I read The War of Art recently in which Steven Pressfield talks a lot about resistance. “We experience Resistance as fear,” he says. Pressfield mentions the various types of fears we have and says the “Mother of all Fears” is the fear that we will succeed.

That reminds me of Marianne Williamson’s famous quote: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talent, fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be? . . . Your playing small does not serve the world.”

Near the end of The War of Art, Pressfield says: “Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.”

Carly Pollack talks about resistance in her book, Feed Your Soul, which I also read recently (New World Library, 2019). She says: “I am happiest when I am writing. It is my most creative outlet. Do you know what I do right before I sit down and write? Anything and everything possible, just so I don’t have to start.”

Carly mentions various things she does instead (some of us suddenly have a need to do laundry or organize a closet) and “finally, when there is nothing left for me to do, I’ll sit down and start writing. About ten seconds in, I start feeling fantastic. The whole morning I carry around the weight of procrastination, and the second I start writing I feel like a million bucks.”

“I’m sure you meet resistance when it is time to do all the things you need to do to live your best possible life,” Carly says. She believes it’s because “we have false stories about how things make us feel.” The sub-title of Feed Your Soul is Nutritional Wisdom to Lose Weight Permanently and Live Fulfilled.

Yes, I just read another book about weight loss (but not about dieting!). Following some fairly sedentary time after surgery on my shin, I gained weight and treated myself continually for surviving radiation and surgery. Why not think of the treat as doing something really healthy for myself, I’m now asking myself. As Carly says, feeling free to eat fries for breakfast (no, I didn’t do that!) creates a “body prison” as you inevitably live in a body that doesn’t make you feel good. The “more enlightened level of food freedom “is to “eat foods that respect the body’s communication . . . and therefore we begin to feel free in our bodies and our experiences.”

How did Carly get herself to sit down and write her book? “As soon as I woke up, I told myself the stories I need to hear. I told myself how much I love writing and how accomplished I feel, and I imagined how many people this book will help. I attached even more pleasure by making myself a fun little writing setup, playing music, lighting a candle, placing energy-increasing crystals all around myself like an altar, sitting outside and writing while my cats play and I watch the leaves falling from the tree. I set myself goals that feel really pleasurable to achieve, and I cheerleaded myself the whole way through.”

I’m definitely one who believes in a ceremony around writing. Carly attaches the same formula, noted above, to everything regarding her health. She makes workouts fun as well as cooking and cleaning up.

The book includes writing exercises at the end of each chapter. Carly calls it the “Make It Stick” section. Following the section on “The Resistance,” Carly suggests journaling “about three things you need to be doing right now to achieve your vision of optimal health (but have been inconsistent with.) There’s an exercise for exploring the short-term pain of doing something (cooking for her, walking for me), the long-term pleasure of doing it, the long-term pain of not doing it, the short-term pleasure of not doing it.

There is literally some “pain” for me in walking but there are many benefits to not remaining sedentary at the computer . Once I get going I really love walking and it’s actually the best exercise for my newly configured shin.

Carly Pollack is the founder of Nutritional Wisdom, a private practice based in Austin, Texas. She’s a certified clinical nutritionist with a master’s degree in holistic nutrition. In her introduction to Feed Your Soul, Carly says: “I thought I should lose weight to be happy, and for the first time I realized that perhaps I had it completely wrong. Maybe I needed to work on getting happy so that I could finally lose the weight.”

As Carly says, “In fact, I will clear up nutrition for you in about ten minutes, because it really is that simple. The real work will be done inside you, not on your plate. It will be done by looking at your path to health and happiness as something with deeper meaning.”

Carly believes we’re stuck in old stories when we go on diets. We may follow the rules of counting calories or points because we “have to, not because we want to.” She says: “When you feel bad, change your thoughts to improve your emotional state. You will naturally start craving healthier foods.” Easier said than done, she knows, but it’s a good idea to tune into one’s thoughts throughout the day.

In the “Make It Stick” section at the end of Chapter One, “It’s All in Your Head,” Carly says: “Journal about one of your negative food behaviors. What story, and emotion, drives this behavior? Rewrite the story.”

I believe writing to be one of the wellness arts so to write about one’s relationship with food is a healthy habit. You can release fears, gain insight and feel more grounded as you express yourself on paper. Carly suggests keeping a food journal for a week to see if you can “connect your symptoms, emotions, and the consequences of those emotions to what you are eating.”

Chapter 2 is entitled “Don’t Give Up What You Want Most for What you Want Right Now.” It’s a good motto to think about.

“To be successful, you must remain focused on the outcome,” Carly says. That’s a tricky one to get my head around as I’m so about the process. When I say “process,” I mean the daily writing I do in a journal to express gratitude, record my dreams, and at the end of the day reflect on what transpired. Or in the circle where we write together following an invitation or suggestion. We write poems and the beginning of prose pieces, not knowing where they are going. There’s no attachment to outcome.

These days though, I’m putting together a memoir of prose and poetry called “Modern Words for Beauty”. I’m enjoying seeing how things fit together into the shape of my life as my partner may say. I’m appreciating the editing “process” as I go into essays I haven’t seen in awhile. I think about a goal, a collection that could include photos and collages. Yes, I do have a focus on the outcome.

Perhaps this book, Feed Your Soul, about nutritional wisdom is getting me in touch with the “outcome” of a project I’d really love to complete. And every time I want to check Facebook or email, I ought to think about not giving up what I want most.

As for food, I like healthy stuff like salads and feel better after eating them. When it comes to what I call a “treat,” that’s when the “comfort” of the moment needs to be thought about. Is it a treat or is masking something? What would I be giving up for what I want most?

“My body is going to be a physical reflection of how much I love and support myself,” Carly says. Now there’s a mantra to live up to and it doesn’t begin when you’re in better shape. “Loving and accepting where you are is the only way to create change.”

Her morning ritual includes picturing the way she wants to eat and the choices she wants to make “I imagine myself going through the day with a calm inner sense of being.”

Carly says: “I promise you that by taking the time to connect with yourself each day, you are exponentially strengthening your intuitive voice. . . Self-care is ultimately what allows you to lose weight and keep it off. Without it, all you have is a diet.”

This book is different because as Carly says: “The ability to manifest your vision for ultimate health and happiness is one of the most overlooked tools in creating permanent change. Most of us stopped using our imaginations a long time ago and have become ignorant to the power that lies within us, the power to shape our reality.”

“The single most powerful mental thing you can do is to train your mind to immediately focus on the desired outcome rather than on the process,” Carly says.

Feed Your Soul, has me thinking more of the big picture. That’s not always going to be the case when it comes to writing because I don’t often know where it’s going or if it’s going anywhere. For those stories I’d like to share though, as Carly did with the wisdom in her book, keeping an eye on the outcome has very positive effects. And I’ll have fun in the process!

To learn more about Carly Pollock, here’s a link to her website: www.carlypollack.com.