The Model
Beginner’s Mind - If you are like almost all of our other clients, you have probably tried to lose weight dozens of times before. Perhaps you set a New Year’s Resolution every year to drop 25 pounds. Or, you’ve tried all the diets. Atkins, Keto, Paleo, Weightwatchers - if it’s out there, you’ve tried it. So, you might think that you already know what you need to know to be successful.
But, here’s the thing. Those other approaches did not work because they did not tackle the real challenge - which is your primitive brain. So, I am going to ask you to put aside everything that (you think) you have learned before and approach the master class with a beginner’s mind. You are a teacher. You are used to being the one with all the answers. As you jump into the Masterclass program, I want you to approach the content as if it is all brand new to you. Be open to hearing what I am going to teach you for the first time. I vividly remember in grade 9 when my math teacher taught me about negative numbers for the first time. It was in awe that there was an entire other set of numbers that I had not known about before. Can you think of a time when you learned and processed something entirely new? Let’s approach this learning together in the same way - with a beginner’s mind. Today, you are the student and it is my honour be be your teacher on this journey to meeting your weight loss goals.
The Model - So, in most weight loss programs, you start by learning something about calories. There are lots of variations but generally, it’s all about calories in and calories out. These programs are all about changing the way you fuel your body.
The Weight Loss Masterclass program is all about how you fuel your mind! So, in this first lesson I am going to share with you the greatest secret that I have ever learned. It is the model of an unsupervised brain and a supervised brain. When I first learned about this, it was similar to that experience in Mr. Graves’ math class when I learned about integers. But, add to that experience the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Fireworks! It was that powerful and life changing for me. I’ve had some great teachers over the years - Michael Singer, Tony Robbins, Byron Katie, Brook Castillo, Jen Sincero, Jack Canfield, Eckart Tolle, and Stephen Covey to name a few authors who have guided me. And, through my psychology background, I have long been a student of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy upon which the model is based. But, it was not until I was recovering from a brain injury in 2018 that I really had time to process and digest everything that I have learned over the past 20 years. And, then I found the weight loss teachings of Life Coach School and I knew that I was figuring out what really makes us tick. And, honestly, it’s just math. And, it is the answer to helping you achieve all your goals.
Sounds too good to be true? It isn’t. But knowing something and applying something are two different things. So, in the Weight Loss Masterclass for Teachers program, I’ll be doing a deep dive into this life equation. And, we are going to work together to study it and apply it and change your life.
Every situation or challenge you encounter in your life can be broken down into 5 inter-related components. If you have ever studied Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, this will be somewhat familiar to you.
Circumstance: Facts of the situation. Everyone agrees.
Thoughts: What you make it mean. The story you tell yourself.
Feeling: What your thoughts make you feel.
Actions: Behaviours driven by your feelings.
Results: The outcomes in your life.
Let’s work through an example. Let’s say that at the end of lunch hour, your Principal asked you to pop by the office after school. You run through your mind all the interactions you had over the past few days to try to figure out what might be the problem. You feel anxious every time you think about the pending meeting all through the afternoon. You had a top-notch, interactive novel study lesson prepared for your students - but you did not have the energy to actually put into it, so instead you passed out a worksheet and gave them quiet time to work on it. During the afternoon recess, you stayed in your classroom and snacked on some cookies that were in the bottom drawer of your desk and texted your partner to let him know that you were going to be late getting home because you had a meeting with the Principal that you were worried about.
So, let’s examine this situation in the model:
Unsupervised Mind
Circumstance - This has to be something that everyone in the world would believe is true. No evaluation, no judgment and no description. It’s entirely neutral. This component can trick you because often people put a thought in the C line. It’s not correct to say, “Principal is getting me in trouble” or “I am going to get reamed out by my boss.” In this situation, the C is “Principal asked me to stop by her office after school.”
Thought - You have lots of thoughts about this. We have 60,000 thoughts that run through our minds every day. You know what it’s like when the recess bell rings and the students pour out of the doors of the school into chaotic mayhem on the yard. Well, this is exactly what your brain does ALL DAY. But, there’s no yard duty supervisor. And, there’s no bell to ring to reign it in. Random, unsupervised thoughts run rampant through your brain all day.
For the equation, you will just pick one of the sentences that runs through your brain about the circumstance. Let’s go with the thought, “I wonder what I did wrong.”
Feeling - This thought makes you feel anxious.
Action - Your actions in the afternoon are a direct result of the thought, ‘something must be wrong’ and feeling anxious.
You change your lesson plan for the afternoon.
You avoided the staff room during break.
You snacked on cookies.
You interrupted your partner’s work day to text him about your concerns.
Result - The result that you generated by your thoughts is that you did a poor job teaching all afternoon.
Now let’s talk about what happens if you know how to supervise your mind and how you can use the equation to do so.
Supervised Mind
Circumstance - The C will stay the same, so “Principal asks me to stop by the office after school.”
Thought - As noted in the “unsupervised mind’s” equation above, we have 60, 000 thoughts each day. And, the reality is that no one thought is more or less true than another thought. But, the other reality is that our brains are primed to focus on the negative thoughts. That’s what keeps us always on the look out for danger. Our primitive brains are still trying to keep us safely in our caves, out of harms way. But, we no longer live in caves and we are not facing dangers every minute of every day, even if our primitive brains have not yet evolved to understand this!
For this equation, maybe one of the thoughts that you have is “I have no idea what my Principal might like to talk about, but I’m sure I can help her out. “
Feeling - When you focus on this thought, instead of feeling anxious, you would feel helpful.
Action - Your actions in the afternoon are a direct result of the thought “I am sure that I can help her out” and feeling helpful.
You teach class as planned, and inspire you students with an engaging novel study.
You join colleagues for lighthearted recess break.
You send your partner a sweet text.
Result - You are helpful to others and yourself.
Do you see what we just did there? Unraveling your thought patterns and beliefs ultimately result in different actions that will change your life. (For those who want to understand the neurology - you might think of this as rewiring your neuronal processes.)
But, like any life changing activity - it won’t be easy. If you think supervising a few hundred kids at recess time is tough, imagine supervising 60,000 thoughts running through your brain.
In the Weight Loss Masterclass for Teachers, we are going to dive much deeper into all of this. We’ll study it, practice it, and apply it to all areas of your life so you can meet your goals.