Sit. Gaze at this photo.  Anything happen?  Now imagine millions of years in a few seconds.  Heated rock cools.  Layers form.  Tectonic plates buckle.  Land masses rise.  Ice Caps Melt.  Water carves paths.  Now apply this to your life.  Momentum creates change.  

Sit. Think. Watch. Wish. Hope. Dream.  Ah how lovely but to what end?  Now Move. Breathe. Imagine. Create. Visualize. Do. Ah how productive.  Wash a dish.  Say no to that cookie.  Park far and walk.  Sit and breathe 10 times to relax.  Every small step moves us forward.   

My journey in life has been this way.  Healing, loosing weight, parenting, starting a career, enjoying success, failing financially and very publicly, rebuilding and transforming into the next stage of life.  Every success has been the result of small choices made over time toward what I wanted, not with what I thought I needed.

Need does not manifest results.  Want and Do manifest results.  I want this and to get it I will Do this.  I need this, I need to lose weight, I need to work out, I need to learn to relax all the while I have no intention of doing any of that ~  It’s like trying.  I will try means I’m not committed.  We should take try out of our language as a good first step to empowerment.  Yoda says Do or Do Not.  There is no try.

After my third child I weighed 210 lbs and was a size 18.  I cried.  I thought how did this happen.  It happend slowly over 6 years.  I thought I want to lose weight.  So I started walking. I started cutting down on some things.  I felt better.  The scale said 192.  I wanted to keep going.  So I did.  The scale said 162 and stuck there for 6 months with 5 day a week work outs! Demoralization. Yet I kept going.

My husband found a book “Clean” by Alejandro Jung. He thought we would enjoy the book.  We cooked from it and the scale said 152.  Then a dangerous incisional hernia and 2 small hernias required surgery.  The scale said 162. Demoralization.  The mantra is eat well and exercise so I kept going anyway.  The scale once again said 152.  In my twenties it said 122 so I wanted to keep going.  Another severe illness and hospitalization.  Demoralization again!

Stress, fear and genetic exposure revealed a week intestine.  Refused surgery and medication.  It was hard to function.  Asked for help.  Went to a chinese herbalists and healer.  My mom found a holistic MD.  Found another book “Gut and Psychology Syndrome”.  Found a farmer with bones.  Made the broth.  Healed the gut.  No need for surgery.  It all took more than a year to accomplish and it was not easy.  The scale says 157 pounds and still a size 8 (that’s 10 sizes lost).  It’s been 5 years of keeping off the weight.

This story could have been had kids.  Too hard to loose weight with 3 small children.  Then I needed surgery so I gained more weight.  The business failed, the stress mounted, and I ate to feel better.  Then I got sick again.  Now I weigh 252 pounds and I’m on 7 different kinds of medications.

The story I wanted was health and happiness.  The story some of us need is health and happiness but it’s only the story we want, then DO, that will manifest in our lives.

Today, is a reminder that small steps create momentum.  It’s the small choices every day that change my life.  It’s the small decisions that lead me forward.  Be gentle with myself.  Celebrate my successes along the way.  Instead of “I’m still 30 pounds over weight” hey look at me I’ve lost over 60 pounds and kept it off for 5 years.  A message of personal success is powerful.  It inspires.  It offers hope.