Ways to Support Self-Nourishment
Apr 11, 2023Many times when we struggle with emotional eating, we also struggle with self-nourishment and self-compassion.
Rather than sitting in the Cycle of Stuck, it's important to incorporate the Cycle of Compassion.
The Cycle of Compassion looks like:
Negative Emotion -> Acceptance of Emotion -> Willingness to sit with Emotion
Here are four ways to support self-nourishment:
- Honor emotions - recognize your emotions, accept them, and take some time to sit and connect with your emotions. Honoring your emotions means understanding that the happiness we all want so desperately to achieve comes from taking action and solving problems, many of which can be solved by shifting our mindsets
- Practice through self-kindness - start with self-awareness: Mind your mind. Release judgment of yourself and re-frame your internal language. Practice changing your "should" to "could". Judgement does not lead to change, but awareness does.
- Accept imperfection - let go of failure and use failure to fail forward. It's never failure when you learn from it. Allow yourself some wiggle room and focus on the process. No one is perfect. Accepting imperfection connects us with others. Perfection is a roadblock to progress.
- Connect to the present - evaluate the function and value of your emotions. Let go of the unhelpful emotions that are keeping you stuck and focus on an internal locus of control (those things in your life that are within your control). Let go of the past and honor it.
The more loving and trusting our relationship is with ourselves, the more we believe in our ability to succeed, even when life throws us a curve ball.
You can let go of the emotional eating struggle by:
- Letting go of self-judgement - and nourishing it.
- Letting go of shame - and connecting with it.
- Letting go of the past - and honoring it
- Letting go of failure - and using it.
If you need some help moving beyond the struggle, reach out to me.
Remember to...Take Care of You!
Do you find yourself eating for every other reason than being physically hungry? Do you find that food is the thing that gives you courage and comfort when nothing else can? The thing is, in order to change any habit, you have to be aware of what the habit is that you want to change.
Do you struggle with eating emotionally? Getting the mindset right is the hardest thing. Figuring out the why around emotional eating is key. When you have your mindset right, your food and your life will follow.
Unpacking the "layers of stuck" in your mind will set you on a path to emotional eating freedom.
This workbook will help you develop a healthier relationship with food by identifying triggers to emotional eating and help to develop healthier coping mechanisms so that you can learn to live your life with food.
Click the button below to get your copy of the workbook.