Don't beat the dog!

I had somebody come in yesterday that was trying to force her body to do something. I get a lot of folks doing this-forcing themselves to lose weight, forcing themselves to stop smoking. In the end, this type of "forcing" doesn't work so well. I gave her the example of the dog that piddles on the rug. If your dog piddles on the rug, you can beat the hell out of it, again and again and again. but the dog will probably still pee on the rug. Also, it will make one scared, confused dog.

If we keep "making" ourselves lose weight, or "make" ourselves stop smoking, we'll probably still overeat, keep smoking and just be angry and miserable as well. However, if we slow down and listen to our body's reason for why it's doing what it's doing, we can probably figure out a better strategy. All of a sudden, we're not beating the dog, we are becoming the Dog Whisperer.

If the body can become our ally instead of a force to overcome, we may surprise ourselves in what we can accomplish. But to do that, first we need compassion for ourselves, the food we're overeating, and even the cigarettes. It's not easy, but over time we can develop this compassion, and it can lead to surprises in other parts of our life as well.