I can guarantee there are traps, poison and quicksand on your path, because every path has them. Some are obvious, others well disguised and some are downright seductive! As you already know from experience, traps, poison and quicksand slow you down, create new weak links, give birth to problems you never had before and may snowball into an avalanche that buries you.
As you read each one, allow a personal experience to come to mind for it. When you connect the dots of theory to your own life you will more easily recognize underhandedness and evil before its jaws lock down around you. Spotting them is an acquired skill and as you steer clear of them you will notice you reach your goals faster, the path is cleaner, the trajectory safer and you have more time to smell the roses.
Number ONE
♠ You lock into a one-size-fits-all approach because:
…of the testimonials (BUT they may be false or it may be the one success story in 50,000)
…of the money back guarantee (only 10-15% of customers will ask for a refund even if 99% of buyers failed to get a positive result)
…you are promised NO effort and not a single lifestyle change to get results
…EVERYONE IS DOING IT, and you don’t want to miss out or be left out
…seductive words and images have you daydreaming of being your most irresistible you, the envy of others and popular
Number TWO
♠ You are drinking the spiked cool-aid
A kind and loving Fairy Godmother like person touched your spirit just the right way and you are certain her product or service is the miracle, your miracle, but in truth it was a spell cast by the Dark Witch who is offering a poison apple. I meet these Fairy Godmothers regularly and they aren’t always women.
Then again maybe you encountered The Godfather whose presence exudes total knowing that demands your trust and devotion. If you dare inch away he uses his power of withholding, humiliation and will launch threats and ultimatums to coerce you back to his reign. I have met these types too and many have saintly titles, hold grand reputations and are not always men! Don’t drink their spiked cool-aid.
Number THREE
♠ You don’t trust your hunches enough to follow them
Hunches may be the queasy feeling, an itch or a twitching toe, the inability to fall asleep at night, unexplained anxiety or when you do something totally out of character and have no idea why. When it is hardest to trust is when it is most important to heed. I NEVER follow my hunches for outside validation, rewards or to be “right”. I follow them because they are the fireflies lighting up the path I am supposed to follow.
My thinking (my mind) and emotions (my heart) are often at odds with my hunches (my body). I let my mind, my heart and my body hunches be friends, but I keep them on TOTALLY SEPARATE playing fields. My mind is only the keeper of information while my heart is only the keeper of my deepest desires and fears – they both have strong agendas which makes both of them blind. My body hunches, or gut instinct if you prefer, has no agenda, is a global antenna and captures the big picture in an instant, does the math for me and then just tells me where to go.
Number FOUR
♠ You have become a dog with its prized bone and won’t let go when someone wants to give you a better bone
Kari was sitting in the front row for my presentation. I only spoke for about 90 minutes, but during that time she took two naps while the rest of the crowd was alert and interactive with me. She came up to me as I was leaving and we chatted. She had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and was hoping to find direction. I discovered she had started taking what I know to be an extremely strong herbal, for non-medical related reasons, and had developed CFS in the year that followed. She was now taking it, at even high doses, 3x/day. I suggested she take a break from it to give her body a chance to provide more information as to what it was and wasn’t doing for and against her body. Was it the direct cause of her CFS? I don’t know how her situation unfolded, but when I left that evening she was not just a dog with its prized bone, she had become a pitbull protecting what she believed to be her only bone.
Problems often persist because perspectives are in a stalemate. I like what Stephen Covey says in his books “If two people have the same opinion, one is unnecessary”.
Number FIVE
♠ Are you over relying on certain foods?
Are you doing it out of habit and convenience or because you saw it on the “healthiest” food list? Or maybe you are in a mindless trance each time you go to the grocery store. When I go to the grocery store I am wide awake.
-Are my choices media and store marketing motivated, or body approved?
-What did I eat last week? So I don’t buy the same thing.
-What is on sale? Sales often mirror seasonal crop harvests and eating produce that is in season gives my body what it needs for that time of year.
Number SIX
♠ You believe the media
Your body doesn’t follow the media so it won’t respond the way the media promises.
Juicing isn’t for everyone as my body taught me. The daily bacterial load from a small amount of whole raw vegetables and fruit is manageable for my body’s immune system, but a glass of fresh juice with the bacterial load of several days of raw vegetables and fruits can pull me straight out of remission from my autoimmune diseases.
You can trust your body’s responses are clean, clear and honest because your body won’t ever have a bone to pick with you, isn’t holding a grudge against you and doesn’t have an agenda based on affiliations with an author, peer group, guru or political party. The only thing your body wants, is to work as efficiently as possible. How your body is responding can be trusted so let IT be the expert and your guide.
Number SEVEN
♠ You feel deprived of the “good life” when you see others enjoying “bad” yet appealing indulgences
The idea that the grass is greener on the other side is an illusion. Look down… the grass is green right where you are standing. And if it isn’t, start watering.
Number EIGHT
♠ You follow an extreme diet to manipulate the body to expedite a specific outcome
It is the initial short term gain, or perceived benefit, that sells people on subscribing to extreme diets long-term. What extreme diets don’t tell you are the associated risks involved with long-term adherence. Extreme diets are for health recovery and medical conditions because the one sidedness of an extreme diet enables an imbalanced body to FIND and RECOVER balance.
Avoiding sugar, alcohol and smoking is NOT extreme, it is smart
Avoiding processed, convenient and fast food is NOT extreme, it is common sense
Eating natural whole organic foods is not extreme,
it is food as it was meant to be eaten
As good as I am at spotting traps, poison and quicksand there are times when I get blindsided. Don’t beat yourself up if you get buried, that only teaches you to beat yourself up better next time. Start looking for the signs you missed and update those areas with a new you. Be sure to reach out and get help if you need it.
Blessings,
Krista Umgelter
PS – For more info on following hunches go here: Inner Knowing Decision Making
https://blog.kristaumgelter.com/inner-knowing-decision-making/