Abraham: Work on your Mood as much as your Food

This one starts off slow, but really gets going, so stay with it:

Abe on Weight Loss: Anger As A Strong Bridge Between Powerlessness and Power

To Quit Smoking/Change Bad Habits Ask What Are You Saying Yes To?

Abraham-Hicks (tape), G-02/18/95

Guest: A thing I have a lot of resistance with is to quit smoking. I've quit three times a year for about the last nine years, but I know I like it, but then I still feel ambivalent about it.

Abraham: It's interesting because even your decision is resistant because you're talking about not doing something. In other words, you're saying, "I have resistance in quitting." And so, let's talk about this just a little bit. If you could smoke and not feel resistance, the smoking would not be of any detriment. It's not the smoking that makes you sick, it's resistance. The reason that smoking is becoming more and more detrimental is because people believe it's bad but they're doing it anyway -- and whenever you do something that you believe you shouldn't do, there is extraordinary resistance.

To do something that you believe is right, there's no resistance. Or to not do something you believe is wrong, there's no resistance -- but to believe that it's bad for you and to do it anyway, that's where the resistance is.

We think that the struggle you're having with it is because there's a part of you that is wanting you to know -- and to assist others in knowing -- that it is not the cigarettes that are the problem. It is the resistance that is the problem. So when you say, "I want to stop smoking," we would say, well, what is it you do want? You're saying "no" to smoking, which really what you're saying is "no" to sickness or "no" to disapproval of others or "no" to being banished in restaurants or in offices. You're saying "no" to disapproval mostly, or "no" to declining health.


So what are you saying "yes" to? "I want to have a vital, happy life. I want to feel the best I can feel in my body. I want to harmonize with people as much as possible." As you begin talking about what you say "yes" to, what you will begin noticing is that sometimes the "yes" to harmony will be stronger maybe than the "yes" to cigarettes, or maybe they are not separate. "Maybe I can have my cigarettes and have all of that too."

We, some years ago, saw smoking as very beneficial to people because they usually did it purposefully to relax. It was a time that they sort of put everything else down, they went to a specific place to do it, they relaxed, they breathed deeply while they were doing it. Don't you see people, very often, as they are drawing in the smoke, don't you see them sort of relaxing and basking as the Energy flows through them? Can't you see them sort of using it as an opportunity to release resistance? And if you could enjoy every cigarette you smoke, not by saying, "to hell with you who thinks I should go to the smoking section..." -- in other words, as you resist the laws; as you resist the non-smokers who are so pious in their pushing against you; or as you resist anything about it that you don't like -- that's resistance. Jerry talked about the holes in his clothes that he was putting there or the stains on his fingers that he was putting there, and even as you resist those things you disallow the Well-being. So what we encourage you to do is, rather than saying, "I want to stop smoking," we would encourage you to begin saying, "I want to allow the Energy to flow. What I'd really like is to find a way to let the Energy flow -- I'd like to have my flow and smoking too. I'd like to be able to smoke and have Energy flow through me at the same time."

The advocates against smoking would not be very happy to hear us, but they are wrong. They misunderstand. It is not a disease that kills you; it's resistance that kills you. It's not smoking that kills you; it's resistance that kills you. It's not a disease that makes you unhappy; it's resistance. In other words, you have been misinformed. So if you believe, as we do, that smoking is not inherently bad for your health, would you want to stop?

Guest: No, the only reason I want to stop is because people I care about, care about me smoking, you know what I mean?

Abraham: Yes, because they love you and they think it's bad for you. They have decided that if you smoke you can't be well. And so, you're wanting to seek their approval by doing what they want. The resistance you have is not to smoking. The resistance you have is having to stand on your head to please others. The resistance that you have is promoting conditional love. In other words, they're saying to you, "I can't feel good about you as long as you're smoking. I'm afraid you're going to die. I can't allow the pure, positive Energy to flow through me as long as you're smoking. You need to change what you're doing in order for me to feel good."

And your resistance is that every part of your Nonphysical being knows that it's not your job to change your behavior so that they can feel better. You can't change your behavior in enough ways to make them feel better. You quit smoking, and then they'll want you to lose weight, and you lose weight, and then they'll want you to dress better, and then you dress better, and they'll want you to buy a different kind of car, and then you buy a different kind of car, and they want you to move to the state where they live, and then you will move to the state where they live, and they'll want you to let your hair grow out, and then they'll want you to cut it and then they'll want you to make it a different color and then they'll want you to act your age and then they'll want you...in other words, you just can't stand on your head in enough different ways to make disconnected people happy, because what you're doing, isn't what's bothering them anyway. It's their own disallowance of the Energy. And to just play into that by standing on your head only perpetuates this myth about conditional love, you see.

And so, what you're wanting to say to those who love you who say, "I don't want you to smoke because I don't want you to be sick," say to them, from your place of knowing, "Hey, I'm strong and well! Everything's all right here. Actually, this smoking soothes me. I'm a lot less likely to die of a heart attack when I smoke than if I were to quit.

If I stopped smoking now it would aggravate me!"

© Abraham-Hicks Publications

External Validation and Weight Loss/Body Image

Blogger's note: This is relevant to those with any kind of external validation or approval-seeking issues, not just weight loss.

It isn't WHAT you eat, it's how you feel when you eat it.

Abraham - Boca Raton, FL 10/30/06

Abraham: But what's wrong with the chocolate chip cookies anyway?

Guest: Too many of them tends...

Abraham: But what causes you to call them "too many of them?" You say, "I want to be slender, but I believe the cookie is the opposite of that." So I want this but I am doing that, so how does it really feel when I'm eating the cookie?

Now stay with this, you're really gonna like it.

So if I am reaching for the relief of aligning with my physical intention, then it would feel better for me to let the cookie go as long as I believe the cookie is in opposition to where I want to go. But often that is not the subject on the table. The subject on the table is "I'm frustrated out of my mind about this and this and THIS! Oh, that cookie looks like relief! I'm frightened about this. This cookie looks like relief."

As you begin to reach for relief, there is nothing wrong with reaching for the comfort in food. There's nothing wrong with that, but just don't let that be the only comfort you are reaching for. Reach for the comfort in thought.

Now imagine this really sophisticated chemical factory that has the ability to extract from everything that you give it necessary components. Your body's ability to digest breaks everything down into usable stuff. And the cells of your body then attract to themselves the parts of that usable stuff that they most need. Very raw description, but really an accurate description, too. So your chemical factory has the ability to effectively utilize what you are eating unless you are angry about it, or frightened about it, or guilty about it. If you don't make peace with the way you are eating, you make it harder for your chemical factory to utilize it.

When you love what you are eating...

That's the biggest thing that has gone wrong with diet in your culture today. You used to eat and like your food, and now you've made all food your enemy.

It's a really rare one of you who can eat anything and not find something in it that makes you believe you should not eat it. So it is really odd to find a human eating and taking pleasure from the food. Instead, you've got this love/hate relationship with food. You want it because the cells of your body are asking for it. You were born with this guidance that lets you know it is time to refuel. You have this cellular calling for the food, then you give it the food and before you have even swallowed it, you've set up a vibrational wall of resistance that makes it more difficult for your body to utilize the food.

That's why different people can eat the identical food and get different results from it. If it were as you think it is, by now or long ago, you should have been able to get a formula that works for everyone - This food means THIS and this food means THIS. This combination of food means this. You are leaving out the only factor that matters. And it's the resistance/allowing factor.

It isn't WHAT you eat, it's how you feel when you eat it.

It isn't WHAT you say, it's how you feel when you say it.
It isn't WHAT you do, it's how you feel when you do it.

It's ONLY how you feel.

Abraham on Weight Loss and Body Image

Abraham - Sedona, AZ 08/25/07

Make peace with where you are. Appreciate your magnificent body as it is. Appreciate that it moves and that it is flexible and that it digests, that it assimilates. Accept the cellular metabolism, the cellular functioning.

Your body is a veritable chemical factory. It is an amazing mechanism. It is morphing constantly into that which is new. It is constantly becoming. It will be whatever you ask it to be. It will be whatever you ask it and allow it to be. It will be whatever you want it and allow it to be. It will be whatever you ask and allow it. It will be whatever you see it to be. It will be whatever you EXPECT it to be!

And most of you can't expect past what is. That's your limitation. You find it hard to expect past what is. Stretch that expectation by listening, by feeling for it. And when you start feeling - Oh, if you could feel what Source expects for you - and that's why so often you feels such strong negative emotion, that's that fear and inadequacy you describe. When you look at yourself so differently than they way Source looks at you, when you don't expect good things from you - because Source is expecting such wonderful things from you - there's a cross current going on.

You have to see as you want it to be. Never mind what is. What is does not mean diddly squat. What is doesn't matter. It's just a point in time, a momentary, manifestational indicator of how you've been thinking. Think differently and it will shift. It will morph with your thoughts every single time.

© Abraham-Hicks Publications

Does Better Nutrition or More Exercise Add to our Health?

Abraham from "Money and the Law of Attraction", p. 133

Jerry: Does better nutrition or more exercise add to our health?

Abraham: You may have noticed that there are those who are very deliberate about food and exericse whose physical well-being is obvious. And there are those who seem to be offering tremendous effort regarding food and exercise who struggle for years to gain benefit and still have no success in maintaining their physical well-being. What you do in terms of action is far less important than the thoughts you think, the way you feel, your vibrational balance, or the story you tell.

When you take the time to find vibrational balance, the physical effort you apply will yield you wonderful results, but if you do not tend to your vibrational balance first, there is not eough action in the world to compensate for that misaligned Energy. From your place of alignment, you will feel inspired to the beneficial behavior, just as from your place of misalignment, you are inspired to the detrimental behavior.

Jerry: I remember hearng a line from Sir Winston Churchill. (He was the British leader during World War II.) He said, "I never run if I can walk, and I never walk if I can stand, or stand if I can sit, or sit if I can lie down," and he always smoked a big cigar. He lived to be 90 years of age and, as far as I know, was in good health. But his lifestyle was clearly not what we consider today to be healthy, so was it just a belief factor then?

Abraham: Leaving at such an early age? (Fun) The reason that so many are confused about the correct behavior for healthy living is because they are only factoring in behavior and they are leaving out the part of the equation that is most responsible for every outcome: the way you think, the emotions you feel, and the story you tell.

(c) Abraham-Hicks Publications