Transformation

Chicken breasts with broccoli, every three hours, six times a day for months. Canned tuna, mixed in a blender with water, and downed day after day for months.  Sound appetizing?

Who would eat that way? Actors prepping for roles in movies, that’s who.


In my ongoing relationship with Netflix and Amazon Prime, I rented two movies which starred men who literally transformed their bodies through rigid diets and intense workouts.

Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard, pushing his body to its extreme, chiseled himself into the hunkiest beefcake ever to leap and swing through a CGI jungle. He was described as “incredibly ripped” with not six-pack, but eight-pack abs for the film, The Legend of Tarzan.

Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts gained 50 to 60 pounds and, along with exhausting iron-pumping workout regimes, transformed himself for the lead role of Jacky in Bullhead, an academy-award nominated foreign film.

Jacky is a cattle farmer, part of the “bovine mafia” in Belgium who illegally shoot hormones and steroids into their cows to make them bigger.  Because of a tragic childhood incident affecting his manhood, Jacky regularly shoots hormones and steroids into his own body until he is transformed -- looking a bit like the bulls he works with.  Unlike Jacky, the actor transformed his body with food and intense exercise, as did the actor playing Tarzan.

Both films are fabulous examples of physical transformation. The actors struck me as men who had a strong desire, made a decision, developed a vision,  set goals, and had the discipline and determination to manifest that vision.

They demonstrated what Ernest Holmes would call “a mental atmosphere”-- which is the result of all we have thought, said and done, and consciously or unconsciously perceived. They each had a very clear  picture of what they wanted to achieve, and adhered to that picture, regardless of circumstances or conditions, with single-mindedness of purpose.

Although we might not want to transform our bodies as they did, we may seek other ways to transform ourselves, to move away from littleness, to develop a greater vision, to push the limits of our experience, to renew ourselves, and to bring greater health, wealth, creative expression or loving relationships into our lives.

The process is the same: change our thinking, change our lives. There’s a pragmatic side to  affirmative prayer, also known as Spiritual Mind Treatment.  "Treat and Use Your Feet" means be proactive: take action toward our goals.  As we do that, Universal Spirit, the One Mind, responds and supports us.

If it’s health we seek, our bodies can be healed as we transform our inner mind with thoughts of radiant good health. We replace any negative thoughts of disease or failure with positive ones of health, harmony and success.

I was reminded recently of my own encounter with cancer some 22 years ago. I took the medical treatment, and then I decided to do everything I could to survive. I took vitamins, went to support groups, stayed for a week at the Optimal Health Institute, and lost 35 pounds on a special  immune system enhancement diet.

One thing I did to change my mental atmosphere was to write a song, and sing it every time a negative or catastrophic thought came into my head. Although my voice is not ready for prime time, here it is.

I, Elizabeth, am radiantly healthy
Robust and strong, robust and strong
Free of all cancer, free of all dis-ease
Yes, yes, yes! Good health, health, health!
Yes, yes, yes! Long life, life, life! Yes!

Millions of white cells, created every day
Travel my body, searching for prey
They find and destroy, every cancer cell
To keep me strong and healthy, Yes!
To keep me strong and healthy.

And I’m still here...

And so it is.

Empower Yourself

I recently picked up the book, “The Hell I Can’t” by Terry McBride, and couldn’t put it down.


What was most interesting was Terry’s process of evolution in taking charge of his health and healing. He experienced some 27 surgeries from an incurable e-coli infection that had started in his back and moved to many other parts of his body. The medical interventions became overwhelming, and he decided he didn’t want to be crippled, to be an invalid, and to wear a colostomy bag for his entire life.

As he discovered the principles of metaphysics, he started small. He began with one thing he wanted to change: that his colon (which had been cut apart from one surgery) would be reattached and he would be able to go to the bathroom in a normal way. It’s fascinating to follow his journey of building one successful outcome after another to return to good health.

“It didn’t matter that the odds against my getting well were a million to one. It didn’t matter that some of the finest doctors in the world said I couldn’t expect to come out of this ordeal whole. I was done listening,” he says in his book.

He has a website, terrymcbride.net, with many inspirational articles designed to empower us to move beyond our limits and into the freedom we desire and deserve.

He advocates spending a few minutes a day creating our own reality, and recognizing that we are more powerful than we realize.

Let’s learn to focus our minds on what we want, rather than the distractions of everyday life, he advocates. Let’s create a supportive mental environment, use our imagination to daydream about our goals, and take the needed action to make those goals a reality. In Religious Science we call this “Treat and Use Your Feet.”

What about choice? We can take charge of our creative mind, but not with just a few affirmations or the occasional positive thought.

Our minds can be stuck in habitual grooves, running automatically according to our usual, programmed thinking. By using choice, we can act “as if” we are the person we want to be, and reprogram our mind to support our new process.

When an old thought pattern arises, we can become aware and change it; we the thinker; we are in charge of our creative mind, our life.

We can target what we are moving toward. We can ask ourselves: where do  I want to be at the end of this year? next year? Who do I want to be as I go on this journey? How can I best focus my mind to get the results I want?

Of course we want to move our energy and focus to what we DO want, rather than what we don’t want. It’s easy to get into a negative mind set about what’s not working, or what’s not showing up. It’s easy to focus on the negative, because so many things going on in the world around us seem to support that.

As we integrate our choices with mental power and physical action, we can say: “I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if...” We can finish the sentence with the goals and dreams we want to show up.

Terry developed a Statement of Being to help him with his healing. We can adapt this to our own situation, whether it be in the realm of health, financial abundance, loving relationships or creative expression. His statement reads:

“As I move into this time of creation, I feel the power of something bigger than me, moving with me, supporting and empowering me.  I know all things are possible.  And as I explore how I am going to create the healing I desire, I will notice this support and acknowledge it. I know that I do not have to figure this out all at once.  All I have to do is begin right where I am and consciously choose to move toward what I want. My life is not one problem after another, it is right now a time of discovery and creation, and out of my own being I feel the joy and freedom that comes with knowing I can create reality.”

And so it is.