Eating Peace is about experiencing an internal peace available to you, to everyone, no matter what emotions rise in you, no matter what kind of food is on the plate in front of you, no matter what you’re thinking about life.
We’re learning about how we move away from a centered sense of peace when it comes to food and weight, studying our minds and thoughts. What would compel us to eat off-balance?
It’s possible to question that reason, and stop over-eating.
So what happens if you begin to question your thinking and follow this approach to peaceful eating, and really start to discover those stuck places you feel sad, powerless, unhappy, bored, or frustrated–but you still want to lose weight?!
Here are the steps I suggest to return to, continuing to get clarity through observing yourself. Your like a scientist studying the most fascinating creature in your life: YOU.
1) Get Your Little Eating Peace Journal. Track the moments you eat beyond a 7 on the scale of 0-10 where zero is entirely empty and 10 is stuffed. Note them down on paper.
2) Track the times and types of food when you eat something that makes you physically feel poorly later, or heavy, or regretful. Write these down in your journal.
3) Open yourself to tweaking or changing what you eat–you could call it your personal just-for-you food plan–if you really want to lose weight.
4) Quit frightening yourself about deprivation or going without. Question your thoughts about NOT eating something (like pastries, or candy) or adding something to eat (vegetables, fruit) once you see what actually works for your body and what doesn’t work (and don’t be so sure it can’t change–you might find you CAN eat something with peace that you always thought you couldn’t).
5) If you continue to question your heavy, stressful thinking, and become lighter within, the body will follow. Do The Work of Byron Katie on the suffering you’ve experienced in your life, and foods, your body image, or your feelings, your self-criticisms.
6) Remember this is a process….an adventure of awareness and waking up to questioning what we believe to be true, and relaxing.