Recession-proof your health, invest in yourself

by Elad Levinson

I do not say this to be cute or timely or to borrow a popular phrase. I mean this as a serious statement about why it is crucial to take care of your health and lose weight.
The American health care system is woefully unprepared to take care of you; if you have a complicated medical problem. I have clients that have been passed along from one specialist to another with each body part being treated, as if it was a separate entity. An analogy would be if you took your car to a carburetor specialist, then an axle specialist then a valve guy and a piston person. It is crazy- this idea that we can be parsed and sliced and diced. How can anyone make sense of what we really need or what is really wrong from this type of care?

Your health is going to become even more of liability or an asset because our worsening economic situation will take much more time than we can imagine to rectify. How are you going to be prepared with the right state of mind, body and emotional health to take care of yourself financially if you are struggling with being overweight?

Employers do not look favorably on overweight people, they don’t have to discriminate actively but they will find a way to keep you out of the pool of people that their health care coverage spans by not hiring you. On even the bleaker side, try getting independent health insurance if you are overweight.
It is self-defense to get real and get healthy. Look boldly at your self- can you say that you are doing what you can to get or stay healthy? Are you taking this as if it your life depended on it or are you putting off the inevitable task of becoming honest with yourself?
I am not critical of you- I am one of you- you are me. I am an over eater who has learned to eat in moderation. In the past, I have over consumed everything that I ever loved. If it was good, I wanted more and more and more.

But I am offering you an urgent message- If your life style is not one that makes you healthier, it is the one that may ruin you fiscally as well as physically.
The path out of the situation is one that embraces two sides of what seems like opposing poles- hunger and obesity. If we live wisely in taking responsibility for our health than we can begin to concern ourselves with the redistribution of our wealth and health- let’s spread the health and wealth by donating the money we might use to over eat to charities like Whole Planet Foundation or Second Harvest Food Bank and make an impact in the life of not just our selves but those who are hungry.

Becoming healthy is a matter of mind, body and spirit- cultivating generosity is an emotionally satisfying act that generates positive self- esteem and makes us more able to take good care of ourselves while we take care of others.

Supporting the Open Heart

by Maryann Marks

Do you ever get that anxious feeling when you think about asking a friend for support? The anxiety level that often hits me when I start to ask for help has surprised me. Being a curious person, I have spent some time wondering why I would feel this way. Some of the “reasons” I come up with are: fear of rejection, fear of bothering someone, and the fear of being humiliated.

Being a therapist, I know these are all old childhood wounds that I should be able to get over. I can say that for the most part, I just acknowledge them and ask for help anyways. But, my confession to you is that sometimes I just don’t ask for help. I assume that the other person will not help. By making the decision for them, I lose out on many opportunities for support. So, I’m on the exercise machine at the gym. This is where I get a lot of my inspiration, by the way. I am listening to a poem by Hafiz; he is asked if he is a man or a woman? Something like “What is it like be a man?” Hafiz answers, “a better question would be what is it like to be a heart. “

I thought about what it is like for me when I am an open heart. Being a person who likes to experiment with things, I thought about someone I wanted to ask for help and the feeling of anxiety came over me just thinking about it. Then I opened my heart, which is really an individual experience. I feel myself expanding not feeling closed, shut down or contracted in fear. I imagine that love is penetrating every cell in my body and that love is available right now to me; there is no scarcity. With this feeling of open heartedness, I imagined myself asking that same person for help. No anxiety arises. Hey, it works. So, I try it the next day when some conflict comes up in business dealing. I’m disappointed about the way I am treated. I open my heart, and experience a very peaceful feeling. The conflict passes, and miraculously, the person offers me something I really want.

The point of this, for me, is to return to this open heart no matter what the outcome. I have another experience with an old friend that was very bitter. I keep opening my heart to the thoughts that arise with openheartedness. She may never change, but I change immediately, when I open my heart to her, knowing there is nothing else to say or do

Healing obesity and hunger at the same time- that’s Pounds for Poverty’s mission

by Elad Levinson

It may seem strange to consider these two epidemic and catastrophic disasters in the same breath or same category. Really isn’t obesity and over eating just a matter of will power and determination to resolve? Many feel that the poor and the hungry, through their own efforts could rectify their situation also. From many perspectives, they share a cultural belief that the problem is personal, individual and a matter of intention and effort to solve.

We don’t look at either that way. We assert that hunger and obesity or simply over consuming are cultural phenomena and that we can solve both in tandem. It is a curious paradox- that on one hand it is up to the individual to do their part in helping themselves and, on the other hand, it is also a much bigger problem than any individual can solve.

In one big way, hunger is a redistribution problem- some have too much while many have too little. I know it is not that simple. Our insight is that by exchanging our tendency to over do (food, spending, alcohol, sugar) and convert the money to a donation to a charity fighting hunger like Second Harvest (our featured charity this quarter) the donor builds a foundation to change for the better. In a very real way everyone is better for the exchange and how often does that happen?

I have learned that one of the quickest ways to improve my positive feelings about myself is to give to something of value to the recipient. It makes me feel more self worth and improves my reputation with myself which has suffered mightily with over eating and weight gain. My insight about the relationship between hunger and over consuming came out of personal experience. In my case, I have had a sincere desire to be of service to others for my whole lifetime.

In Alcoholics Anonymous and the other 12 Step Programs, giving back is a key to recovery. In most religions, compassion in the form of action- charity is considered to be a central tenet of the good life.

When giving to others is coupled with mindfulness training the combination is a remedy to over eating and over consumption. Mindfulness is the practice of training the mind to be sharp, clear, insightful and receptive. All of these qualities are needed by the person who is attempting to make a significant change in their health and to lose weight.