Have you ever sat down to eat buckets full of food you truthfully didn’t like?
Or picked up a habit of eating at certain times without even knowing why?
Have you ever felt like there is a force pushing you towards certain actions and you being almost powerless in your response?
Your feelings and thoughts around food are so deeply subconscious that it’s often hard to put a finger on what exactly it is you’re acting out right now. Staying on the conscious level of healing is therefor almost never enough.
Instead, we need to go deeper, way deeper and consider that you’re not really running the show here. In reality, your inner (lost, broken, fed up) child is the one who is in charge.
The child that has always been told not to eat in bed, not to eat after dinner, not to skip breakfast, not to eat too much chocolate, to finish the plate despite not being hungry or to eat the vegetables that you truthfully couldn’t stand.
Think about it: are there certain behaviors you’re doing that don’t make sense to you? Behaviors that you cannot change, no matter how much you try?
Then it’s time to heal your inner child.
Here are 5 ways to integrate your little rebel or lost dreamer. These questions will help you to move towards freedom from destructive behaviors and random food thoughts.
Become your own loving mom
When a child is in pain, all she often wants is her mom. She yearns to be held, consoled, made to feel safe. So, if your inner child is still in turmoil, imagine holding her and rocking her back and forth. Whisper sweet, loving and kind words in her ear and hold her until she feels safe and is able to trust herself again.
Don’t just imagine this but hold yourself, rock yourself back and forth, speak to yourself in sweet, calming tones. You’ll begin a healing process that is tremendously powerful.
Write a letter to the child in you
What would you want your younger self to know? What can you tell her about life? About food? About your body? How can you support her in moments that she would’ve needed some help?
Write it all down and share the best advice you can give the child in you.
Write the response from the child to you in the present
What would that little girl tell you about the way she sees life? What would she like to share with you about her needs, her wants, her dreams? How can she support you in finding your way back to your core?
Take care of your needs now
When you notice that you’re acting out a certain childhood experience over and over and over again, go back to that original memory and see what you would’ve needed back then.
Did you feel abandoned and needed unconditional love? Did you feel scared and needed compassion? Did you feel lonely and needed someone to hold your hand? Did you feel lost and needed someone to guide the way? Did you feel angry and needed someone to show you how to deal with the anger inside? Did you feel altogether too much and had no clue how to make sense of all these emotions? Did you feel overwhelmed and needed a clear plan to work through your chores?
Whatever it was that you needed all those years ago, give it to yourself in the present.
Forgive
Who do you need to forgive to let go of the past? What do you need to say to move on?
Write letters of forgiveness and let all your emotions flow onto paper, allow your feelings to emerge like never before and write from your heart until you feel complete. You may need several repetitions to feel clear and at peace with the past but every letter, every sentence and every word counts and moves you forward.
Most important of all is for you to do the work. Don’t just think about these concepts and instead take inspired action in order to steer your future into a more positive direction. Childhood experiences do not have to rule our adult lives, as painful as they may have been.
You can let them go, you deserve to take your inner child by the hand and take it with you into a more hopeful and empowered present.
