The Four Hour Body Triggered Something Ugly

I’m reading Tim Ferris’ monster opus, The Four Hour Body and noticed something really interesting and disturbing in myself! So interesting and disturbing that I had to stop reading and do some emotional clearing before I could continue. I’m only about 60 pages in so far, of a nearly 600 pager.

Some background: Tim Ferris also wrote The Four Hour Work Week which propelled him to the world stage when it hit the New York Times bestseller list and stayed there for weeks. Clearly he’s a man who likes to find the most efficient way to get things done.

In the background, Tim was running experiments on himself to find what really worked in nutrition, strength, endurance, and weight changing, consulting with the leading scientists and athletes. He found a whole swag of scientists doing amazing work that the top sports clubs use religiously to win, week in and week out. The winning strategies and techniques might then be used by the consultants supporting the health and wellbeing of the very rich, which might 10 or 20 years later make it to ‘the rest of us’, and just as likely might not make it. Apparently that’s a normal cycle and most people have no idea it even exists.

So far I’m loving the book, quotes like ‘everything popular is wrong’ really resonate with me!

But here I am, taking a rare Saturday morning to lie in bed for a while and read this really engaging and easy to read book. I am clearly aware that so far anyway, Tim is working in the male plane of logic and sequence and measurement, one of the many things that men do so well. There’s no consideration of the very real emotional aspects of any of the body stuff that women experience every day, and his brief discussion of the differences between men and women basically says the differences are not really that big and everything that works for men will also work for women.

(I find that curious, considering that he goes to great lengths to build some hope that his methods and processes will work by proving that just 2.5% change will bring massive benefits to any aspect of life, but the differences between male and female are insignificant?)

But please don’t think I’m dismissing Tim’s work, I’m not – I greatly admire his perseverance, his logical analysis, his experimentation, and his conclusions, even just 60 pages into the book.

Of course it could be that so far his findings just support my own prejudices

Anyhoo, here I am lounging on the bed reading away, and I notice this creeping heaviness right in my solar plexus. I learned a good few years ago to pay attention to those body signals, so I could stop a meaningless downward emotional spiral into a crappy day-week-month.

So I put the book down and said right body, what’s going on? And the answer I got was: all these facts and figures and processes and take-it-apart results make me feel like I’m not good enough. Again.

Wow.

That surprised me to be honest. It’s a good long while since I’ve read any diet book, magazine, article, even watched stories about weight loss on TV. Sometimes I do come across them and usually see the holes in their logic and dismiss them, neatly reinforcing my own perspective at the same time .

But Tim’s well-reasoned arguments and statistics and stories had triggered this not-good-enough feeling right in my middle. And it was big. And heavy.

As I write this I am aware of how important it is that each one of us has a support network to turn to for help when stuff comes along that gives us a knock, and also has a process that can support us so that the old patterns don’t rear up and bite us in the bum!

So, I put the book down, thought for a few minutes about what I’d been reading and what it had triggered. It wasn’t the specific information I was reading at the moment, it was the entire previous 60 pages, and the weight of popular expectation about what is ‘normal’ in our culture, and how what is ‘normal’ for male bodies is extrapolated onto females without recognition that it will trigger powerful emotional responses, and that counting measuring weighing comparing can become obsessive for women, and on and on and on…

So there was this side-conversation going on in my head, one that I thought I’d cleared years ago – turns out I’d only silenced it.

Time to clear it – and this is what I tapped out. It might help you? Click here for EFT Tapping instructions.

Side of hand: Even though reading this book is making me feel like I’m not good enough, I love and accept myself anyway.

Even though I feel like I’m not measuring up, I love and accept myself anyway.

Even though some of what this book is saying is making me feel like I don’t measure up and I’m not good enough, I love and accept myself anyway.

Top of head: I’m not good enough

Inside Eyebrow: I don’t measure up

Side of Eye: I’m not good enough

Under eye: I don’t measure up

Under nose: I’m not good enough

Chin: I don’t measure up

Collar bone: I’m not good enough

Under arm: I don’t measure up

Under breast: I’m not good enough

I tapped the round, checked the feeling – less, but still a weight in my middle, so I tapped another round, alternating:

• This heavy I’m not good enough feeling
• This weight in my stomach
• This I’m not good enough feeling in my stomach

And that was it, I was done, that old lurker was cleared.

I picked up the book and kept reading, but a side conversation was going on my head, which brought me to my computer and this post – maybe my head chatter can help you What do you think? Please comment below and let me know…. if I get ten comments I’ll do more tapping scripts in future posts.

If you need more help on finding peace with your body, you can sign up for my free ten day Body Bliss Body Image course, or find out more about EFT with the Personal Peace Journal.

You Might Also Like: