Intention is a primary component of my Weight Release Program™.   Learning what intention is and how to use it is the key to successfully releasing weight permanently. 

 First off, what is intention?

Intention is a held thought – consciously projected on to circumstances and experiences.  It is a conscious filter that effects interpretation.  Intention also guides and directs choices.

What does intention have to do with releasing weight?

Intention is a guiding principle of the Service to Self™ Process – a general personal growth program I developed that is the foundation of the Weight Release Program™.  Fundamentally, it is your intention to heal and release weight that guides your choices and allows you to make manifest your desire.  Moving into intention will actually evoke much more of what you “DO” want in your life – which naturally and effortlessly directs your experience away from what you “don’t want”.   

 Intention directs experience.  Another way to say this is: our experience conforms to our intention.  So, as we continue to focus our energy using intention we naturally shift our experience.

 Now this is not a sometimes statement – “well, sometimes intention directs experience” – NO – as far as I am concerned this is an absolute fact – once you understand intention and how to use it your experience will profoundly and dramatically change.  In short, you become the director of your own movie – your own life.

 I will return to this question later in the article.

 What is the power of directed focus or attention on the potentiality of a particular outcome?

You have probably heard this principle talked about in terms of “mind over matter”.  You may have heard the term “a self fulfilling prophesy” – though often times this is used to suggest a negative focus and thereby a negative outcome – but it is still the same principle.  Simply that the focus influences the outcome.

 Simply illustrated, if someone says “I’m going to get sick – I just know I am going to get sick.” – what’s going to happen – they’re going to get sick, right?   At least the potentiality of them getting sick is surely higher than someone who says “I’m not going to get sick, I never get sick.”  Now, I know that there are anomalies – the person who doesn’t think that they will get sick but does and the person who always gets sick and is sure that they will get sick but actually doesn’t – BUT the probability of the former expression of reality – where the person who “thinks” that they will get sick actually does get sick (and the opposite for the person who doesn’t) is surely higher – agreed? 

 What is the scientific basis for intention?

In fact, there is empirical evidence that the principle I am speaking about actually plays out in “real life”.  On some level, it’s really just common sense.  However, there is a bit of a technology behind the use of intention and that is what I teach people in the Weight Release Program™.

 Over the past 20 or 30 years the interest in this type of natural law or principle has really picked up momentum.  In fact, today, there is very legitimate science backing up the claims that intention directs experience.

 The scientific term used to explain the principle is called “micro-psychokenisis” – that is the term coined by scientists at Princeton University’s PEAR laboratory – basically this is the science of measuring the effect of thought (the energetic power of the mind) on random events.  Scientists study this principle by simulating random events, similar to a coin toss, where laws of probability and statistics can be applied, then measuring what effect a “held thought” has on the outcome.  The scientists use what they call REGs, which stands for random event generators, where just as in a coin toss the odds are basically “50/50” – half of the time the coin will come up heads and half of the time the coin will come up tails, then they have a person bring a focused awareness to a particular outcome to see if it changes the 50/50 rule.  What the studies (and I mean lots of studies in many different circumstances and under different conditions) have shown is that intention – “the projection of awareness, with purpose and efficacy, toward some object or outcome” (that is the Institute of Noetic Sciences language), profoundly effects the outcome. 

 Intention absolutely increases the probability of a particular intended result occurring.

 So, back to the question, “how does intention fit with weight release?

I want to say a little about the unfocused mind – just think about it – when you are unfocused – bored, distracted, pre-occupied, whatever – what are the chances of you overeating? 

The patterns of behavior that cause weight related issues are unconscious – they are unconscious patterns of behavior.  In order to interrupt these patterns you must become conscious of them – more importantly you must become conscious of what is underneath the habits.  Again, the intention process alone does not constitute the entire Service to Self™ process, but it is the foundation.  The Service to Self™ process is a commitment to consciousness – that is what it is.  Remember, intention is directed focus – consider this in the context of your unhealthy eating – your unhealthy eating is unfocused and unconscious.  When you understand and begin working with intention you are being conscious of the choices you are making – the unintended consequences of being unconscious end – that’s it.

(2:10 Minutes)

How Judgment is at the Core of ALL Weight Related Issues

In the Christian tradition there is the famous quote “judge not, lest you be judged” taken from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. What is interesting about that quote is what follows it. Jesus uses the analogy of seeing sawdust in someone else’s eye but not recognizing that we have an entire plank of wood in our own eye. He suggests that we first need to remove the plank from our own eye before we can see clearly enough to help our neighbor with the speck of wood in their eye. Releasing the burden of our own judgmental thinking is the key to lasting weight release no matter what spiritual tradition you come from.

Judgment blurs our vision and causes our reality to become distorted. When we judge we narrow or limit our perception – judgment is a filtering lens that makes our sight inherently inaccurate. Furthermore, judgment blocks understanding – it is defensive thinking. We actually need to develop compassion in order to see clearly and truly understand what is going on around us.

Compassion and observation, in my Weight Release Program™, are practiced – we practice developing what I call “The Conscious Compassionate Observer”. This is a mode of perception that allows for different interpretations of reality. When we observe our circumstances with an “open-mind” we see a wide range of possible interpretations – from this conscious awareness we have the opportunity to choose how we want to view and react to the world around us.

Those of us who have found ourselves caught in unhealthy eating habits can not break the spell and change the habits if we are judging ourselves. We can’t “guilt trip” our self into loving our self – it isn’t possible. From the distorted perception of judgment, the choices we make will invariably be unhealthy. The diet or exercise programs we choose when we don’t like ourselves will tend to be extreme and unsustainable because the choice is made from a negative self-perception. Self-denial and self-punishment, which is the psychology behind this type of choice, can not be the foundation for a positive change.

When viewed accurately unhealthy eating habits are linked to needs. With compassion and understanding we can begin to peal away our defensive layers of protection and find self-honoring ways to meet our needs that don’t involve unhealthy eating. Releasing weight is a natural byproduct of learning to accept and love ourselves right where we are, determining what really “feeds” us and directing our lives towards what is truly in our best interest.
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For those of us who struggle with weight there can often be no “joy” left in eating.  Food has become a compulsion rather than a pleasure.  We are in a fight with ourselves around food.  We feel strong cravings but also emotional conflict over what to eat, over when to eat, and over how much to eat.

 I spent many years tortured by food choices.  I starved myself trying to stay thin – depriving myself of any enjoyment around food.  Then, all of the sudden, I would find myself on a compulsive binge – shoveling unhealthy foods into my body without tasting a single bite.

 My relationship with food was out of wack, because I used food to cope with stress, anxiety, and emotion.  Food choices became so stressful that I had trouble slowing down and really tasting what I was eating. 

 Becoming conscious of the needs that I was using food to try and meet, I began to dispel the powerful grip that my negative relationship with food had on me.  Finding “self-honoring” ways to meet my needs and designing practices to slowly change my eating habits, I ultimately began to change my experience with food.

 With compassion and care I have come a long way to change my relationship with food.  This is a journey that continues, but I am committed to eating consciously.  My intention is to bring the joy back to eating.

Video Blog – Weight Release Tips – Meal Ttime Affirmations and Mindful Eating

Freeman Michaels Shares free weight release tips in this weekly video blog.

It’s everything – learning to love and accept yourself right where you are is the foundation for change.  You can never get to positive, what I call self-honoring, choices from a negative perspective.  A person can’t judge themselves into loving themselves.  That’s why diets don’t work – they start from the premise that something is wrong with the person.  Look, nothing is wrong with someone who is overweight – their body has responded appropriately to being overfed.  We need to use compassion and understanding to explore the behavior – to recognize the emotional needs that the person has been trying to meet with food.  We need to help them find new ways to get their needs met.   We want to help them to get back in touch with what their body actually needs for sustenance and nutrition. 

 A negative self image is really just a distorted sense one has about oneself.  From a Spiritual Perspective we are all children of God in whom he is well pleased.  Everything that we have ever done is forgivable – in fact a loving God would never judge us in the first place.  It is the illusion that there is something wrong with us – compassion breaks the spell.  Compassion and understanding bring about an accurate perception of reality – judgment is a distorted perception.  So, as we become more compassionate and more loving toward ourselves, we become authentic – we learn to meet our needs in more self-honoring ways.  This is the doorway to a positive (more accurate) self-image.

American’s are the most overweight population in the world today – but I believe Americans are starving – we are starving for fulfillment, and we just keep consuming but it never satisfies our hunger. 

 An estimated two-thirds of adult Americans are categorically overweight or obese.  And three years ago I was one of them.  In this country it is most often referred to as a national health crisis, but I believe it is just as much an emotional and spiritual crisis.  I suspect that much of the nation, like myself, have lost touch with what really “feeds” them. 

 I was forced to face my personal obesity crisis one night in a hospital emergency room when I believed I was having a heart attack.  Stress caused by the collapse of my real estate development company had fueled significant weight gain.  As it turned out, I wasn’t having a heart attack but I was receiving a “wake up call”.

 For me, food had gone from filling a physiological need for sustenance to being a psychological attempt to fill an emotional and spiritual void.  Food had become a temporary distraction from the stress and anxiety I felt at work.  Food was also a way that I coped with all of the feelings that came up around the effect the economic crisis was having on my sense of self. 

With my company facing bankruptcy, my sense of my self as I had constructed it had died.  With a wife and three children I new that I needed to address my weight issues before I really did have a heart attack and literally died.  I realized that I needed to take a good look at my life.

I say in my book, Weight Release: A Liberating Journey, “The ‘self’ that I needed to examine was defined largely from the ‘outside in.’ When I say ‘outside in,’ I mean the way I felt about myself was largely dependent on outer criteria, such as the balance of my bank account, rather than from inner criteria, a sense of wholeness and well-being.  I measured my self-worth in terms of net worth, rather than examining my underlying sense of worthiness.”

Like many Americans I had lost track of what was important.  I was so distracted with things outside of myself that I thought would make me happy, that I neglected my inner world.  It took losing my money to really find myself again.

 We are a consumer nation.  We always need more because we have bought into the notion that we are fed from the outside in.  We are NOT, nor can we ever be, fed from the outside in.  Only by discovering what really fulfills us will be ever be satiated and content. And that is the truth behind the obesity crisis in America.

Self-punishment and Self-rejection cannot lead to a positive change 

There are two types of motivation: negative motivation and positive motivation.
Negative motivation is a little like fool’s gold – it seems great on the surface but it is ultimately ineffective and unsustainable.  Frankly, this is the motivation that most people are used to.  Most people, who struggle with weight, absorbed a lot of this growing up – they were punished and reprimanded, but very rarely got the support and encouragement they needed.  In school they got a lot of red pen marks on their schoolwork but not a lot of positive remarks.  The focus was on what was missing – what should be fixed or corrected.  Punishment for perceived failures in their childhood has fueled destructive patterns of behavior in their adulthood.

 When we talk about weight – many people want to change because they don’t like themselves.  They view their weight as an outward manifestation of their inner self-hatred.  They judge themselves for being heavy.  This leads them to make choices that involve self rejection and support their self hatred. 

 When someone doesn’t like themselves often the choices they make are unconsciously “set up” to fail.  The failure supports the unconscious position they have taken – that there is something wrong with them.

 Extreme diets and extreme exercise programs – where pain and self denial are intended to bring about a positive result – are classic examples of a plan destined to fail.  But people who don’t like themselves use these “diet programs” to essentially punish themselves.  These diet programs are outwardly focused.  There is some outward image, some goal weight that the person is pursuing.  Outwardly focused ideals usually deny the inner experience.

 When someone hires a trainer or joins a fitness boot camp they may be unconsciously looking for someone to yell at them and punish them.  In this type of scenario there is no room for vulnerability or weakness – in fact that is what is judged as “being their problem”.  They believe that they lack willpower, or that they aren’t committed enough.  As they lose weight they refer to the heavy “self” with contempt.  They use expressions, such as, “I am becoming a new me”.  They are trying to distance themselves from the vulnerable and weak person who got so heavy.

 But inside they are vulnerable (that is the good news) – the patterns of behavior around food have been the best way that they have known how to cope with the pain, stress and challenges in their lives.  It is only through self-acceptance and self-love that they will ever be able to release weight.  Only when exercise is fun and intended to be fulfilling can it become a lifelong practice.  When emotional needs get met rather than denied or suppressed than food can become sustenance and nourishment for the body again.

I personally struggle with overeating at night.  I generally eat pretty well during the day.  I eat breakfast within ½ hour of waking up (to start my metabolism); I eat a mid-morning snack, a healthy lunch and a mid-afternoon snack.  But when the evening comes around self-honoring choices around food can often go “out the window”.

 Pitfall number one – snacking before dinner:  I scan the cupboard looking for snacks.  I’m hungry and dinner isn’t ready.  Chips?  Crackers? What can I find?  I’m only going to eat a handful – but half a bag later I find myself recognizing a familiar pattern.  I have completely gone unconscious and chomped and smacked my way through handfuls of crunchy, salty little tidbits. 

 Pitfall 1 ½:  If there is beer in the fridge – and I deserve just one – than the beer and the bag of snacks are gone.

 Pitfall two:  Portion size – it depends how much I cook.  I tend to unconsciously serve out whatever I make.  And, of course, I’ve must clean my plate, right?  (Remember the starving people in Africa).

 Pitfall three: Dessert – it sounds a lot like “deserve” – I deserve a sweet treat – it was a hard day.