When I was a child I was a SLOWWWW eater.
So slow, my brother would often come back into the kitchen to try and help me finish eating so I wouldn’t get in trouble.
So slow, that my mom would eventually put a timer on in the kitchen for an additional half hour at the kitchen table and I STILL wouldn’t be done.
So slow, that I’d forfeit my dessert because I just couldn’t get myself to eat what I didn’t want to eat.
I wasn’t so invested in food.
Food did what it needed to do: Relieve my hunger and occasionally be part of celebration with friends and family (think pool parties with orange creamsicles)
Ironically, the younger I was, the more in touch I was with what I was really hungry for. I’d eat and there naturally came a point I wasn’t hungry for more food. I was ‘hungry’ to play Freeze with my brother and neighborhood friends in my backyard until dusk when we had to get ready for bed.
How about you? What was your eating experience like as a child?
For many of us, food took its proper place in our life.
But it seems with adulthood, we’ve lost connection to what we are really hungry for. Our outlets for play may have dwindled, our connection to what we really love may have also become blurry as we’ve stepped into roles as mothers, caretakers, or professionals.
This can often be the point where food is no longer given the job of simply nourishing our bodies so we can live our lives.
Food and eating quirks are rarely just food problems alone.
They often point to areas that need a little more lovin’, a soulful life that has been neglected, an emotional energy that is looking to be heard or integrated, and so much more.
To be healthy, whole women, requires committed care.
Care that starts with the body and yet moves in, in, in to what is happening in our minds, hearts, and psyches.
True self-care requires a re-connection with our natural selves, skill to navigate the fluctuations of our inner worlds and feelings, strength to draw on outer resources to help support us when things feel overwhelming, and commitment to tending to the longings of our hearts, our creative life, and spiritual life.
Often we are not taught how to really care for ourselves in this way.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but self-care these days typically starts and ends with diet and exercise alone. Mindfulness practices have become more mainstream as well which is great news.
But in addition, we need to learn how to satisfy and meet ourselves with our multiple needs.
Our needs for:
Nourishment and nutrition
Empathy and understanding
Love and respect
Discernment and safety
Comfort and attunement
Play and levity
Sensuality
The Divine
When we are able to meet ourselves fully, our fixation on food and our body image can take it’s proper place. We know when we need to soften, hang back, and receive. We know when to draw on more direct lines of energy and get things done. We know when to surrender ourselves to forces greater than us alone and how to create spaciousness for this. Seem impossible? It’s not. It takes some time, some practice, and some space to explore. I want to help you get a wind in your sails. Enrollment is officially open today for my LIVE workshop series, The Healthy Woman! Each month we specifically focus on one pillar of deeper self-care for women: Our physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual well-being. Participants have often expressed gratitude for the month in between workshops to integrate and implement what they are learning. Without further ado, here is the official program page with all the program details, a FAQ section, and access to register immediately to save your spot. If you feel called to join me, I’d love to have you. With love Laura Like this article? Then you might also like: Do you Binge eat?