Your Feelings Are Indicators

​I can’t overstate how dangerous it can be to go off of how you feel without having something or someone to check with. Your mind is very impressionable and without hard facts will think how you are feeling is actually reality.
I’ve given this example before but it happened again to me this week so I think it bears repeating. In the past 9 months or so I’ve lost 35 to 40 pounds, (I bounce around a bit in that range). I’ve decided that I’m happy where I am and don’t really want to put in much more effort to lose more and with that I have a bit more freedom. My personality is all or nothing so if I have a few days where I don’t eat perfect or close, my mind tells me that I’m gaining and I have gone back to where I was. It also doesn’t help that my digestive system is pretty sensitive so if I eat stuff I shouldn’t, my body feels crappy.
Today I didn’t want to get on the scale. I was afraid of reality. My mind was telling me it’s going to be bad and living in I don’t know land is so much better. You know you feel crappy, you know you weren’t perfect so it’s going to be bad.
Now the reasonable side of me knows a few things. First off you don’t gain 40 pounds in a day or even a bad week so how I feel isn’t possibly true. I still feel that way. Second I know that my success actually lies in getting on the scale. Living in I don’t want to know land is why I didn’t lose. I was always too afraid to face reality and so I just didn’t. I would say stuff like I’ll go off how my clothes fit or as long as I work out every day it will be fine. I actually didn’t start making progress until I got on the scale every day. Some days it sucked but it kept me honest and most of all, it kept me from gaining 10 pounds instead of 1. Funny thing actually is that I’m many pounds lighter and still wear a lot of my old clothes. They are just way baggier….but there’s 40 pounds difference. So going off of my clothes has a really large range.
Honestly this post has nothing to do with weight loss but everything to do with your mind is easily influenced and it needs to be grounded in truth. I stepped on the scale this morning and found out I’m at the top range of what I want. Basically I’m in the 35 range when I really would like to be 40 but I’m way within range. My feelings told me that I was way heavier and to give up. I’ve always listened to my feelings before. I always got too afraid of the scale and fear kept me from finding facts.
Your feelings will tell you that life isn’t worth living. I’ve had those days. In those moments it’s honestly how I felt. It’s not fact though because minutes, hours, days or seasons later I’m so thankful that I didn’t stick with how I felt because my life is a gift. If you believe no one wants you, that’s all you’ll see. Your mind wants to back up its thoughts with “evidence”. You need those who love you to tell you the truth. The truth might be that yes, you’ve been a lot lately. Maybe even a pain but I’ve never wished a loved one out of my life and secretly I am always pulling for them to do well no matter how frustrated I am in the moment. I’ve been mad at the people closest to me probably more than anyone else but if those people ever thought for a second that I didn’t want them it would break me.
Make sure that your not buying into the current trend which is because I feel like it I am. That’s how things like suicide happens. You need to align your thoughts with truth and your feelings will follow. Look back on your life at how you felt vs what you know is reality. Do you see where you are thankful that maybe you didn’t go with how you felt?
Feelings aren’t wrong, they are indicators. They tell me how I am doing but shouldn’t be what I am doing. If I am doing bad, the what should be what do I need to do in order for me to feel good again. Not my thoughts and feelings are true and my life is over. Ignoring how you feel is a bad idea too because you are ignoring your indicators. It’s like driving a car with the gas light on. You can either go get gas or run out somewhere. Your choice. The gas light isn’t a bad thing it just shows you where you are at and what options you might need to take to keep going. Emotions are like gas lights.