Emotional Spring Cleaning to Sweep Away those Unwanted Kilos
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by: matthewmcclifford
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Word Count: 908
What if you could easily clean away the old part of you that makes you unhappy when you look at photos, and welcome in the new exciting version of you that you are thrilled with?
More about that very soon...
Firstly, what have emotions got to do with weight loss? Well, have you ever eaten when you are upset, bored, stressed, lonely, or perhaps as a way to distract you from what is really going on? If so, you are certainly not alone.
It's not as if we took 'Dealing with our Emotions 101' at school, and rarely is it a life skill taught to us by our parents. In fact, as a parent when your children are distressed or in pain, what do you want to do? Usually remove them from that pain as quickly as possible, and often that may be giving the child some kind of sweet; which certainly works to distract them and stop the crying, but what are they really learning?
Have you ever heard a song, and you were almost instantly taken back to a time or person in your past? See, when a heightened emotion is felt and something else happens simultaneously, the brain links them both together thinking that they must be the same; even if the emotion and the stimulus have nothing at all to do with each other. So if a child receives a sweet as comfort, what would that child do as an adult when in need of comforting? And does this "sweet" comfort provide any long-term benefits?
Now, is it always socially acceptable to always express how you are feeling? Perhaps it is easier to put on a mask and cover up the feeling. Sometimes the emotion may just be too difficult, or too painful to deal with, or perhaps life just got too busy and it was just easier to ignore the feeling.
As a society, we seem to be really good at covering up how we feel and then form many different coping behaviours in a bid to escape what is really going on. Some people turn to alcohol, some find the distraction in becoming the workaholic, and for others, the instant gratification that food provides is their quick fix.
Let's look at emotions as the oil light in the car signaling to us that something requires changing, we have options don't we? We could choose to ignore the signal, but what would happen if we keep repeating this as a solution? We would continue to do irreversible damage to the motor until it broke down. Luckily for us we can go back and dissolve the unsupportive emotions and have our motor running smoothly again.
The more we choose not to deal with the emotions the more they build up, one on top of the other on top of the last. What happens when we have repeated this too many times? Well, have you ever over-reacted, and your reaction was much larger than what the situation warranted? If you were only dealing with that event in isolation, would you have reacted in the same way or would it have been almost insignificant?
If you were hardly affected, then would you have used food as a way to comfort, reward or distract yourself? Probably not. But, if that one event triggered off all the other events from your past and you found yourself affected by the situation, would food have been a way to deal with how you were feeling?
What if we could deal with our emotion in a new resourceful way, without the use of food or anything else as the escape? Well the solution really is simple, it is just that we were not taught this in school.
So how do we clear the emotion that holds us back? Well this is a two-step process, which starts with 'Emotional Spring Cleaning.' This is the heavy duty clean where you clear all the unsupportive emotions out of your cupboard and start with a fresh, clean , sparkling space. The best part about this process, is that you never have to discuss anything you don't want to, in order to have an emotional clean slate.
Secondly involves 'Emotional Maintenance' which you can use as required. This ensures that once you have a clean slate that you are able to deal with the emotion that arises, without the need for another 'Emotional Spring Clean.'
Put a spring in your step by following these 5 Steps to 'Emotional Maintenance' as required.
1. Acknowledge - Identify what triggered the feeling.
2. Appreciate - Be thankful for the message. Remember it is just a signal.
3. Awareness - Become curious - what is the real reason behind this? How do you want to feel instead?
4. Attitude - Shift perspective - What is great about this? What can you learn from this? Have you felt like this before and got over it?
5. Action - What are all the things you could do? What will you do?
About the Author
Think Yourself Slim believe that the solution to long term sustainable health and weight loss lies within each person, and until we address what is really going on under the surface, it doesn't matter what restricted diet and forced exercise program we start, we end up losing the same weight over and over again. The journey of long term health and weight loss starts by removing what has held us back, so that results are so much easier, and sustainable! For more information, visit them at www.think-yourself-slim.com.au or www.facebook.com/ThinkYourselfSlim
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