The Mystery of Shapeshifting
Most of what you are about to read is based on nothing more solid than my own opinion, informed by my experience.
In this empowered approach to changing shape, we can understand certain factors that affect shapeshifting. How metabolism changes during the day. How (for many women especially) moving from the be less of traditional exercise to the be resilient of The Body Confident Project (BCP) allows us to feel safer in the world. How a limited amount of healthy fat in the diet can actually encourages shapeshifting.
We can get to know Cavebrain and work with it via The BCP.
However, I believe that there is a mystery to shapeshifting.
A Few Questions...
#1 Why is it that a baby’s gender is determined by one individual (its father’s sperm) - yet there is always a pretty much 50/50 male/female gender balance in society at any time (barring human intervention of course)?
#2 How big is the universe? What’s at the edge of it?
(Sorry. That was a cheap trick on my part. Sometimes I just like to blow my mind with that question just for kicks!)
#3 Did you know that scientists now agree that there is a brain in your gut? One which produces 90% and 50% of your serotonin and dopamine respectively? Of course there is scientific reasoning behind this - see this article for more
But if you stop for a minute and consider that your levels of well being, how you manage depression and anxiety etc are much more controlled by what happens below your neck than above it, you are likely going to need to sit down for five minutes and murmur *What!?!* There is a definite mystery wrapped up in the science of this.
Maybe that mystery is actually us expanding our minds to accommodate the expanding boundaries of science.
Time For A Slice of Humble Pie
However you choose to see it, thinking about these mysteries requires a certain level of humility. Oh look, I got it wrong. The emotional investment and slavish obedience I invested into calorie counting/hating my body etc etc was actually a massive waste of time. One of the sunk costs of life, the stuff that regrets are made of.
I have experienced some truly mysterious things in my own process of shapeshifting.
In the weeks following giving up sugar, I shed exactly zero pounds. I went through a period of a few months of quite a lot of discomfort. I felt very vunerable just being out and about sometimes. I knew intuitively that this was my sugar addiction fighting back. See how awful you feel without me! it seemed to be cackling.
Then one day I experienced a very unusual form of healing as one of my friends was training as a practitioner. I was one of his case studies.
This turned out to be a massive watershed for me, as it did something marvellous to my autonomic nervous system (The HQ for fight or flight). I left the treatment rooms and suddenly felt completely safe walking down the street.
The next two months I dropped two - three dress sizes. Effortlessly, with no increased exercise and no dietary changes. I got comments like “that is actually a bit shocking Harriet” and “I am worried that you are not eating enough”.
Clearly the healing experience had done something to heal my past traumas, and I was ready to shed my protective fat suit. But so fast? With no lifestyle changes? I can’t explain how it happened in that way. Can you?
This is what I mean by the mystery of Shapeshifting.
The lesson here is that we can work with our bodies, accept and respect them. Honour them. The how to is in The BCP. This is all essential for a fully rounded life.
The inescapable fact is that the process of shapeshifting is trying to get your body to change in a certain way at the request of your conscious mind. I hope that you understand by now that the relationship between your conscious mind is nothing like the master and servant dynamic that most people believe it is.
Your body has in so many ways not only a brain of its own but a mind of its own too. I think that the best thing any of us can do when it comes to Shapeshifting is accept these limitations. Drop the specific weight or dress size goals, and replace those goals with building a consistent habit of at least the 3 core shapeshifting behaviours
#1 Menu planning, grocery shopping and cooking/food prep
#2 Physical activity
#3 Slow eating (ie make enough time for meals so that you can eat slowly)
Questions
When has your experience with diets and exercise baffled you?
Have you ever experienced things you cannot explain when it comes to your body, mind or indeed life itself?