POSSIBLE REASONS FOR SELF-SABOTAGING YOUR NUTRITION & A SELF-DISCOVERY EXERCISE FOR GOING FORWARD
Marc David, Founder of the Institute for Eating Psychology claims, “People who want no rules or restrictions with diet have a belief that anything goes. The deeper belief being there is no cause and effect to how food can produce future consequences. People secretly [resist] responsibility because they act as if responsibility were unnecessary.” Breaking diet-mentality in a world saturated with external information about food, diet, and body is important. Diet mentality involves rules around food that are usually rigid, restrictive, and exclusive to a certain way of eating as a lifestyle and/or are structured “plans”. The information always comes from an authority outside of you. To really align with what your body needs you need to go inward and listen and more importantly take responsibility for what your body needs to be nourished at any given moment. So ditching “diet-mentality” rules is necessary to tune out the external noise. This enables you to listen inward to be governed by the rules of the body's innate wisdom. For optimum health this inward listening is necessary and takes personal responsibility if you wish to be free of the negative side effects of food.
One of the teachings in Deepak Chopra’s book “The Seven Spiritual Laws to Success” speaks to the law of karma or cause and effect. Karma is both action and the consequence of that action. He refers to the expression “What you sow is what you reap.” If we want to create health in our lives, we must learn to sow seeds of health based on our own innate wisdom. Therefore, according to Chopra, the Law of Cause and Effect “implies the action of conscious [inward] choice making.” When we choose actions that bring happiness and health to ourselves it also brings it to others and vice versa. If you are honouring yourself and taking responsibility for yourself it automatically creates a more joyful and healthful effect. When you are operating from this space it causes you to interact in more joyful and healthful ways with others.
Chopra states the best way to use the law of cause and effect “is to step back and witness the choices you are making in every moment. When you make any choice, ask yourself two things: “”What are the consequences of this choice?” And ”Will the choice I’m making bring happiness to me and to those around me?”” There is always one choice that will create maximum health and ease for you and those around you.
This choice is the spontaneous right action because it’s the action that nourishes you and everyone else who is influenced by that action. For example, if you wake up in the morning and make a choice to eat a breakfast of fruit, yogurt, and granola or a choice to eat Fruit Loops, one choice has the ability to nourish you and everyone around you. If you choose the first option and it is aligned with your value for health that choice will have a ripple effect in everything you do because you are operating from a place of taking responsibility for yourself and your health.
How do you make spontaneous nourishing choices? Chopra asserts you pay attention to sensations of comfort and discomfort in your body. “At the moment you make a choice, ask your body, “”What are the consequences of this choice?”” If your body sends a message of comfort, that’s the right choice. If you feel uneasiness in your body even as you ask the question, then it’s not the appropriate choice.””
To practice this concept of personal responsibility using the law of cause and effect you will need to really listen to how the body responds at first. You may only get the faintest level of feeling as a response but it is there. Chopra claims you will know the answer in your heart (not your head) because it will feel right, without any lingering doubts. The heart knows the correct answer because the heart is intuitive and holistic; it has a win-win orientation. And though the answer may not seem rational, the heart is far more accurate than anything within the realm of rational thought.
To go deeper with the law of cause and effect one really needs to understand, learn and practice inward listening. Therefore, I have included a self-discovery exercise created by Cassie Hessler-Smith, PhD.
I’m Angela. As a self-growth educator, Midlife Transformation Coach, and therapist. I help women in midlife using a heart-centered approach you can apply to rediscover your true self, balance your energy and boost your confidence to actualize a future that will leave you feeling vital and whole again.
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Inward Listening: A Path to an Authentic Relationship with Your Inner Self
Foundations for Inward Listening:
The following are core foundations to building a healthy relationship with one’s inner self through inward listening:
Inward listening is the key to meeting our original, innate wisdom. We can learn how to live our lives guided by this wisdom.
Being in our bodies such that we experience and allow feelings and sensations to come and go naturally is essential to mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, and social health.
All feelings are okay and part of being fully human and alive.
Emotions and the bodily sensations that accompany them need room to be experienced in order to then be released so that we can allow new life experiences to arrive.
When emotions are habitually blocked, suppressed, or avoided, their blocked energy will lead to symptoms (and constipated relationships with self, others, and life overall).
•Symptoms manifest when we have repeatedly failed to honor the message of our feelings/sensations when they first arise.
•Symptoms, then, are powerful inner messengers alerting us that we’ve gotten off- track with our true self needs and/or that we have something we need to take care of (i.e., current life situations and/or from our past).Becoming fluent with our emotional life is central to being able to meet one’s own needs. Befriending oneself in these ways leads to true confidence: increased calm, strength, and flexibility in responding to life situations.
Essentially, by listening to your feelings, sensations, inner truth, and by meeting your needs, your insides will begin to trust you more. Because you are listening to and meeting your needs in this way, the loud voice of symptoms will naturally begin to diminish.
Steps for Practicing Inward Listening:
Set the intention to tune inward with a reverent sense of curiosity, listening to your body and emotions as true messengers of your inner wisdom.
Scan throughout your whole body....sense where there is holding or tension or noteworthy sensation.
Bring your attention to this bodily sensation with a light, compassionate curiosity. Notice the nature of this sensation. For example, try to imagine what this sensation would be like if it had a color, shape, size, texture, movement, weight or density? Allow enough space and time to thoroughly experience the quality of it.
Once you’ve tuned into the “suchness” of this bodily sensation, see if you can sense what emotion(s) are being expressed in the experience. Don’t get hung up on trying to name the emotion; just trying to tune in is enough and identifying the feelings becomes clearer with practice.
Now pose the question, “If this sensation (or feeling) were saying something, what would it be saying?” Keep asking until there is an answer that “pops up” on its own or has you experience a “felt shift” inside (i.e., a gut-sense that the response that arises seems genuine and/or to fit with a core truth).
Now pose the question, “If this felt sense were asking for something, what would it need or be asking for?” Again, take time to listen and repeat the question until you have a felt shift inside showing you’ve come upon a genuine need underlying this feeling.
Having sensed/heard what is needed, take time to allow different solutions or ideas to arise. Again, this is your inner wisdom, inviting you to take action to honor your core needs and truth.
Now, it is important to sense how and when you can follow through with these actions in a mindful way that will get your needs met.
Now, return to an awareness of your inner bodily state. Notice how the sensations might have shifted/changed due to your practice of inward listening; this is your body giving you feedback. If there is relief, your body is acknowledging how helpful it is that you have attended to your core truth needs. If there is still some tension, there may be more your body/wisdom wants to share with you. Continue with the above steps as many times as you’d like in order to increase your relief and deepen connection with your inner truth.
Practice, practice, practice. After time, this process will become more natural and fluid, allowing your intuitive wisdom to guide you skillfully and compassionately in your everyday life.
This wisdom can be applied to any value, belief, or struggle you have in life. Going inward and using the body as a sounding board will give you exponential information for living a full life.
If you are an emotional eater and wish to gain more clarity around this coping strategy so you can re-pattern this habit consider joining our Emotions 101 course starting this Fall. Enrollment now open and payment plan is available - Grab Your Seat Today! Discount given for payment in full.
