Stability and Self-care

A while ago I had a heartening discussion with a client who was finally able to keep her self-care consistent and was amazed at the difference it made in her eating and her life. Here are a few ideas we came up with that underlie her transformation, along with several metaphors that helped in maintaining her stability and consistency. Talking about how often she’d felt “depleted” which would drive her to eat, she shared how she’d recently turned this situation around by making several changes at once. First, she refused to allow her spouse to constantly criticize and talk down to her. Second, she began taking time for herself, including walking for 15 minutes daily and having a quiet cup of tea when she felt tense. These actions alone made her feel more solid and whole. By practicing ongoing self-care, when she entered a period of stress, she felt up to managing it and didn’t need to rush off to eat. She said that in the past, she would have told herself she needed food to sustain her, but found that, in fact, she now had reserves for what needed to be done as long as she took care of herself. Feeling stronger in her emotional core led to discussing how we all want to feel firmly rooted but not so rigidly that we can’t go with the flow. Like a tree, we want to be able to bend slightly to and fro in the wind, not be snapped in half by it. Also, with a firmer center, she was less reactive to her outside environment. She could let it swirl around outside of her ...
Source: Normal Eating - Category: Eating Disorders Authors: Source Type: blogs