Chrissie Webber works as a writer, business coach and motivation/ leadership trainer and is Managing Director of Life-Shapers Ltd, an online weight-loss motivation company. With over 20 years experience in the field of business and people development she has an expertise in the area of motivation for permanent weight loss.
Following a lifetime of weight issues - at her heaviest, over 21 stone and a massive size 30 – she has personal experience of diets and their devastating effect on size and psyche. With a background in nursing, psychology and business coaching, coupled with a lifetime of dieting, she developed and successfully used a series of models and tools that enhance weight loss motivation. Now over 5 dress sizes smaller and having sustained her weight loss for several years, Chrissie continues her passionate drive to change the mindsets of people away from a ‘Scarcity’ dieting mindset – where food is demonised as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ – to an ‘Abundance’ mindset where mind, body and spirit work hand in hand with food and nature.
Have you ever considered how much time your mind is focussed in negative mode? The time we spend ruminating on past or present issues can have one major effect on us – it can raise our stress levels. This is not always apparent as we may not feel particularly stressed. However, consider for a moment how much more you comfort eat when your mind is stuck in negative thinking.
The more we struggle with these thoughts, try to problem solve them, fight against them, and the emotional turmoil they can create, the more we can get deeper and deeper into the negativity trap. What I never realised, for many years, was that all my efforts to escape these negative thoughts and the pain they brought with them, only lead me into withdrawing from the world and eating more and more.
Positive affirmations were helpful at times but still didn’t solve the problem of my comfort eating. The power of overcoming inappropriate eating habits actually lies, not in trying to avoid or escape the negative thoughts and their associated emotions but, in actually welcoming them inquisitively and letting them drift away. Being in the moment, as much as possible, without fighting the flow of thoughts; acknowledging them inquisitively and letting them go offers a freedom from the stressful battle in your mind.
This method of ‘Mindfulness’ has dramatic effects on your life when practiced on a daily basis. It allows you to develop the skill of living in the present moment. Regular practice enables your mind to quieten its negative chattering in order to experience the power of the present. It is in these moments that reality lives; at peace with the natural flow of life, unhindered and uninfluenced by past or future rumination.
This is where true peace lies. It is this peace that frees us from the need to comfort eat. So what methods can you use to aid you in your search for mindful moments during each day? Here are a few that you can start using right now…
Ø Singing and playing a musical instrument– especially when you focus on the music resonating through your body;
Ø Listening to music intently – becoming rapped up in it;
Ø Mindfulness breathing – concentrating fully on your in and out breath, allowing your thoughts to drift in and out as they do and each time refocusing on your breathing;
Ø Gardening – being in touch with nature as you work;
Ø Physical exercise – especially where you focus your mind on the movements of your body;
Ø Yoga / Pilates / Martial Arts and other forms or exercise where the mind in trained to be in touch with every movement of the body;
Ø Meditation – both quiet and guided formats where the mind is being trained to slow down its thought processes. Creating space every day for this type of activity is more beneficial than you could ever envisage. It reduces the guilt, shame and self-loathing instilled in us by years of playing the dieting game. It reduces the stress in our lives that has us reaching out for the false comfort of food. It reduces the time we waste each day worrying about things that may never happen, stressing about what we ‘should not’ have eaten when it’s already done and can’t be changed. And most importantly, it reduces the amount we beat ourselves up mentally, reinforcing within our own minds that we are ‘bad’, weak willed or just ‘not good enough’ because of our size, shaper or weight.
The truth of the matter is that you are unique, wonderful and loveable, right now, no matter what your weight or size. These techniques of being in the moment allow you to see, feel and believe this, as your rumination reduces and you live more and more in the reality of the present moment. That is the true gift of life.
