It's the craze that is sweeping the nation! The Secret
is the repackaged, lipsticked for 2007 version of every positive thinking program that has ever existed from Eckhart Tolle to Norman Vincent Peale.
Personally, I have no beef with the power of positive thinking. I think positively now that the Prozac is flowing steadily through each and every little capillary of my brain. I know that when I was thinking that the world was shit, indeed, the world was big stanky piles of shit. Not a wonder I spent a good 85% of my time under the covers.
Here is where my personal bullshit bell starts ringing. Rhonda (the contriver of said Secret) starts talking about your body and positive thinking, which would be just ducky if she talked about loving your body for what it gives you right now, etc. and she does give this motif a cursory once over but her solution for losing weight is the following:
And then folks, it gets bad. Really, really bad. And stupid. And irresponsible and all kinds of other words that I can barely type.
I'm sorry. Inwardly praise people with your idea of perfect weight bodies and do not observe overweight people? Are you fucking kidding me? Is this the tripe that millions of people have been spending their earned money on? Oprah has been feasting on?
I am calling bullshit. Here and now.
is the repackaged, lipsticked for 2007 version of every positive thinking program that has ever existed from Eckhart Tolle to Norman Vincent Peale.Personally, I have no beef with the power of positive thinking. I think positively now that the Prozac is flowing steadily through each and every little capillary of my brain. I know that when I was thinking that the world was shit, indeed, the world was big stanky piles of shit. Not a wonder I spent a good 85% of my time under the covers.
Here is where my personal bullshit bell starts ringing. Rhonda (the contriver of said Secret) starts talking about your body and positive thinking, which would be just ducky if she talked about loving your body for what it gives you right now, etc. and she does give this motif a cursory once over but her solution for losing weight is the following:
Let go of all those limiting thoughts. Food cannot cause you to put on weight, unless you think it can.The definition of the perfect weight is the weight that feels good for you. No one else’s opinion counts. It is the weight that feels good for you.
You most likely know of someone who is thin and eats like a horse, and they proudly declare, “I can eat whatever I want and I am always the perfect weight.” And so the Genie of the Universe says, “Your wish is my command!”
Hmmm. This has worked for how many people in what clinical trial? Also, in my opinion, the definition of the perfect weight for me is about 10 lbs. under my lowest healthy weight. Am I magically going to become 115 lbs if I imagine it? Rhonda? Anyone?
I realize that what she is trying to articulate is that focusing on your goal is a good way to get to the body that is healthy for you. But that's not what she says.And then folks, it gets bad. Really, really bad. And stupid. And irresponsible and all kinds of other words that I can barely type.
Make it your intention to look for, admire, and inwardly praise people with your idea of perfect-weight bodies. Seek them out and as you admire them and feel the feelings of that-you are summoning it to you. If you see people who are overweight, do not observe them, but immediately switch your mind to the picture of you in your perfect body and feel it.
I'm sorry. Inwardly praise people with your idea of perfect weight bodies and do not observe overweight people? Are you fucking kidding me? Is this the tripe that millions of people have been spending their earned money on? Oprah has been feasting on?
I am calling bullshit. Here and now.
Labels: Body Electric, Tikkun olam, woo
Stumble It!
The story of Michael and me.
11 Comments:
I'm with you, girlfriend. Most of my dearest friends are not what anyone would call a perfect weight and I wouldn't give up one of them. In my experience people who think they are perfect in any way tend to be really hard to get along with. I'll take outwardly flawed but inwardly wonderful people any day.
I imagine myself at 145 lbs and a size 8-10. But also I fantasize about a plate full of leftover brownies. Thank you graduation weekend. I gained 2 pounds.
How does The Secret account for battles between positive forces? Who wins? I think we both know.
I'm with you on the BS.
I agree, that Secret crap is a little much. I think that positive thinking is a good thing, but it doesn't change certain indisputable facts of the universe.
I also don't like the implication that if you are fat or working at a bad job or whatever, you somehow thought yourself into those things, and can then think yourself out of them. It's like clicking my little red heels together and hoping to be 10 again.
Faith - I've avoided that book for a few reasons, but those excerpts? Them's fightin' words. A lot of trouble comes from people being concerned with what other people look like (black, fat, dress funny, think funny) All's I can say is, people must be 100% well-fed, happy, wealthy, and brilliant in order to be so concerned and intrigued about what OTHER people do at their dinner tables or bedrooms. If that snippet is a sample that book sounds dangerous. Maybe not to clear-thinking wise people....(who are probably not interested in the book anyway) but for the poor souls who are working to become that way (but haven't yet) saying that there are easy answers or WORSE, that they're responsible for their perceived inadequacy? Nope. "An it harm NONE, do what thou wilt."
Oh sure, the power of positive thinking is great. My Grandma read and re-read the original book. HOWEVER, I have recently taken up caffein. I never learned to like coffee. I usually drink herbal tea. Just one cup of full-strength tea in the morning makes me feel positive ALLLL day. Chemicals work.
I believe what I am doing right now could be called "sputtering incoherently with rage."
WTF? I am a human being, I deserve to be SEEN, not ignored. Jesus effing Christ.
I am SO glad that someone else gets riled by "the secret" bullshit, bullshit, bullshit....it's just another example of exclusivity in our society. Oh, and a handy money maker, too. jesus f'g christ.
Ah, yes, pretending you don't see overweight people will make them all go away.
Here's one of my favorite "Secret" quotes: "Our physiology creates disease to give us feedback, to let us know we have an imbalanced perspective, and we're not loving and we're not grateful." So, our unloving, ingrate asses deserve to be sick.
SECRET CURES CANCER--Film at 11:00.
Visualize and it shall be??
I'm all for positive thinking and counting your blessings, but if that's all it took, Adam Levine would have been standing naked in my living room with a pair of Manolos in one hand and a big bag of money in the other, wondering what took me so long to get home.
Give me a f@#$ing break.
I just got here via Aunt Pearl, and usually I would follow blogetiquette and blurk a while before commenting, but dear god, thank you. Because I was getting really tired of seeing this book on the subway. But I hadn't read it so I felt like the usual pretentious prick that I am for judging without researching. But this post? Does more than confirm my worst suspicions.
Now I'm going to be polite and leave before I get all tongue-tied and spluttery over how the book takes far-right conservatism to places it should not go.
Right, I'm going to leave and wish away my tummy flab.
rock on, faith!
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