Seattle workshop: Eating Peace rare 3 hour mini-retreat on how to question your thinking, to change the way you eat (and think) at East West Books in Seattle, March 18th 3-6 pm only $25. Please pre-register here.
Speaking of the way we think….most people with compulsions and addictive behavior, or self-defeating mannerisms of any kind like overeating, binge-eating, body image criticism, or emotional eating…experience mean thinking towards themselves.
We’ve all got judgmental and harsh voices that comment about what we’re doing.
But when this voice gets really intense, like a dictator ordering you around in a concentration camp, then you’re at war.
It’s understandable. We often believe in violence. It even works a little bit. Violent behavior leads to something happening which forces change. But it’s not permanent, and there’s a ton of loss when there’s war.
The thing is, you don’t have to attack and hate yourself in order to elicit or bring change to your ways with food, eating and your body.
In fact, what I always found, is that it increased my binge-eating or weight gain, it fueled sadness and despair and a feeling of failure, and it made things worse in the long run.
People who stop believing in their violent thinking towards themselves no longer eat violently, or diet violently with deprivation and intense control.
Try letting go of this mean voice instead, by questioning if it’s really true, and turning it around!