Food for Thought: December 24th

Thinking Straight

Before we found this program, we did a great deal of thinking in circles. Since we did not know how to stop eating compulsively, we spent a lot of time thinking up reasons for our behavior, making plans for change, and rationalizing another day's failure to eat normally. Our thinking often wandered away into fantasy, spinning dreams of when we would be thin and on top of things. Since we had to have reasons for our inability to make the dreams materialize, we blamed our failure on the people around us. "If they were only more loving, considerate, capable, exciting, smarter..."

Such circular thinking got us nowhere. The more we fantasized, the more we ate, and the more we ate, the more we withdrew from reality.

When our minds are not muddled by too much food, our thinking is clarified. The Twelve Steps put us on the road to responsible action, rather than irresponsible rationalization. Accepting the fact that we have a disease keeps us in the world of reality instead of a fantasyland.

With Your truth, keep my thinking straight

From Food for Thought: Daily Meditations for Overeaters by Elisabeth L. ©1980, 1992 by Hazelden Foundation.

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Ah yes, thinking in circles............a/k/a The Vicious Cycle.  Blaming others for MY lot in life, then eating to cope, withdrawing into fantasy-land and shutting myself DOWN.  For decades I lived that way; with twisted & irrational thinking.

When my mind is not muddled from a carb-coma, I am thinking clearly & rationally. I am behaving myself in a rational, responsible manner, seeing things for what they ARE instead of what I'd like them to be.  

My husband was irritated with me yesterday. My first reaction was that HE was wrong...........I didn't 'do' anything.  He was just silly & mistaken.  He's mad, so place the blame on HIM instead of ME.  The old, twisted thinking was in charge.  Then I sat down and thought about what he'd said...........with a clear & rational mind.  He was RIGHT.  I was WRONG.  I saw what he was saying for the TRUTH that it was.  I apologized to him and set about making some changes that were long overdue. 

I was treating our house like it was MY house; MY things were everywhere, forcing HIS things to be put into the basement. 

For today, I am grateful to know the truth...........to hear it, to accept it, and to have the willingness to make attitude adjustments as necessary. :)