How to lose weight naturally and permanently without exercising and dieting: the first natural way

To understand why we can lose weight through consciously observing our mind, we must recognize how our mind regularly causes us to overeat. Many of us have unconsciously adopted the prevailing belief that we are our mind. The mind is an ingenious tool but not a wise master for us. Like everything that exists, it has its own shadow. The memories and habits of the mind help us navigate and react quickly in our daily living, but they also bring troubles to us when being blindly followed. For example, the first time we feel lonely, our mind finds relief through indulging in our favorite foods. Later, it remembers such short-lived comfort and copes with our daily stress through eating. Soon after, it is conditioned to get through challenging times by overindulging in foods. Since we think we are our mind, we eat for its coping strategy and conditioning. In other words, our regular overeating has nothing to do with our body’s needs but with our identification with the overeating habit of the mind. Why shouldn’t we identify with our mind? This is because, in reality, we are not our mind. It is our own experience that we are aware of everything including thoughts and emotions and also aware that we are aware. We know without any doubt that our awareness is here prior, in between, and after the appearing and disappearing of thoughts and emotions. And it is evident that thoughts, emotions, and external life events come and go, but our awareness of them remains unchanging. Since our awareness is ever present, it is accurate to say that we are not the thoughts and emotions of the mind but the awareness that is aware of them. One of the natural ways to be free from the control of the mind is to consciously observe it. It means that we not only observe our mind but, more importantly, know we are the observer of it. Consequently, we are free from it, because without the separation we wouldn’t be able to observe it, and because when we know we are the observer, we know we are not the observed. In addition, the action of observing instantly brings us to the present moment, spontaneously out of the habits of the mind. To transcend our overeating urge, we need no effort but to become knowingly aware of it without thinking about it. The moment we know we are observing this seemingly irresistible urge of the mind, we free ourselves from it. Otherwise, we would have become it, devouring all and moving on to the mind’s habitual post-gorge shame and depression. In the instant we shift our attention to our own awareness – the observer, the mind loses its control over us, for it only affects us when we unconsciously identify with it, mistaking it as ourselves and believing we have to follow our urge. When we become conscious that a familiar overindulging thought arises in our awareness, we know we have a choice to take it or let it pass, simply by recognizing its value or irrelevance for that moment. For example, at a party, you enjoy many delicious foods and feel that you are very full. Suddenly you hear a voice in your head telling you that you can have more because you will exercise more tomorrow. If you unknowingly identify with your mind and believe this is your voice, you will go for more. If you are aware that this is the conditioned thought that has popped up many times under similar situations, you then have a choice to either use it or ignore it. Often you will not follow the voice, for it has lost its cajoling power over you when you know you are not it. I remember, a few years ago, one night I felt heartburn before bedtime, so I ate some bread. I continued my middle night snack for a few weeks even after I no longer had heartburn, simply because I followed a reoccurring thought that it was about time to have some bread I liked. This conditioning of the mind was disidentified the day I suddenly became aware that I was following the habit of the mind but not the necessity of the moment.