America: Getting Smaller And Loving It!

On New Years 09 I hit my biggest - 222 pounds and not loving it at all ... and so I finally joined my wife Birgitta's lead, stopped cooking and just ate what she put on my plate from her reduced-intake diet in which she'd lost pounds over the last six months. 

Finally, after thirty years of growing bigger and bigger even though I was a 'grown adult', I realized that  I wanted, indeed needed, to reverse my size and begin getting smaller - for my health, my image, my power and my longevity. Two months later, I'm at 202 pounds and set to drop down another 15 pounds to where I'm downright skinny and super healthy and at 63, back to being athletic again. 

• Here's the joke on me - it wasn't hard to lose weight. Once my base attitude changed, eating less has not been painful or wrought with suffering. 
  

On the contrary, I've loved every minute. Because I wanted to get smaller, getting smaller has been a pleasure. I simply said no to carbohydrates, to animal fat and dairy, and to sugar and processed foods. I've eaten like a king satisfaction-wise, lost weight - and have much more energy and fun.

• America, how about we lose weight permanently as a nation - let's embrace getting smaller and healthier, both in our economic girth and our personal size - let's get smaller and stronger!
  

REALITY ORIENT: We live on a planet that is not growing at all. But we run an economy based on growth forever and ever amen. Something's gotta give - and it is giving right now. As a mature, full-grown world economic culture, we've stopped growing - bravo! Reality is taking over our manic teenage gobbling habits.

I recently wrote a book with a high-up business friend called Honest Capitalism (going the rounds in New York just now) in which we talk about honesty and integrity being the core of successful long-term business. And what is honesty? The act of openly acknowledging the dominance of reality in all that we do.

• Let's finally face facts - capitalism is based on the unreality that we can grow forever on a limited planet. Let's grow up and accept that 'eternal manic growth' as an adult economy cannot realistically be the foundation of our planetary business plan.

Americans personally also have this illusion that they should keep getting bigger and bigger all their lives - and so we're totally a fat nation. What's the obvious result of living out this unreal attitude? Chronic bad health and staggering medical bills, gross over-consumption at all levels, low physical energy and clouded awareness, and a general lack of luster caused by carrying around too much extra weight.

I was carrying thirty 'dead weight' pounds around - imagine packing thirty pounds of potatoes all the time! Then imagine putting down that thirty pounds - wow - freedom! Now I'm carrying ten pounds extra, which is still a lot to pack ... and I'm going to put down that burden too, in the next months. 

• It's all a matter of attitude transformation - which has been my life study, and needs to be everyone's focus just now - our economic crisis is like a health crisis: if we learn our lesson and are transformed in our attitudes and expectations of life, then we won't have to get sick again, right?
  

The key attitude-shift seems to be this: America doesn't need to grow any more. We need in fact to drop about 10 percent - both economically and weight-wise - and not regain that weight. All our economics is based on growth - and I have come to see this basic capitalist attitude as dead-wrong. What do you think?

• We need to examine the very notion of 'chronic manic growth' as the bulwark of success in business - and to permanently accept our mature national size, and enjoy every moment!
  

Let's not see this economic turnaround as a disaster - let's see it as a necessary permanent loss of weight, as we become realistically healthy in a wise-growth economy. We can certainly evolve and advance economically - but gross weight gain as company policy is not the wise model anymore.

 The challenge is before us - not to 'recover' from our economic downturn by returning to the gobbling-growth model, but to permanently re-adjust our expectations based on planetary reality. Economic colonialism is dead - long live the king!

• So I strongly recommend that we carefully examine and wisely shift our attitudes about our national size, and stay fit rather than pudgy as a country. I know this sounds like economic heresy and suicide - but deeper down it resonates with logic, wisdom, and necessity. Limited planet, limited economy - and loads of pleasure, exploration, advancement and fulfillment ... within the bounds of remaining properly sized to fit the planet without destroying it.
  

To help with pragmatic psychological 'attitude adjustment' tools, I've just produced a short Daily Diet Aid video that we'll be posting when the iUplift site comes online next month. And regularly, I want to raise the vital theme of America losing a bit of weight and loving it. 

Let's experience a giant necessary shift in attitude!

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Depression and Anxiety - Emotional First Aid

The whole world is caught up in a financial melt-down, and everyone's more or less worried or depressed about the situation. This is generating an emotional downward spiral that needs to be dealt with just as urgently as the financial down-spin.

Key Fact: Anxiety and depression are emotions that reduce our ability to deal with the situation. They are our worst enemy, in pulling out of the global economic collapse. If we let our minds and emotions continue to crash, there's no hope of resurrecting our material dimensions.

We must take charge of our minds and emotions, and focus our attention not on the scary depressing images of the future, but on maintaining optimum performance and optimism in this present moment - which is where all recovery will take place, right here and now, in each evolving moment of each new day.

What To Do: 

1~ Stop watching the news!!! These people are totally focused on the negative, right? They're helping to pull us down. Don't give them your precious attention, because they're not helping. Stop focusing on the most negative - realize the situation, and focus where there is hope and opportunity.

2~ In general, stop worrying about the future. That act undermines your power, your mental clarity, your ability to act and improve things. Develop the power to regularly return your attention to the here and now, where you can do something positive.

3~ And yes - do something positive! If it's only to give your wife a hug, or smile to your children, or be nice to yourself - do it! You are in charge of your mind and emotions. Where you focus your attention determines the content of your thoughts and feelings. Stop fixating on the negative - focus on your breathing, find some good feelings somewhere in your body, and remember that economic downfall causes discomfort, but almost never death - this is not a life or death situation - remember that.

4~ Talk with your loved ones about your feelings, let the emotions flow, so they don't build up and pollute everything you do. Express your fears, and they become diminished - that's a basic law of the emotions. Share your feelings ... and also, listen to others with a non-judging supportive ear.

5~ Get help where you can - we're working like crazy just now to launch the iUplift.com site as soon as possible, to make new 'mood treatment' support systems available for minimal cost and maximum impact. Others are doing similar efforts to get the tools to the people. And the bottom line in Emotional First Aid is this - your thoughts are what make you suffer depression and anxiety. Watch the thoughts you let run rampant in your mind - and begin to just say no to fear-based thoughts and imaginations.

Stop running your own interior torture chamber - quiet your mind ... tune into the present moment all around you along with your own breathing and personal presence ... and be open to a new experience beyond the grip of anxiety and depression ... more on this soon.