The Life of an Eagle

This is such a powerful story that I just wanted to share it with you. Sometimes when we think that life has dealt us a tough hand, all it really is, is the time to give birth to our truest, most powerful selves. It’s not a do-over or second chance. It is the blooming and growing into our most powerful selves.

I hope you enjoy this little story.  I wish I could give a heartfelt thanks to the author but he or she is unknown to me.

The Life of an Eagle

The eagle has the longest lifespan of its species.  It can live up to 70 years.  But to reach this age, the eagle must make a hard decision in its 40's.  Its long and flexible talons can no longer grab prey, which serves as food.  Its long and sharp beak becomes bent.  Its old-aged and heavy wings, due to their thick feathers, become stuck to its chest and make it difficult to fly.

The eagle is left with only two options: die or go through a painful process of CHANGE, which lasts 150 days.  The process requires that the eagle fly to a mountaintop and sit on its nest.  There the eagle knocks its beak against a rock until it falls out.  The eagle will then wait for a new beak to grow back and when it does, the eagle will pluck out its talons.  When its new talons grow back, the eagle starts plucking out its old feathers to allow them to grow back healthy.  And after five months, the eagle takes its famous flight of rebirth and lives for ...30 more years.

I look forward to seeing you at my workshop March 6th so together we can make the radical decision to re-choose the life we were meant to live!

It Takes a Village

When we’re confronted with addiction challenges, oftentimes we feel we must do it alone. Whether it’s shame, embarrassment or any other reason, we approach our healing like a lone hiker climbing to the top of the highest peak. The path to recovery looms above us seemingly unattainable.

Let me tell you right now that recovery TAKES A VILLAGE!

I can tell you from experience that my recovery has taken a village i.e.; seminars, workshops, 12-steps, therapist, self help book, cd’s, coaches, church, gym, nutritionist, commercial weight loss programs, doctor, lawyer, Indian chiefs! Anything that helped close the gap between me and God, so I am not stuffing the gap with food. Without my village there is no way I could have gone from Obesity Survivor to Obesity Thriver and from Cancer Survivor to Cancer Thriver. How else could I have maintained my healthy body weight and undergone 5 cancer-related surgeries this past year and not put on a hundred pounds! Thank God for the village I have built up around me.  I am just a villager surrounded by an extended family of caring and helpful people. The very first step in creating your village is simply reaching out.

So today ask yourself, who’s in my village?

March 6 Workshop! "When It's On The Plate It's Way Too Late!"

I’m so excited about my newest workshop that I wanted to share it with you!
When It's On The Plate, It's Way Too Late! ~Flipping Your Thoughts to Weight Loss!

I have such a passion for helping people who are seeking freedom from the food and who want to regain the power of choice. 

Here's a little info below in case you know of anyone who could benefit from attending;

When It's On The Plate, It's Way Too Late! ~Flipping Your Thoughts to Weight Loss!
Saturday March 6, 2010 in Studio City.  $20

This workshop with Tele-series is a hands on how to win the battle emotional eaters suffer--I teach people how-to-stop canceling themselves out.  Take their power back in the moment, make peace with ourselves and our emotions, and stop allowing our insecurities and emotions to hi-jack our lives by ending up face down in a plate of food. Stop repeating the past; diets that don’t work, relapses that continue to hammer close the lid on our dreams.  I teach you the techniques that keep you connected to your power of choice and you will discover and experience that learning and being trained in this technique has plucked your pocket for your compulsion to emotionally overeat.  You will find that the drive to emotionally overeat has faded to the background and the real you is now living up and out front!! What a thrill it is to live this way!!!

Hope you will come to the workshop and sign-up also for the tele-series that follows. (The introductory rate of $20.00 per person is a no-brainer. It would be like working with me when I first started my coaching practice!)

Please register at the link below and please help me help others by keeping this email and flyer circulating to those people that you think could benefit from my experience. 

When It's On The Plate, It's Way Too Late! ~Flipping Your Thoughts to Weight Loss!
Saturday March 6, 2010 in Studio City

Register Now~
coachcherie.com/events.php

Hope to see YOU there! Let's stay in touch on Facebook and Twitter!

Blessings always to YOU!

~Cherie

P.S. Please help me help others by keeping this email circulating to those people that you think could benefit from my experience.

If It’s Okay With You, It’s Okay With Everybody!

I want you to take a moment and think about the above statement. What does that mean to you? For me, it means, that I must take care of myself first.  For example, say we have a disagreement. If I'm in a bad place emotionally, I can't relate to you honestly. Feelings on both sides spiral out of control. But if I stop and process what's happening with my emotions, then regardless of what the issue is, I am able to discuss it clearly and succinctly. If I'm coming from a calm place, chances are, you will as well. So, it's important to take care of you and your emotions first.

How can you do that on a daily basis? What kind of activity can you do every day that will set the tone for the day and help you choose you?

Every morning I practice what I call, “8 minutes to a mindful day.” And it involves Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.

Reading: Read books that help to open the lines of communication. Whatever it is that helps guide you on a path to open and honest dialogue with yourself and the people around you, read it—whether it be a paragraph, a page or a chapter.

Writing: Writing or journaling helps to link your head to your heart. It purges your mind of yesterday and of tomorrow to allow you to be in the moment. Writing helps to keep us from beginning our day stomping all over the newness and freshness of the now “new you”—the you of today and today only. Writing helps us begin everyday anew.

Arithmetic: Do the math.

            2:00            Read

            2:00            Write

            2:00            Plan your food style to match your life style

            2:00            Walk

These 8 minutes can equal 8 pounds up or down. These 8 minutes dedicated to you can set you on a path of manifesting your heart’s desire.

You must come first. Your first choice of the day must be you. Your second choice of the day must be you.  Ask yourself “what am I thinking?” “What is my emotional status?” If your day doesn’t start out well, it certainly won’t end well. You must go back and re-choose you and your intent. You cannot cancel yourself out and expect to win. Because when we cancel ourselves out, we take ourselves out of the race. We’ve chosen to believe the lie that we will really win! Win their love, win their acceptance, their acknowledgements, their criticisms.

If we choose to open and widen the gap during the day, we will choose to close the gap the only way we know how.  The hole left there by the choices we’ve made to cancel ourselves out will be filled with food. Food has become the only true comfort and release we have chosen to give ourselves. But if you start the day with 8 minutes, just 8 minutes, and own that you have the power of choice, you can choose the day you want today and everyday.

Keep re-choosing you!

Flipping Your Thoughts

I want___________ equals the first thought.

They/Them (Thought, Having, Emotional, Madness) say ___________. This equals the second thought.

Let me explain. I tell myself I want love in my life. That’s the first thought. But T.H.E.M. comes along and says no; you don’t deserve love.  That’s the second thought. A thought that is having/experiencing emotional madness.

If we stay focused on the second thought, then we go into “Circular Thought Thinking.” You know that voice that chatters on and on—spinning—inside of our brain.  Sometimes it gets so loud, I’m sure everyone can hear it. So in order to stop those thoughts, the feelings, the fear, we have to eat. We eat to stop the cycle of feelings those thoughts have stirred up inside of us.

We wouldn’t emotionally overeat if we weren’t afraid of our thoughts. Just writing this makes me want to get up from my desk and do something to stop thinking. I’m so afraid of my thoughts the very question makes me want to bolt.

But if I’m afraid of my own thoughts, does that mean I’m afraid of me? You? God? Life?

I know I must deny this urge in me. I tell myself to settle down. Just sit and be with me. Sometimes just sitting and allowing myself to “feel” my thoughts is the most difficult thing I will do today.  If I can commit to not run for just this moment, I can feel my way out to a better feeling, to a thought that holds peace. I tell myself to stop. Just sit and be with me. Go towards that thought that holds peace. Re-connect to my being-ness.

When we’re in this space, we have to learn to flip the thought. Pry it loose with a spatula and get up under it carefully. Need help? Grab a spoon and scoop it out. Treat it gently so it doesn’t break apart. Get yourself into a position where you can hold on to your intention. Focus on the end result.

I know that when I betray myself, my thoughts, I have to eat. And eat. And eat. My message to you is to guard your thoughts and their results. Guard your thoughts like your money. Like your life. Like your loved ones. It’s that important.

The most fundamental law is that of cause and effect. As emotional overeater’s we’re told that it’s the food we put in our mouths that causes the weight gain. It’s our body that creates the problem. But the body can’t create anything without the mind. The cause is the 95% that is on the plate in our mind; the other 5% is the plate of food sitting on the table.  It’s T.H.E.M. that leads us to seek out the nearest fast food restaurant or convenience store to quiet the pot of boiling thoughts inside.

Tell T.H.E.M. that you want your power back; you refuse to let your emotions be hijacked anymore.

Next week: When it’s Okay With You, It’s Okay With Everybody

Looks Right and Feels Wrong versus Looks Wrong and Feels Right

I want to go back to a concept that I wrote about earlier. For those of us who are waging war with emotional overeating or other addiction, it’s usually because we’ve spent a lifetime living from our human-ness rather than our being-ness. Why is that?

As I mentioned, it’s very easy to teach a child not to trust their feelings, to trust that what they’re feeling is real and true. Children hear from their parents, their teachers, even their peers that they’re not good enough, or not as pretty as the other little girl, not as smart as your brother. We’re taught that the feelings and fears we’re having, whether they’re coming from a specific source or not, is false and not real. So as adults, we naturally won’t trust that what we’re feeling is real and in need. Our inner voice pops up and repeats all those hurtful things we heard as a child. We trust what other people say and we seek validation from them. We learn to please She, He, It, Them. I know when I’m tethered to She, He, It and Them, then they have all the power. And they have the power to make me feel good about myself--and feel bad about myself. And when I give them the power, I turn to stuffing myself with three pizzas and 6-8 candy bars.

When I work with people, I ask them: “Do you do what feels wrong and looks right or what looks right and feels wrong?” As children, we’re reinforced to do what looks right and feels wrong. Play the part everyone else wants you to play. But deep inside you know it just doesn’t feel right.

When those feelings arise ask yourself, should I go with what looks right and feels wrong? Or should I live from that gut feeling where my power emanates—from my being-ness. It may look right but you know inside it feels wrong. And you know sure as the sun shines that society will tell you, “go with what looks right.”

But what about when it “looks wrong and feels right?” “Do I trust my feelings or what others say?” I say trust what your heart and soul says. Stop the chatter and re-connect to your being-ness. Ask yourself who’s having this conversation here? Who has to live with the decisions I make?

Intense training negates instinct and because of the intense training we received as children, we negate our inner, true feelings. Learning to live from our being-ness requires re-training.

So rather than turning to the food, take the risk and go inside and feel what you’re feeling. And know that if you feel one little uncomfortable feeling and you don’t die, you can experience another painful feeling and know that you’re not going to die. Starting with baby steps you can begin to build a healthy foundation from which to live.

The battle is won or lost in our minds, not on the plate. Lose the mental weight to lose the physical weight. Go with what feels right.

Next week: Flipping Your Thoughts

When You Feel Like You Need a Break…Stop and Take Stock

Last week I said that I’d delve next into "Food-Styles". But as I was writing, this struck me like a ton of bricks. So I wanted to share.

I feel like a rest...but I can’t. I’m too busy so I keep going and going and going and all I can think about is eating!! I say no and I keep working. BUT I keep thinking about eating. 

I’m conflicted. What I really need is a break! And I know if I don’t take a break I will break down and eat.  So, I don't take a break—I keep going.

I really don’t trust myself.  I know that if I stop I will re-start my work or what ever I approach compulsively. 

I stop.

I breathe.

I choose to re-connect to me, to my being-ness.

I will stop now and come back in 15 minutes just to prove to you and me that I can give myself what I need and that this is a break—a little rest that will bring the emotional relief that the food used to give to me. My brain will now automatically release those lovely opioids and dopamine that my body, mind and spirit need RIGHT NOW!

See, I am now back and refreshed ready to have my proper lunch and not a binge! Yippee!

When you feel like you need a break, stop and take stock.

Step One

Repeat after me: 95% of why we eat/drink/take drugs/gamble is in our mind. The other 5% is in that pizza, doughnut, burrito…you get the point.

Step Two

Now step back. Re-choose a different path right this minute and take stock.

I know I did. Can YOU relate?

Next week: What Looks Right and Feels Wrong versus What Looks Wrong and Feels Right!