Food is the quickest way to change how we feel.
But switching the foods we eat is often the most difficult thing to do.
Why is that?
That’s because our relationship with food is a mirror for the relationship we have with life.
Eating is a primal urge and so unsurprisingly, it comes interwoven with all sorts of subconscious, unconscious and emotional aspects.
Our relationship with food is created by the family we are born to, the culture we grew up in, even our ancestors DNA that flows through our body and their relationship with food influences the food choices we make today.
This is why willpower is not the way to make lasting changes to the food you choose.
It’s why dieting doesn’t work.
Will power uses an impulse to do what is “right” and not what is “wrong”; to choose the food that is “good” and avoid what is “bad”.
However this sets up an inner conflict which serves to only sustain familial, cultural and sometimes ancestral conditioning and trauma regarding food.
In Chinese Medicine, excessive will power weakens the kidney energetic system, putting the body into fear and stimulating the stress response.
The first step to making change is self awareness; Taking time and space to examine why we make the choices of over eating, under eating, dieting, avoiding gluten, exercise or overdoing the sugar.
By giving ourselves the space to see unconscious patterns, allows us to begin to unravel them and clear the trauma that drives us.
Remember the unconscious mind makes unhealthy choices in an attempt to keep you safe. This could be from childhood imprints taken from the dinner table where you had to fight for the food on your plate, through to teenage need to be accepted with the “desirable” body shape or right back to the womb with the mother and baby bond.
If we see these beliefs then they are no longer unconscious. The mind realises that new choices are safe then new patterns of behaviour can begin.
Your conscious and unconscious are now on the same team, taking action, understanding consequences and doing so with self love and compassion.
This doesn’t mean that you will never eat a chocolate bar again, on the contrary, everything will be on the table but with self awareness comes a knowledge of the consequences of your actions. With compassion and love for your spirit and body you will make the food choices that best serve you.
Addictions come from a grasping for love, a need for connection and acceptance. Much as you love that chocolate bar it’s never going to love you. It’s not the answer you are looking for. Which is why abstinence and avoidance never satisfies the addicted soul. You can only deal with addiction and cravings by connecting to your spirit with guidance and support.
In my Sweet Self Retreat we will be providing the space for self awareness, the knowledge of the (w)holistic aspect of sugar cravings in Chinese Medicine plus the support and care so you release the ties that bind you and take new self loving action.
CLICK HERE for FULL AGENDA
And of course you can always find self compassion and mindful movement in my daily LIVE Qi Gong – why not try a free class.
Chi Flow with Jo Waitlist
