People say to me…
“I can’t stop graze eating all day”
“I eat when I’m alone”
“I eat in the evenings”
“I eat every time I come into the house”
“I can’t have certain foods in the house or I just eat the lot”
What is this about?
Geneen Roth says there are two parts of our personality that make us eat in unkind ways – the unruly child, and the strict adult.
The unruly child pays no heed to past experience, future consequences, or present hunger, it just wants pleasure now.
The strict adult tries to put manners on the unruly child using force, discipline, rules, diets, criticism and shame. The controlling adult tells us which foods are good and bad. The unruly child rebels, the adult comes up with more rules, and the inner struggle continues, often for a life time.
There is another way – we can learn to recognise these voices but not believe them, instead we can learn to trust the adult voice. The voice of balance, presence, kindness, and curiosity.
The adult voice says things such as…
“you are hungry, if kindness were talking, how and what would you eat now?”
“slow down, take your time, taste your food, chew, notice when enough is enough”
“you mix up tiredness with hunger. what would be a more nourishing thing to do than eat when you are tired.”
“you want some food for comfort – okay, that’s fine, enjoy it, how much do you really need? after the first few mouthfuls are you really tasting what you are eating or has the unruly child returned?”
Grace will allow you to recognise these voices. Practice returning to yourself over and over again will help you to over them.
