Learning Disabilities and Weight that Keeps Coming Back

<>Nora, a stay at home mother of two, had attended one of my classes and had lost about 20 lbs by the end of the course. Now, six months later, she found herself deeply depressed and 40 pounds heavier.<>“I don’t know what happened. I was doing great and very happy with the way I looked.” she explained. Then, she continued, “life got stressful, and the weight came on very quickly. I found myself more and more depressed”. <>

I asked her what she wanted “a better body image” she replied without hesitation. “Right now, when I look in the mirror, I see all of my faults. I know this sounds odd, but even when I was slim, I didn’t see myself as slim. It’s only when I look at photos now I realize how good I looked”. <>

I then asked Nora how she would know she had a better body image. “When I looked in the mirror, I would say ‘nice’ to myself, and I would feel calm in my stomach area”. If the feeling were a color, she said it would be lavender.

<>Now that we knew exactly what she wanted, I asked Nora to try it on for size. I asked her to step into a wonderful you who already had this positive body image.

As I glanced at Nora, expecting her to take a step forward, I saw the tears welling up in her eyes. “What is it?” I inquired.

“A part of me won’t let me do it. It’s telling me I don’t deserve it”. Coincidentally, she also felt this part of her in her stomach area.

I realized that Nora had a deep seated belief about not deserving to be happy. A part of her was literally holding her back from even stepping into a better body image for even a moment. Clearly she would never be able to keep off the weight if a part of her didn’t believe she deserved to.

Limiting beliefs such as this one are almost always formed in childhood, usually by the time we are 12 years old. Usually, a signficant negative emotional experience is responsible.

I asked Nora to pretend that there was a straight line extending back behind her into her past. I then asked her to let that bad feeling in her stomach to guide her back in time to perhaps the first time she had felt it.

It turns out that when Nora was in third grade, her teacher had singled her out as a bad speller. When she returned the papers from the last spelling test, she made Nora stand in the class for the rest of the day as punishment for her low mark.

As an eight year old girl, Nora was horrified. She decided at that moment that there was something wrong with her, that she wasn’t smart enough, and deserved to be punished. These beliefs had haunted her to this day.

I guided Nora to allow her higher self to go up to that little eight year old girl and explain what was going on, so that the little girl understood she simply had a different learning style. I also had her step into her teacher to understand the teacher’s perspective.

She realized that the teacher was doing her best to help her, but was woefully misguided. The teacher was frustrated with Nora and had a large class to take care of.

<><>When Nora understood the teacher’s perspective, she was able to forgive her. We then brought in the teacher’s higher self to give the teacher more options. We also brought in Nora’s parents, who hadn’t understood her learning differences, and had their higher selves explain the learning disability to them.

<>It turns out that Nora’s brother had some very visible and challenging learning problems, that her parents were very focused on at the time.

Her mother would say to her “it’s a good thing you are perfect because I wouldn’t be able to handle it if you weren’t”. Nora had learned that being perfect meant getting no attention from her parents.

Once young Nora, the teacher and her parents had all been enlightened by their higher selves, we replayed the third grade test results scene. Afterwards I asked her how she felt in her stomach area. “Calm, and lavender” she replied, with a smile of relief in her eyes.

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