Because every day we will be saying the surrender novena,  and we’ll be doing seven novenas. So, seven  novenas is 63 days. So every day we’ll be practicing four other spiritual disciplines to get us to  learn how to surrender our food and weight struggles to the Lord. And once we do that, we stop relying on our own strength, which is what we have all done our entire lives to solve this problem. Instead, let’s just do things his way. We’re going to turn it over to him so that we can see what’s possible when we turn over our food and weight struggles to the Lord.  So if you are not in on that challenge, don’t sweat it. We just start today. You can go to weightlosswithaholyspirit. com and you will see a little banner at the top that says 63 surrendered.

We’ll spend 63 days surrendering to the Lord. Isn’t that miraculous?  So exciting  and if you’re listening to this a little late, you can still join our challenge You’ll just maybe do a few extra days on the back end Okay, because  the truth is is that this challenge is really between you and the Lord anyway  Okay  so today Let’s talk about something that is so exciting  and it’s gonna sound a little cheesy to you And I’m gonna say it’s gonna sound cheesy to you because when I first heard this concept I was like that is so cheesy  and that is the concept of creating a future you of leveraging the power of visualization of creating a vision of your future  And before I knew this work, I would have thought that was so woo, and that nothing about my future mattered, I would be creating it in the choices that I made in the moment. 

And I’ll tell you, that can’t be farther from the truth.  You see,  When we start to leverage our future and we get a clear picture on what our future looks like, and I’m going to be taking you through an exercise in just a few minutes that I use for all of my clients and I use in our community,  we get an opportunity to tune into the Holy Spirit and allow Him to reveal to us the future that He has in store for us. 

It’s just so beautiful. I really believe that as women and as humans we co create with the Lord, but I believe that aside from  bringing life  Human life into this world through children,  co creating our future with the Lord is another way to cooperate and partner with Him. And in a sense, aren’t we also just bringing human life into the world? 

Because wherever you are now.  He can create newness in us. He can resurrect us. I recently went to a spiritual retreat where the speaker was saying that the Lord can create this rebirth and renewal every nanosecond of the day. And I just heard that. And I thought, yes, that’s a hundred percent true that he can always be  Restoring us.

He can always be refining us. Letting go of the things that we don’t need. Letting go of the things that are taking us farther from him, that are distracting us.  Because the truth is, gang, all he wants is to be fully united with us.  All he wants is for our complete dependence, full reliance.  All he wants is us.

All of us.  And all he wants is for us to turn to him for just one thing,  everything.  And I think it’s so powerful when we can say, Lord,  I want what you want for my future.  And for everything I’m scared that you might give me, help me to want that.  But especially when we look at our food and weight loss struggles, being able to pause and say, Lord, what do you want? 

And I’m going to lead you through an exercise that you can do in a real concrete way. Like I said, I lead all of the women in the Weight Loss with the Holy Spirit program through this exercise. I lead all of my clients through it and it gives them a clear vision or at least a snapshot of their future. 

And I can personally say that having this vision brings it to fruition when we can leverage it by visualizing it and practicing it.  I did this exercise for myself last year and I’m going to tell you I am living as the woman that the Lord revealed to me he wanted for me.  And then we can just keep tuning back into him and saying, yeah, what else, what else?

And we can do this exercise more than once. I recently had a woman in the weight loss with the Holy spirit community who it was her birthday and she was having a really rough day on her birthday, having lots of emotions, giving herself the permission to have a good cry. Talking with a friend so healthy, isn’t it?

She also gifted herself by doing this exercise again creating a new vision a new I’m becoming a woman who and that’s a title of a Document that’s created from this vision exercise. It’s called. I’m becoming a woman who and then And from what is revealed during this exercise,  in bullet points, write descriptions of the snapshot the Lord gave you. 

And so today I’ll lead you through that exercise. I’m going to share with you my vision that I have for myself that largely I feel has come to fruition. I also want to show, uh, read a couple of I’m Becoming a Woman Who examples, as well as some visualization exercises that I have personally given to clients.

Real life examples. Are you guys ready?  Okay, I want you to settle in I’m going to do exactly at the pace that I would do it if you and I were live together.  So you probably won’t have to pause this podcast and know that if you don’t have time to do the exercise or don’t want to do the exercise, just skip over it. And you can just hear the examples.  I used to be one of those people, and sometimes I still am, where I’m like, yeah, yeah, yeah, just give me the example, I’ll figure it out on my own, which is totally fine.

So just know that this will take about 10 minutes, and so just pop forward 10 minutes in this podcast if you don’t want to hear it.  Okay,  so this is where I invite you to get very comfortable. I’m going to be leading you through some breath work and  becoming  physically present to yourself and mentally present. And then I’ll be asking some questions when I’m asking those questions there just to help you paint the picture in your mind’s eye.  But I don’t want you to write anything down, nor do I want you to verbalize anything. 

There will be a time where I lead you through  answering those questions and the questions will also be  in the description of this podcast. So first, you’re just getting to a comfortable place. Ask yourself, how can I get more comfortable? Do I need a blanket?  Do I need a pillow? Once you get nice and comfy,  bring your attention to your breathing.  Don’t try to change it.  Just become aware of it. Notice any places that you’re holding tension and soften those areas. 

We’re going to do a body scan  starting with the top of your head,  noticing any places, three,  two, one. And now let’s do a body scan  starting at the top of your head. Releasing any tension that you feel in your eye sockets, in your face,  in your jaw, in your forehead, allowing any tension in your neck  to release, to float away.  Allow your shoulders to fall away from your ears,  your collarbones to lengthen and separate.  Allow your chest to relax, your abdomen to soften, bringing your attention to your right arm.  Allow it to be heavy, softening the elbow,  allowing your hand to rest, bringing your attention to your left arm, letting the weight of gravity pull it to the floor, softening the elbow,  And allowing your hand to rest wherever it is. 

And bringing your attention to your hips. Releasing any tension that you’re feeling. Allowing the right leg to feel heavy.  The right knee to be soft. The lower leg to be tension free. And your ankles and feet relaxed. Bringing your attention to your left leg. Letting your thighs be heavy, your knees soft, your lower leg and ankles,  and left foot totally relaxed. Your body is so heavy  that imagine that wherever you are sitting or lying,  that if you got up you would see an imprint  on your chair or couch. 

Bring your attention back to your breathing.  Don’t try to change it, just become aware of it. And one more brief body scan. Soften any areas that feel tight. And now begin to count your breaths.  Counting the inhales. One.  Two.  Three.  And the exhales. Again, not changing them, just becoming aware. And let’s invite the Holy Spirit in.  And start to ask Him to reveal to you.  You.  One year from now. 

Think of the time of year it is, one year from now.  And what the year is. Imagine you during that time.  Start to allow a picture. Snapshot.  To develop in your mind’s eye. Right now, you’re just allowing this picture  to be in your imagination.  We’ll capture it on paper later.  What do you look like? What are you wearing?  How’s your hair? Where are you? 

And who else is with you? If anyone, allow more details to be revealed in that image. Maybe what time of day it is, what the weather is like,  are you inside, outside, notice any other physical details about you. Now we’re going to step inside that woman that you’re envisioning. 

How does she feel? What is she thinking about? How does she talk to herself? How does she go through her day? How does she take care of her needs? Her physical needs,  her emotional needs, her spiritual needs. How does she eat?  What’s her relationship with food like?  What kind of foods does she eat? How does she move her body? Stepping back,  continuing to envision  what the Lord is revealing to you. What other details can you notice? 

Okay.  So slowly open your eyes  and let’s capture what it is  that was revealed to you. And this is where I encourage you to free write as many details as you can.  What you look like, what you’re wearing, what your hair is like,  where you are,  who’s with you, how you feel,  how you talk to yourself,  how you take care of your needs emotionally, spiritually, physically,  how you go about your day.  How you talk to yourself,  how you eat, what’s your relationship with your food,  how do you take care of and move your body, and any other details. Two other questions that are really helpful in this is to ask what will be different in your life when you’re living as this future person, this future version of you,  and what makes that important to you. 

So before I give you specific examples, I want to tell you how to leverage what you just learned.   Take this document that you have created and put it into bullet points. I’m becoming a woman who, and then put, um, a variety of the things that the Lord has revealed to you in statements.

And I want you to read that every single day.  And the other piece is that I want you to daydream about this future version of you, that image that the Lord just gave you. I want you to daydream about that woman  five minutes a day, whether it’s in your prayer time, asking the Lord to bring her to fruition, whether it’s when you’re driving,  folding laundry, but I want you to start daydreaming about her.

Now you could also use the word  visualizing her.  But I love that word daydreaming, it just sounds so fun and playful.  And the reason why it’s so important to visualize is because your brain doesn’t know if you’re actually doing something or if you’re visualizing it.  So it doesn’t know if you’re actually doing it, like you, that you’re living like her or you are her, or whether you’re just visualizing it.

And the reason that that is important is because brains are very good at one thing. Well, many things, but they’re very good at doing what is familiar to them.  And so if you can make this woman and the way she thinks and the things she does, if you can start to make that familiar to your brain, you’re creating new neural pathways where you will start to live as this woman  naturally. 

Which might seem like with very little effort.  So it’s one of the ways that you can just leverage daydreaming, leverage, visualizing, leveraging future you.  Isn’t it just amazing how the Lord made our brains?  I just think that’s so awesome.  So let me share with you my future me that I created about a year ago.

I should probably redo this. So that it’s a newer version.  Actually, probably once a year would be a good idea.  Okay. So I envision myself in joggers and a tank top in my kitchen, getting a cup of coffee or tea and ready for work. I’ve had my morning workout, shower, and I feel energized and ready to share God’s message. 

I feel this is the feeling part. I feel rusted, energetic, strong, calm, simple,  generous, and peaceful.  I don’t know how you can feel simple, but for some reason simple just feels clear and open.  I tune into my body. I’m well nourished physically, emotionally, and spiritually. 

So that’s sort of the image. I imagine myself in my kitchen and these joggers and tank top and I’ve got a cup of coffee. So that’s just the image that I saw. And then I’m becoming a woman who I’m becoming a woman who gives herself time to cultivate and experience my strength in all areas to be physically strong with rest, enjoyable exercise. 

Well, I’m well nourished and I experienced sunshine.  I’m spiritually strong. I’m fed with mass adoration,  learning about the gift of the divine. Well, I love it. It’s one of my favorite things that I’m learning about right now.  I’m physically, or I’m spiritually strong because I’m fed with, and I allow myself a luxurious amount of time with God.

And you guys, I do,  I  make sure I have at least  45 minutes to an hour of time just with the Lord and I prefer like 90 minutes and I am willing to wake up I will sacrifice sleep to do that  Because I just I just love it. I love it. I love it.  I’m emotionally strong and clear  I allow time alone with myself to clear my mind. I have lots of downtime. 

I’m dedicated to practicing mind management to maintain a peaceful mind.  I have time for important relationships and with myself. You guys, I really like being with myself. Can you tell  I’m becoming a woman who eats to energize myself when hungry? I know when I’ve had enough and I do not feel controlled by food. 

I’m becoming a woman who spends time connecting with God to know what he wants from me slash us that day.  I’m becoming a woman who spends my time on what’s life giving and not waste time or energy on worrying or second guessing myself.  I’m a woman who knows how to get what I really want.  And I can say that to you.

And that’s not selfish because I know what I really want is to be aligned with what the Lord wants.  I’m becoming a woman who’s fully surrendered to the Lord and takes steps to intentionally do what he wants.  Now, not all of these are a hundred percent yet.  I’m becoming a woman who is free from all earthly attachments. 

I wrote on here, caffeine, having a thin body,  turning to food for comfort,  other people’s approval.  These are attachments that I still have on some level.  I’m becoming a woman who feels energetic, light, agile, and strong.  and is stronger than her years. Like I just want to be able to be one of these women that is just like rock solid strong as I get older  and not have it be influenced by my age. I just think strength training is so important.  I’m becoming a woman who pursues activity and takes active breaks during sedentary times. 

And then I answered, what will be different?  I said, I will be more connected to myself and God. I will have less thoughts of, I should do this, I should do that.  I will be more clear. I will be totally free and more able to hear the Lord.  I will feel I’m fully doing what God wants and not being held back by anything.

People pleasing, should,  self neglect, food,  chasing pleasures.  And then I said, this is important to me because I want to fully live  free.  And I said, free from worry and chasing other people’s approval, free from needing or being attached to food,  free from poor health.  free from judgments about my body,  free from neglecting my desires to be strong, free from neglecting my desires to have fun and enjoy life. 

So that  image of me in the jogger. Like I just feel that so often I still have earthly attachments. I’m still working on those things,  but by knowing that I’m becoming that woman, it just keeps me focused on that.  Now I want to share some of the things that I’ve come up for some clients that I’ve worked with recently.  I’m becoming a woman who I can count on to follow through 

Who has complete control over food and chooses food that she enjoys that fuel her, fuels her body  I’m becoming a woman who has created a way of living that leads to maintaining a healthy weight  Who faces problems and tasks head on without procrastination, who gets work done early and plans time for leisure  Is active and spends more time outside  It’s totally confident that she knows and is doing God’s will  is encouraging and affirm and affirming and how she speaks to herself  does not use all or nothing statements. 

And for this particular client, I asked her to daydream about the image that the Lord gave her, which was about a summer scene.  It was an outdoor summer party where she.  She envisioned herself wearing a bathing suit, surrounded by her family and feeling very joyful.  See, these  visions can be very simple and we can just keep adding details, adding details. And I asked her that while she’s daydreaming to continue to ask herself, what am I feeling? What am I thinking? What am I feeling? What am I thinking?  And I want to give you one more example. 

This woman said, I’m becoming a woman who is energetic, joyful, and happy, is present, peaceful, and comfortable. I speak kindly too, and I encourage myself.  I’m becoming a woman who is not preoccupied by what others are thinking about her, is free to travel, be social and active with her adult kids instead of being held back by her body,  eats for fuel, enjoys what she eats, and is free from the mental chatter of food sheds. 

Is unhurried, rather than rushing to the next  checkbox, as she called it.  And becoming a woman who is efficient and focused on a task,  not distracted or overwhelmed by worry.  And becoming a woman who is lighthearted and smiles throughout her day.  Is organized yet flexible and can adjust when things happen differently than expected. Wakes up ready for the day rather than dread. And feels like the woman her husband married.  And I asked her to daydream about the image that the Lord gave her, which was about the scene he revealed to her in a mountain,  hiking with her husband, having lunch.  And I asked her to continue to ask herself  in that image when she’s daydreaming, how are you feeling? How are you thinking? What are you thinking? 

And I’ll give you one more example.  I’m becoming a woman who spends. More time being active and playing and less time sitting in a chair.  Feels happiness and joy. Is comfortable with where she’s at in life.  Is present in the moment. Enjoys evenings after work doing the things she wants to do.  Schedules downtime for herself to recharge in solitude. 

knows that she has a hundred percent control on how she spends her time and the decisions she makes.  It’s the food she enjoys and know when she’s had enough  speaks kindly to and encourages herself.  And the image of the Lord revealed to this woman is she had overcome  a significant near death experience and he revealed to her an image of being on a stage.

She wasn’t clear if it was a big stage or a little stage, but she was sharing his  might and his story of healing in her life.  So you guys can see  that when you are very clear on what the Lord has in store for you,  this food and weight loss struggle  becomes an opportunity.  It becomes a vehicle to get you closer to your future.  Now this vision  is a tool.  Do I think that you need to do this to lose weight? No.  Do I think that it’s really helpful? Absolutely. Does it help you with that commitment? Absolutely. And what’s so amazing is you guys all know how committed you feel during Lent. I often hear women say, I can do this or give up that during Lent.

Why can’t I do it at any other time? And I think it’s because we’re really clear on what we really want in that commitment. And part of that  is being clear on our vision.  Now, I’m not going to say this vision will help you if we’re not also going to plan and  try to make in the moment decisions, but I will say this vision has recently helped one of my clients where in the moment, she will be tempted to eat food not on the plan and what she says to herself is, yeah, I want that,  but I want this more.  And I thought that was so powerful that she’s starting to coach herself and recognize that, yeah, I do want to eat that ABCDEFG,  but I want this more.  And this vision is just that powerful for her.   So if you would like to surrender your food and weight struggles to the Lord and learn how to do this work, I invite you to join our challenge, 63 Surrendered, where we will be surrendering our food and weight struggles to the Lord by adhering to five  simple spiritual disciplines every single day for 63 days.

I’m going to tell you one of those spiritual disciplines is simply saying the surrender novena.  I know you guys can do it. Go to weightlosswithaholyspirit. com and check it out.  You won’t regret it. Have a blessed day.