Health, Weight and Mind, part two

On side two of the tape Health, Weight and Mind, Abraham emphasized that we have complete control over our bodies.

"There is nothing else affecting your body other than your thoughts about it."

"To have health is a natural state of being. When you start thinking about lack (of health) you create it."

"The only reason you struggle for health is because you are focused on lack."

She added a new emphasis to the idea that the only thing that matters is that we feel good: "Until you are selfish enough to know that the only thing that matters is that you feel good, you are not of much uplifting value to the Universe. You offer to the Universe that which you are. When you are sick and vulnerable, that is what you are offering."

She warned against adopting a mindset of fear. "The most habitual pattern is to look for what's wrong." She says a doctor's job is to find something wrong with you, and they will keep looking and looking until they find something.

"You have within you some natural core beliefs. Being healthy, joy, freedom, growth - these are the natural state of being within you."

Abraham's prescription for health: "Know you are perfect as you are, and continually reach out to more of what you are."

"Make the decision: I acknowledge that as I am is the result of what I think."

She kicked us out of victim mode: "You are the creator of your experience. You would like a reason that you are other than that you want to be, other than that you have done it to yourself. Any form of justification or rationalization is contrary to what you are wanting. What you are living is what you are thinking."

She reminded us to notice our emotions. When we feel bad, or are having a negative emotion, "this negative emotion means you are in the process of attracting what you do not want."

"Whenever you are feeling negative emotions, stop thinking, speaking or doing and ask yourself what it is that you are wanting. Then you are back on the right path."

She acknowledged that it is hard to always stay positive. "If you have a friend who is sick who wants to talk about if, you will feel cold-hearted not to listen to them, so you listen and you have a knot in your stomach."

At night, however, all attracting stops. So try this exercise Abraham suggested: When you put your head on your pillow tonight, say "All negative attraction is now stopping and tomorrow I will only think of positive attracting." After a few nights of doing this you will notice you are on the right track.

"Say 'I want to feel good' a few times -- the Universe will give you something to feel good about. Don't wait until you feel really bad because it takes time to slow the momentum."

Abraham scoffed at our need to be right. "You have been trained to be objective -- winners and losers -- defensive beings: if I win, you lose. We say you don't have to explain or rationalize your behavior to anyone else. Your job is to create harmony between you and you."

Abraham addressed dieting. "If you have a belief that eating this food will make you fat, eating the food feels bad because your inner being tells you that given the beliefs you hold you are acting against your desire to be slender."

However, it is possible to change your beliefs. "Bridge your beliefs so you can harmonize with your desires. Tell yourself that you want to know that the food you eat does not need to be stored on your hips. Then you will start to attract information that supports your new belief. Some people who are very thin eat a lot and others who are fat eat very little. It's not the food, it's the thoughts about the food." Say to yourself: "I really want to change this belief because it is in my way."

"If you believe that food makes you fat, it will make you fat. There is no other way. Your body can metabolize all you eat as energy or you can store it as fat."

She suggested this approach to weight loss: "Inner being, my intent is to lose weight. You know my beliefs. Please guide me to the behavior that will harmonize both."

Remember to intend, not hope. "Hoping is coming from lack."

Also remember that where you are right now is pretty good. "We don't think you can overdo thinking well of yourself." Your body only responds to your thoughts. If you are feeling good, your thoughts are helping you.

If you are in front of something that gives you negative emotion (like the oreo cookies in the grocery store) give your attention to something else.

Anything that brings a positive emotion to you is of great value.

If you are getting negative support from the people around you, remember that all others are insignificant in terms of you. "If your significant other says there is something in you they do not like, tell them to look somewhere else instead." (Meaning "look at the parts of me that you like, not those that you do not like.")

Likewise, don't pay attention to the things you don't like about yourself. "Attention to the bulges makes them more. Looking at parts you like makes you feel good."

If you feel a negative emotion, remember that is your guidance system telling you that you are thinking, speaking or acting in a way that does not support your wanting. The guidance system is working. "When you feel this negative emotion, bless this guidance system because it is leading you to what you are wanting."

"It feels so good to do things on purpose, and so rotten to do things by default. The real you is as you are wanting to be."