January 1 is coming up, and we’ll be launching a new Boot Camp cohort at the beginning of the month. At the end of this vlog, I’ll tell you about the scholarships we’ll be offering.
I’ve been thinking about you and holiday parties and all the overeating that goes on this time of year. I know that many of you will want to turn over a new leaf come January 1st, and make it stick this time.
What’s been holding you back?
Could it be addiction to chaos? Perhaps coupled with fear of failure AND fear of success?
There’s a meditation I do when Boot Camp starts up. I take the participants through what I hope is an inspirational meditation that gives them a mindset for this journey they’re embarking on.
It starts by having them imagine they’re walking in the woods. They come to a river, and they look down and see themselves in the river, clinging to some grasses in the water. They’re in an eddy where the water is gross and foamy, and there are bits of trash around. They realize they’ve been there for so long.
The river takes a bend downstream, and the person realizes that they don’t know what’s coming up beyond the bend. And then, fast forward, they decide to let go and take their chances down river, and the meditation continues from there.
That foamy, gross water, in real life, is the chaos we live in when we’re in active addiction. The bad choices we’ve made, the relationships we’re in, the chronic patterns that aren’t a good fit—all of this keeps us in chaos, and we eat to fuel that chaos.
Chaos is addictive. It releases chemicals in the brain—adrenaline, cortisol, endorphins, and more. There’s a soupy cocktail of chemicals that gets addictive.
It’s scary to let go of the grass and float down the river. You don’t know if you’ll face failure or success—but that doesn’t matter because they both scare you.
If you can relate to this imagery, and feel like there are pieces of your life fueling an addiction to chaos, what do you do? What are the steps to coax yourself out of the eddy and down the river? I have five thoughts that may help.
- Surrender. Just let go of the grass and float downstream. That could look like signing up for the Boot Camp, or just trusting that maybe you’re not the best architect of your life. If you have not been getting the results you want in life, you may reach a point of crying uncle, of saying I surrender.
- Gather support. Find a mentor, ideally someone who has lived the way you are now. In the Bright Line Eating community, you are likely to find someone compatible. Find tools that work for you: writing, meditating, being in therapy. Consider trusted texts—if you’re a Christian, read the Bible. Are you a fan of a certain form of therapy? Find books about that. Of course there’s Bright Line Eating books, too.
- Surround yourself with people who are living just a little better than you. They can inspire you to be your better self. Look around, and find some people who are living now as you wish to be living. As the saying goes, we will become the average of the five people we spend the most time with.
- Walk a proven path. Success doesn’t just happen because you start making better decisions. There are proven success paths you can walk. I ran a marathon once and used a book called The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer. It was a success path for me. In Bright Line Eating, we have a success path. It’s called the Bright Roadmap and starts with the Boot Camp.
- Be willing to live at the edge of your comfort zone. If you’re doing it right, it’s going to feel uncomfortable, because things are changing. It’s scary. Develop tolerance for that, for discomfort.
One final thought: We do have a Boot Camp cohort starting up in January. We always give away 20 scholarships. These are full scholarships because we know not everyone has the means to pay for it. We are accepting applications now, until Sunday, December 15, 2024.
The Boot Camp starts Sunday, January 5, 2025. We’re doing some fun live masterclasses over the holidays. I hope you’ll consider joining us. And I hope you’ll use the thoughts in this vlog and all your supports to see how you can “Come Alive and Thrive in 2025.”
*Applications for a Boot Camp 2.0 scholarship are now closed.
