Are Obese Women An Embarrassment to Their Families?
Posted: Saturday, May 02, 2009
by Pat Matson
The World of Within
Obese women have been criticized for many decades for being out of control. Their husbands don't want to listen to their woes any more. Their families are convinced they don't try hard enough. Their kids are embarrassed by their mom's appearance. Society in general views them as some kind of mental cases who are simply undisciplined. And the women themselves? They are hard pressed where to turn for a solution.
I've lived my entire life under the curse of obesity. When I was an infant and a toddler, I was called Patty Fatty. I thought it meant that I was fat. One day, I was looking at pictures in our family album, and I mentioned to my mother that I was not fat then. She said, "Oh, no, you were never fat as a youngster." I said "Well then, why did you call me Patty Fatty?" And my darling mother said "Because it rhymed!" This was the beginning of my so-called mental case. I cannot remember a time in my life when I did not think that I was fat thanks to my rhyming nickname.
When I was six years old, we moved to another city in Pennsylvania. My dad's sister Ida lived there. "You look like Aunt Ida, Patty." My Aunt Ida was a fat woman. I thought they meant I looked fat like her. After all, I was Patty Fatty, right? No, what they meant was that I had the same facial features as she did. This is two for two folks, and Little Patty was going down for the count.
My body during these times was not a fat body. It was a tall body. I was always among the last girls in line during grade school when we had to line up by height. But because I had this concept of being Patty Fatty and looking fat like Aunt Ida, when they said "You're a big girl," did I think they meant I was tall? No. I thought they meant I was fat.
I am so grateful I've had the challenge of being obese. Obesity has been the very source of my salvation and I am gratitude itself first, to this condition, and secondly, to the fact that I've worked like the devil to figure out why I was thus cursed. Because of my assiduous work, I found the truths of life itself and it's left me 'gratitude itself.'
During the course of my working to discover, I tried many solutions. Naturally, there was dieting, exercise, acupuncture, fasting, upper colonics, hypnotherapy, regular therapy, spas, wraps, Weight Watchers, Overeater's Anonymous, Adkins, and personal trainers and dieticians. I don't want to strain my brain to tell you about all the attempts. Beginning in my twenties until now, I've spent 45 years trying one thing or another. My sister once told me that her mother-in-law hated me because I could not stick with a diet. Hated me? Hated? Good heavens!
I've always had a deep spiritual nature. I went away to Prep School at age 14 to prepare to become a nun. I actually became one six years later. I am drawn to things of the soul and of God. I think that my spiritual nature and the obesity were the two key motivators that led me to my self-discovery and the truth.
I discovered that life is mental. I found out that life is good and so am I (and so are you.) I learned that life is individual and that P. J. Quimby was right when he stated "If it's going to be, it's up to me." I know that I probably am a mental case in the kindest most true sense of the word. I know that I am a thinking being and that this life I am living is a mental experience, contrary to many of the things I was taught as a child. I know that when I was born, goodness was the substance of my nature. Inside me, I am golden. I know that arriving here as an individual and leaving here as an individual are the alpha and omega of my life. And in the middle is me, an individual.
I am an obese woman who is grateful for my discoveries. What I've said here is the topmost tip of what is showing of the iceberg called my life. I hope that you will have discoveries in your life that make you give up on feeling out of control, embarrassed, seen as undisciplined, or that you are some kind of a mental case. You aren't at all. I want you to be very grateful you "suffer" from obesity. It might be the greatest gift you've been given. It surely was for me.
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Pat Matson is the Wise Weight Woman who uses spiritual principles to help women overcome their struggles with body image. If you'd like more tips to help you achieve self-acceptance, get her free report, You Are Good and Perfect Right Now and I Can Prove It! at http://www.theworldofwithin.com
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