Yesterday we talked about the powerful emotion numbing effect processed and heavy foods can have. If you missed it, please do go read it here Again, I want to double emphasize how important I feel it is that you do not slip into beating yourself up over this.
We can only change that which we acknowledge, and SELF LOVE is the best transformation tool their is.
If you are telling yourself that you are weak, or any other negative adjectives you actually hinder your ability to move forward. Instead, I invite you to stop, right here right now and do the following:
- Place your hands on your heart. Close your eyes and take a deep breath.
- Consciously relax your body. Allow your shoulders to drop away from your ears. Release and relax your belly. Relax your legs. Allow your face to soften. Feel your sits bones heavy on your seat.
- Remind yourself that you are a perfect, whole, special, intelligent, loveable, complete reflection of all that is. You are simply having an experience, to expand and grow. There is nothing 'wrong' with you. You are learning.
- Accept this as an opportunity to adopt new habits that support this growth and happiness. Recognize that you deserve to feel better. That is all this is about. You feeling better.
'Self improvement' does not exist - you are simply moving closer and closer to a clear expression of your already existing wholeness. You are moving towards FEELING better in your day to day life. That is all.
So, how can you start to move towards more self loving, more positive action when it comes to your emotional state and food? How do you transform your urge to eat to numb your emotions so that you can start to support a healthier diet for life? 
I am going to suggest 5 tools here, and how I want you to use them is this:
- Tell yourself that you are doing this first and foremost because you love yourself.
- Place your hands on your heart and close your eyes. Send yourself love and compassion. Soften your heart towards yourself.
- Promise yourself that you are allowed to run to food if you want. You are not taking that tool away from yourself.
- Resist the urge to beat yourself up for eating. This is a process, and you are going through it. You are perfect just as you are right now. Give yourself the space you need. Do the above meditation again if you feel badly about yourself.
Tell yourself that you are just going to pick one of the following 5 tools, and you are going to use it. You are going to give it a chance. Then, if you still feel like eating you are allowed to do so.
1. Make A Healthier Swap
Transition is key. If you are currently stuck on eating cake or bags of chips - switching to carrot sticks and raisins is most likely not the way to go. Choose items that are more whole food based, that have only ingredients that you can recognize, but that still satisfy the taste and texture you are looking for. Some awesome websites for recipes are: Choosing Raw Oh She Glows Grounded Nutrition Healthy Happy Life Again, do not try to cut anything out right off the bat. Just choose whole food options. It is possible that their effects will not be as strong as their processed food counterparts - and that is the point 🙂 They will help soften your emotions enough, to a point where they may feel more manageable, and give you the opportunity to deal with them when they are less than full force. I would suggest choosing a transition food - and then also doing one of the other 4 options below. If that is too much, just start with the transition food.
2. Get a Journal
My journal has been my best friend through a lot of my 'stuff' and through a lot of my healing. There were times when writing in my journal felt like the most deeply cathartic experience of my life.
I was safe to write down all of the ugly, not put together, non lady like things I was thinking and feeling. Safe to express them. Safe to release them.
I highly encourage you to create a safe place for yourself so that you can let your emotions come out as they are without feeling the need to censor yourself. If you find this difficult - start with 10 minutes of consciousness streaming writing. Simply set a timer for 10 minutes, then write. Do not allow your pen or pencil to leave your paper the whole time. Write everything that comes to mind. The first five minutes you will most likely be getting out the surface stuff. After that your deeper thoughts and feelings will come up. Think of it as emotional detox. Just let it come up so it can come out. You do not have to 'do' anything about what comes up. Just let it come up.
3. Add More Play
Sometimes your intense negative emotions are telling you that you just need more play time in your life. I personally had some really strong negative emotions for a long time - and I thought that I would have to rearrange my whole life to address them. The truth was, the more I let myself do enjoyable activities, the more I raised my own vibration, the more I was able to move through my emotional 'stuff' in a healthy way. In fact, the more I played, the less negative emotional stuff I had! Next time you feel the urge to eat something, try a fun activity first. Something that is just for you. Something that is purely for enjoyment - not self help or self improvement. Then see how you feel.
The biggest thing to take into consideration with this point is that it must be something purely for fun. So I encourage you to steer clear of things like seminars, workshops, self help books, spiritual books, educational books or television series. Choose something that you can honestly say is just for fun.
If you are trying to slip self improvement into your play time, you are not really giving yourself permission to play. This will inhibit your ability to grow from the activity. You need to let yourself play in order to help you realize that you are deserving of pure pleasure for pleasures sake - and that food is not the only avenue with which to experience this. There s a chance this will feel terrible at first - you may feel guilty or undeserving or like you are wasting time. Push through. I promise it is one of the most powerfully healing things you can do for yourself. There is a chance that you run to food to feel good, because it is the only thing in your life you actually allow yourself to enjoy. When you expand the number of pure pleasure activities you have in your life, you will need food less.
4. Connect With Someone
Talk it out. Do not be afraid of your emotions! Some of the best times I have ever had have been sitting on the living room floor with my baby sister and spilling my guts. Holding all of your 'stuff' in all the time is so energy draining. Spill your heart out. I promise you will feel better. Just be sure to choose someone you trust, who you know can handle you sharing. If you do not know anyone like this, hire a coach. You will be SO glad you did, and you are so worth the investment.
5. Sit In It
Learn to make peace with and space for your emotions. Now, I know that this is going to sound like it is way easier to say that to do. I get that. Most of us were raised on processed foods in a culture that eats processed foods. It is possible that you learned as a child that expressing negative emotions - or even over expressing the joyful ones - was inappropriate. It seems like we a culture of emotion-phobes.
The truth is - your emotions are not going to kill you. They may feel really strong. They may feel really intense. They may feel like they are too much to handle, but the truth is that your emotions are there to serve as a guide for you.
If you can, I encourage you to set aside 5 minutes each day to sit and feel your emotions. Let them bubble to the surface, allow them to become as big as they want to be. For this, you can set a timer if you life - promising yourself that at the end of the 5 minutes you can go and do something to quell the emotion if you wish. Just sit with them for 5 minutes and experience them. You may be very surprised what comes up! Again, you do not have to do anything about what comes up. You don't have to stay in this emotional place all day. Just make space to feel them. Thats it. As you do this, the fear of your emotion will lessen. You will also start to develop the ability to LEARN from your emotions - especially from the negative ones. They are there for a reason. They are there to help lead you towards what you want. They are there to help guide you, to support your happiness. Start to see them this way and give them a chance to shine and show you. If you feel like this emotional tie to eating does not ring true for you, then I would encourage you to stick around and read tomorrows article - I will be addressing the other most common road block I see to healthy eating 🙂 So what do you think? Are you going to try any of the tools listed above? Do you have other tools you like to use? <3
