SHEDDING PHYSICAL & SPIRITUAL WEIGHT

 

By Rev. Dr. Cynthia Killion  August 16, 2016

 

Dear Friends, hope all is well with you.  I’m writing today to talk about the spiritual aspects of something that you might not necessarily think of as spiritual….that is DIETING.  (As in, dieting to lose weight.)

 

                Many people think of dieting as a purely physical practice that has no relationship to the spiritual realm.  However, dieting for weight-loss can actually be a spiritual experience, and it definitely can have an impact on your spiritual growth and awakening.  To understand how this is, you must first understand what it means to carry extra weight on the body, and especially what impact that could be having on your path of spiritual psychic awakening.

 

                Weight is simply a form of density, and we need density to survive in the physical realm.   After all, density is one of the qualities that separates the earthly, physical experience from the finer, non-physical etheric and astral experience.  It’s also true, however, that those of us on the spiritual path generally seek to become LIGHTER in our consciousness.  Many times, that is easier to do when we also become lighter in our bodies.

 

                This does not mean that one has to be bone-thin to spiritually awaken.  But let’s face it, if you’re not laden down with 20, 40, 50 or more pounds of extra weight, it’s a whole lot easier to sit in the lotus position (or cross-legged) and meditate for fifteen minutes.

 

Also, it’s a lot easier to focus on your spiritual growth and/or psychic development if you aren’t having to worry about developing physical diseases that have been directly linked to obesity (such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke).  Furthermore, it’s no fun to have to deal with pain in your knees or hips, loss of mobility or shortness of breath, and other limiting physical conditions associated with carrying too much weight.  Being closer to one’s ideal weight helps to ensure health on ALL levels, and the healthier the body temple can be, the less physical distractions there will be for your spiritual path. 

 

Each person has a different ideal weight, and what is ideal for one person may not be ideal for the next.  Of course, a lot of it depends on things like genetics, bone structure, and muscle mass.  This is why it is just about impossible to come up with an exact number of what a person “should” weigh based only on his or her height, because there are many variables to take into account.  Nonetheless, most of us seem to have a built-in sense of what our natural ideal weight is, and most of us can physically feel it when we are carrying too much weight for our needs.

 

On the physical level, excess weight seems to be caused mostly by lack of exercise and poor dieting habits (usually too much fat, carbs, sugars, or calories, or all of these!)  Metaphysically, extra physical weight can be viewed as either an attempt at self-protection or an accumulation of karma or energy.  In all likelihood, each extra pound that you carry of unnecessary fat is stored emotional energy that needs releasing.  This is where dieting comes in….

 

If you are overweight, then dieting can help you to improve your physical health by eliminating extra fat, AND it can help improve your spiritual health by releasing stored emotions and other old energies and karma being held in that extra fat. 

 

                This is why many people who are dieting also experience profound emotional shifts and empowerment as they go through the weight-loss process.  The new found sense of freedom & empowerment isn’t only because you are losing physical weight…it also comes from the fact that as you shed physical weight, you are also being released of emotional and energetic weight.   Just think of how spiritually liberating it can be to shed just 5 or 10 pounds of extra weight!

 

                For this reason, I myself have been dieting since the end of April, and have lost about 20 pounds to date.  (Although I’ve reached my initial goal, I’m planning to lose about 2-3 more pounds or so, as this will give me a little breathing room when it comes to the fluctuations that sometimes occur with weight.)  Most people who know me were surprised when I started my diet this spring, as I looked “OK” to them.  That’s both the blessing & the curse of being small-boned (not to mention having long lines on my body from all the dance & yoga training I have done)….you hide weight gain well!

 

                In any case, I was carrying around about 20 pounds of extra weight (at least, by my standards) that had accumulated over the last two years, mainly due to having incorporated potato chips & white bread into my regular evening meals (things that I never used to eat at all, or very rarely).  When it became difficult to get into some of the yoga back-bends that I enjoy doing, I knew it was time for a change.      

 

                So at the beginning of last spring, I hit “the program” as I call it.  The program is just my term for what I think of as good old common sense dieting, things like reducing fat and calories, eating more veggies and learn protein, and a LOT less carbs.   And of course, virtually NO sugar or junk food.   And all of this must be combined with regular work-outs of course.

                It probably sounds like hard work, and it is, at least at first, when you are first making the changes.  But once you get used to eating differently and incorporate new food preparation techniques into your regular routine, it becomes practically second-nature.  And it really does work.  As I mentioned earlier, I’m now down 20 pounds from where I started a few months ago, and I must say that I am looking & feeling just GREAT.  I even have noticed a significant improvement in my ability to do certain yoga poses.

                I’m planning to lose about 2-3 pounds more, then hopefully I can re-stabilize my weight by eating just a few more hundred calories a day of nutrient dense foods (not junk food!).  I wanted to share this story with all you because even though weight may not seem to have anything to do with your spiritual or psychic life, it really does.  Sure, we don’t have to weigh any certain number to be on the spiritual psychic path.  But every extra pound we are carrying of excess fat that we don’t need is actually full of stored emotional energy that needs releasing.

 

                I myself have never had to lose more than 25 pounds, but I do have friends who have had to lose much more for medical purposes to save their lives, in some cases 140 pounds or more. 

 

I’ve watched them go through their process with shedding all that extra weight and have been in awe and amazed at the transformation that occurs within them.  In most cases, these were people who were already on a spiritual path and practiced regular meditation and prayer. However, their spiritual and psychic awareness seemed to really take off and increase proportionally to the amount of weight that they lost! 

 

Now, some of these same friends are huge inspirations to me.  Seeing what they have done proves to me that it is possible for all of us to shed our extra weight, whether that weight is spiritual, emotional, or both.

 

Many Blessings,

Rev. Dr. Cynthia Killion

 

P.S.  If you’re looking for some inspiration to get started on a diet, I do recommend the book “The Skinny Rules” by Bob Harper.  It is a very comprehensive diet book that provides LOTS of nutritional info and goes beyond just dieting to show you a lighter way of living that is sound nutritionally and can be followed long-term.