Interesting ... Weight Loss Question

[shefa]

I gained some weight after a sports-related inury ... been carrying that weight for way too long now despite various efforts to loose it. I asked Yi, "What's it going to take for me to loose the weight?" and got 25.5 becomes 21. What an interesting answer. No, I have not taken or considered drugs, so that doesn't relate. Can you help me understand how this answer relates to me specificaly and what I might need to do?

 

[dobro p]

When 25.5 talks about 'medicine' it isn't talking about drugs, it's talking about any remedy for a given problem. The basic message of 25.5 is 'there's no need to apply any special remedy to this problem, cuz it'll fix itself.' Which means one of two things in the context of your question: either the weight will disappear on its own as the activities of your life unfold, or your dislike of it will disappear.

 

[shefa]

This is a huge surprise. I doubt very much that my dislike of the weight will disappear, but equally doubt the possibility of it falling off by itself. Well, maybe it will come off by itself, because I find it so bizzare that I am carrying it at all. I don't eat all that much -- really, I know people say that, but maybe there has been more of an energetic reason why I am holding it. I guess I can start to imagine "letting go" and see what happens.

 

[my_key]

"What's it going to take for me to loose the weight?" and got 25.5 becomes 21.

Hi Shefa

Look at this situation holistically - Body, mind and spirit all in perfect harmony.
There is a need for you to understand what is the root issue causing the weight gain from being able to be reversed. When you have this understanding there will be a magic moment for you and the way forward that you need will become clear. Keep searching and you will find the issue you need to tackle.

Love and hugs

Mike

 

[willowfox]

Take no medicine the problem will go away on its own given time. Just becareful what you eat, and if really necessary go on a diet.

 

[laylab]

sometimes it really is talking about medicine as I purchused some HCG in order to do a diet made popular now by Kevin Trudeau and it gave me this line...I took the HCG anyway and developed vertigo for a couple of days..

next I will listen to the IC!

 

[dobro p]

sometimes it really is talking about medicine as I purchused some HCG in order to do a diet made popular now by Kevin Trudeau and it gave me this line...I took the HCG anyway and developed vertigo for a couple of days..

next I will listen to the IC!

Yes, of course. Sometimes it really IS talking about medicine in 25.5. And sometimes when you draw 40.6 it really IS talking about killing a bird of prey. And I suppose that sometimes when you draw 1.5, you actually do see a real dragon in the sky. But most of the time, the images in the Yi are symbols for a whole universe of particular things. So, when the Yi says 'medicine', it's talking about remedies in general. Which can mean real, honest-to-God pharmaceuticals sometimes. But there's no way that when the Yi says 'medicine' it's *limited* to the idea of painkillers or chemotherapy.

 

[dobro p]

This is a huge surprise. I doubt very much that my dislike of the weight will disappear, but equally doubt the possibility of it falling off by itself. Well, maybe it will come off by itself, because I find it so bizzare that I am carrying it at all. I don't eat all that much -- really, I know people say that, but maybe there has been more of an energetic reason why I am holding it. I guess I can start to imagine "letting go" and see what happens.

I think that when you draw 25.5, it's telling you that you don't have to exert any special or particular effort on this problem, cuz in the fullness of time, the problem will disappear. So, imagine for a moment the different ways in which a year from now you might be free of the extra weight. Maybe you'll get more active sports-wise. Maybe your body's gone into that sort of weird starvation mode in which, because you keep changing the amount of food you eat, it converts ANYTHING you eat into fat; and maybe if you start eating more regularly, your body will find its optimum weight on its own. Maybe you'll get sick for a couple of weeks, and lose the weight that way. (I hope that's not what happens.) Maybe you'll get upset and stop eating. (I hope that's not what happens.) Maybe you'll meet somebody who loves you up and down, and your feeling so accepted helps your body find its equilibrium. Maybe, without any special effort, talking about this with the people on this board will make you more conscious of what you eat and how you eat, and so you'll eat more consciously, and so the body will of course find 'itself'. Maybe this, maybe that. The point is, if the Yi says you don't have to do anything, then that's exactly what it means. Which includes 'imagining letting go', by the way. No visualisations required. Just time.

 

[shefa]

Thank you everyone. I am fascinated and want to fully apreciate and understand Yi's answer. I just read in Huang about this line being the most auspicious of the hexagram. He writes that one in this place is, "... unable to be hypocritical, as a healthy person is unable to be sick. If a healthy person employs medicine, it is not truthful. An old Chinese adage: "Truthfulness need not deal with artificiality as a healthy person need not deal with medicine."

I located Karcher's book and was amazed to read: "Disentangling affliction. No medical herbs, possessing rejoicing." He goes on to say, "You are suffering from sickness, anger, or negative emotion. Though you may be in pain, don't treat it as a medical or a literal problem. See it imagineatively and spiritually. It will soon clear up and you will have cause to rejoice."

This seems to be all about making an inner change in how I see and feel as the means that leads to the outer change. Or, Dobro, do you think that is still doing too much and maybe I just need to BE without DOING at all? I am the source of my own suffering (aren't we all) and I can be hard on myself and not always as accepting as I could be.

 

[shefa]

By the way, Dobro ... "Maybe you'll meet somebody who loves you up and down, and your feeling so accepted helps your body find its equilibrium" ... is a perfectly acceptable scenario for me. And if you have read my other recent posts this scenario is in process.

Thank you laylab and willowfox for your thoughts and additions to this dialogue. I am curious, what is HCG? The idea that this will take care of itself over time will take getting used to. I keep feeling like I have somehow failed to do something right. Perhaps not. M_key what a good reminder, to look at my mind-body-spirit-emotion balance. That seems to be what Karcher means as well. Thank you.

Maybe I just need to love and accept myself more so the rest takes care of itself.

 

[shefa]

Guess what? I just coincidentally (?) discovered a book called "French Women Don't Get Fat" which is all about eating for pleasure as a way to be healthy and slim. Perhaps eating for pleasure matches what Yi discusses in terms of "rejoicing" and the problem will take care of itself?

 

[amalia]

This is all very interesting to me, because I have the same problem - I took some weight in the last 5-6 years, and this definitely because I ate too much - I was so worried and anxious for so many thing (my work, my sentimental situation, my father, my family...) that eating seemed an easy way of consolation (I somewhat knew what I was doing, and I thought it was a minor damage. And I still think so) - oh, and I am great at cooking, and I now have a boyfriend who likes eating and who takes me frequently out for dinner... Anyhow: in this last month and a half I decided to lose some weight: but the only outcome was, I lost a couple of kilos (while solving some big problems of colitis - good!). I am not getting fatter, but I am not regaining my size (by now I am a 14 - I'd like to get back to 12). I thought it was somehow improper (God knows why!) to ask an advice to the Oracle, but the example of Shefa persuaded me to do so. The answer was Hex. 16. And this sounds to me the plain truth: if I want to lose weight, I must FIRST solve my other problems, THEN become calm, cool, relaxed... And only THEN I can think about getting back to my true size! Now It seems the Oracle is explaning us how the question of getting fat is very different for all of us... Kisses to all.

 

[RindaR]

I'm wondering if you miss the activity that was the context in which your injury took place? Are you frustrated about not being able to participate?

LiSe's translation says :

[FONT=&quot]9 at 5: The illness of innocence. Do not use medicine, have joy.[/FONT]Living in an innocent way doesn't mean your mind is never heavy. Covering poor feelings with diversions doesn't cure them, and medicine cannot reach its roots. Accept it as part of the time and accept your place in the big picture. Inner joy is the most effective cure.

Perhaps accepting the limits of the time - whether it be the sequelae of the injury or the loss of the activity, or the limits of the way your body is right now; and allowing yourself to be happy anyway, will help all on it's own.

 

[shefa]

Yes, I do miss several activities. But your answer, 16 is also about joy and delight, yes? Maybe we have found the answer to weight loss - being happy?

 

[hilary]

Shefa, you seem to have struck a chord here...

With me, too. I had this same line years ago in connection with weight loss. For me it meant no 'corrective' dieting, but recovering the ability to eat as a response to hunger. (And not for any of the other reasons.) Basically, just because there is a problem, doesn't mean you have to attend to the problem and go in search of remedies to fix it. Instead you need to return to a state of health, which is something your body already knows.

Yi's advice to Vassilissa - Enthusiasm, Delight... - sounds like 'French Women Don't Get Fat' over again, doesn't it? And maybe it also asks, why do you want to lose the weight? There's got to be a thundering great, vivid, energetic reason.

It's probably time I asked the same question myself, after spending 2006 getting to about 2 1/2 stone overweight. Ugh. Now down to 1 1/2 stone over the odds, and fortunately haven't yet lost my taste for soup...

 

[RindaR]

Yes, I do miss several activities. But your answer, 16 is also about joy and delight, yes? Maybe we have found the answer to weight loss - being happy?

Yes, sounds exactly right! ...perhaps find a new activity you are able to do that also brings you joy.

...and, of course, what Hilary said...

 

[mirian]

Dear Shefa,
I think that you got Hex 25.5 because it is exactly what you need now. I have read what you said about feeling that you might have failed to do something right. So, this fifth moving line is just timely; you should try "not-doing". You can consider this reading as a broader view on your life or just take it as the answer to the weight question. Either way, I think that the message underlying the reading is pretty much the same. I usually get Hex 25.5 when I have a specific problem. In this case, I neither invent any "brilliant" solution to fix it nor do anything that could aggravate the problem.

Take care

 

[amalia]

Hilary, you struck the right point - I must admit I do not have a strong reason to lose weight. I idly think I would look more sophisticated with my original size: but, as I am quite tall, a 14 instead of a 12 does not mean much (and, under some aspects, I am less elegant, but even prettier when I'm fat - my breasts, for instance...!). From another point of wiew, it is true that people who, like us, get fatter when they're sad, are people who want happiness to come from outside (it does sound stupid, but we're the majority of human beings...); while those who do not get on food are people with bigger inner resources. Maybe we must understand how to be happy, before everything! Kisses to the word.

 

[dobro p]

Kisses to the word. Nice.

Is that your expression? Do you mind if put it into a song, vassilissa?

 

[shefa]

Such good dialogue ... thank you all for sharing your thgoughts and experiences. It is good to feel you "get it" and I feel also that I am not alone. Thank you for caring to take the time to write your thoughts and offer your contributions. It really means so much to me.

After sitting with this 25.5 for a couple days now, what I feel is that I do not need to "do" I just need to "be." And this "be" means to be my very best version of myself. Love myself. Enjoy life. Live in a balanced way. Through this process of being my body will settle into its place of greatest peace and well-being. May it be so for me and for all of you. Namaste.

 

[amalia]

Dobro, of course! As for me, you can do whatever you want with my "kisses to the word". As far as I know, this is an expression of mine; but I cannot assure you that nobody used it before me - who knows? Anyhow, maybe it sounded much too strange for a public forum, but yesterday I was very ill, and I did not control very well what I was writing... My excuses!

 

[dobro p]

Dobro, of course! As for me, you can do whatever you want with my "kisses to the word". As far as I know, this is an expression of mine; but I cannot assure you that nobody used it before me - who knows? Anyhow, maybe it sounded much too strange for a public forum, but yesterday I was very ill, and I did not control very well what I was writing... My excuses!

Thank you. I seldom borrow from other people, but I love 'kisses to the word'. Sometimes interesting things come through when we're sick.