Making Lemonade from Obesity - written by Pat Matson

If your body hasn't ever quite looked the way you wanted it to, have you ever wished or hoped that you could wave a fairy want and change it? I sure did. As I was wishing and hoping, I had no clue there was truly a way to make that happen. I had zero ideas about how much work it would take. Now that it's all past history, in looking back on all this, I can honestly say it was all worth the effort.

There was never a moment in my life when I did not think I was fat, starting with my toddler nickname of Patty Fatty, through the days when my father and husband railed on me for what they then considered excess weight, and what I now consider "ideal." It's been a difficult challenge, but I can honestly say that being obese has been the greatest blessing in my life.

Why? Because with obesity as a catalyst, I've come to understand both my Self and my life from a perspective I could not have gleaned without such a sore spot.

I still look back longingly and with amazement wishing I knew then what I know now, so that I could make the changes back in my youth that eventually grew me the obese body I got as a result of my thinking. Yes, that's right. It was all a result of the way that I thought about myself.

I had developed an obsession about how much I weighed and how my body looked. I felt ugly because fat made me hideous. My family and friends fed into that concept and assured me I was right. I was chastised for not looking "right" and certainly for being lazy, undisciplined, and lacking follow through. Today, it makes me smile. I was totally disciplined. Why, I thought I was fat 24/7! How much more disciplined could one girl get?

That is when I learned that my mind, thinking is what is causing all effect in my life, and oh dearie oh me, here I was doing all that wrong thinking. I was excited about this incredible discovery and chagrined at how I'd inadvertently used this powerful Cause. How could I have committed such a sin? How could I have been so dumb? I was thrilled to think that if I was causing my own fat by thinking I was fat (and that is precisely what I was doing) well, then, I could change it all by changing my thinking.

I began a new path and a new patterning that took me across 27 years of study and hard work. I learned that behind our lives, is a Science that is live itself. I learned that most of what I had been taught was not factual, but was more along the nature of old wives tales. I worked to correct the mistakes I was now so aware of - okay, more like hundreds, but I didn't want to scare you. I loved what I was learning and I loved the ramifications it had in all areas of my life. I got healthier, wealthier and happier for my learning.

It takes skill and understanding to make changes using purely mental means, and I'm here to tell you that not only is it possible, but there are folks out there learning how to do it all over the place. I can do many things in my life using mental means alone, and, had I not been fat and disappointed about it, I may never have worked for such wonderful answers.

There is a city in Egypt called Oxyrynchus where papyrii were found and the quotations on those documents attributed to Jesus: "Let him that seeketh not cease from seeking until he find; and having found, he will be amazed; and having been amazed, he shall reign; and having reigned, he shall rest."

This is how it feels in my life. I love my Self. I accept who I am regardless of how I look. I became an expert at Life as a Science, at self-acceptance and self-love. I did all this out of being obese.

Have you turned your lemons into lemonade yet?