Lynn Woodland
  • The Breakthrough Point
    • The Breakthrough Point Continues—The Next Chapter
    • The Breakthrough Point Excerpt
    • Meditations from The Breakthrough Point
  • Holding a Butterfly – An Experiment in Miracle Making
  • The Miracles Course – A Modern Day Mystery School
    • The Miracles Course Spring Quarter
      • MARCH CLASSES
        • First Week of March: Preparing for Growth
        • Second Week of March: A New Slant on Affirmation Work
        • Third Week of March: Awakening to the Miraculous
        • Fourth Week of March: Self-Responsibility
      • APRIL CLASSES
        • First Week of April
        • Second Week of April: Emotion
        • Third Week of April: Awakening Intuition
        • Fourth Week of April: Synchronicity
      • MAY CLASSESS
        • First Week of May: Will
        • The Second Week of May: Leap of Faith
        • Third Week of May: Spiritual Power Surges
        • The Fourth Week of May: Bending Time
    • The Miracles Course Summer Quarter
      • JUNE CLASSES
        • First Week of June: God, Light, and the Zero Point Field
        • Second Week of June: the Seven Laws of Manifesting
        • Third Week of June: Fulfillment
        • Fourth Week of June: Living in the Fullness of God
      • JULY CLASSES
        • First Week of July: Opening the Flow of Prosperity
        • Second Week of July: Creating True Prosperity
        • 3rd Week of July: Releasing Scarcity
        • Fourth Week of July: Unconditional Giving
      • AUGUST CLASSES
        • First Week of August: Receiving
        • Second Week of August: Asking for Help
        • Third Week of August: Shifting into Ease
        • Fourth Week of August: Bliss
    • The Miracles Course Fall Quarter
      • SEPT CLASSES
        • First Week of September: Embracing Change
        • Second Week of September: Spiritual and Energetic Healing
        • Third Week of September: The Hero’s Journey Begins
        • Fourth Week of September: Healing the World
      • OCT CLASSES
        • First Week of October: Creating Safety
        • Second Week of October: Loss of Control
        • Third Week of October: Living Fully
        • Fourth Week of October: Exploring the Continuation of Relationship Beyond Death
      • NOV CLASSES
        • First Week of November: The Tower
        • Second Week of November: Control vs. Mastery
        • Third Week of November: Letting Go of Separateness
        • Thanksgiving Week of November: Quality over Quantity
    • The Miracles Course Winter Quarter
      • DEC CLASSES
        • First Week of December: Creating a Magical Talisman
        • Second Week of December: The Healing Power of Darkness
        • Third Week of December: Claiming a Spiritual Power
        • Fourth Week of December: Shining the Light
      • JANUARY CLASSES
        • First Week of January: Doors Opening, Doors Closing
        • Second Week of January: Into the “Void”
        • Third Week of January: The Path of Unknowing
        • Fourth Week of January: Prayer
      • FEBUARY CLASSES
        • First Week of February: Healing Relationship Patterns
        • Second Week of February: Refining Love Energy
        • Third Week of February: Receiving the Gifts of Others
        • Fourth Week of February: Attracting Loving Relationships
  • Author Info
    • Author Photos
  • Events
    • Special Event
      • A look into the future of AI with Bryant Cruse Video Replay
      • What is Power? | More about the Power Intensive!
  • The Community Oracle
  • Meditations
    • Daily Meditations & More
    • The Miracle Experiment – The Experiment Begins
    • Meditations from Holding A Butterfly
    • Meditations from The Breakthrough Point
  • Spiritual Healing
    • What is Spiritual Healing?
    • Seven Key Elements of Healing
    • Why Would We Not Heal?
    • Listen to a Guided Healing Meditation
    • Your Prayer Request
    • Healing Group Meditation
    • A New Healing Meditation
  • Subscribe to Email
  • Merchandise Customized & Personalized!
  • The Breakthrough Point Continues—The Next Chapter
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Lynn Woodland
Lynn Woodland
  • The Breakthrough Point
    • The Breakthrough Point Continues—The Next Chapter
    • The Breakthrough Point Excerpt
    • Meditations from The Breakthrough Point
  • Holding a Butterfly – An Experiment in Miracle Making
  • The Miracles Course – A Modern Day Mystery School
    • The Miracles Course Spring Quarter
      • MARCH CLASSES
        • First Week of March: Preparing for Growth
        • Second Week of March: A New Slant on Affirmation Work
        • Third Week of March: Awakening to the Miraculous
        • Fourth Week of March: Self-Responsibility
      • APRIL CLASSES
        • First Week of April
        • Second Week of April: Emotion
        • Third Week of April: Awakening Intuition
        • Fourth Week of April: Synchronicity
      • MAY CLASSESS
        • First Week of May: Will
        • The Second Week of May: Leap of Faith
        • Third Week of May: Spiritual Power Surges
        • The Fourth Week of May: Bending Time
    • The Miracles Course Summer Quarter
      • JUNE CLASSES
        • First Week of June: God, Light, and the Zero Point Field
        • Second Week of June: the Seven Laws of Manifesting
        • Third Week of June: Fulfillment
        • Fourth Week of June: Living in the Fullness of God
      • JULY CLASSES
        • First Week of July: Opening the Flow of Prosperity
        • Second Week of July: Creating True Prosperity
        • 3rd Week of July: Releasing Scarcity
        • Fourth Week of July: Unconditional Giving
      • AUGUST CLASSES
        • First Week of August: Receiving
        • Second Week of August: Asking for Help
        • Third Week of August: Shifting into Ease
        • Fourth Week of August: Bliss
    • The Miracles Course Fall Quarter
      • SEPT CLASSES
        • First Week of September: Embracing Change
        • Second Week of September: Spiritual and Energetic Healing
        • Third Week of September: The Hero’s Journey Begins
        • Fourth Week of September: Healing the World
      • OCT CLASSES
        • First Week of October: Creating Safety
        • Second Week of October: Loss of Control
        • Third Week of October: Living Fully
        • Fourth Week of October: Exploring the Continuation of Relationship Beyond Death
      • NOV CLASSES
        • First Week of November: The Tower
        • Second Week of November: Control vs. Mastery
        • Third Week of November: Letting Go of Separateness
        • Thanksgiving Week of November: Quality over Quantity
    • The Miracles Course Winter Quarter
      • DEC CLASSES
        • First Week of December: Creating a Magical Talisman
        • Second Week of December: The Healing Power of Darkness
        • Third Week of December: Claiming a Spiritual Power
        • Fourth Week of December: Shining the Light
      • JANUARY CLASSES
        • First Week of January: Doors Opening, Doors Closing
        • Second Week of January: Into the “Void”
        • Third Week of January: The Path of Unknowing
        • Fourth Week of January: Prayer
      • FEBUARY CLASSES
        • First Week of February: Healing Relationship Patterns
        • Second Week of February: Refining Love Energy
        • Third Week of February: Receiving the Gifts of Others
        • Fourth Week of February: Attracting Loving Relationships
  • Author Info
    • Author Photos
  • Events
    • Special Event
      • A look into the future of AI with Bryant Cruse Video Replay
      • What is Power? | More about the Power Intensive!
  • The Community Oracle
  • Meditations
    • Daily Meditations & More
    • The Miracle Experiment – The Experiment Begins
    • Meditations from Holding A Butterfly
    • Meditations from The Breakthrough Point
  • Spiritual Healing
    • What is Spiritual Healing?
    • Seven Key Elements of Healing
    • Why Would We Not Heal?
    • Listen to a Guided Healing Meditation
    • Your Prayer Request
    • Healing Group Meditation
    • A New Healing Meditation
  • Subscribe to Email
  • Merchandise Customized & Personalized!
  • The Breakthrough Point Continues—The Next Chapter

Thanksgiving Week of November: Quality over Quantity

Copyright (c) 2007 Lynn Woodland

Our work this week is an exercise in not doing, and a discovery of less as more. The challenge is to let go of words and actions that fill space in a less than sacred way so that quality can fill the void.

Exercise

This week, be impeccably aware of your words and speak only words that create quality. Pay attention to how you fill your space with words. Every word is creative. For one week, commit to using only words that create the life and the world that you wish to inhabit. Specifically:

  1. Tell no lies.
  2. Speak no words that portray yourself as a helpless victim of circumstances beyond your control.
  3. Let go of the word “try,” unless you truly mean to describe an ineffectual exertion of energy.
  4. Avoid unkind gossip about someone who’s not present.
  5. Let go of your attachment to being right and to using your words to “win” at the expense of someone else losing.
  6. Let your space naturally fill with words of gratitude and kindness.

Conscious Eating

In the United States, this lesson usually falls in the same week as Thanksgiving, the holiday that typically begins a month or more of holiday feasting, so this discussion of quality over quantity wouldn’t be complete without some mention of food. This is often a glorious time of indulging in sentimental comfort foods served only once a year. Yet, in our over-fed and diet-obsessed culture, the season of food can, for many of us, be a time of losing our tenuous hold on sensible eating habits and for using the excuse of holiday celebration to cope with the stress and high emotion that often accompany this time of year by overeating.

If this feels familiar, consider a different approach—an alternative to deprivation or binging involving neither guilt nor denial; one that actually results in more sensorial pleasure than simply eating everything. The key to this approach is in replacing quantity with quality, and autopilot eating habits with an extra measure of attentiveness.

Conscious eating is all about waking up your taste buds to every possible delight so you don’t miss even a second’s worth of enjoyment by falling into unconscious eating habits. It enables you to enjoy your food more while requiring less to feel satisfied.

Binging happens when we’ve stopped paying attention. We may enjoy the first bites but then keep eating to recapture that first moment’s gratification even after the food is no longer delivering. We may eat for reasons other than hunger: to fill an emotional void or to stuff painful feelings down. Binging also happens when we’ve developed such a long-term habit of restrictive dieting that one bite over our food plan sends us into an out-of-control eating frenzy where we consume enough to hold us through the long drought of deprivation that invariably follows “cheating.”

This holiday plan calls for putting down the whip of guilt and discipline and easing up on food restrictions, while simultaneously paying more attention to the whole experience of appetite, craving, and satiation. It entails eating exactly what you want, exactly when you want, thinking of all foods as equally “good.” This isn’t permission to binge. Rather, it’s a challenge to go out of your way to feed yourself exactly what you really want, even when eating what’s readily available would be easier. It’s about treating yourself to what will give the greatest possible eating pleasure instead of “treating” yourself with whatever great quantities of sugar and fat cross your path.

This approach isn’t for everyone (and please don’t substitute my suggestions for your doctor’s counsel or for an eating plan that’s working well for you), but if it’s appealing to you, consider devoting the holiday season to making every eating experience a conscious one where you eliminate as many distractions as possible—like TV, reading material, and eating on the run—in order to savor every bite.

Make eating a meditation: before you put anything in your mouth, become quiet and relaxed, take several deep breaths, and say to yourself, “Everything I eat turns to health and beauty.” You can do this even at the holiday table with family and friends—especially with family, where the temptation may be strong to stuff down childhood feelings with another serving of mashed potatoes. Disconnecting a bit inwardly and focusing on the food, your body, your nourishment and your pleasure can help break the knee-jerk, stuffing-family-feelings-with-food habit.

As you take a moment to be with your food before you consume it, picture it being easily assimilated by your body and turning into health and beauty. Eat slowly, paying attention as you chew and swallow. Stop the minute you feel the first sensation of fullness. If you’re full but can’t stand the thought of leaving all that yummy food on your plate, ask for a doggie bag.

After eating, sit quietly for a moment, relax and take some deep breaths. Imagine a feeling of comfortable fullness and lightness in your body. Imagine that your stomach is filled not just with food, but with peace and well-being that radiates soothing sensations throughout your body.

Don’t eat again until you feel the first sensation of hunger. Then eat immediately, but only until you feel the first sensation of fullness. Pay attention as you eat, chew well, and really notice how food feels in your stomach and what the sensation of fullness is like. Every time you feel hunger, ask yourself what food you most crave. Feed yourself the food or foods that are just what you want. You may find yourself craving previously “forbidden” foods at first because enforced restriction can, in and of itself, create cravings for whatever’s been denied, but as you eat consciously in this way you’re likely to find yourself satisfied with much less. And, as you eat consciously but not restrictively, you may also be surprised by your cravings becoming more and more balanced. I once saw a perpetually dieting and vegetable-phobic woman, who equated greens with cruel punishment, astonish herself by craving salad after just three days of giving herself permission to eat whatever she wanted.

If you’re tempted to binge, create a healing ritual around eating one of your favorite foods. Set the table, light candles and eat consciously, savoring each bite. Imagine the food having marvelous healing powers that are making you healthier and more beautiful. Continue eating this way until you feel the first sensation of fullness. (Again, you’ll probably find yourself eating less and enjoying it more.) End by giving thanks for your healing food.

If you do catch yourself eating unconsciously, forgive yourself. Notice what the binge is telling you about your emotional needs. Forgive the eating and address the cause. How are you feeling empty, angry, sad, or scared, and what can you do about it? After all, the holidays, with all their frenetic activity, social obligations, and childhood associations, are a prime time for exacerbating emotional eating. As you make a commitment to conscious eating, also make a commitment to self-care. Make a list of other things you can do to nurture and soothe yourself that don’t involve food and give yourself time to do them when the urge to overeat arises. Let conscious eating become just the beginning of a more conscious approach to the holiday season, where the frenzy of it all doesn’t override the spirit of celebration and joy.

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