Hmmm…maybe a more effective approach is needed…
In Christian Science, a thinker learns to view all of the human experience from a metaphysical point of view. The human body is human consciousness. To slim down in the body, there needs to be a “slim down” in thought. And a good place to begin one’s exercise program is to lose burdensome mental weights.
Paul instructed, “let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up” (Hebrews 12:1, NLT).
What are the weights that “slow us down?” Some are fear, worry, anxiety, and excess attention about food, size and shape of the body, and what other people think.
When we spend all our mental time worrying about what we eat, how much we weigh, and what other people think, we’re not turning our thinking over to God who heals us.
When thinking is under the influence of the one Mind, and not being pulled back and forth by mortal mind, healing happens. God knows what to do and how to do it.
But we have a role to play. Our need is to be sure we’re really feeling, knowing and reflecting the presence of God throughout the day. And this requires releasing mental weights that stifle inspiration and prevent progress.
So, what mental weights can you shed today that you shouldn’t be carrying around?
Good one, Evan. With much emphasis on food today, the very idea of eating becomes stressful.
1 TIMOTHY: 4-8 reads “Exercise profiteth nothing.” Today, there is too much emphasis on the human body. This emphasis is one of the main causes of human body problems. If the truth was practiced more, that man, fat or thin, heavy weight or light weight, is the image and likeness of God, then man would reflect the true likeness of God and not have any of the 21st century’s body malfunctions. It was reflected in the 1940’s thru the 1960’s when there wasn’t so much emphasis on the human body by the MEDIA!
“Exercise loving kindness”!
Very helpful, Evan! Having tried to “diet” over the years, can tell you it’s a dead end. Just makes one more body conscious. As we stand porter at the door of thought, entertaining only the finest of thinking (ideally) wouldn’t it be intelligent to stand porter and eat the cleanest, most nutritional food for fuel, not for entertainment or stress relieving, or relieving boredom. Thinking of food as fuel has impersonalized the whole eating thing for me. As I put the best gasoline in my engine I can afford, so I eat the freshest, cleanest food I can afford. And I thank God for it, just as the people of old did. It lifts the whole eating experience higher. I love how practical your blog is, Evan, addressing the issues of the day and offering a metaphysical approach. Joy to read!
Thanks Evan!
My fellow Reader and I were just talking this last week about this issue and one of the lines stood out from the lesson in the Responsive Reading – “I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgement, and righteousness, in the earth” and it was so wonderful to realize that to shed the weight, it isn’t about the food or physical exercise of muscles, but the exercising of our expression of the attributes of God. Now that is exercise I really enjoy! Of course, being active (not obsessed) in that expression is definitely okay. No couch potatoes in God’s kingdom! 🙂
I always look forward to your thoughts and inspirations. Just want to say thank you, Evan, for your guided work you share so diligently.
The comment about thinking of food as fuel reminded me of the following from Science and Health, page 388:
“Admit the common hypothesis that food is the nutriment of life, and there follows the necessity for another admission in the opposite direction, — that food has power to destroy Life, God, through a deficiency or an excess, a quality or a quantity.”
Also from page 388…
“The fact is, food does not affect the absolute Life of man, and this becomes self-evident, when we learn that God is our Life.”
Over the years, I’ve discovered that 2 spiritual qualities are the biggest “weight losers”–gratitude and humility. And now to practice them…