Signficant Change Starts With Just a Shift

I attended an obesity conference here in town last week.

We all know the situation is grim. Just take a look around.

The room was filled with worried professionals who work to serve health care and wellness. They know it's a situation that not only destroys a person's health, but collectively it is on track to bankrupt the country.

Understandably, not a few people doubt their ability to make themselves healthier because they've failed before; and they assume that, should they try, they'll fail again.

Someone who is 25 or more pounds overweight (much of the population), living with the stress of an uncertain economy (most of the population) can't find the first rung on the ladder towards gaining some sense of control.

There seems to be little sense of "space" amidst the complexities of the world in which we live where we can collect ourselves and consciously decide our course, and then carry it out. We're blown all over the place by the winds of change.

We live in a culture of people who frame reality around the way it's gonna be someday rather than the way it is. Our minds reside in the realm of expectations, putting any decisions that might carry us forward on hold. Maybe that's what's been modeled for them in their families, or what's projected through media advertising. What we want is always somehow out of reach, but we wish and hope for that to change.

Those are extremely strong beliefs ~ enough to solidly stop any forward momentum.

Those are the beliefs of the disempowered, but it's really a short distance to empowerment.

That's becuase the most significant changes are only the slightest shifts; when you choose to go without fries when you order that cheeseburger, or drink from your water bottle instead of a soda cup.

It can be when you steam some diced broccoli and carrots to mix with the kids' mac and cheese; and then take them for a 10 minute walk around the neighborhood instead of heading right to the TV.

Or maybe you give your husband or wife a hug and just say "I love you" for no reason, and feel how that feeds your heart so much more than does food.

Those represent those "first rungs" we're looking for on the road to better health!