Hello and welcome to recording four of the five essential keys to ending emotional eating.
This is Ruthie Cohen Joyner with yourtappingjourney.
Com.
And today we are diving into assertiveness and truth telling.
I'm going to admit up front,
This is the most challenging one for me and for many of the women I work with.
As stated in our first recording,
Anita Johnson,
The author of the fabulous book,
Eating in the Light of the Moon,
Says that finding your voice and speaking up for yourself is the one thing that is crucial,
Absolutely crucial in healing all types of disordered eating.
She says,
And I quote,
At its core,
Disordered eating is often about communication to ourselves or to others.
When we experience something that we don't know how to put into words or are perhaps afraid to put into words,
Our bodies communicate the emotion by using food behaviors.
This is how we wind up restricting or stuffing our feelings.
Oh,
Boy,
This is a huge one,
People.
We get to learn how to identify what we are feeling,
Allow ourselves to feel it,
Move through it,
And then we get to decide how we want to handle our thoughts and feelings in an honest way with ourselves and others.
Dr.
Johnson shares her magic formula in a blog post that you can find at lightofthemooncafe.
Com forward slash assertiveness hyphen communication.
It is simply these three steps when you I feel because.
Here's a couple examples.
Maybe with a friend or partner,
It might go something like this,
When you don't text me back for a long time,
I feel ignored or unimportant because it seems like you don't care about what I have to say.
Or maybe in a conversation with your mom,
It might go something like when you talk about my weight,
I feel judged because it feels like you care more about my weight than my feelings.
Now,
You certainly don't have to stick to the exact wording of the magic formula,
But it's a starting point to learn how to speak up for yourself and speaking up for yourself starts with figuring out how you feel and what you want.
And this may be challenging for those of us who have been shut down or stuffing our feelings down for so long.
Be patient with yourself on this one.
Standing up for yourself starts with standing up to the inner critic in your head,
Befriending that part of you and turning the volume down on that critical voice and learning to be loving with yourself and others.
Unfortunately,
It starts with being honest with yourself,
And that can require slowing down and listening to your heart.
This can be scary and messy,
But you can do it.
It takes patience and practice and a lot of love,
Which brings us to the theme of our next recording on self-love.
I hope you'll check it out.
I hope you'll have a great day.
