The only way out..
Today, I am excited to share with you a quote that I have found very meaningful and useful in my personal and professional life that reads:
Yet you may ask, "is it, really?"
Overcoming emotional eating involves doing the inner work to address the underlying emotions that trigger us to over-rely on food for comfort. To sit with them. To honor them. To understand them. This process is not easy, but it is absolutely possible and essential for lasting change.
What does it mean “to go through it”?
Although "going through it" may mean different things for different people, I understand it to mean that we take the time -even if it is a brief time-- to better understand the situation, the mindset, the behavior, or the emotional state we want to move “out of.”
Some of us may want to reflect deeply on our situation, to know in depth the nook and crannies of it. Making contact with our situation at a deeper level and perhaps why it is a “place” we do not want to be anymore helps build momentum to move forward in the path we really want to be.
Another way of saying “going through” could be saying becoming exquisitely aware of.
For some, it comes with reflecting on questions such as:
“What is the price I have paid, and continue to pay for “staying” in this situation/ mindset/ habitual behaviors I am in?
The key to this is to do it in a way in which yes, we take responsibility, but without blame. The idea is NOT to feel bad, down, or angry at ourselves that after this type of reflection.
Not at all.
The idea is that by coming into contact more fully, more intentionally with where we are in regard to this set of behaviors we want to see change, we feel clearer about what we want and don’t want for ourselves.
Would you like a mini-structured path for your work in this area?
Download my free workbook! In this workbook, you’ll have the opportunity to:
Become more aware of your triggers and their sources
Feel more clarity about your inner world in what respects to food
Be less on automatic pilot
Be more intentional in all what relates to decisions about food
What happens when we call the shots?
I have seen it work a bit like this:
Once we do this intentionally and at the time we decide to do it, it is less likely that racing or upsetting random thoughts or images about our journey with food would come up at times in which we really can’t give them proper attention.
Or even worse, at times in which these thoughts could be bothersome and distracting, such as when we are at work, or perhaps triggered by seeing ourselves with little or no clothing in the shower or during intimacy. Body image is a huge important topic, and, even though not all of those who struggle with emotional eating have concerns or insecurities about their body many of us do.
Doing the internal work upfront
The invitation of this quote is to do the internal work upfront, to allow ourselves to go through it -as hard as that may feel in the moment—, to not avoid it, to not push it away. Again, “it” being the situation or emotional state that we are in that we want to see change.
We can pair this reflection with relying upon our imagination after we have reflected for a bit: Can we imagine exactly how life would look like when emotional eating is not a struggle anymore?
How would your day to day life be impacted?
The many benefits of doing the internal work
Perhaps you’d have fewer highs and lows which would bring more stability and equanimity to your life. A more balanced emotional state. Perhaps the energy that you would not devote to thinking about food, buying food, eating/ binging on food, and the remorse we often feel afterword will really open up possibilities for you—
more time,
more peace,
more freedom,
a certain degree of liberation.
Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
Perhaps it would have a positive impact in your relationships—if you are a mom or dad, you’d feel you are embodying certain attributes that you would like to instill in your little ones, such as how powerful it can be when we can be intentional and act in ways that are aligned with who we truly want to be.
Perhaps it will result in a boost to your self-confidence and you would implicitly carry yourself differently. Show up differently. Perhaps you would feel less guilt.
The benefits of going through it are profound— and if you are curious but don’t know where to start, one place is to download my workbook (linked above) and take the few minutes a day it takes to complete it.
And if/ when you are ready for more individualized support, feel free to join the waitlist for my 12 week group coaching program, Enough Already at www.claudiaperolini.com/waitlist.
To going through it!
Claudia