When stress goes up, often many of us play this out in food and diet.
We get a little bit more controlling, a little/ lot bit more judgemental and hard on ourselves, we set harder goals for weight and performance based on well… punishment and many of us feel a little more unsure in our bodies. the stress battle play out in the worst of internal battles… invisible to almost everyone in your circle except the most intuitive.
for the purpose of us being open, honest and supportive for one another… if it feels right. How do you manage this and rein it in? how did you move forwards… what advice would you give?
When all form of control and certainty leaves us and overwhelm sneaks up; we often subconsciously start to control in other areas. It is human nature.
With practice we can become better to catch ourselves, laugh it off with ‘here I go again’ and quickly shift focus to exploring, learning and growing more positive life skills and strategies.
Me? I am not ashamed to say that I did have my struggles (in the past). It makes me real and helps me to understand other people’s struggles and obsessions and quirks. Sometimes I forget about it all as I have pushed it all back into the past; I tend to forget the level of anxiety that lived with me permanently, and the control and neurosis. It was, I realise now, all a coping skill. I guess it good to forget but I don’t want to either so that I know how it feels for others.
So how did I manage to recover from a serious eating disorder and hours and hours of forced exercise?… I just fought and looked forward to knowing a place of peace had to be at the end of the desire to be better balanced and healthy. I made small change after change to pull things into better balance; I wrote a journal and in it listed all my dreams for the life that I wanted…. all these little dreams, goals and changes add up, they all start to make a difference.
Please know that it is possible to get to a better place if you want to and set that intention and keep reminding yourself of why it matters and that you can. Don’t be too hard on yourself it can take time; and it is a journey and you can and are doing it.
Never quit on yourself; the breakthrough may be just around the corner.
Here are some tips based on what I find to be helpful when I start to self-judge and self-sabotage.