Rita Black: In this episode of the Thin Thinking Podcast, we dive deep into the emotional journey of aging, particularly how it affects our relationship with our bodies. As I approach my 60th birthday, I have been reflecting on what it means to embrace the changes that come with age. Many of us grapple with the loss of our youthful bodies, feeling a sense of grief for the ideals we once held. But this isn't just about lamenting what's lost, it's about reclaiming our power and shifting our perspective. Together we are going to explore how to forgive ourselves for the years spent in self-doubt and learn to celebrate the wisdom and strength that come with age and our amazing bodies. This conversation is an invitation to transform regret into acceptance and to see our aging body not as a source of shame, but as a testament to the lives we've lived and the wisdom we've gained. So grab your best friend, that body of yours, and come on in.

Rita Black: Did you know that our struggle with weight doesn't start with the food on your plate or get fixed in the gym? 80% of our weight struggle is mental. That's right. The key to unlocking long-term weight release and management begins in your mind. Hi there, I'm Rita Black. I'm a clinical hypnotherapist weight loss expert, bestselling author, and the creator of the Shift Weight Mastery Process. And not only have I helped thousands of people over the past 20 years achieve long-term weight mastery, I am also a former weight struggler, carb addict and binge eater. And after two decades of failed diets and fad weight loss programs, I lost 40 pounds with the help of hypnosis. Not only did I release all that weight, I have kept it off for 25 years. Enter the Thin Thinking Podcast where you too will learn how to remove the mental roadblocks that keep you struggling. I'll give you the thin thinking tools, skills and insights to help you develop the mindset you need, not only to achieve your ideal weight, but to stay there long term and live your best life.

Rita Black: Hello friends. Come on in and welcome, as you probably know, because I've been saying it now every week, I am turning 60. Soon you're probably thinking, oh God, Rita, yes, we all know, just get on with it. Well, I'm turning 60 on September 10th and it's just a few weeks away and I'm pretty excited. I've been thinking about aging all year and all that it means. So I have been focusing on it a bit these last couple of episodes because no matter where you are in life, you are probably doing some thinking about aging as well.

Rita Black: So today I wanna take on the topic of owning our aging body. Loving our body and dare I say, thriving in our aging body. And I wanted to give a shout out to my membership community members, Kerry Shep and Annette Geln for bringing up the idea and asking for some focus on this. Especially for anyone who has struggled with weight during their lives. Our aging body has additional meaning. Things like grieving the body that we had in our youth, the years or the time lost, thinking about that we were too fat. You know? What clients mention things to me like I look in the mirror and I wonder who that old lady is. There are regrets about not appreciating our bodies when they were younger, even though we may have been overweight, really just didn't give them the love they deserved. I know I'm guilty of that as well. Or we wasted time or opportunities that we didn't take because we were ashamed of our body and wait and now regret the roads not taken.

Rita Black: Or we may have regret because we didn't take care of ourselves and now we are aging and we might be struggling more. So there's a lot of self blame. So my friends, we wanna turn this all around because we can, right? We can shift our minds and see the aging process as something powerful and positive and life affirming and learn to love and value our aging body rather than it be shameful or full of regret and despair.

Rita Black: Now making that shift is a process and I am going to start to take you through this process here today. But before I do, I wanted to let you also know that after thinking about how I wanted to celebrate my 60th, which was a hard decision, I mean, gosh, there's so many decisions. Did I wanna go away, do a nice trip or have a big party or something dazzle?

Rita Black: So I decided after much thought, really what I wanted to do was make a difference with an organization I fully believe in and I have contributed to for years called My Friend's Place here in Los Angeles. Their mission is to provide shelter and support to homeless youth, runaways, kids escaping, trafficking, emotionally and physically abusive homes and just kids out of the foster care system who are the highest risk for drug addiction, trafficking and homelessness. Heather Carmichael founded this organization and I know her personally and she is the real deal and she works so hard day and night 24/7 to put every penny to use for the kids. They've had kids go to college, become doctors and lawyers. I mean these kids get transformed and they provide a refuge and support to so many kids that the system basically ignores and they are fully committed to changing the lives of these young adults who've gone through a lot of trauma and neglect. So this is what I decided to do. I am putting today's coaching session plus a special hypnosis session created only for this occasion and I'm calling it the Joy of Aging, cultivating love for your Aging Body. And I'm putting these sessions together into an online product that you can access through an app that will be have a special app just for this product or on your desktop through like an online course portal or your tablet. It will be really easy to access and just listen to the sessions and you will get them for free. If you donate $15 or more to My Friend's Place, the link to donate is in the show notes. To make things easy, you just check out as you would a normal product and all the money made is going to go to My Friend's Place. Now if you would like to donate a large amount meaning $50 or more, which would be amazing, and receive a receipt for a tax deduction, I will provide the link directly to My Friend's Place on their website.

Rita Black: And then what you can do is email me your proof of donation and then we will get you the Joy of Aging Coaching and Hypnosis for free. So there's two ways to do it. You can just go on and make your $15 or more donation and if you wanted a tax deduction receipt you can donate straight to the website, then you can return to us your donation proof of donation and we will get you your product. So no pressure, but I wanted to give you a little love for making a difference to this organization cause I know that we all can believe in my goal is actually to raise $6,000 for them for my 60th birthday, just to have that synchronicity of numbers. And they are currently trying to expand their building space to offer more support to more kids. That will be a happy birthday to help out some kids who aren't as fortunate and to give them some power and make a difference in their lives out in the world. So thank you for considering. I appreciate you and our thin thinking community.

Rita Black: Now let's get started with our coaching session. So welcome everyone to our coaching session called The Joy of Aging, Cultivating Love for your Changing Body. In the session, we are going to dive into a topic that touches many of us deeply, our relationship with our bodies as we age. This session is a space for us to explore, reflect, and ultimately cultivate a sense of love and acceptance for our bodies now and into the future. So let's start with a few quotes. There is a fountain of youth. It is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life in the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap the source, you'll truly have defeated age. And that's by Ms. Sophia Loren. You don't stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing. George Bernard Shaw. Life's tragedy is that we get too old soon and wise too late Benjamin Franklin wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been. Mark Twain.

Rita Black: A study by Hoffmeyer in 2016 surveyed 1,849 women over the age of 50 in the United States examining their experiences with body image, health and aging. The findings were revealing. Many women expressed feelings of shame about their aging bodies. The shame often stemmed from societal pressures and expectations that place an unrealistic emphasis on youth and beauty. However, what was even more striking is that some women reported feeling a second layer of shame, shame for feeling ashamed in the first place. I know it's crazy, but it's true and I can totally relate. And this double burden can be heavy to carry. It's easy to see how these feelings might affect our self-esteem, our wellbeing and our ability to truly appreciate the things our bodies do for us everyday. And to add into the mix, if we have struggled with our weight in our lives, we have the added shame and regret for the body we never had in our youth or not enjoying our youthful in-shape body enough or the regret of having caused more issues for ourselves because of our weight as we aged.

Rita Black: A negative relationship with our aging body can lead to various emotional, psychological and physical side effects. It can lead us to withdrawing from life and not pursuing the things that we love. It can keep us from intimacy or create tension because we don't feel desirable or worthy. And so my friends, this simply will not do. We want to bring all that has been pushed down into the darkness around our aging body, into the light and shift our perceptions and open a new door to our relationship with our beautiful body into one that we can embrace ourselves and our body as we are right now. Treat our body with compassion and kindness and give it the healthy food and exercise that's gonna help it thrive and feel good for the many fulfilling years ahead. So how do we begin this? I would like to walk you through the RAIN technique.

Rita Black: The RAIN technique is a mindfulness practice designed to help individuals recognize, accept and work through difficult emotions. And accepting and owning and loving our body again is emotional. There is so much in there. The RAIN technique is a simple powerful tool for increasing self-awareness and self-compassion. And that is what we need to up level our relationship with our body as we age. The acronym RAIN stands for Recognize, Acknowledge, Investigate, and Nurture. And if you're a student of mind, you probably are aware of this technique that was brought into popular use by psychologist Tara Brock. We use it quite often in dealing with emotions and other things. I am also going to guide you through a meditation with a vision for healthy and powerful future at the end of our session. So let's first recognize, recognize that we are aging, that we are getting older. I don't know about you but I'm going to have to take a deep breath on this one.

Rita Black: It's one thing to kind of intellectually think about that, but to really own it and recognize it as something else. So I'm gonna take a deep breath. Why don't you join me? Okay. I am owning it. Thanks for doing that with me. Okay, so we are accepting where we are right now at the age that we are at right now. And that can be tough. Our culture is quick to get into denial about aging. We have a lot of ways that we hack youth nowadays and I have nothing against any of those things, but if they make us deny or fear being where we truly are right here and owning it, that is where I see the problem settling in. There is a difference between trying to stay young and clinging to it and owning the full adult we are at the age that we're at and taking care of ourselves and being the best version of ourselves.

Rita Black: Can you see how one is giving our power away to youth? And the other is taking radical ownership of ourselves in the present and deciding to love and accept ourselves as we are in this moment in time and give our body the best care that we can to keep it healthy and vibrant and give ourselves and our body the best odds to stay in optimal shape for the longest amount of time. I honestly feel healthier now being in my body than I did when I was struggling with my weight way healthier. But I also acknowledge that I am older and my body needs more care and it doesn't bounce back as fast. And that is hard to accept. But the more I work on accepting my osteoporosis, my crepey skin on my arms, the sags that weren't there last year, and my breasts that seem to be racing each other towards my belly button.

Rita Black: The more I am at ease with all of this aging process and can befriend it rather than be horrified by it, I really am aging. It's here, it's happening and it's going to continue to happen. No cream or surgery or supplement can stop that. There is no turning back the clock. But there is recognition this is happening. And then owning all of the feelings that come with it, it kind of reminds me when I turned 10 back in 1974, I had a lot of feelings in the beginning and I was super pumped to turn 10. I was so excited. I drove everybody crazy in my family. I just wanted to be grown up. I wanted to be two digits instead of one. I just remember that so clearly. I would tease my younger sister. I'm gonna be two digits and you're only still gonna be one.

Rita Black: Nina, Nina, Nina. So my actual 10th birthday was amazing and I wore my favorite Hawaiian dress that I had sewed myself to school. I had never been to Hawaii but that was, I don't know if you remember in the seventies, but the moon moves were really in. And my dad was so sweet I had made such a big deal about turning 10. He bought me a little risk corsage and I remember going out there was this restaurant or still is actually it's very famous Iver's salmon house for dinner. That's a big Seattle. And it was a big deal because my family never ate out. And then when we got home we had cherry chip cake with frosting and the, it was the best of course. And of course I way overate it as I did with every single birthday cake I had in those days.

Rita Black: So the interesting thing though, and why I'm telling you this story is that night I went to bed and something changed and all that joy that I had felt earlier in the day and the weeks before turned into terrifying fear. I couldn't sleep for the first time in my life, I felt panicky. I was probably having a panic attack. I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that way was never ever going to be a single digit ever again. And the finality of that really awoke within me, this existential angst and it just began to bubble up inside. I realized as I was laying there in bed for the first time that my parents were going to die someday and that I was gonna die too and I couldn't turn back the clock and that I was never gonna be a baby again. I was never going to be a toddler again.

Rita Black: And it was just so overwhelming for me and I was frightened and I was, I all these feelings were coming up in me and I went downstairs to my parents' bedroom and I was crying and hyperventilating and they were so sweet and they consoled me and they let me sleep between them. And I remember wrapping my arms around my mom and I was feeling her heartbeat. And it was so comforting to know that she was there and that she was real and that in that moment I could be okay and I could be safe. In the moment of being 10, it's a real wake up call to own where we are in the aging process right here, right now. We spend so much of our life in a trance. Just being with that, being awake to that. So I am calling on you now with this opportunity.

Rita Black: We can feel our own heart beating here in the moment and we can feel safe and we can be brave for a moment and recognize where we are. So wherever you are in your aging journey from 10 to 100, wherever you are is now. And it's real and it's singular to you. And to me. When we can be planted in ourselves, in our current age and in our aging body, wherever it is on its journey of life, we can own it and thrive. Before we can own and love our aging body, we want to move through all the feelings and beliefs that we have pushed down into the darkness about it, what it means to be this age and for our body to be wherever it's at. And once we can own it, we can all stand in the whole truth and celebrate it rather than shame it.

Rita Black: So let's take the first step and recognize that we are truly here now in our body, that age that we are in and not the stories we say to ourselves or others like I am old or I feel like I'm 30, but just be in yourself for all you are and own your age. I'm 59 going on 60 years, 60 times around the sun. This is me, this is where I am, this is now. And even though I feel like I'm in my thirties or forties, I am 60. So where are you? What are you claiming as your space today? Maybe you are in your seventies or your fifties or your eighties or your forties or your nineties or over 100. Good for you. I want your playbook. Where are you? What are you claiming as your space today? Wherever you are, take a deep breath in and recognize you are here. It is neither good or bad, it just is. And that will probably bring up some emotions. And if so good, notice them. We will be working with them in the next step. For the moment, take a deep breath in and close your eyes and just be here in your skin. Feel the boundaries of your body held together by your amazing birthday suit of skin that has been with you all these years.

Rita Black: Acknowledge your breath and lungs. They haven't let you down. Acknowledge your heart eating. Just notice a beating. And now just say to yourself three times out loud or inside your own mind, I am whatever age that you are now, the first time it will feel shallow. The second time it will land a little deeper. And the third time, just allow it to come home to roost deep inside you. And to help you out, just put your hands both over your heart and repeat. I'm gonna say it inside my own mind. I am 60 years old three times. So I'm gonna give you some space to do that now for you. Go ahead and go, go ahead. Notice any emotions. There might be many different ones that are coming up or none at all. Just keep noticing. If they do, take a nice deep breath in, bring it all in. And another nice deep breath in, really bringing it all in good recognizing where you are taking ownership, staying with that wonderful and you can open your eyes. Well done. So we are all here now in our age that we are at. Fantastic. Let's move on to acknowledge.

Rita Black: And acknowledge all the emotions coming up and make room for them. We aren't minimizing them or pushing them down. We are giving space to all the emotions around being this age and having our body be where it is in its aging process. And create a space in your heart for every single one of those emotions. Allow these feelings and thoughts to be present without trying to change them. Instead of resisting or pushing away these feelings, give yourself permission to experience them. You might say to yourself, it's okay to feel this way. I like to name all the feelings and there might be way more than a few and some are more nuanced and subtle than others. And I invite you to imagine opening up your heart 20 times the size it is now to allow for all the emotions to live within you and have a space.

Rita Black: Think of I like to think of the Grinch who stole Christmas. I don't know if you ever saw that cartoon back in the day and how when he finally you know, accepted Christmas into his heart, his heart grew bigger than the little box that was in and it kind of exploded his chest. We don't want you to explode your chest, but we just want you to open up your heart 20 times to let these feelings in. And I'm gonna name some of the main feelings that many people feel, including myself. And if you have others, that is amazing and fine. And you can let them into your heart as we go along. So first is the feeling of being vulnerable, a vulnerable feeling. Maybe aging makes you feel not as strong as you used to be or off balance or even frail. Maybe you feel vulnerable about money or the future or vulnerable because you need others to help you in some way. So you may feel a loss of control. If this rings true, just allow yourself to feel vulnerable and pull it into your heart with a nice breath.

Rita Black: Good. Next, feeling invisible. This is a feeling present for many people. Maybe you feel like you don't get seen or heard like you used to. Especially women can feel this as we age, as as though people are looking through us. Our past this, I've certainly noticed this in the past and I do not like it and it can hurt. I see them seeing an old woman maybe insignificant and maybe you feel this. It can make us feel a loss of control and command that maybe we once had. Maybe you were working and no longer are working and maybe it has to do with your body and not feeling attractive. This feeling invisible can especially be amplified when we struggle with weight. Maybe we might even welcome being invisible and we can hide in the shadows. If invisible resonates with you, go ahead and let it into your heart and own it.

Rita Black: It doesn't mean that you are invisible, but you are just acknowledging the feeling. So open up your heart, take a breath and let it in. And you can put your hands over your heart too. I really do like doing that. Now let's look at guilt. Are there any shades of guilt lurking within you? This is a big one and I can relate to it. And so can many of my students guilt about not taking better care of our bodies. I blame my bulimia in the past and smoking in the past for my current osteoporosis. Some people feel guilt for not appreciating their body more when they were younger. This is another biggie. When we struggle with weight, we just spend so much time hating our body that we never really took the time to appreciate its youth then and then all of a sudden we're aged and we had never had the chance to revel in that youthfulness we took for granted. Or maybe we feel guilt because we were in good shape and when we were younger, but we never really appreciated it because we held ourselves to impossible standards that we could never live up to. There are so many shades of guilt. So please let your shade or any of the different shades that you may have into your heart.

Rita Black: Good. Sadness. Along with guilt, there might be sadness. Sadness is often an emotion one layer below. Guilt. Once we acknowledge the guilt, sadness usually emerges. I know I have sadness for being so mean to my body. When I struggled with weight, the self abuse that I inflicted upon my body and the way I just hated it and I scorned it and that makes me sad. I am also sad for the passing of time. It has gone so fast. There's never enough time and I'm sad for the passing of my youth. I will never have that back. And that is bittersweet. Oh, I'm allowing that into my heart. How about you? What sadness do you need to invite in? And if you tear up or have bigger emotions as we do, just please let them flow in and acknowledge them too. Take a nice deep breath. Okay, now anger. Maybe you're mad at your body for getting older or at yourself for feeling older. I know I feel some anger. I thought I would be young forever age just caught up with me and I have anger and some shame. It doesn't have to make sense. My friends we're just acknowledging and letting it in. Maybe you have anger and no clear reason for it and that's okay too. So just let anger in.

Rita Black: Often women aren't allowed to feel anger, so just allow it to be and let it in envy. This is a big one too. I sure feel envy. I'm envious of younger people of the time. They have to be in their youth. I don't wanna be them, but I do have envy. I envy the people who seem to age without ever looking older. It's not fair. And I don't blame them. I'm just letting the feeling be. Is there envy in you? Just a bit. I bet there is. Let's party with our envy and just let it in.

Rita Black: Good. We're doing great now. Grief. I am mourning at the age of 60. I miss all of those in my life who are no longer here. I wish I could see them and feel them and touch them. My mom, my dad, my grandparents and my cousins and friends and clients and students who have passed. I am mourning my thirties, my forties, and my fifties. I will never be there again. Wow. I'm lighting that in my twenties. Well may, I don't wish twenties on anyone. My daughter's there now and it doesn't look fun. But those other ages, some of them were nice and some of them were not so nice. But I'm mourn them all now. I'm mourn my youth and my heavier but younger body. I also regret not being nicer to my body. And I regret being in a food and diet trance a good part of my life. I'm mourn all of those last years where I was just in a frustrating diet cycle. Fog I'm letting mourning and regret in and I'm also mourning all the time. I spent hating my body for what it was and what it wasn't. Just letting that grief in.

Rita Black: Self resentment, does this live in you and yourself about your body? Do you resent your body for what it cannot do now, how it had let you down in the past or how it lets you down currently? Do you resent the aches and pains your body gives you? Do you resent your metabolism and your genes for maybe being a part of your weight story? Do you have self resentment over feeling addicted to food or other things? Maybe there's self resentment because your weight caused you to hold yourself back in relationships or work or going for your dreams. Just let that in.

Rita Black: How about fear? There are so many. Do you fear your changing appearance and fear looking older? I know that comes across my mind. Do you fear your body or your mind declining with age? Do you fear getting sick or your body failing you? Maybe you fear being unable to care for yourself. I know I have all of these fears. There is a lot of fear and that is okay. Just let the fear be. You are stronger than you give yourself credit for. When you acknowledge fear, it tends to soften when we acknowledge it and when we bury it, it gets bigger and it haunts you. So just let that fear in. Boldly lonely. Do you have feelings of loneliness? I know I do sometimes. Sometimes I feel alone because what I do is so singular. I love it for that reason too. But sometimes it's lonely. Sometimes it's a haunting feeling. Sometimes I feel alone. Even in the midst of my family. Loneliness and aloneness are okay. You know we are never alone because when we are old present in the moment, we have ourselves and that is enough. But we want to acknowledge lonely too. So please let it in.

Rita Black: Do you feel depleted? Less sexy and less sexual, less energetic, just tired of it all. Thinking about being active in your body just makes you feel tired. Let's look at now some of the more positive emotions about aging that you may feel too along with the other ones. What about proud? The feeling of pride that you have for things you've done in your life, the moments that you are brave, the moments of accomplishment, the times you stood up for yourself or others, the difference you have made with yourself or others or in your community or with your work. Just please allow some pride into your heart with a nice deep breath. And how about courageous? It takes courage to age, to do what you are doing right this moment. Facing aging fully on, you gave yourself courage. Courage for all that boldness you have displayed in your life. Courage to stand out and be different. Courage to do the things you have done despite your feelings about weight. I want you to feel that feeling and let that in. And you may think, Rita, my heart is full. And I'm saying, Nope, you have room for more. So just take a deep breath and let it in. We're almost done. Happy. How about happy? Happy to be here where you are in your life. Happy to have made it this far. Happy to have the chance to keep going and keep being you. Come on, let that into your heart. How about feeling wise? You are wise. Do you feel it? All those years you've steeped within you in wisdom. You know what to do and you know what not to do. So let that feeling of wisdom reverberate through you and let it into your heart.

Rita Black: Free. Do you feel free? I feel free from caring what others think. Free from worrying if I'm pretty or doing the right thing or making a mistake that will ruin my life. I feel free from a lot of the expectations that others had for me and what society has for me. If they have thoughts about me getting older and think that makes me lesser, well let them. I feel sorry for them and I am free from their judgment. And I invite you to enjoy feeling free too. We know who we are. We know the score. So let that freedom into your heart. Grateful this is the last one. And you can allow in gratitude for all these feelings that they make you who you are and your experience of being this age at this point in your life. You own it. You can be grateful to your aging body for the life it has given you and all the experiences that it has allowed you to enjoy throughout all the years. Let gratitude into your heart. And now take a moment to notice any other feelings about the aging process in your body that you might want to let into your heart. I'll just give you a moment for that.

Rita Black: Okay, good job. And now take a few deep breaths in letting all those shades of feelings around your aging and your aging body fill you up with your truth, letting it in and giving you power. Great job. We're doing fantastic. Now let's move on to investigate Now with investigate. What it is is we're exploring the feelings that may be coming up with you in curiosity and kindness. So let's investigate a feeling so you can see how to do this. We aren't gonna do all of them, but we'll just focus on one. So guilt is a big one for most people. So let's just take a moment and pull out guilt. What is the feeling of guilt, feeling like in my body? Where do you feel it in your body? Is it a soft feeling or sharp feeling? Ask yourself questions like what is this feeling of guilt trying to tell me? Or what is this feeling? Letting me know about what I'm believing about myself and my body? For me, my guilt makes me think about the time I wasted being mean to my body. The guilt I feel about the time I took away from relationships and focused on food or on my body and just trying to be thin.

Rita Black: Just allow your guilt or whatever feeling you are focusing on to tell you whatever it needs to allow your guilt to speak to you and look at your guilt without judgment. And you can investigate any feelings coming up for you in this way. Sometimes I find it helps to journal as you're doing this. Excellent. So you can see how this process isn't for the faint-hearted. The last step in the RAIN process is nurture. Offer yourself compassion and kindness and response to what you discover. For instance, respond to your feelings with self-Compassion for me, I can look at the wasted time I spent with understanding and compassion. It's all I knew at the time. I didn't have any other ways to cope or respond to my feelings of unworthiness. You might put a hand over your heart and speak kindly to yourself or remind yourself that aging is a natural and shared human experience. This step is about caring for yourself as you would a dear friend going through the same thing. Let's take a moment to speak to ourselves. I will give you a moment. Just allow that compassionate, wise heart to speak to you.

Rita Black: Okay, good. And now remember, as you move forward on your journey of appreciating and loving your body at the age it is at right now, you now have a way to process all the feelings and emotions that come up in a more resourceful way, A way that gives you the confidence to have a space for your feelings rather than to push them down into the subconscious and let them on you in a negative way. Recognize, acknowledge, investigate, nurture. Good job my friends.

Rita Black: And now let's do a meditation around this and promise me if you're driving or exercising or anything that requires your full attention with eyes open, please save this for later. And now just take a nice deep breath in and as you exhale, close your eyes and just let go of everything now and just focus on your breath, breathing in and breathing out. And just allow each and every breath to carry you deeper and deeper relaxed. Just allow all the sounds within the room and outside the room to focus you more fully and completely upon my voice. Allow all my words building one upon the other to go with you. As you drift deeper and deeper, just noticing the surface beneath you, supporting you fully. And that can allow you to relax even more deeply.

Rita Black: Notice wherever your feet are touching, maybe they're touching the floor, maybe something else is touching them, some covers or some shoes. Just notice the texture and temperature of whatever is up against your feet. Notice the texture and temperature of the air within the room around you. And as you continue to relax, imagine that staircase in front of you of five steps down. Gonna go down these steps together now and allow each step down to take you twice as deep as the step before into a nice easy relaxation. Starting with that top step five and taking that first step down, just deeper and deeper easing into it. Four down to three. Opening your mind to this process of accepting and loving your aging. You, wherever you are in your life for you. Down to two, deeper and deeper. Really engaging that sense of curiosity. Two down to one, deeper and deeper. And at the next step down all the way down, you see in front of you at door, door to your subconscious mind. Go ahead and push on the door and find it opens easily for you. And step inside for this meditation time to your subconscious mind.

Rita Black: And as you open that door to what we like to call your shift place to see all around you, beautiful tranquility, relaxing things. Maybe it's a garden, maybe you are in a forest. This place and all around you reminds you of relaxation, the sounds, the feeling, the breeze against your skin. And in this place of relaxation, you see a beautiful pond. The pond is not too big, not too small, it's just right. And there's beautiful sandy banks on this pond that slope easily down into the pond. And you are drawn to this pond. You see the waters of the pond. And you understand that these waters are waters of forgiveness and rejuvenation. And so you find yourself drawn to the side of the pond and you stick your toe in and you notice it's just the right temperature. So you decide to wander in.

Rita Black: Now it's up to you. You can take all your clothes off and wander in naked. If you wanna imagine yourself in an easy fitting bathing suit or just any clothes that you would like to wear in. I invite you for your own comfort level, whatever your imagination allows you. But what you're doing is just easily and effortlessly guiding yourself down. The sandy banks step by step into this wonderful, perfect temperature water. And you wade in the water surrounds you up to your shoulders, and you feel very safe. Your feet are at the bottom of the pond. And as the water swirls around you easily soothing you and cleansing you. These are the waters of forgiveness, waters of the rejuvenation. Just feel the waters washing away. All those old resentments, all those old negative feelings, the anger, sadness, the loneliness, all of the old limiting beliefs and interpretations that you've had about your body, about your most beloved fellow traveler in this life. Just allow the waters to remove from your heart and mind and soul, all of the guilt for not taking better care of yourself or the time wasted hating your body. Just let the waters wash away. Any old cultural beliefs that aging takes your power away from you. Let it wash away. You are feeling invisible. Let it give you a sense of owning your body, a rejuvenation of wisdom.

Rita Black: Your body at this age gives you power. Feel your life source. Feel your life force surging through you now, giving you renewed spirit and energy. And as the water's healing you washing away any self resentment, any feelings about how you feel about aging. And allow them to restore within you feelings of pride of all the years you've been on this planet, all that you have done in your life and the people you have helped. Let the water swish and swirl and carry away any anger or remorse about yourself or your body. You are a whole beautiful and worthy human being and have as much right as anyone to take your place in the world. And now you feel refreshed and rejuvenated and are ready to come out of the pond on the other side. Just imagine yourself now walking on that easy slope of sand up and out of the pond. And as you come out of the pond, the water immediately evaporates off your body. And imagine yourself as you get out of the pond. Maybe toweling off if you need to, but the air has magically just evaporated any moisture off your body.

Rita Black: And you see on the other side of the pond a full length mirror that reflects back to you all you are today at this powerful point in your life. And now imagine seeing your body for what it is with renewed eyes, rejuvenated eyes, eyes cleansed of the old negative beliefs and filters. And instead, you see a truly dignified and beautiful body in its age, seeing any wrinkles, any creases, any sags, any moles and marks as remarkable, as powerful.

Rita Black: Take this moment now to behold your body as this miraculous vessel that is allowing you to be present in this powerful chapter of your life. It represents the wisdom, grace, patience, and resilience of the ages. And now I invite you in your imagination to walk up to this reflection and look into your eyes. The eyes that have seen all your life, has seen experienced love and joy and sadness and triumph and all the flavors of life. Imagine now reaching out and touching your face as you would a beloved child for you. And your body deserve all the love and tenderness and goodwill that you can give it. Now. Take this powerful body of yours.

Rita Black: As you look into it now, merge into it. Step in and merge into it. And as you do, you see a comfy rob to wrap yourself in feeling so comfortable and relaxed in the body that you now feel so proud to be in at this place in your life. Because you are making the decision now to own your body in all its glory. And now to make the decision to love it and to be its best friend. As you walk down this beautiful path you see before you feeling stronger and calmer. And so at peace with your body, desiring to take good care of it, to make healthy choices, moving your body, honoring it and taking care of it. Being out in the world, making a difference. And your body allows you to be with the people you want to be with. Connecting, making a difference, being your best. You fully owning yourself, your worth, fully visible to you, totally present to the body and your life at this glorious age that you are at and you now own with all of you.

Rita Black: And now as I count forward from one to five, allow yourself to come back bringing with you all that you've created here today for yourself. One feeling at peace, knowing you have started a powerful healing process. Two, committing to continue the process with a renewed attitude of love and acceptance of your age and your body. Three, knowing you are worthy of your own love and self care as you are right now. Four, ready to take the next steps fully, truly advocating for yourself and believing in your body. And it's right to be here right now. And five, eyes open coming back. Good job.

Rita Black: Well, I hope that that session served you wherever you are in your life. And you can listen to it again along with a powerful hypnosis session in an app or on an online platform. Remember, it's only for this occasion, I'm calling it the Joy of Aging, cultivating love for your aging body. And you will get it for free if you donate $15 or more. The link is in the show notes, you'll be donating to my friend's place and the website is there available for you to, if you want to donate a larger fee or a larger sum. And then you can just send us back the proof of donation and we will get you a link to sign up for the Joy of Aging for free. Okay? And please come back next week and help me celebrate the big birthday, beautiful 60, and have a great week.

Rita Black: And remember that the key and probably the only key to unlocking the door, the weight struggle is inside you. So keep listening and find it. I will be here with you. Looking forward to it next week. Thanks for listening to The Thin Thinking Podcast.

Rita Black: Did that episode go by way too fast for you? If so, and do you wanna dive deeper into the mindset of long-term weight release? Head on over to www.shiftweightmastery.com. That's www,shiftweightmastery.com, where you'll find numerous tools and resources to help you unlock your mind for permanent weight release tips, strategies, and more. And be sure to check the show notes to learn more about my book from Fat to Thin Thinking. Unlock Your Mind for Permanent Weight Loss and to learn how to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode.