My computer's not picking him up!
But I hope you don't stop posting these exercises, LLB! I think everyone's just out playing in the snow, unless they live where I do, in which case they are out playing in the sun.
After reading this a couple of days, it occurred to me how much I live the life created by these "unacceptable" messages. In fact, just recently I've been dealing with yet another job rejection in which the kind editor informed me I was uncreative, unconcise, unenthusiastic and unimpressive, and couldn't write. When I think about this exercise, I realize those unkind (and untrue) charges affect me in the same way these messages have from the earliest years of my life and that they directly affect my weight. So here I am again, overeating when I'm trying to reach a weight goal and turning over my emotional and physical life to yet another fathead. In buying into the negative messages of others about who and what I am, I once again give up, turn over the power and inevitably that is what puts on the weight ... essentially, I believe I think the weight is an instrument of self-destruction. I let others depress me enough by their rejection of who I am that I don't want to be anyone ... I let the fat obliterate me.
Check the appropriate boxes:
_X__Mother
_X__Father
_X__Brother
_X__Teacher
_X__Grandparent
__X_Friend
_X__Religious Advisor
__X_Lover
__X_Other family member
List the messages you received:
1 You are too thin (first five years)
2 You are too fat (thereafter)
3 You are not as smart as your brother
4 You are too sensitive
5 You are selfish
6 You can't do math
7 You are fat! (I could go on, but that's the gist of it)
In what ways have you adapted your behavior to conform to those messages?
See above.
Complete the sentence:
I've changed myself over the years to conform to the messages I've received about my behavior by: See above!
Addendum: "The fault lies not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings!"
e.g., While we can recognize the fatheadedness of others and how really unfairly they've sometimes treated us, it's our responsibility to take back the power we've given them to hurt us. I know the fatheads don't really make me overeat, though their behavior can trigger overeating. But it's my job to put the lock on the trigger. The fatheads don't care if I am hurt. They don't care if I am fat ... only I care if I am fat.