Use Your BUTS to Benefit YOU.

Hello, My Friends

This week, has seen our young grandson of 8, staying with us while his parents are working. We’ve had fun creating a knights helmet, sword and flag, the shield is still in progress.

This little person is a real chatterbox, I’d forgotten how difficult it is to listen and get things done. I love his sunny disposition, and the joy he brings. He is learning to think strategically by playing endless games of squares, (You start with a grid of dots, each person joins two dots with a line, the goal is to prevent the other person from making a square, or series of squares.) and working out how to win at noughts and crosses.

This week I had a stark reminder of how our thoughts create our actions. Three weeks ago, hubby opened a jar of homemade jam. This particular jam was very well set, and didn’t spread easily. My daughter and I were reminiscing about some of the baking I did when she was a child, this got me thinking about how I could use this jam.

Cheese cakes; that’s what the recipe book called them. I recalled they were delicious, a pastry shell, with a jam centre and sponge topping. My mouth was watering as I thought about them. I baked them this weekend, they smelled divine.

Over the last few months I have been eliminating the amount of sugar and refined flours I have been consuming. Usually baking doesn’t bother me, but this week my mind did a number on me and I wasn’t on guard enough to counter it.

It used the old thought pattern of, “You know one won’t hurt you. ” “Remember how delicious they were.” ” You’ll feel so good after you’ve had one.” “Go on have a little one, no-one needs to know.”

Have you ever had your mind trick you with these sweet words?

I gave some of the baking to our neighbours, in an effort to reduce the temptation. I put them away in the cupboard, figuring out of sight was out of mind. No! My mind was very determined I needed these cakes.

Late in the evening I went to the cupboard, I put the plate on the coffee table with my herbal tea, I told myself they were for my hubby. Who was I kidding? Hubby knew and I knew. I had decided to have one. I knew, I would from the time I had baked them, I just didn’t want to admit it to myself.

So my feelings over ruled all my thinking and planning not to eat any, They overcame my cajoling, bribing and good intentions that I had at the outset . My brain had sold me on the wonderful feeling this cake would give me.

Reality, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

I no longer need food to feed my emotions. I am in a place where I can feel what I’m feeling. So I allowed myself to feel the disappointment of allowing myself to be duped by a past that doesn’t belong in my present.

I gave myself the grace to do a YOU TURN, to not beat myself up, and to deal with the fact that I broke my two month trend for something so unsatisfying. It’s a new day, and now my body is dealing the consequences of sugar and refined flour. I will use this as a reminder in the future as evidence that I actually do know what is best for my body.

What about you? What little seed of doubt, or negativity, or disbelieve has wormed it’s way into your thinking? What is promising you the wonderfulness of feeling great, even though you know it will have a sting in its tail?

As I mentioned earlier, all it took for my thoughts to runaway from me, was a memory of how I perceived this morsel of food once made me feel, and in the hope that it would create that feeling again, I allowed it grow until it came into fruition.

When we flip these little seeds on there head, they also have the ability to be a little seed of inspiration, motivation and what could be. We pick up a thought that we could be slender, we could earn more money, we could drive a nicer car, we could have more love and affection.

When we sit in the place of imagination and let this thought grow, and blossom, we give our idea wings, and we give our brain a challenge. Our brain loves challenges.

Before our seed of inspiration grows into maturity it needs to be nurtured, watered, and fed. We do this by research, my sitting with the positive side of what if. What if this could actually happen?

And before the big BUT, comes along to snaffle your inspiration and idea away. STOP.

Listen to the BUT. Write out all the BUTS, especially the so called negative ones. These buts are your friends.

You may say, “But I can’t go into business for myself.” “But I can’t lose weight.” “But I am too sick to do that. ” “But I can’t manage money.”” But my family will laugh at me. ” But …. (Whatever your BUT is. )

Your BUT is helping you to see what you believe to be true about you. This is good. It is only when we get a true reading of what we really believe and think, can we change it.

This is where the emotional work begins. Everything we currently do, we do for the feeling we believe we gain from it. Our actions either lead us away from pain, or towards pleasure. There is a subtle difference in the wording, but a huge difference in the energy emitted from our actions.

When you begin to take action towards what you want, rather than taking action by moving away from what you don’t want, you invoke the law of attraction and begin to put into practice the compound effect. The Compound Effect is where small, seemingly insignificant actions taken over a long period of time create vast results. For example by choosing to not eat dessert every night, over the period of a year or so, you will be able to see the results on your body. If you added a walk instead of the desert you will see results quicker, Small manageable actions can have huge effects.

Also you begin to create evidence for your brain, you are proving to yourself that you are the kind of person who … Doesn’t eat dessert, who enjoys evening walks, who is reducing your body size and gaining fitness. This evidence is used to silence your inner critic.

This was part of the steps, I didn’t include in my battle with my brain and my feelings. If I had reminded myself that I am a person who only eats for health and well-being, that sugary and floury foods are like poison in my body. I could have stood down the entire scenario before it took over. Lesson to be learned, always have what you DO want in front of you. In cases of temptation, pull out your goal card, read it and visualise how you feel, having already gained it. Remind your emotions how wonderful it is to be the person who has money, slimness, mobility without pain, love, and happiness. Remind yourself how it feels to be driving the car you want, sitting in your lounge, reclining on your self massaging chair, or watching television in your purpose built media room. What ever your goal is, keep the feeling and visual of it in front of you. This inspires and motivates your mind, letting it know that you are willing to do the emotional work and the physical action to make it yours.

So, BUTS are your friends, they let you know what is stopping you. Your goal card is your passport to a new life. Use it to remind yourself of the feeling you will gain when you have the goal. Use your imagination to see yourself enjoying your goal. Then set your determination to do the action to make it happen.

Be your authentic self, living the life you want for your future today.

xoxo Linda.

#authenticlivingwithlinda

Email me at authenticlivingwithlinda@gmail.com

Find me on Facebook @authenticlivingwithlinda @lindacodlin25

Connect with me for a one on one coaching appointment.