Your life is a sacred journey.
It is about change,
Growth,
Discovery,
And continually expanding your vision of what is possible.
I'm your host Erin Geraghty,
Certified recovery coach and yoga therapist.
And this is Thriving After Addiction,
Where I teach you how to heal yourself from the inside out.
Hello,
Welcome back to Thriving After Addiction.
This is Erin.
Today's meditation is how to manage binge eating and impulse control.
I've had this meditation requested from a few students of mine,
And I know that I can help because with my past,
I was bulimic for 12 years,
And I had a alcohol and pill problem about 10 years.
So I want you to take a comfortable seat,
Breathe,
And know that you're in the right place.
You're with someone who's been on one side and the other side,
And I'm here to compassionately guide you.
Notice the feeling of your body in the chair.
Notice any small feelings of your clothes on your skin.
Notice the feeling when you inhale and exhale.
And notice any clenching you might have around your abdominals or shoulders.
Relax your face.
And start to lengthen your breath.
Pranayama literally means to lengthen life force.
So when you breathe in and out through your nose in conscious lengthened breaths,
You're essentially lengthening your vitality.
And when you do this,
Inhaling and exhaling ribbons of air in and out of your nostrils,
You are soothing your nervous system,
And you will start to feel a little bit more grounded and a little bit less impulsive.
Impulse is an affliction of the mind.
We have pain on the inside or discomfort that we don't know how to reach,
And so the mind tries to solve the problem by offering these external things to soothe the feeling we have within.
The only problem with this is that when we become attached to this mechanism,
It can harm us.
We forget that we have the ability to soothe ourselves from the inside out.
We forget that we have the ability to process these deep stuck emotions,
And we forget that our answers are within.
Imagine holding loving space around your belly,
Your heart,
Your throat,
Anywhere you feel clenching or tightness.
And just choosing to go directly into the area you've been resisting.
And see as you breathe,
If you can start to very gently and organically lengthen your spine.
Almost imagine this Kundala,
This coil at the base of the spine unraveling itself,
Allowing energy to flow through,
Allowing yourself to process anything you've been clenching down on,
Anything you've been trying to figure out.
You don't have to figure it out.
You can just breathe,
Create space,
And allow the discomfort to flow out of you.
Trust that your body can process it.
Again,
We reach for these things out of impulse,
Whether it be food or drugs or alcohol,
Because we forget we have this ability so quickly we forget.
I'm here to remind you that you are resourceful,
You are resilient,
And that you have the power within you to process these deep stuck emotions,
And that they don't have to rule your life.
They don't.
Feel everything you can in this safe space.
Feel your breath entering and leaving your body.
Feel the areas where you're clenching or have tightness.
Feel your spine as it lengthens very gently.
Direct your breath now into your back body.
And allow your shoulders to drop down and away from the lower jawline.
Allow your upper cheekbones to drop down and away from the lower eyelid.
And allow your forehead to broaden and soften as your inner ears relax.
And you soften the sides of your neck.
Becoming the vessel,
Breathe.
Be the vessel for energy to flow through you like a river.
Take a step back and allow everything that needs to be funneled through to move through.
Once you have space and things have started to move through,
Your mind might still be grasping for some logic,
For some sense.
I'm here to remind you that what you are seeking,
You cannot find with so much food.
You cannot find by drinking yourself until you're numb.
You cannot find with taking so many pills to control the fluctuations of your emotions.
You've forgotten that you can process them.
I know it's easy to forget.
Come back to them.
The satisfaction that you want is on the inside.
Of the self,
Through the self,
To the self.
You must go through.
When we numb,
When we place a layer on top,
It's just going to keep coming back,
Keep coming back.
And you know,
You know this,
That when you numb,
You can still kind of feel it.
It's still there.
It still haunts you.
I'm here as a gentle voice of compassion and love to remind you that if you binge,
Right,
If you drink so much,
If you start taking the pills that you promised yourself you wouldn't take anymore,
It's not going to do the trick.
It's not going to get you there where you want to go.
It's simply a distraction and then those feelings are going to come up again,
Even stronger.
You know these things.
You know I'm here to tell you and be a messenger because I've been there.
And any time my mind goes back into that space,
I remember the deeper peace.
I remember that those things simply won't do what I think they will.
And we take a pause,
Practicing that pause,
Breathing,
Giving yourself at least 10 minutes to breathe when you have an impulse,
To take a step back,
Think about how you'll feel afterwards when you do it.
And then think about how you would feel afterwards if you chose not to.
You've worked so hard.
You've come so far.
You don't need those things.
Breathe,
Nourish yourself,
But you don't have to hurt yourself.
Love,
This patience and love,
It's a skill,
My love.
It's a skill.
We must practice it every day and some days it's harder,
Especially right now with everything that's going on.
I know it's hard.
It's hard.
I know.
I know it's hard.
Breathe,
Cry tears if you need to cry tears.
Feel what you need to feel.
Reach out where you need to reach out.
It's okay because you can do hard things.
You can make it through to the other side.
You can.
You know you can.
I'm here just to remind you that you can.
And so breathe.
Think of the emotion that you most desire,
Joy,
Happiness,
Contentment,
Relief.
And allow it to flow through your entire body.
Breathe,
Feel it,
Create it.
As you breathe,
You fill it up,
You expand it,
You stretch it within your body until your entire body vibrates with this chosen emotion.
Keep allowing this vibration to move through you.
You've created it.
You deserve it.
And you can choose it over and over again.
Just remember again,
You created this.
You don't need these outside things.
And it's okay that you forgot.
I'm here.
And I'll be here as long as you need me to be.
Whenever you forget,
Just come back to yourself over and over and over again.
Thank you so much for listening.
Namaste.
