The Ego Is a Major Control Issue
Food, Body Image, Control–The Ego Is a Major Control Issue
Gold Nugget:
What they see is that it gets down to control. So, this is coming up even in your relationships; you see that it can just intensify it. If you get into a relationship and then some of those same control issues get triggered, it’s not just the food. Then it seems to have another component to it as well. But when they’ve done studies on anorexia and bulimia, they see that people feel a sense of being out of control at times, they feel powerless, they feel helpless, there’s worthiness issues, there’s all those kinds of things going on in the unconscious mind. And then weight control, or control around eating and certain kinds of foods—those are all an attempt to control certain aspects of the world.
In 12-step programs people come to this idea that their life as they know it is unmanageable and they cry out for help, and the Serenity Prayer comes in, which is quite famous—what you can change, what you cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference.
It’s really about control.
And I would say the entire A Course in Miracles is just an expansion of the Serenity Prayer. It’s really getting down to this core issue. The deeper you go with it, you start to realize that you can control the direction of your thinking, meaning, with Spirit or with ego, but it takes an enormous amount of devotion and practice to control the direction of your thinking.
To make it simple: You can think with God or you can think against God.
And what’s underneath the control issue? Really this is the core issue: Was I created by God or can I make myself any damn well way I want to be?“
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