Forgiving = Willpower?

We're growing our willpower at The Healthy Weigh...or should I say, our 'I will' power, 'I won't' power and 'I want' power...the three powers that make up willpower! This week we focused on two more practices that have been scientifically proven to build willpower. Willpower lives in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, and the more blood flow we can get to this region of the brain, the more willpower we'll have.

Our list of ways to boost willpower is growing by the week! The key to boosting willpower  however, is not in knowing about the things on this list...but practicing them. This week we focused on one of the willpower boosters that's not so fun...internal processing.

Here's our list so far:

Meditate

Rewards

Exercise

Internal processing

Revisit want power

Maintain level blood sugar

Avoid triggers

Complete tasks that you've been reluctant to do

Can you spell vulnerability? That was me, this week, helping our Team Challenge participants go deeper, by sharing my own story. This week we listened to "Coping Skills ~ Feeling Your Way Through Life."  We followed up on Tuesday spending time on forgiveness and grief. "Hard but good." That's the way one of our healthy weigh clients described the day!

We took a look at the coping skills that our society uses. Drinking, drugs, shopping, and over eating to name a few.Coping; wrestling or grappling with difficulties and acting to over come them. As we looked closer at our societies list, we realized that we are not coping at all...we're avoiding. Avoiding the pain of the past and present. Instead of overcoming and healing our issues and pain, we are numbing them.

At The Healthy Weigh, we are convinced that unless a person acquires a healthy list of coping skills and begins to use them to heal past and present wounds, they will have temporary success at best.

The feeling wheel was introduced this week as a great tool to identify feelings and begin to process them. For many of us, we are a bit handicapped when it comes to expressing our feelings. We were taught to feel; mad, glad or sad. Identifying our true feelings is the first step to being able to process what's really going on inside of us. We recommend that you keep your feeling wheel on the inside of a journal so that you can refer to it as often as necessary while you're journaling. It wouldn't be such a bad idea to put it on the fridge so that the whole family could benefit from it!

We spent most of our time Thursday talking about forgiveness. I believe that unforgiveness robs us of more joy than any thing else in life. I shared a technique or tool to help clients begin to forgive the people, including themselves, that they need to, to heal those wounded places inside. Forgiveness only takes one person, so it definitely is a process that we all find right inside of our own back packs! It is your responsibility to do the work to heal the places that are keeping you from living the life you were intended to live.

I inspired courage Tuesday...it takes a little bit to forge ahead and begin to use real coping skills. What I know is that a mind that is healthy, and emotions that are healed will effect a physical body more than any diet ever could!

Here's to courage to do the hard, but good stuff!

I love you all, I'm walking with you and want you to have your very best life.

Until next week.

Always encouraging you.

Letha