousness—a reminder that you’re blaming someone for something that
you yourself do all the time, perhaps—and sometimes you need
otherwordly help in lifting a burden otherwise too hard to bear . From abandoned spouses to victims of the Holocaust, I’ve heard of
miraculous changes in the hearts of those who prayed for such help and
received it. Sometimes for giveness is a small thing, and sometimes it is
huge. Y et for giveness isn’ t simply a gift you give someone else; it is a gift
you give yourself. The density and pain of your negative feelings toward
anyone is a weight you carry . And you are learning to live a lighter life. This awakening involves realizing the light in others and also the light in
you. Sometimes the person you most need to for give is yourself. All of us
are human, and most of us have done something we regret. W e all carry
walls in front of our heart, and we all feel guilt when we have wronged
someone. Looking at your own transgressions and atoning for them is an important
part of your healing. For whether it’ s conscious or not, any guilt you carry
has made you feel on a deep level that you deserve punishment. And
overeating is one of the ways in which you have punished yourself. Let’ s
get the trial started so we can get you acquitted right away . Write down the names of everyone you think you’ve wronged, every
mistake you feel you’ve made, every regret you still carry . Apologize in
your heart for any transgression toward others or toward yourself. Look at
each name or event, then prayerfully release it into the hands of God. Say
aloud, to yourself or to the memory of anyone to whom you owe an
apology: “I am sorry .”
It’s tempting to ignore or minimize old transgressions, thinking, Oh well,
it was a long time ago. …  As intent as the fear -mind is at monitoring the
wrongs of others, it is exceptionally good at getting you to overlook your
own. Someone might have hurt you 15 years ago and you’re still talking
about it—but you might have hurt someone else  15 years ago and haven’ tthought about it for the last 14. But until an unloving ener gy is
acknowledged and atoned for , it remains an active toxin poisoning your life. Amends that are 20 years late are still amends that need to be made. If
you hurt other people, then even if they don’ t consciously remember what
you did to them, they carry the pain within their cells. And so do you. On
the level of spirit, we are all one, and what you have done to hurt someone
else is a hurt you carry within yourself. It can be very humbling to reach out and apologize. It can be
embarrassing at first to admit your own mistake. Y et such moments as these
are moments of mastery , freeing you from the prison of your own insanity . You have atoned for your error , and you are free to begin again. Your willingness to make amends to those you hurt in the past carries
with it more power than a thousand diet plans. The fear -mind is a false
sense of oneself as an isolated and separate human being. Whenever you
make amends for having harmed another , you acknowledge that you are not
separate—that there is more to life than your own drama. Y ou acknowledge
that another person’ s experience is as important as your own, and you
realize that by hurting someone else, you have hurt yourself. This shift in your thinking—from ignoring your own transgressions to
admitting them and being willing to make amends where appropriate—is a
miracle that produces practical consequences in your life. As you reach
across the wall of separateness, the wall begins to come down. The fear -mind would ar gue that for giveness has nothing to do with your
weight or with your food issues, but if anything should be clear by now , it’s
that the fear -mind lies. Y ou’re beginning to realize that underlying every
problem in your life is a false sense of separation, between you and others
and between you and your true self. Any path to permanent weight loss addresses your sense of isolation and
the despair it spawns. Keeping love at bay , you’ve kept the healed and
peaceful you at bay . In for giving others, you’re finally free to experience
the joy of feeling close to them—with no wall between you necessary . And
in for giving yourself, you realize you deserve to look as beautiful on the
outside as you’ve remembered, at last, that you are beautiful within. Reflection and PrayerDo this meditation regarding any and every person from whom you are
separated by unfor giving thoughts or feelings. Take a deep breath and close your eyes. Now see with your inner eye a vision of that person standing on the left
side of your mind. See his or her body , clothes, mannerisms, and way of
being in the world. Now see a great light in the middle of that person’ s
heart, spreading to cover every cell of the body and extending outward
beyond the flesh and into infinity . Watch as the light becomes so bright that
his or her body begins to fade into shadow . Now gently see a vision of your own body on the right side of your inner
vision. Here, too, see your mannerisms, your clothes, your way of being in
the world. And see the same divine light in the area of your own heart,
moving outward to cover every cell of your body and extending into
infinity beyond the confines of your flesh. W atch as the light grows so
bright that your body begins to fade into shadow . Now slowly move your inner eye to the middle of your field of vision,
where the light from deep within the other person and the light from deep
within you begin to mer ge. Simply look, and allow yourself to witness this
divine oneness. The joining that you see her e is the ultimate r eality of love. Spend as much time as you can with this vision each time you do it,
hopefully a minimum of five minutes. It carries the power of a holy truth
impressed on your subconscious mind. Do this meditation again, making both people your own self. Pray for a
divine reconciliation between who you’ve been and who you really are. Rest deeply into these images, and allow their illumination to cast all
darkness from your mind. This is the highest reconciliation of all: you with
the real you. Dear God,  
Please teach me to for give 
myself and others. Remove the walls  
that keep love out,  
behind which I am prisoner . Heal my guilt  
and r emove my anger , that I might be r eborn. Make gentle my heart  
and str ong my spirit  
and show me how to love. Amen
OceanofPDF .comLESSON 18
HONOR THE PROCESS
There’ s a possibility that you’re sick of this course by now . You might
not have even made it to this point; you might just be picking up the book,
opening it wherever , and simply happen to be reading this. Y ou might be
thinking that it’ s all too hard, too confronting, or even a bunch of nonsense. You might not have seen any real changes on your scale or in your mirror
yet, and have decided that by Lesson 18 you should be having some
success. Clearly this is not a miracle, and you might as well just for get it. See how the fear -mind works? That’ s how the fear -mind works in everyone. For one person, she
shouldn’ t even try to finish writing that novel, because she never will and
she’s not a good writer anyway—according to the fear -mind. For another ,
he shouldn’ t even bother going to that interview because he’ s been out of
circulation too long, and companies are only hiring younger people anyway
—according to the fear -mind. For another , she shouldn’ t even try to dress
up and look nice, because she’ s not attractive anyway—according to the
fear-mind. The fear -mind lives in everyone, but it speaks dif ferently to all
of us. T o you, it just happens to be obsessed with your weight, because you
are. Learning to live with the common disappointments and failures of the
human experience—particularly with how the fear -mind interprets them—is
key to developing spiritual mastery . Mastery doesn’ t mean you get to the point where nothing ever goes
wrong; it means you get to the point where you can endure and transform
what’ s wrong. Mastery means you rise up more often than you sink in life,
not because in you there is no undertow , but because you’ve learned to
swim well. Y ou’re spiritually strong and in shape. Y ou’ve developed yourattitudinal muscles, and they can carry you when you’re feeling the
gravitational pull of whatever your temptation might be. Mastery is not superhuman, but deeply human; embracing rather than
resisting the realization that on certain days you’ll feel like master of
nothing and slave to lots of things. Do not let the fact that you have fallen
off the wagon, are falling of f the wagon, haven’ t lost any weight yet, can’ t
stand to do the lessons, or still feel like a big fat loser deter you. This is all
part of the process. And your success is guaranteed. Now the fear -mind gets really activated. “What do you mean,  my success
is guaranteed?! Guaranteed by whom? ” Almost as in, how dare I say that? But it’ s my faith—and you can lean on mine if you wish—that God will
wipe away every tear , that He will outwit all self-hatred, and that in Him is
the victory as soon as we give to Him the fight. None of that means that every day will be a happy one. Serious weight
loss is a deeply transformative experience; you’re breaking a chain that has
held you tight for a very long time, and it’ s only reasonable to expect that
some days will be harder than others. This is not just a physical battle; it is a
spiritual battle. The fear -mind has robbed you of your self-control … and
God is taking it back. Winston Churchill famously told British troops during W orld W ar II:
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is,
perhaps, the end of the beginning.” This course is not something that is all
over in 21 lessons. It is a means to weight loss and also weight-loss
maintenance. What it lays out is not a goal so much as a process by which
the goal will be achieved. Y ou do not do it solely to lose weight, but in
order to become the most shining expression of who you are as a human
being. If your only goal is to lose weight, then hopefully you will do so, but
you’ll still be left with other issues to deal with that cannot be denied. Issues in your life seemingly unrelated to weight have accumulated around
your relationship to food. In any moment when you feel overwhelmed by a passion to overeat,
remember that the passion itself is not the problem. The problem is that in a
moment of insane eating, your passion for life is displaced onto something
that doesn’ t give you life but rather sucks life from you. This course isbuilding a detour , redirecting your passion away from food and back to
God. To which the fear -mind says, “Screw you. I won’ t do it.” Just want to
make sure you realize that. The mind cannot serve two masters, and never
in your life has the choice between the two been so clear . In any moment,
you are either host to God or hostage to the fear -mind. It is not enough to
say no to a life of fear; you must say yes to a life of love. As long as you try
to stay neutral, you will overeat. Weight is your crucible. It’ s the place where you experience the final
spiritual battle between the forces of fear and the forces of love—in
psychological terms, between dysfunctional appetites and healthy impulses. The decision you are making is not just whether you’ll rise from the hell of
your compulsion, but whether you’ll rise into the heaven of all the joy-filled
possibilities that await you. The fear -mind leads to suf fering as sure as
Divine Mind leads to joy . The various ways people anesthetize themselves
today—whether through substances or pharmaceuticals—is a wail from the
deep: “Please don’ t make me have to choose.”
But choose you must, for the zone of false neutrality has become
increasingly unsustainable for you. Y ou will see the light of your true being,
and your only choice is what path you take to get there. So merciful is the
universe that even a path of darkness includes a way back to light. Peacock
feathers are made by peacocks eating and then digesting thorns. Y ou have
been eating the thorns of addiction and compulsion for a very long time;
now you’re spiritually digesting them, inwardly preparing for their
transformation from something ugly to something beautiful. There is a line in the New T estament that states: “What man intends for
evil, God intends for good.” Divine Mind will not simply cast out your
compulsion; it will use it to take you higher than if you had never
experienced such depths. Y ou will emer ge from this experience no longer
compulsive about food, yes. But you will also emer ge filled with a light that
you can only cast because you digested such darkness. Such is the greatness
of God. Do not be emotionally defeated by whatever time it takes for old patterns
to transform. Do not look to the mirror for confirmation of your faith. When
a woman is first pregnant, the outer eye cannot see it, but it will in time. Your mirror can show changes in your body , but it does not show changesin your mind. On any given day , the mirror shows you what your thinking
was yesterday , but it’ s what’ s happening in your heart today that creates
what your life will be tomorrow . You decrease your body weight by
expanding your mind. A spiritual process is not a quick fix; it is a miracle imprinted on you by
Divine Mind. It is help that is brought to you from beyond this world. It is
nothing that you yourself can just “make happen,” but you can honor the
mysterious process by which it does. To the fear -mind, the very concept of spiritual mystery—particularly
related to weight loss—seems ridiculous. The fear -mind is attached to the
body , and wants to make sure that you are attached to it, too. If the body’ s
eyes don’ t register improvement in your weight, the fear -mind will say ,
“See? See?” And if the body’ s eyes do register improvement, the fear -mind
will say , “Ah! But it will not last!”
What could be a more worthy endeavor than giving time every morning
and evening to quieting the fear -mind? T o listening instead to the voice for
God? Y ou won’ t feel overwhelmed by the void once you fill it with the
divine. It does not matter how long it takes. It does not matter how many times
you might have succeeded then failed, succeeded then failed. Y our direction
is sure at last, for you have given it over to a divine authority . Your motivation is dif ferent now , and that will make all the dif ference:
you are on a quest to find the holy grail of the authentic you. Y ou are
climbing above the turbulence of your compulsive eating not only because
you want to lose weight, but because you want the serenity found only at
higher altitudes. Up there, there will be no monkey on your back, for
monkeys cannot live that high. Every time you get it right—no matter how lar ge or small your victory—
you are asserting your spiritual power and regaining authority over your
life. Whether it’ s turning away from ice cream or putting on your gym
shoes when you absolutely don’ t feel like it, you are winning. You are experiencing the force of your true self—the self that’ s healing,
that’s transforming, that’ s rising above, that’ s becoming sober around food. The positive act was an example of the real you blazing the way , if even for
a moment, through the veils of compulsion into full embodiment. The anti-
gravitational pull of grace is luring you upward.And for that, we rejoice. One moment of truth—and the real you is truth
—reprograms a thousand years of lies. A new condition is making its way
into your experience. Even the slightest right-minded thought or action—”I
am passing by the refrigerator , but I am choosing not to open it”; “I do not
numb myself with overly processed foods, because I choose to be more
fully available to my life”; “My body is a holy temple, and I want to feed it
healthy and nourishing food”; “I am shining and radiant in spirit and my
body reflects that”—bolsters the process by which new appetites and new
patterns of behavior are being formed. Try your best to be patient during this process. Support yourself by
avoiding situations that would be likely to tempt you into addictive
behavior . You deserve the same support from yourself that you would give
any friend or family member whom you love. Be supportive enough of yourself to say “No” when the most powerful
move would be to say “No.” Not only to avoid the food, but to af firm the
most powerful you. “No, I will not go over to the dessert table. No, I will
not go out tonight because I know that group will just sit around eating. No,
I will not buy that bag of chocolate.”
And be supportive enough of yourself to say “Y es” when the most
powerful move would be to say “Y es.” “Y es, I will check out kale salad
even though I’ve never eaten that kind of food before. Y es, I will pick up
that yoga video today . Yes, I will take a walk in the park and allow my body
to feel more healthy and productive.” Even the smallest ef forts can have
huge ef fects. Some of those ef fects go way beyond weight loss, influencing your
thinking about other things as well. For instance, this situation has given
you an opportunity to realize more fully the suf fering that many people go
through every day of their lives. For suf fering gives you x-ray vision into
the suf fering of others. Y our own ef forts at transformation have made you
understand more deeply both the pain as well as the redemptive
opportunities of the human race. Through your suf fering, you will come to
have real wisdom; and through your wisdom, you will come to know joy . But are you ready for joy , really? Are you ready to be the person who
does not suf fer from this compulsion? Who does not obsess about food? Who does not act against your own self-interest in such a pernicious way? Are you ready to let go of not only the behavior of overeating, but also thevery consciousness of the person who overeats? Are you ready for food to
no longer even be a big deal  in your life? Are you ready to be spiritually
born anew into the light of your true being as a child of the divine, over
whom such darkness as food compulsion holds no sway? Are you ready to
let go of the psychological and emotional habits, not just the physical ones,
that have fueled your compulsion? These are the questions life puts in front of you now . If your answer to all
of them is a passionate yes, then you are on the path to rebirth. And even if
it’s a weary yes, your way forward is guaranteed. Now your assignment is to write a letter . It’s like a Dear John letter to the
imposter who’ s been masquerading as you, the person who sneaks into the
kitchen to eat whatever she can find, who gets into the car to scour the
neighborhood for whatever is open so she can get some food, who cannot
control herself when food is present in the room, who hides in big clothes
and cannot bear the sight of the mirror . She isn’ t you; she’ s just an illusion
of you who has snuck her way into your three-dimensional reality and will
leave the instant you command her to. When Jesus said, “Satan, get thee
behind me,” that’ s what he meant. Even in a moment when you’ve given in and begun to overeat, realizing
with horror that you’re headed down that dark and slippery slope, don’ t
despair . When you hear your fear -mind ar guing, “W ell, I already ate the
cake, so I may as well go for the M&M’ s. Why bother to stop now? I
already messed up, so I may as well continue,” own your power and
command her to leave. Refusal to eat the first bite of cake is not your only chance for a moment
of power . It’s just as significant when, having eaten the cake already , you
can refuse the second piece, or the entire bag of M&M’ s sitting in the
cabinet. Any point of the process is a moment of power , if it’ s a moment of
conscious choice on behalf of your sane and self-loving self. Say out loud: “In the name of God, I command that you leave.” Y ou
don’t have to believe me that this works; you will find out for yourself.The letter you now write is both a command and a good-bye. It is a
leave-taking, a statement of independence from a master you will no longer
allow to enslave you, and with whom you no longer agree to conspire. The letter , once written, belongs on your altar . It includes three parts:
1. Why I allowed you to live in me, and the ways that I said yes to you:
Example:  As much as I hated you, you wer e something I could hide
behind. I didn’ t have to r eally show up for my life, because I always had
an excuse why this or that wasn’ t a real option for me. In hiding behind
you, I didn’ t have to face my fear of being skinny and beautiful and r eally
participating in life. 2. Why I no longer need you, and what I have come to r ealize:
Example:  I have learned that ther e is str ength within me that I never
knew I had. I have r ealized that ther e is a Divine spirit in me, and I serve
no one by r efusing it. It is a gift fr om God and it is humble, not arr ogant,
to live in this spirit. I am a child of a Divine Cr eator , and it is my
responsibility to the universe, not just a gift to myself, to r eceive His
spirit and allow it to dir ect me in everything I do. 3. What I say to you now , through the authority of Divine Mind:
Example:  What we had is over . In the name of God, I command you to
release me. In the name of God, I command you to depart. In the name of
God, the door shall be sealed behind you. And so it is. Your letter is an adjunct to a paragraph from my book A Return to Love,
which has resonated with many people seeking to repudiate their
weaknesses and embrace their God-given strengths:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that
we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that
most frightens us. W e ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gor geous,
talented, fabulous? Actually , who are you not to be? Y ou are a child ofGod. Y our playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing
enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’ t feel insecure
around you. W e are all meant to shine, as children do. W e were born to
make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’ s not just in some of
us; it’ s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously
give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from
our own fear , our presence automatically liberates others. You are not yet, perhaps, fully liberated from your own fear . But you are
getting there. W ithin the holiness of your own mind, you’re beginning to
see the outlines of a you who has left this hell behind her . Consider the
mere idea of her existence; breathe in the thought; embrace the possibility . And she will begin to take shape. The healed you is not an expression of a “managed” situation, but rather
of a truly transformed one. She does not yet have deep roots within your
nervous system, but she has roots within your soul. As the memory of the
real you, she is a creation of the divine. And what is divinely created cannot
be uncreated. The true you, free of all torment related to food, lives already
in the realm of Divine Mind and is waiting for your permission to be born
into the world. I join with you in absolute conviction that she will be born. And she
embodies something far more glorious than merely a healthy relationship to
food. She delivers a peace that only love can bestow . During this time of gestation, have faith in what is happening inside you. Do not let appearances fool you. Do not look at your flesh and wince. Do
not look at it and give in to self-loathing. Y es, old flesh undoubtedly
remains, but its cause is fading even as you read this. Looking at your body ,
realize that it is a changeable condition. Y our flesh has merely responded to
your mind. Now celebrate that you are changing  your mind. The womb of your consciousness has been impregnated with a divine
idea: the thought that a permanently freer , more perfect you is possible. This impregnation is a mystery into which your soul must enter , as you
allow to occur within you a miraculous process of death and rebirth. The
old you, the obsessive you—the one who carries all the patterns of your
pain—will now cease to exist.Who you used to be, you will be no longer—and who you were created
to be will now shine forth. She is taking form inside a sacred place—the
realm of infinite possibility that lives inside your heart. T urn there and you
will find her . She is waiting for you. And she will appear in the twinkling of
an eye. Reflection and Prayer
Close your eyes and relax into a meditative space. On the left side of your mind, see yourself as you manifest addictively . See yourself behaving compulsively . Now , on the right side of your mind,
see the real you, the free you, the sober you, the radiant you. See cords of
darkness and dysfunction, thick and ugly , which connect the real you to
your addictive self. Now see an angel, sent by God, walk up to the cords with a scissors of
light. W atch carefully as the angel cuts the cor ds. The cords are dark and
gnarly , yet the divine scissors cuts right through them. See them drop to the
floor and sink below the surface of the ground, disappearing for all time. Hear angels singing in the background. Bear witness to whatever happens
now, and give thanks that you are free. Dear God,  
I am r eady to die to whom I used to be,  
and be born to whom I wish to be. But of myself I can do neither . Transform me at the deepest levels,  
that I might suffer no mor e 
the pain of unr eality . Impr egnate my soul with the seed  
of my true self,  
that I might know joy and peace at last. Amen
OceanofPDF .comLESSON 19
BIRTHING WHO YOU REALLY ARE
Losing weight is either a managed condition or a miracle. If it’ s a
managed condition, then that’ s great, but it rests on unstable moorings. If
it’s a miracle, it rests on God. There’ s little point in trying to bring forth a thinner you, unless it’ s a
thinner you with a fairly good chance of remaining  a thinner you. Otherwise, you end up back in that corner of hell where your soul cries out
in horror , “I can’ t believe I did this again …”
You need, then, more than just weight loss. Y ou need a miracle. When
you’re in the throes of an addictive impulse, however , you make yourself
unavailable to receive one. In order to birth the miracle of a new you, you
must be open to the love that pierces your invisible shield. A miracle is a shift in perception from fear to love, creating
breakthroughs in your experience by creating breakthroughs in your mind. Much of the work involved in this course has been an inquiry into what it
is, exactly , that you fear … particularly as it relates to other people. This
lesson involves identifying any fear you might harbor toward an aspect of
yourself: the possible new you. The universe, being the handwriting of God, is a continuous flow of love. Yet the fear -mind seeks to block that love just as continuously as Spirit
pours it forth. It would keep you locked in repetitive patterns that prevent
you from becoming who you are capable of being. As long as your mind is
in service to fear , you are bound to your past. Only in serving love are you
free to move forward into a new and truly dif ferent future. None of us consciously serves fear . The problem is that fear permeates
the ethers of the world in which we live, and fear breeds the addictive
impulse. The fear -mind knows that if you get to fully live, then it has to die. It is literally fighting for its life, as are you.Yet you cannot take on the fear -mind directly . You don’ t get rid of it by
fighting it, but only by transcending it; not by attacking it, but by replacing
it. You have spent much of your life saying no to your addiction, but the key
to your freedom lies in saying yes to the possible you. The purpose of this
lesson is to remove any barriers you still hold that are keeping you from
becoming your truest self. To become the truest you, you must actively embrace the truest you. But
this you cannot do if you are ambivalent about this aspect of yourself, or
even neutral toward her . In the absence of your heartfelt invitation, she
cannot come. This future you—one who lives the highest manifestation of
your divine potential—cannot pierce the fear -mind’ s veil and simply come
toward you. It is your choice—the choice of the current you—whether or
not to remove the veil and move toward her . The only way to give her birth
into the world is by loving her with all your heart. It’s a big decision whether or not to embrace her , for in doing so you will
become one with her . And for this, you must be ready . You know in your
heart that in becoming her , you will lose some aspects of your current
personality . Your identity has been wrapped up with being who you are
now, even though you are filled with certain aspects of fear and self-
loathing. When you look at your resistance, you can begin to remove it. When you look at your fear , you can begin to surrender it. That which is
possible will only become probable when and if it is beckoned by love. And who is the new you? First of all, she loves you completely—is that
true of who you are now? She is comfortable in your body—is that true of
who you are now? She has a healthy relationship with food—is that true of
who you are now? She thinks you’re beautiful—is that true of who you are
now? It’ s important—in fact, it’ s necessary—to realize these gaps in your
alignment with your truest self, for then you can give them to Divine Mind
for healing. If you do not surrender them, then you might have described
them but you will not have removed them. These gaps are the thinnest
membrane, really . They are merely thoughts. But there is no wall more
intractable than a wall of fearful thoughts, just as there is nothing that can
remove the wall more completely than thoughts of love. Now let’ s face your biggest fear: that of giving birth to a new you. It’ s
not your fear of being fat, but your fear of being thin—your fear of being
free, your fear of being extraordinary , your fear of being your most joyfulself. For who, then, will you be? What will you do with yourself? Who will
love you? Who will reject you? What will you do when people approach
you with the vibes of sexual attraction? What will people say about you? How will you dress? Where will you fit in? Use your journal pages to make a list of all the things that scare you
about being thin. Now write down a list of all the things you long for in the
experience of being thin. Y ou will notice that some of them are very
different, yet some are the very same thing. For example, you might fear the thought of being sexy and love the
thought of being sexy . Recognizing that ambivalence—seeing how such
impulses could cancel each other out—now hand it over to Divine Mind for
healing. Next, write a letter to the new you. T ell her why you fear her , and what
makes you nervous about letting her appear . Tell her those things honestly
and authentically . But then tell her your deepest truth: that you do love her
and hope that she comes. Y ou’ll find, in your relationship with her , the key
to intimate relationship with anyone: that you’re scared, perhaps, but you
want to move ahead anyway . That being vulnerable to life in the way love
demands is something you have tried to avoid, but you have learned
painfully that this does not work. That you’re not sure exactly how to do
this or how to be with her , but you no longer wish to remain without her . And you apologize for the times you have invited her in and then made her
leave. You are ready to be in the tremulous safety of that which does not always
feel safe, for you know now that the citadel of protection you have built
around yourself has not protected you from horror and pain. Y ou are willing
to let go of the dense ener gy of false certainty , and embrace at last the light-
filled ener gy of the void. For the void no longer scares you; you realize now
that the void is filled with love. The void is where you will find yourself—
the place where you become one with the you that is really  you. And that is
your miracle: not that you say no to food, but that you say yes to your
heart’ s desire. And saying yes to your heart’ s desire, you say yes to the
possible you. Miraculously , you are bound by nothing that has occurred before this
moment. The fear -mind would be getting hostile by this point, ar guing,
“Forget it! It’ s gone on too long! Y ou can’ t change now!” T o which yourespond, “Oh yes, I can.” For in God there is no past, but only infinite
possibilities for a miraculous future. The only way the past can drag you
back is if you choose to bring it with you into the present. For the food
addict, this takes courage. It takes refusal to believe the false evidence of a
worldly mirror . But you are seeing through  the mirror now , to the real you
on the other side of it. The universe specializes in new beginnings, from the birth of a baby to
the appearance of new love. It is the way of nature to begin again, just as it
is the way of the fear -mind to stay stuck in the past. Y ou have the ability to
change because you are a child of the divine. Fear would obstruct you, but
the hand of God is available to walk you into the dawn of a new day . Do not
be concerned about who you were before this moment, for nothing that
happened before this instant has power over the will of God. His will is
merciful, healing, corrective, and all-powerful. It doesn’ t matter what the
fear-mind says; you will not hear it if you are listening to Him. Proactively celebrate the arrival of your reborn self. Prepare for her as
you would the arrival of a new life, which indeed it is. Every day , take one
thing that you know is an aspect of the self now passing—something that
perhaps has nothing directly to do with food, yet involves living at a lower
energy than that which you are now choosing—and let it go. Perhaps you
will get rid of old clutter , or take care of business long overdue. Really , isn’ t
that what weight loss is? Even when the change does have to do with food—perhaps you throw
out chemically processed foods, replacing them with fresh fruits and
vegetables—the point is not the food specifically . The point is that you are
dropping dead ener gy, lifeless food, lifeless anything. You are choosing the
aliveness and vitality of whole, natural foods because you are choosing the
aliveness and vitality of a new you. Y ou are making the choice  to be happy . Losing weight is a by-product of choosing to live a happier life. The thoughts and feelings that make up the new you are coalescing
within your mind, your heart, and ultimately the workings of your brain. Just as a nervous system is formed within an embryo, so is a new anddifferent nervous system being formed within you. Y our body is at every
moment responding to the vibrations of your consciousness, and while
some old vibrations might still move through you, you are giving birth to a
new body . Cells are constantly dying while new ones are being born—you
are literally forming a new physical container . There is another miraculous aspect of letting go of the past: you can
reclaim the love that you denied yourself previously . Every moment you ate
food in quality or quantity that was not nourishing, you were denying
yourself self-care. But according to A Course in Miracles,  the love you
withheld from yourself in such a moment is held in trust for you until
you’re ready to receive it. This means that all the hours of joy you could  have experienced but did
not can be experienced now . They won’ t come in the same form, but they
will reflect the same content. Y ou know that time you went to the beach and
were so embarrassed to even be there that you just sat in a café of f to the
side and told the friends you were with that you didn’ t really feel like
walking along the water? W ell, that hour now exists in the ethers of
possibility as a joyous walk on the beach you didn’ t have, could have had,
and now can have. The only thing that can stop you now is a failure of imagination. Could
the universe really be that merciful? Could the time-space continuum really
be that malleable? Could your past really be undone in the future? You betcha. Unless God is just sorta God, which is always a possibility if
you want to think that way . Your material limitations are a reflection of
your beliefs, and if you believe that a miracle isn’ t possible, then there’ s no
reason to expect one. And expecting one is even more powerful if you’re preparing for it. The
new you has a dif ferent set of attitudes and a dif ferent set of habits than the
old you; it’ s helpful to recognize what some of them are so you can more
easily align yourself with the ener gies they represent. In your journal pages, write down some of the thoughts, feelings, and
activities of the new you. W rite “The New Me” at the top of a page, and
then start making a list. Each line begins: “I … ”
The New Me• I … go skinny-dipping in the neighbor hood pond. • I … wear a bathing suit at the beach and do not feel embarrassed. • I … walk thr ough a shopping mall and do not feel unhappy . • I … get on a scale and feel pr oud of myself. • I … take my clothes off at the doctor ’s office and do not feel ashamed. • I … know what it feels like to be hungry befor e I eat. • I … go to a party and do not feel inadequate. • I … enjoy r olling ar ound and playing games on the floor with young
childr en. • I … am pr oud to know that my family is pr oud of me. • I … am mor e sensitive than I used to be to the suffering of others. • I … see food as a gift for which I am grateful to God, which I would
never abuse, and which I wish all people to have enough of. • I … enjoy my body . • I … enjoy taking car e of my body . • I … give thanks for my body and the joy it brings myself and others. Beneath each sentence, embellish further on what you embrace in your
new life. Do this by speaking in the first person, as if you were writing in
your diary:
Today I went to the beach, and enjoyed wearing my new orange cover -
up with the gold beads in the fr ont. As I walked acr oss the sand, I enjoyed
the feeling of the sun on my skin, the way my body was healthy and toned,
and how good it felt to be so light and fr ee. Then write these words, or something like them:
Praise God; Hallelujah; So be it; Amen;  or How fabulous is that!! !You are building new pathways in your brain now , preparing a home for
the you who is emer ging. But these paths must develop according to your
own rhythms and your own choices. The new you isn’ t the arrival of
someone other than you; she is the emer gence of whom you have always
been but have long kept hidden. It’ s not that something was wrong with
you; it’ s that in the area of weight, something as right with you as with
anyone else has been buried by your addictive ur ge. Y ou were never wrong;
you were just wounded. Y our need is not to replace some defective self, but
to invoke into operation once more the perfect you that is the truth of who
you are. The fear -mind would have you believe none of that: “Y ou are wrong
because you have this weight problem. Y ou are wrong because you haven’ t
dealt with it better .” But you are a child of the divine, and the divine is not
wrong. Yes, you’ve been thrown of f the track of your perfection, but your
perfection was never destroyed. In order to manifest your external perfection, you must reconnect with
your internal perfection. But your way of doing that might not look like
everyone else’ s. Your essence is not something imposed from without; it is
something that emer ges or ganically from within. Y ou give birth to the real
you by giving yourself something that perhaps you’ve never had: the
permission to simply be. For whatever reason and in whatever way , the real you has been
crouching for years in a corner of your psychic closet. The real you has not
shown up in the world as too lar ge; she has shown up as too small. And
while you have tried desperately to feed her , it is not food—but rather your
permission, your approval, and your appreciation—that makes her stand tall
and proud. When you feed her emotionally , she will feed you physically . For in giving birth to her , you will become her . And the imposter will fade
away . No wonder you have not had perfect appetites: there is a place where the
perfect you has not been given the psychic space to even exist. Now that
you see this, you can allow her to emer ge. Y ou can stop censoring her . You
can stop hiding her . You can stop emotionally aborting your own birth
process. And you will find that the real you, once she is allowed to shine,
knows exactly what to do, in every area of your life, to cast a radiance and a
glow .You do not need to tell her what to do or how to be; you need only to
allow  her to do and to be what she already is programmed by God to do and
be. One thing is sure: like all children of God, she is both perfect and
perfectly unique. The last thing you need to do is to tell her how to eat: your
miracle lies in allowing her to tell you how to eat. In a world of cookie-cutter this and cookie-cutter that, she is anything but
cookie-cutter . You’re going to lose weight, but you’re going to do it your
way. The real you has a natural wisdom for how best to eat, and a natural
wisdom for how best to lose weight. Just know that your pattern might not
look like someone else’ s. Some of us move in circles, and some of us move
in a line. I realized long ago that if I go into my bedroom and tell myself, “Okay ,
now. Make your bed. Clean up your room. Or ganize everything,” I’m liable
to feel completely overwhelmed by the task. But if I tell myself that every
time I go into my room, I can make something  right—make up part of the
bed, pick up my shoes and clean up the books in that pile over there, then
make up another part of the bed next time I walk in, and so forth—then I
will have cleaned up my room in the same amount of time that it might
have taken others. I will have just done it in a kind of circular , rather than
straight-line, motion. Circles aren’ t worse than straight lines; they’re just a
different pattern. I’ve discovered the same thing with physical exercise. If I tell myself that
I must work out for an hour , then that’ s sometimes dif ficult for me—
something I’m not likely to do as regularly as I should. But I’ve discovered
that if I have a yoga mat in my of fice, a set of weights there and another set
in my bedroom, an exercise ball in the hallway and an ab machine behind
my desk, then I have no problem whatsoever—in fact, I enjoy it—stopping
every couple of hours or so and doing about ten minutes of exercise because
it feels good! By the end of the day , I’ve done all the exercise I need. I realize there are exercise experts who would ar gue that the continuous
motion of a one-hour workout is better , but all I know is that whether it
comes to food, exercise, or almost anything else, I have to find my own
rhythms and honor them. I tell myself daily that even a short walk or a tiny
run is okay . And when I do go to the gym, I don’ t have to spend an hour
there for my time to have been well spent.My relationship with food is similar . I am not a food addict, so there’ s no
particular food from which I must abstain. Having been a compulsive eater ,
however , I still have it within me to act that out. A good cake can’ t sit
around my house or I’m likely to eat it. Cookies aren’ t often in my
cupboards because I’ve learned better . But neither do I deny myself. The key for me is to let myself have whatever I want, because in so
doing, I give myself permission to be who I really am—and who I really am
does not want  to overeat. As long as I allow myself when at a restaurant to
order the fruit crumble if I want it, then I’m likely to eat very little of it. A
teaspoon or two might be all I want. But if I don’ t order it? I’m likely to eat
many more calories than that later on in the day , as a reaction to having
denied myself. The real you, like the real me, knows what to do and how to do it. But
you must allow yourself to prove that. Limits are good, but they can’ t be
arbitrarily imposed; they must emer ge from your own internal wisdom. No
one said to me, “Under no circumstances allow cake to sit on your kitchen
counter .” No, I came up with that one myself. I choose  not to let cake sit
there, out of love for myself and a recognition of my own limitations. If you
are an addict and must  impose certain limits, then know that those limits are
a gift to you and receive them as such. Ultimately , your greatest miracle is this: you’ll come to realize that you
are fine exactly as you ar e. The real you wants  healthy food, invigorating
exercise, and an active lifestyle. The real you doesn’ t want  the damaging
effects of unhealthy , chemically processed food and a sedentary existence. The real you knows those things for what they are—a tomb for the person
you used to be. Y ou are changed now , and those days are over . They are a
thing of the past. You’ve had a glimpse in the spiritual mirror and seen the person you
were meant to be, who you yearn to be and now choose to be. Y ou are ready
to do more than just lose weight. Y ou are ready to rise above, to start again,
and to be free. Reflection and Prayer
Take a deep breath and close your eyes.See with your inner eye a great fountain of light emer ging from your
forehead. The water of the fountain is made up of sparkling, liquid light. It
is a fountain of true consciousness, spewing love, light, and laughter into
the air around you. Now see these trajectories of light begin to form a shape, and see that the
shape they form is the physical body of your divinely inspired self. Simply
enjoy  this playful, enchanted vision. Do not judge it. Merely see it. Y ou are
seeing who you really are. See the vision grow in detail and solidity , and watch as it begins to look
at you. Does she say anything? Receive the love and gratitude that your
potential self now pours in your direction. Y ou are celebrating her birth into
the world; you are reborn as one. The real you has been hidden for far too
long, and she is overjoyed to be emer ging now . Watch what she does and how she moves. See how she expresses herself. Notice how she eats. Spend time with her . Embrace her . Enjoy her . And
know that she is you. Dear God,  
On this day , 
I celebrate my r ebirth. In praise and thanks,  
I accept it now . Help me let go of  
the me that was,  
and begin again as a better self …  
a higher self,  
a noncompulsive self,  
a mor e joyful self,  
a mor e useful self,  
a mor e peaceful self,  
a mor e loving self,  
a mor e beautiful self,  
the self I truly am. Dear God,  
I surr ender now , 
and give thanks  for what is to be. Amen
OceanofPDF .comLESSON 20
SOUL SURGERY
Imagine yourself once again lying on a white marble slab. The slab may
look uncomfortable, but it is not. Where you might expect it to feel hard
and cold, it feels instead as though you are falling into a heavenly space of
infinite love. It’ s a soft mattress onto which you can now relax in ways
you’ve never relaxed before, at peace in a way you’ve never been before. You are not alone, but rather are surrounded by invisible forces. There are
angels and people who love you all around. This image is as real as the chair you are sitting on. And it’ s not just
describing a particular place or experience—it’ s describing the spiritual
reality of your life. The fear -mind audaciously proclaims that it has reality
on its side: the reality of your body size, the reality of your obsession, the
reality of your past failures. But this is where the fear -mind is wrong, for
the world it reports to you is merely an illusion. Y ou’re awakening from
your illusions now , and the material plane as you experience it is beginning
to transform. Every time you encounter anyone, anytime you go anywhere or have any
experience at all, you’re being invited by the universe to make a choice for
the real you. Experience everything now within the light of love, and as you
do so, your inner light will shine. It will remind you of your essential
knowing, activate your spiritual powers, and bring peace to your internal
kingdom. In the presence of your true self, any word, any choice, any appetite, any
energy, any manifestation at all that does not reflect its beauty … will
simply fall by the wayside. Y ou won’ t say “No” to bad food choices; you
simply won’ t even consider them. They will no longer call to you. Once you’ve aligned yourself with the lightness of your true being, the
dense, heavy ener gies of addiction and compulsion will fall away of theirown dead weight. No longer backed by the emotional force of your
unprocessed issues, they will have no life force at all. They will drain out of
you, their tentacles no longer able to grab on to a system that gives it
nothing to grab on to. Y ou have made your decision, and as with any
decision made with the force of true love, all contrary ener gy becomes null
and void. You have begun the process of self-examination that is at the heart of true
healing: you have embraced the process; resisted the process; walked away
from the process; and still, at moments, opened in a more humble way to
the possibility of a miracle. Like every addict, you have both cried out for
healing and shut the door to your healing, sometimes in the same breath. But you have made the ef fort. You have done this course with love in your heart, and the love you’ve
beckoned is on its way . You have prayed to be released. Y ou have
summoned a spiritual healing, and you have opened your heart to receive it. Prepare yourself now for spiritual sur gery, the alchemy of Divine Mind
once it is given access to your total being. The Divine Physician will cut away from you all that you do not want. He will remove the weightiness from your heart, and you will know the
lightness you yearn for . Cleanse your heart for this, just as you would
cleanse your body before physical sur gery. Take several deep breaths,
inhaling for giveness and love and exhaling resentment and fear as best you
can. Be willing to open yourself up to a miraculous operation. Read the following visualization, and then close your eyes to see it. Pray
for God’ s presence, and imagine the Divine Physician coming toward you
as you lie on the marble slab. Receive His love, and with your inner eye
watch what happens as He places His hands upon you. Feel the spiritual laser of His love as it enters into you. Allow yourself to
feel the emotional issue that is stored in each area of your body , and
experience His healing. People might appear in your mind to apologize to you or to receive your
apology; wisdom might come to you that you hadn’ t previously accessed;
direction and guidance for your life might stream into your mind. As this
happens, excess flesh begins to fall to the side. On the flesh are imprinted
words and issues, hopes and fears, memories and traumas, names and
situations … words that only you and He can know .Grief you still carry … feelings of failure and self-hatred … weaknesses
you wish removed … problems you’ve tried to solve without divine help …
situations you’ve tried to steer without divine guidance … goals you’ve
tried to achieve without divine blessing … questions you’ve tried to answer
without praying for wisdom … relationships that aren’ t working …
relationships for which you haven’ t been appropriately grateful …
situations where you know you could do better … areas of life where
you’ve been only thinking of yourself … the name of a person you have not
still for given … an event you cannot let go of … a relationship you cannot
stop obsessing about. … The places in your mind that have been shut in
pain will now relax beneath the hands of the Divine Physician. Everything that causes you anxiety now falls away . As the weight is
removed from your psyche, it is invisibly removed from your body as well. Its ener gy miraculously turns into wisdom. And the wisdom turns into light. He has heard every cry you ever cried out to Him, in the depths of your
sorrow and despair . He has listened to every prayer you have prayed, and
He has watched every ef fort you have made to be free. Now , with this
surgery on your soul, He reprograms your mind and cuts out darkness at its
roots. Shame … cut away . Judgment and blame … cut away . Grief … cut
away . Fear and burdens … cut away . Self-reference … cut away . Isolation
… cut away . Obsession … cut away . Anger … cut away . Craving … cut
away . What remains is your essential self. As you return at last to your divine
reality—to the immaculate, unchangeable love within you—then all
thoughts and feelings and appetites are healed. That which does not exist
for love no longer exists in you. In the space of this miraculous process, in the silence of this holy
operation, allow yourself to truly experience the movement of the Divine
Physician’ s hand. He removes flesh from your body by removing pain from
your heart. This operation is as real as you choose it to be. Y our body is
healed and your mind is restored. Y our miracle has come. Reflection and PrayerThis entire lesson is a reflection on spiritual reality . Spend as much time
with it as you can, and then say this prayer . Dear God,  
I am r eady to heal. I am r eady to let go. Please take my willingness,  
whether weak or str ong, 
and use it to transform my life. Enter me, every cell of my being. Cut out all my dysfunction and disease. Remove all compulsion and  
illumine my heart. I give to Y ou my darkness,  
please fill me with Y our light. Take away what is wr ong with me  
and leave only what is right. May I know at last  
who I truly am. Amen
OceanofPDF .comLESSON 21
THE BODY BRILLIANT
You are on a journey now that, having started, will never end. Every time you think God’ s name, your cells will fall more deeply into
Divine alignment. Surrender your body to love, seeing your only function
on this earth as being love’ s hands, feet, words, and actions. Make this like
a game you play , imagining that you’re living in a holy world. For indeed
you are. W ith every breath you take, you will thrill to breathe in God’ s
spirit. Y our entire body will awaken to a new and almost startling aliveness. You live in Him, as He lives in you. When you look upon your hand, see His hand. When you see through
your eyes, imagine you are seeing through His. Several times throughout
the day , just stop and imagine that your body is made of light. And light you
will be. Yes, you will lose your weight. Add to this course whatever regimen
works for you regarding food and physical exercise, and you’ve got a
winning combination at last. But remember: once you’ve lost the weight, if
you go back to the thought-forms that were stored inappropriately in your
flesh to begin with, then it’ s reasonable to assume that the storage process
will resume. Y ou’ve learned something about yourself from all of this: you
do not function well outside the circle of God’ s love. All roads, whether filled with darkness or filled with light, circle back in
time to the arms of the divine. Whether through the light at the end of the
tunnel or the light that is seen at the moment of death, love will always have
the final say . You need not wait for either tunnel or death; you can hear it
now. The suf fering you’ve experienced was not love’ s will to begin with,
and you have suf fered enough. Y ou know now what to do to stop. Will you ever be able to eat this or that, whenever you want to? That is
not for me to say; those with a far better understanding of your physicalcircumstances than I would have to advise you about that. W ill you ever be
able to just for get about serving the dictates of love in everything you do? To that, I can respond quite confidently: No. At least not without risk. You’ve entered into a deep understanding of where your soul most longs to
be: held tightly in the arms of God, without the slightest interest in going
anywhere else.
_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:

        It’s less important how quickly you lose weight, and more important how
holistically  you lose weight; you want your mind, your emotions, and your
body to all lose weight. W eight that disappears from your body but not from
your soul is simply recycling outward for a while, but is almost certain to
return. It’ s self-defeating, therefore, to struggle to drop excess weight unless
you are also willing to drop the thought-forms that initially produced it and
now hold it in place. Judgment and blame are the weightiest thoughts of all, as they lack love. They are products of the fear -mind, representing the densest ener gy in the
universe—the perception of someone’ s guilt. Learning to for give both
yourself and others is the greatest gift you can give yourself on your path to
conscious weight loss. Compulsive eating separates you from others, and for giveness heals the
separation. Once again, you might have wonderful connections with people,
but any breakage at all is a place where the devil can get in. Unless you
address your relationship issues themselves, then they will always lurk in
the back of your mind, able to trip the addictive switch back to ON at any
time. In order to deal with your weight loss from a holistic perspective, you
must address your issues with relationships as seriously as you address your
issues with food. Losing weight will not of itself heal your relationships,
but healing your relationships will help you lose weight. Forgiveness is critical, as we all make little as well as big mistakes, and
little as well as big judgments. Cultivating a for giving attitude softens theedges of human contact. It’ s an aspect of what is called the Atonement, or
the correction of our perceptions from fear back to love. The purpose of this
lesson is to atone for any lack of for giveness on your part, releasing excess
weight that lies heavy on your heart. There are two basic filters through which to view all things: the filter of
the body, and the filter of the spirit. T o the extent that you view your life
only through the body’ s filter, you are bound to the body in a way that does
not serve you. Being bound to the body, you are at the ef fect of the body’ s
appetites. But when your eyes are lifted, giving you the capacity to see
beyond the body to the realm of your spirit, you’re given power over your
body that otherwise you do not have. Dwelling lightly within your body,
your body becomes light. And how do you do that. How do you see beyond  the body. Y ou do it by
being willing to extend your focus beyond the dramas of the material plane,
remembering that beyond this drama there is the truer truth of who we all
are. Yes, a friend might have said something cruel to you—but in her heart,
she’s simply lost and lonely like everyone else. Y our friend does love you;
she was just disconnected from her love at the moment when she made that
hurtful comment. No matter what happens to you, you have a choice as to how to interpret
it. You will make that choice—consciously or subconsciously. You can
focus on the body’ s drama—your friend’ s unkind words, her mistake, her
betrayal. But if you do, you won’ t be able to escape the emotional
experience of being at the ef fect of her words. By choosing to focus on the material drama, particularly the drama of
guilt, you increase your attachment to the material plane and thus your
vulnerability to its dysfunctions. Y ou for give because you wish to stay
above the dramas of the material world, particularly the drama of your
compulsion. You can choose to focus on the innocence in your friend—on her divine
reality that is beyond, and truer, than her bodily self. All of us are made of
love, yet all of us make mistakes. In detaching from an overemphasis on
someone else’ s mistakes, you detach from an overemphasis on your own. And in overemphasizing your mistakes, you overemphasize your body. As
you reach across the wall of separateness—and there is no wall thicker thanthe wall of judgment—then the wall comes down. That is the miracle of
forgiveness. Forgiveness is like preventive medicine. It cancels out the lie at the
center of the fear -mind, robbing it of its ability to hurt you. The fear -mind
jams your personal radar system, disconnecting you from Divine Mind and
leading you toward thoughts and behaviors that destroy your inner peace. It
tells you that you are less than perfect, tearing you from the memory of
your divine self. From there, it’ s easy to convince you that no one else is
divinely perfect either. Fear-mind’ s mantra is: Guilt, guilt, and mor e guilt. It casts you into
judgmental consciousness—whether judgment of yourself or others—
dooming you to an emotional seesaw ride between love and fear. That
seesaw is emotionally unstable, and is one of the biggest threats to your
food sobriety. The fear -mind doesn’ t have to convince you to eat excessively so much
as it just has to convince you that someone is guilty, for the perception of
guilt is enough to throw you out of your right mind and thus into your
disease. An attitude of for giveness takes you of f—or keeps you of f—the
seesaw. Forgiveness is a selective remembering. It is a conscious choice to focus
on someone’ s innocence instead of his or her mistakes. In common
parlance, it usually amounts to simply cutting people more slack. This
serves you. Judgment and blame put stress on the body of whoever is doing
the judging and blaming, and stress is the time bomb at the center of your
addictive ur ge. It is in “staying above” the drama of the body that you dwell more
harmoniously within it. Y our body was not created to bear the burden of
your overattachment to it, but was created as a container for the light of
your spirit. It will more easily remember how to function perfectly when
you remember the perfection in everyone. Forgiveness is hugely powerful yet often fiercely resisted. A young man I
knew in an AIDS support group years ago once asked me, “Do I really have
to for give everybody. ” To which I responded, “W ell, I don’ t know … do
you have the flu, or do you have AIDS. Because if you only have the flu,
then, heck, just for give a few people … but if you have AIDS, then, yes, try
to for give everybody. ”You certainly wouldn’ t ask a doctor, “Do I really have to take all the
medicine. T ake the entire round  of chemo. Can’ t I just do some  of it. ” Nor
would you say, “Doc, can I just take the medicine when I feel bad. ” No,
medicine is medicine. And you respect it enough to take the amount you
need. Forgiveness is more than just a good thing. It is key to right living and
thus to your healing—not just to be applied every once in a while, but to be
aimed for as a constant. None but enlightened masters achieve for giveness
all the time, but the ef fort itself keeps the arrows of attack at bay. Holding
on to judgment, blame, attack, defense, victimization, and so forth are
absolutely attacks on yourself. And you attack yourself with food. As you for give others, you begin to for give yourself. As you stop
focusing on their mistakes, you will stop punishing yourself for your own. Your ability to release what you think of as the sins of others will free you
to release yourself, putting down that particular weapon with which you
punish yourself so savagely. Forgiveness releases the past to divine correction and the future to new
possibilities. The past can’ t hurt you unless you bring it in the present with
you, and for giveness is a way of letting it go. Nothing anyone has ever done
to you has permanent ef fects unless you hold on to it permanently. Your first task with this lesson is to identify those whom you have not
forgiven. Know that even the slightest annoyance with someone is enough
to throw your system out of divine right order. Do not just focus here on the
people who have deeply betrayed or wounded you; think about even those
who, for reasons that are seemingly small, still tempt you to withhold your
love from them. For wherever you withhold your love, you deflect your
miracle. Use your journal pages to list the names of all people whom, in your
heart, you know you still judge. They can range from a parent to a political
figure. Y our anger at them, not who they are or what they have done, is
what matters. When a name occurs to you, write it down, along with the
feelings you associate with that person—anger, hurt, betrayal, contempt,
fear, and so forth. Explore your feelings as deeply as you can, and try not to
rush through the process. After you’ve explored your lack of for giveness,
write down these words: “I am willing to see this person dif ferently. ” Write
that sentence three times, as it is very important. Painful circumstances can form a veil over your eyes, making it dif ficult
to appreciate others’ divine innocence when their behavior was so contrary
to it. By expressing a willingness to see them dif ferently, you call on the
power of Divine Mind. Y ou’ll receive divine help as long as you’re willing
to for give. Y ou’ll receive a reminder of who those people really are, beyond
the things you don’ t like about them. Sometimes all you need is a tweak in
consciousness—a reminder that you’re blaming someone for something that
you yourself do all the time, perhaps—and sometimes you need
otherwordly help in lifting a burden otherwise too hard to bear. From abandoned spouses to victims of the Holocaust, I’ve heard of
miraculous changes in the hearts of those who prayed for such help and
received it. Sometimes for giveness is a small thing, and sometimes it is
huge. Y et for giveness isn’ t simply a gift you give someone else; it is a gift
you give yourself. The density and pain of your negative feelings toward
anyone is a weight you carry. And you are learning to live a lighter life. This awakening involves realizing the light in others and also the light in
you. Sometimes the person you most need to for give is yourself. All of us
are human, and most of us have done something we regret. W e all carry
walls in front of our heart, and we all feel guilt when we have wronged
someone. Looking at your own transgressions and atoning for them is an important
part of your healing. For whether it’ s conscious or not, any guilt you carry
has made you feel on a deep level that you deserve punishment. And
overeating is one of the ways in which you have punished yourself. Let’ s
get the trial started so we can get you acquitted right away. Write down the names of everyone you think you’ve wronged, every
mistake you feel you’ve made, every regret you still carry. Apologize in
your heart for any transgression toward others or toward yourself. Look at
each name or event, then prayerfully release it into the hands of God. Say
aloud, to yourself or to the memory of anyone to whom you owe an
apology: “I am sorry. ”
It’s tempting to ignore or minimize old transgressions, thinking, Oh well,
it was a long time ago. …  As intent as the fear -mind is at monitoring the
wrongs of others, it is exceptionally good at getting you to overlook your
own. Someone might have hurt you 15 years ago and you’re still talking
about it—but you might have hurt someone else  15 years ago and haven’ tthought about it for the last 14. But until an unloving ener gy is
acknowledged and atoned for, it remains an active toxin poisoning your life. Amends that are 20 years late are still amends that need to be made. If
you hurt other people, then even if they don’ t consciously remember what
you did to them, they carry the pain within their cells. And so do you. On
the level of spirit, we are all one, and what you have done to hurt someone
else is a hurt you carry within yourself. It can be very humbling to reach out and apologize. It can be
embarrassing at first to admit your own mistake. Y et such moments as these
are moments of mastery, freeing you from the prison of your own insanity. You have atoned for your error, and you are free to begin again. Your willingness to make amends to those you hurt in the past carries
with it more power than a thousand diet plans. The fear -mind is a false
sense of oneself as an isolated and separate human being. Whenever you
make amends for having harmed another, you acknowledge that you are not
separate—that there is more to life than your own drama. Y ou acknowledge
that another person’ s experience is as important as your own, and you
realize that by hurting someone else, you have hurt yourself. This shift in your thinking—from ignoring your own transgressions to
admitting them and being willing to make amends where appropriate—is a
miracle that produces practical consequences in your life. As you reach
across the wall of separateness, the wall begins to come down. The fear -mind would ar gue that for giveness has nothing to do with your
weight or with your food issues, but if anything should be clear by now, it’s
that the fear -mind lies. Y ou’re beginning to realize that underlying every
problem in your life is a false sense of separation, between you and others
and between you and your true self. Any path to permanent weight loss addresses your sense of isolation and
the despair it spawns. Keeping love at bay, you’ve kept the healed and
peaceful you at bay. In for giving others, you’re finally free to experience
the joy of feeling close to them—with no wall between you necessary. And
in for giving yourself, you realize you deserve to look as beautiful on the
outside as you’ve remembered, at last, that you are beautiful within. Reflection and PrayerDo this meditation regarding any and every person from whom you are
separated by unfor giving thoughts or feelings. Take a deep breath and close your eyes. Now see with your inner eye a vision of that person standing on the left
side of your mind. See his or her body, clothes, mannerisms, and way of
being in the world. Now see a great light in the middle of that person’ s
heart, spreading to cover every cell of the body and extending outward
beyond the flesh and into infinity. Watch as the light becomes so bright that
his or her body begins to fade into shadow. Now gently see a vision of your own body on the right side of your inner
vision. Here, too, see your mannerisms, your clothes, your way of being in
the world. And see the same divine light in the area of your own heart,
moving outward to cover every cell of your body and extending into
infinity beyond the confines of your flesh. W atch as the light grows so
bright that your body begins to fade into shadow. Now slowly move your inner eye to the middle of your field of vision,
where the light from deep within the other person and the light from deep
within you begin to mer ge. Simply look, and allow yourself to witness this
divine oneness. The joining that you see her e is the ultimate r eality of love. Spend as much time as you can with this vision each time you do it,
hopefully a minimum of five minutes. It carries the power of a holy truth
impressed on your subconscious mind. Do this meditation again, making both people your own self. Pray for a
divine reconciliation between who you’ve been and who you really are. Rest deeply into these images, and allow their illumination to cast all
darkness from your mind. This is the highest reconciliation of all: you with
the real you. Dear God,  
Please teach me to for give 
myself and others. Remove the walls  
that keep love out,  
behind which I am prisoner. Heal my guilt  
and r emove my anger, that I might be r eborn. Make gentle my heart  
and str ong my spirit  
and show me how to love. Amen
OceanofPDF. comLESSON 18
HONOR THE PROCESS
There’ s a possibility that you’re sick of this course by now. You might
not have even made it to this point; you might just be picking up the book,
opening it wherever, and simply happen to be reading this. Y ou might be
thinking that it’ s all too hard, too confronting, or even a bunch of nonsense. You might not have seen any real changes on your scale or in your mirror
yet, and have decided that by Lesson 18 you should be having some
success. Clearly this is not a miracle, and you might as well just for get it. See how the fear -mind works. That’ s how the fear -mind works in everyone. For one person, she
shouldn’ t even try to finish writing that novel, because she never will and
she’s not a good writer anyway—according to the fear -mind. For another,
he shouldn’ t even bother going to that interview because he’ s been out of
circulation too long, and companies are only hiring younger people anyway
—according to the fear -mind. For another, she shouldn’ t even try to dress
up and look nice, because she’ s not attractive anyway—according to the
fear-mind. The fear -mind lives in everyone, but it speaks dif ferently to all
of us. T o you, it just happens to be obsessed with your weight, because you
are. Learning to live with the common disappointments and failures of the
human experience—particularly with how the fear -mind interprets them—is
key to developing spiritual mastery. Mastery doesn’ t mean you get to the point where nothing ever goes
wrong; it means you get to the point where you can endure and transform
what’ s wrong. Mastery means you rise up more often than you sink in life,
not because in you there is no undertow, but because you’ve learned to
swim well. Y ou’re spiritually strong and in shape. Y ou’ve developed yourattitudinal muscles, and they can carry you when you’re feeling the
gravitational pull of whatever your temptation might be. Mastery is not superhuman, but deeply human; embracing rather than
resisting the realization that on certain days you’ll feel like master of
nothing and slave to lots of things. Do not let the fact that you have fallen
off the wagon, are falling of f the wagon, haven’ t lost any weight yet, can’ t
stand to do the lessons, or still feel like a big fat loser deter you. This is all
part of the process. And your success is guaranteed. Now the fear -mind gets really activated. “What do you mean,  my success
is guaranteed. Guaranteed by whom. ” Almost as in, how dare I say that. But it’ s my faith—and you can lean on mine if you wish—that God will
wipe away every tear, that He will outwit all self-hatred, and that in Him is
the victory as soon as we give to Him the fight. None of that means that every day will be a happy one. Serious weight
loss is a deeply transformative experience; you’re breaking a chain that has
held you tight for a very long time, and it’ s only reasonable to expect that
some days will be harder than others. This is not just a physical battle; it is a
spiritual battle. The fear -mind has robbed you of your self-control … and
God is taking it back. Winston Churchill famously told British troops during W orld W ar II:
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is,
perhaps, the end of the beginning. ” This course is not something that is all
over in 21 lessons. It is a means to weight loss and also weight-loss
maintenance. What it lays out is not a goal so much as a process by which
the goal will be achieved. Y ou do not do it solely to lose weight, but in
order to become the most shining expression of who you are as a human
being. If your only goal is to lose weight, then hopefully you will do so, but
you’ll still be left with other issues to deal with that cannot be denied. Issues in your life seemingly unrelated to weight have accumulated around
your relationship to food. In any moment when you feel overwhelmed by a passion to overeat,
remember that the passion itself is not the problem. The problem is that in a
moment of insane eating, your passion for life is displaced onto something
that doesn’ t give you life but rather sucks life from you. This course isbuilding a detour, redirecting your passion away from food and back to
God. To which the fear -mind says, “Screw you. I won’ t do it. ” Just want to
make sure you realize that. The mind cannot serve two masters, and never
in your life has the choice between the two been so clear. In any moment,
you are either host to God or hostage to the fear -mind. It is not enough to
say no to a life of fear; you must say yes to a life of love. As long as you try
to stay neutral, you will overeat. Weight is your crucible. It’ s the place where you experience the final
spiritual battle between the forces of fear and the forces of love—in
psychological terms, between dysfunctional appetites and healthy impulses. The decision you are making is not just whether you’ll rise from the hell of
your compulsion, but whether you’ll rise into the heaven of all the joy-filled
possibilities that await you. The fear -mind leads to suf fering as sure as
Divine Mind leads to joy. The various ways people anesthetize themselves
today—whether through substances or pharmaceuticals—is a wail from the
deep: “Please don’ t make me have to choose. ”
But choose you must, for the zone of false neutrality has become
increasingly unsustainable for you. Y ou will see the light of your true being,
and your only choice is what path you take to get there. So merciful is the
universe that even a path of darkness includes a way back to light. Peacock
feathers are made by peacocks eating and then digesting thorns. Y ou have
been eating the thorns of addiction and compulsion for a very long time;
now you’re spiritually digesting them, inwardly preparing for their
transformation from something ugly to something beautiful. There is a line in the New T estament that states: “What man intends for
evil, God intends for good. ” Divine Mind will not simply cast out your
compulsion; it will use it to take you higher than if you had never
experienced such depths. Y ou will emer ge from this experience no longer
compulsive about food, yes. But you will also emer ge filled with a light that
you can only cast because you digested such darkness. Such is the greatness
of God. Do not be emotionally defeated by whatever time it takes for old patterns
to transform. Do not look to the mirror for confirmation of your faith. When
a woman is first pregnant, the outer eye cannot see it, but it will in time. Your mirror can show changes in your body, but it does not show changesin your mind. On any given day, the mirror shows you what your thinking
was yesterday, but it’ s what’ s happening in your heart today that creates
what your life will be tomorrow. You decrease your body weight by
expanding your mind. A spiritual process is not a quick fix; it is a miracle imprinted on you by
Divine Mind. It is help that is brought to you from beyond this world. It is
nothing that you yourself can just “make happen,” but you can honor the
mysterious process by which it does. To the fear -mind, the very concept of spiritual mystery—particularly
related to weight loss—seems ridiculous. The fear -mind is attached to the
body, and wants to make sure that you are attached to it, too. If the body’ s
eyes don’ t register improvement in your weight, the fear -mind will say,
“See. See. ” And if the body’ s eyes do register improvement, the fear -mind
will say, “Ah. But it will not last. ”
What could be a more worthy endeavor than giving time every morning
and evening to quieting the fear -mind. T o listening instead to the voice for
God. Y ou won’ t feel overwhelmed by the void once you fill it with the
divine. It does not matter how long it takes. It does not matter how many times
you might have succeeded then failed, succeeded then failed. Y our direction
is sure at last, for you have given it over to a divine authority. Your motivation is dif ferent now, and that will make all the dif ference:
you are on a quest to find the holy grail of the authentic you. Y ou are
climbing above the turbulence of your compulsive eating not only because
you want to lose weight, but because you want the serenity found only at
higher altitudes. Up there, there will be no monkey on your back, for
monkeys cannot live that high. Every time you get it right—no matter how lar ge or small your victory—
you are asserting your spiritual power and regaining authority over your
life. Whether it’ s turning away from ice cream or putting on your gym
shoes when you absolutely don’ t feel like it, you are winning. You are experiencing the force of your true self—the self that’ s healing,
that’s transforming, that’ s rising above, that’ s becoming sober around food. The positive act was an example of the real you blazing the way, if even for
a moment, through the veils of compulsion into full embodiment. The anti-
gravitational pull of grace is luring you upward. And for that, we rejoice. One moment of truth—and the real you is truth
—reprograms a thousand years of lies. A new condition is making its way
into your experience. Even the slightest right-minded thought or action—”I
am passing by the refrigerator, but I am choosing not to open it”; “I do not
numb myself with overly processed foods, because I choose to be more
fully available to my life”; “My body is a holy temple, and I want to feed it
healthy and nourishing food”; “I am shining and radiant in spirit and my
body reflects that”—bolsters the process by which new appetites and new
patterns of behavior are being formed. Try your best to be patient during this process. Support yourself by
avoiding situations that would be likely to tempt you into addictive
behavior. You deserve the same support from yourself that you would give
any friend or family member whom you love. Be supportive enough of yourself to say “No” when the most powerful
move would be to say “No. ” Not only to avoid the food, but to af firm the
most powerful you. “No, I will not go over to the dessert table. No, I will
not go out tonight because I know that group will just sit around eating. No,
I will not buy that bag of chocolate. ”
And be supportive enough of yourself to say “Y es” when the most
powerful move would be to say “Y es. ” “Y es, I will check out kale salad
even though I’ve never eaten that kind of food before. Y es, I will pick up
that yoga video today. Yes, I will take a walk in the park and allow my body
to feel more healthy and productive. ” Even the smallest ef forts can have
huge ef fects. Some of those ef fects go way beyond weight loss, influencing your
thinking about other things as well. For instance, this situation has given
you an opportunity to realize more fully the suf fering that many people go
through every day of their lives. For suf fering gives you x-ray vision into
the suf fering of others. Y our own ef forts at transformation have made you
understand more deeply both the pain as well as the redemptive
opportunities of the human race. Through your suf fering, you will come to
have real wisdom; and through your wisdom, you will come to know joy. But are you ready for joy, really. Are you ready to be the person who
does not suf fer from this compulsion. Who does not obsess about food. Who does not act against your own self-interest in such a pernicious way. Are you ready to let go of not only the behavior of overeating, but also thevery consciousness of the person who overeats. Are you ready for food to
no longer even be a big deal  in your life. Are you ready to be spiritually
born anew into the light of your true being as a child of the divine, over
whom such darkness as food compulsion holds no sway. Are you ready to
let go of the psychological and emotional habits, not just the physical ones,
that have fueled your compulsion. These are the questions life puts in front of you now. If your answer to all
of them is a passionate yes, then you are on the path to rebirth. And even if
it’s a weary yes, your way forward is guaranteed. Now your assignment is to write a letter. It’s like a Dear John letter to the
imposter who’ s been masquerading as you, the person who sneaks into the
kitchen to eat whatever she can find, who gets into the car to scour the
neighborhood for whatever is open so she can get some food, who cannot
control herself when food is present in the room, who hides in big clothes
and cannot bear the sight of the mirror. She isn’ t you; she’ s just an illusion
of you who has snuck her way into your three-dimensional reality and will
leave the instant you command her to. When Jesus said, “Satan, get thee
behind me,” that’ s what he meant. Even in a moment when you’ve given in and begun to overeat, realizing
with horror that you’re headed down that dark and slippery slope, don’ t
despair. When you hear your fear -mind ar guing, “W ell, I already ate the
cake, so I may as well go for the M&M’ s. Why bother to stop now. I
already messed up, so I may as well continue,” own your power and
command her to leave. Refusal to eat the first bite of cake is not your only chance for a moment
of power. It’s just as significant when, having eaten the cake already, you
can refuse the second piece, or the entire bag of M&M’ s sitting in the
cabinet. Any point of the process is a moment of power, if it’ s a moment of
conscious choice on behalf of your sane and self-loving self. Say out loud: “In the name of God, I command that you leave. ” Y ou
don’t have to believe me that this works; you will find out for yourself. The letter you now write is both a command and a good-bye. It is a
leave-taking, a statement of independence from a master you will no longer
allow to enslave you, and with whom you no longer agree to conspire. The letter, once written, belongs on your altar. It includes three parts:
1. Why I allowed you to live in me, and the ways that I said yes to you:
Example:  As much as I hated you, you wer e something I could hide
behind. I didn’ t have to r eally show up for my life, because I always had
an excuse why this or that wasn’ t a real option for me. In hiding behind
you, I didn’ t have to face my fear of being skinny and beautiful and r eally
participating in life. 2. Why I no longer need you, and what I have come to r ealize:
Example:  I have learned that ther e is str ength within me that I never
knew I had. I have r ealized that ther e is a Divine spirit in me, and I serve
no one by r efusing it. It is a gift fr om God and it is humble, not arr ogant,
to live in this spirit. I am a child of a Divine Cr eator, and it is my
responsibility to the universe, not just a gift to myself, to r eceive His
spirit and allow it to dir ect me in everything I do. 3. What I say to you now, through the authority of Divine Mind:
Example:  What we had is over. In the name of God, I command you to
release me. In the name of God, I command you to depart. In the name of
God, the door shall be sealed behind you. And so it is. Your letter is an adjunct to a paragraph from my book A Return to Love,
which has resonated with many people seeking to repudiate their
weaknesses and embrace their God-given strengths:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that
we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that
most frightens us. W e ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gor geous,
talented, fabulous. Actually, who are you not to be. Y ou are a child ofGod. Y our playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing
enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’ t feel insecure
around you. W e are all meant to shine, as children do. W e were born to
make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’ s not just in some of
us; it’ s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously
give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from
our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. You are not yet, perhaps, fully liberated from your own fear. But you are
getting there. W ithin the holiness of your own mind, you’re beginning to
see the outlines of a you who has left this hell behind her. Consider the
mere idea of her existence; breathe in the thought; embrace the possibility. And she will begin to take shape. The healed you is not an expression of a “managed” situation, but rather
of a truly transformed one. She does not yet have deep roots within your
nervous system, but she has roots within your soul. As the memory of the
real you, she is a creation of the divine. And what is divinely created cannot
be uncreated. The true you, free of all torment related to food, lives already
in the realm of Divine Mind and is waiting for your permission to be born
into the world. I join with you in absolute conviction that she will be born. And she
embodies something far more glorious than merely a healthy relationship to
food. She delivers a peace that only love can bestow. During this time of gestation, have faith in what is happening inside you. Do not let appearances fool you. Do not look at your flesh and wince. Do
not look at it and give in to self-loathing. Y es, old flesh undoubtedly
remains, but its cause is fading even as you read this. Looking at your body,
realize that it is a changeable condition. Y our flesh has merely responded to
your mind. Now celebrate that you are changing  your mind. The womb of your consciousness has been impregnated with a divine
idea: the thought that a permanently freer, more perfect you is possible. This impregnation is a mystery into which your soul must enter, as you
allow to occur within you a miraculous process of death and rebirth. The
old you, the obsessive you—the one who carries all the patterns of your
pain—will now cease to exist. Who you used to be, you will be no longer—and who you were created
to be will now shine forth. She is taking form inside a sacred place—the
realm of infinite possibility that lives inside your heart. T urn there and you
will find her. She is waiting for you. And she will appear in the twinkling of
an eye. Reflection and Prayer
Close your eyes and relax into a meditative space. On the left side of your mind, see yourself as you manifest addictively. See yourself behaving compulsively. Now, on the right side of your mind,
see the real you, the free you, the sober you, the radiant you. See cords of
darkness and dysfunction, thick and ugly, which connect the real you to
your addictive self. Now see an angel, sent by God, walk up to the cords with a scissors of
light. W atch carefully as the angel cuts the cor ds. The cords are dark and
gnarly, yet the divine scissors cuts right through them. See them drop to the
floor and sink below the surface of the ground, disappearing for all time. Hear angels singing in the background. Bear witness to whatever happens
now, and give thanks that you are free. Dear God,  
I am r eady to die to whom I used to be,  
and be born to whom I wish to be. But of myself I can do neither. Transform me at the deepest levels,  
that I might suffer no mor e 
the pain of unr eality. Impr egnate my soul with the seed  
of my true self,  
that I might know joy and peace at last.
The author emphasizes that it's not about losing weight quickly, but about losing weight in a holistic manner, by letting go of judgment, blame, and guilt, and embracing forgiveness, self-love, and spiritual growth.
What is the author's main message regarding weight loss?
The author believes that forgiveness is crucial for spiritual growth and healing, and that it's essential to let go of judgment and blame to achieve this. Forgiveness is not just about forgiving others, but also about forgiving oneself.
What is the author's view on forgiveness?
The author believes that weight loss and spiritual growth are intertwined, and that you cannot achieve one without the other. You must address relationship issues and forgive yourself and others to achieve true healing and transformation.
What is the author's perspective on the relationship between weight loss and spiritual growth?
The author emphasizes that forgiveness is not just a one-time event, but a continuous process. It's essential to cultivate a forgiving attitude and let go of judgment and blame to achieve spiritual growth and transformation.
What is the author's view on the concept of "forgiveness"?
The author suggests that the key to overcoming addictive behaviors is not just about willpower, but about transforming your mindset and embracing a loving and forgiving attitude. You must address your inner pain and darkness to rise above it, and you must choose to love and accept yourself and others.
What is the author's advice on how to overcome addictive behaviors?