Emotional Eating - Overeating Help - Compulsive Eating Disorders: Seeing your body as beautiful is YOUR choice. And you'll feel much better for it.

So many of the people I work with hate their bodies. They hate their thighs, their stomachs, their noses, or their love handles. They hate themselves for overeating and for not exercising. They berate themselves when they can't stay on a diet and criticize themselves when their bodies don't feel good.

What do you think this self-rejection does to your life? Have you ever considered doing something new? Opening to a different perception? What might that do to your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual self...

Many of my clients are tortured souls when they start with me. When I teach them to use love rather than self-hate, they are convinced I must be insane. How could I possibly think they are going to stop overeating if they are loving with themselves? How will they ever get off the couch by being kind? They swear that self-rejection is the only thing keeping them from fully self-destroying.

So I make them do an experiment. For a week, only a week, try eating, exercising, making mistakes, looking at your body, trying on clothes, with love. For a week, change your perception and open up to a different world. You have nothing to lose if I am wrong. I mean, I can clearly see that your harsh criticism has really helped you heal...

Here are the rules:

When you eat, imagine your digestive system is the site of the best party you've ever been to. When food comes in, welcome in, invite it to the fiesta, make it feel welcome, loved. As it gets digested, allow your system to be the most loving environment you've ever been in. A place where you would just love to hang out in. Let food bathe in the love.
When you look at yourself in the mirror, do not let your "outside" eyes look. Use your "inside" eyes. The ones that know that every second of every day, your body is performing thousands of miraculous functions for you. The ones that know that your heart beats 100,000 a day, that your blood goes on a 60,000 mile journey, and that your body will defend you against most attackers. Look inside your moving bones and muscles and be awed by what they can do. Feel your spine move and feel gratitude for its flexibility. Feel the warmth of the floor, touch a piece of clothing and be stunned by how your senses work.
When you exercise, don't do it to "lose" anything. Do it as a present to your body, as a gift to your heart, muscles, blood, bones, skin, and so on. With every move you make, you allow your body to be energized, to let go of old toxins, to work better for you. Exercise to give your body the care it needs.
When you overeat, instead of berating yourself, ask your body to forgive your mistake and TRUST it that it will take care of it. Give it all the love you can, because our bodies work best with our love. Let your stomach relax, your intestines open, the food flow.
When you sleep, dedicate your sleep to your body. Thank it for the work it did for you today and tell it lovingly that you are now giving it the rest you need.

When we change our perceptions from looking at everything we are doing wrong to everything that is loving and right with our world, everything changes. Let me know what happened to you!

PermaLink posted by Isabelle @ 9:10 PM 0 comments

Monday, November 07, 2005

Seeing your body as beautiful is YOUR choice. And you'll feel much better for it.