If you?re reading this article, then it is likely that you or someone you are close to is struggling with overeating, compulsive eating, some kind of food addiction, or with being overweight. These kinds of problems are endemic in today?s society, where we are surrounded by convenience, packaged, low-nutrition food, and it tends to be much easier to eat this than the healthier options.
Most likely, you have tried quite a few ways to overcome your problems in this area. Maybe other therapies, or maybe just willpower. And probably you?re feeling disappointed, frustrated and that you?ll never be able to find a way out. Well, you?re in the right place if you?re really ready to change your relationship with food. The therapies I work with and the approach I have devised from my own personal (ongoing) journey with food are able to provide a solid framework to support lasting change in this area.
In my opinion, from working with different people in the area of food, gaining some kind of control over this area of our lives can have huge ?knock on? benefits in other areas of our lives, particularly if it is an issue we have been struggling with for a while. It is my experience that our relationship with food can reflect and mirror other areas of our lives. Often, if we are out of control with food, that may well be mirrored in our relationship with money. Similarly, a difficult relationship with food can often reflect poor self esteem, and this will also often be played out in our relationships with other people ? both friends and partners.
It is also my experience from my work with clients, and my own personal journey that our relationship to food and the way we eat can be hugely complex, and multi- layered. It is often tied up with giving ourselves and others love; my mother has been hugely challenged by not being able to offer me the normal sweet and heavy food to show me love (this has changed since I have educated her in the delights of raw food desserts!) It can also be linked to social norms; one of my clients told me that she regularly eats things she considers unhealthy when she goes out just because she does not want to appear different from her friends.
For these reasons, I have found that a multi- stepped approach is the most likely to lead to success.
When I am working with clients, the first step is for them to reflect on the reasons they are overeating (eating the wrong foods etc), what they may be gaining by overeating, and most importantly why they want to move forward. It is often the case that people will say that they want to lose weight. And yet, they may have been trying to do this for a very long time ? often most of their life! And so, it?s not something that has motivated them to change yet. So, I work with my clients to find a deeper reason for wanting to change. This can be something like wanting to feel brighter and freer, wanting to take control of their lives (in all senses ? not just food) or wanting to feel ?at home? in their bodies. Sometimes, of course, the threat of illness can also be a strong motivating factor.
Once this ?vision? is committed to, the second step is to do some energy work ? either energy healing or the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT.) This energy work can help to go back to the roots of the cause of overeating. This is often an event or series of events in childhood that caused a lot of distress. It may be a learned behaviour pattern (again from childhood): being given sweet food as a reward, or indeed being given sweet food to compensate for something going wrong. Going back to these events using either energy healing or EFT can release the blocked energy associated with these issues, which in turn leads to behavioural change.
This leads to the next step. I always teach my clients EFT, so that they are able to use it on their own as a self help tool. EFT is a very simple yet powerful technique which can be used when you are in the grip of a craving, or to set the intention for the day ahead. So, in between sessions with me, clients can be using EFT when they feel like eating the wrong thing; and they can use it at the beginning and end of the day to set the intention to eat healthily, or to be in line with the vision they identified in step 1.
The final part of the approach I use is diet itself. Whilst I am not certified in nutrition, I have read a huge amount about food, and different supplements, both in respect to myself and my own healing journey and that of my friends and clients (it?s something I am really interested in!) ? and I also know a lot about the energy of food, as that was part of my energy healing course. So, I will generally recommend that clients start to introduce certain foods in to their diets; as they introduce the healthier food and are starting to get more nutrients into their body, they will also be drawn to eat less unhealthy food. A virtuous spiral!
So, that is a summary of my 4 stage approach to changing diet and eating habits.
Fiona Cutts is an Integrated Energy Healer based in Manchester, UK. She gives one to one healing sessions in person as well as by Skype and phone. To see more about her and how she works, see http://www.fionacuttsenergyhealing.co.uk/ To read more about the inner child healing technique mentioned in the article see http://fionacuttsenergyhealing.co.uk/blog/2011/02/11/inner-child-healing/
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