Getting Healthy When You Don’t Feel Like It
The ego’s only perspective is based on survival, so if you have been surviving up until now, making new lifestyle changes won’t come without resistance from the ego. Yes, this includes health related changes that might actually cause you to live longer because the ego makes decisions based on the past.
From a biological perspective, we have evolved to conserve energy so it is available when needed by the body. This is a great survival tool, but can have negative consequences when too much food, especially heavily processed food, is consumed. Highly processed foods are usually cheap, tasty, and convenient, but are full of chemicals, preservatives, and fillers.
Until recently, we didn’t have much information about the health effects of such foods. With more research we are realizing how some of our food and health choices have influenced particular disease formation. Knowing the negative health consequences usually doesn’t stop us from consuming these products and doesn’t incentivize us to exercise more. This helps explain why most diet and exercise routines fail. WE ARE ATTEMPTING TO FIGHT A WAR AGAINST OUR OWN CONDITIONING. Willpower is like the big bad wolf; it works for just long enough to convince you that you are in control but when the ego has had enough, it steps in a sabotages your efforts.
If you see diet and exercise as a source of pain or discomfort then you will ultimately reject any engagement with it. This will play out over and over again without you even realizing it unless and until you work with your unconscious mind. Looking good and feeling good is not on your ego’s agenda and never will be. By working with what comes up emotionally, the resistance you face, is showing you the way through. You can’t casually walk around the obstacle that is stopping you because it is charged with unconscious emotion. You must move through it, wrestle with it, understand why it is there, and there you will emerge with a different perspective that will never stop you again.
