Mind Power Can Help You Lose or Gain Weight

I have chosen this particular subject because someone noticed that I have lost a lot of weight—I have taken off about forty pounds in less than four months—and asked if I had been sick. There are causes for our physical condition that are not known to many doctors and food scientists, who ordinarily think of the body as governed only by biochemical laws. The long history of the nature of the body involves more than just physiology, anatomy, nutrition, and medicine. What I tell you is from my own personal experience; and if you remember these things, they will ultimately help you very much. Don’t think it is inevitable that someone who has a tendency to become heavy, or to remain too thin, is not healthy; or that the cause is necessarily or wholly physical. For instance, why is it that some thin people can eat five meals a day and still not get fat? In my early youth I wanted to gain weight, because in India, where so many people are thin from malnutrition, it is considered desirable to be heavy. I used to purposely eat everything that was fattening, but still I couldn’t put on weight. Then the grace of my guru Sri Yukteswarji changed my thought, and from that day on my body took a different turn. I have been heavy ever since. Before Guruji’s blessing, my body was so terribly thin that I looked like a bean pole with a coconut on top! If you have a tendency to become fat, don’t blame your eating habits alone. The mind has a lot to do with it. You must so train your mind that you will not have any tendency toward being either too fat or too thin. It is good to be flexible, so that you can put on weight or take it off at will. Of course you shouldn’t ignore dietary rules, unless you have a divinely strong mind. If you want to lose weight or avoid gaining it, there are a few important points to remember. One is: never drink water, milk, or other liquids with your meals. It is best to take fluids a half-hour before a meal or two hours afterward. When your body weight increases, the cells become very hungry for water. It is strange that sometimes the strongest urges we have are for those very things that hurt us. Drinking plenty of water and fruit juices helps to keep the body free from disease; just don’t drink them with your meals. Take a glass of milk in between meals; it will help to keep your body healthy, because milk supplies your body with all the elements that are necessary. But avoid the cream in it— take skim milk. Another important point is to eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably raw. Cut out sugar and starches and fried foods. It is all right if you eat these once in a while, but it should not be an everyday habit. Remember, too much starch in the diet is very unhealthful, as well as fattening. When you are hungry for sweets or a snack, the best thing to eat is fruit. For extra nourishment, put on it a dressing of finely ground nuts mixed with fruit juice or some other base. Your body needs protein, but too much protein is dangerous to your physical being. Don’t make a habit of eating meat protein, because it will create poisons in your system. One more important rule is to avoid fats; however, a little olive oil every day will help keep the joints healthy. In general, follow a moderate diet that contains all the elements the body requires, and eat only as much as the body actually needs. That is the way to stabilize the weight by proper eating. If you overeat, the sad fact is that ladies will get fat in back and gentlemen will get fat in front. So eat less, and get plenty of exercise to keep the muscles well toned. Never let the abdominal muscles get weak. It is always a good practice to hold the abdominal muscles in. When trying to lose weight, don’t be overanxious. There is danger in using drastic means to get rid of fat in a hurry. Excess weight is hard on the whole system—from the feet to the heart. For every pound of flesh there is a mile of blood vessels that have to be irrigated by the heart. Even so, you would be surprised how the mind can compensate for every condition of the body. Trailanga Swami of India weighed three hundred pounds, and yet he was reputed to have lived three hundred years. He could do that because he lived by mind power.

Think Thin

Mind will do everything for you. Along with proper diet you must also think thin.t There was a time when I was trying to lose weight by following all the usual stringent methods of dieting—and still I saw that days went by and there was no change in my weight. Then I thought: “So, Mr. Body, you are playing tricks with me! Some people have a tendency toward thinness, and some have a tendency toward fatness. If I want to lose weight, why not adopt that tendency? Why should I have to think all the time about diet, diet, diet?” I really got impatient with myself. So I said, “Eat!” and I started taking regular meals. I relaxed my mind, but I instilled the thought: “You are losing weight.” I held tenaciously to that thought. And it actually happened. I began to see that I was losing weight. Several times I even ate fattening foods, and still I found I was losing steadily. The thought was so strongly established in my mind that the whole body was working to throw off the weight that was not necessary to my well-being. After reaching a hundred and eighty pounds, I stabilized myself to maintain that weight all the time. I have been eating normally, and still I have not gone over that mark. Until you can do it by mind power alone, losing weight is best accomplished by combining mind power, exercise, and proper eating. But do you know, after I had applied the power of the mind, I even stopped exercising, except for the Energization Exercises, and ate what I wanted; but still the body absolutely did not take on any more flesh. It remained just the same. And although I lost so much weight, my skin is just as firm as ever. Ordinarily, if you take off forty pounds quickly, you find that your flesh becomes flabby. But when I used mind power, it stabilized the flesh. So mind has a great deal to do with gaining and losing weight. The important thing is that you must deeply instill the right thought in your mind. There are some people who eat anything they want, and still they remain thin, without any conscious effort on their part. Why is this? It is because their bodies are stabilized in this life as a result of right eating habits in their past incarnations. Therefore, they neither get fat nor thin, no matter what they eat or don’t eat. But this doesn’t necessarily mean they have corresponding health and vitality, or that they can ignore the simple rules of good health. You may have built up a certain physical stability from right eating and proper exercise in your past life, but it is very important to continue to eat right and apply the principles of healthful living. If you neglect your body and ignore physiological laws now, you will have to pay for it sometime in the future. My message to you is that I have proved, by every means, that mind power works. When I followed dietary laws alone, it didn’t work. But when I applied mind power, then I began to lose weight. Now I have the ability to be thin or fat at will. That can only be done by applying mind power. You also must learn to regulate your weight at will: Obey the laws of right diet; eat more raw fruits and vegetables and less fats, starches, and sugars,- drink plenty of water or other liquids (fruit and vegetable juices, milk, and so on), but not with meals; and, most important, strongly think that you have perfect control of the body. Every morning and night, affirm deeply: “I am the master of this body. It will obey my mind irrespective of any food I eat. Any tendency toward fatness or thinness must go!”

Don’t Be a Diet Fanatic

The point is, balance your diet, and then forget it. Once in awhile it is even good to break your diet. If you have a craving for some food that isn’t particularly good for you, don’t be finicky; eat it. But don’t make a practice of it, and thus let it become a habit. So many people are all the time fussing about their food. What is the use of having a body that you have to fuss about all the time? Your body should be your servant; don’t allow yourself to become its slave. Think of the power of your mind; believe and know that it is the repairer of your body. Live by that mind power! How do you think the cow remains strong and healthy by eating only grass? Out of that simple food it gets all the elements it needs. Of course, there are good elements in the grass to begin with, but the main thing is that the mind of the cow has been conditioned by evolution to that way of life, and its body responds accordingly. You have an advantage over the cow, because you can consciously command your mind according to your will. Then whatever your mind strongly tells your body to do, it will do. Essentially, everything you think of as necessary to support the body is a delusion. I definitely know that mind is the supreme power; it will create everything the body requires. But until you actually have that realization, you must use your common sense. It is wisdom to obey the health laws of God, and believe without doubt that mind is the supreme force. You are the one who has created your present bodily condition, and you have the power in your mind to keep your body in good health. If iron is missing in my system, I suggest iron to my mind and the condition is corrected. When the body comes under your control, it will obey whatever you tell it through the powerful suggestion of your mind. God’s will was strong enough to create the whole universe. Your little body is a product of that divine will. Your mind is an expression of that same will, and whenever you make a strong suggestion to your mind about your body’s well-being, or even about your destiny, it will come to pass. Remember, thought is the master of this machine of creation. By strengthening your thoughts, you can reach whatever goal you want to attain.