I experienced trauma as a child and as a result, I learned that my world was not safe.

I learned to be hypervigilant and that I had few options open to me.  I was either going to Freeze or Flee.  Sometimes I fought, but I rarely achieved the desired result, so I gave up on that fairly quickly.

I did, however, learn to create “workarounds”.  I would simply find a different way to get what I needed.  But it did not leave me feeling very good because what I REALLY wanted was to speak up and BE HEARD!!!

And then I discovered that I had OPTIONS.  What a novel idea!

I discovered that I could create MORE options through the way I thought.

For example, say I want to lose weight.  And I do.  Because I have Type 2 Diabetes and losing weight is a good idea 😊

The goal is to lose weight:

Option 1 – Starve yourself – UGH.  Or count calories – even more UGH!!!

Option 2 – Continue on as before…

• OK.  If that is so, it may be that I can also look at losing INCHES – Option 3.
• I can look at getting some support and not doing it alone – Option 4. 
• I can look at this as a choice I am making for better health – Option 5.

And then I began to see that there were MORE options I could consider. 

WHY did I want to lose weight?

Because I need to decrease my stomach size as this is an indication of fat around the liver.

And as the options pile up, I can choose several that fit my lifestyle, my personality, my hopes, and above all, my waistline 😊

So that is exactly what I did!

I turned my back on REACTING to things (most of the time) and focused on RESPONDING with OPTIONS. 

If I can do it, I know you can too 😊