Body Love ReVolution (Pt.1)
Were you on the call last night? If not, well you missed out but there is so much more to come! Register HERE! Once you’ve registered for the upcoming classes, you’ll have access to the recording from the call I talk about below. So quick, easy & worth it!
Golda’s first telesummit call was about: Intuitive Eating & Healing Through Storytelling with Dr. Anita Johnston, eating disorder specialist and author of Eating In The Light of The Moon, Eating in the Light of the Moon: How Women Can Transform Their Relationships with Food Through Myth, Metaphor, and Storytelling
When Dr. Anita Johnston began talking about recovery for disordered eaters I was surprised when she said there is a major difference than with other substance abuse. Substance abusers will always be in recovery, but someone addicted to food can recover completely in that they no longer use food the way they used to. How when you rely on something for comfort, etc, it doesn’t mean that you must continue to do so forever. Food may have saved you or helped you cope during a difficult time and there is nothing wrong with that. Embrace it! Woo! We should distinguish “substance” addiction from “process” addiction. “You can live without alcohol in our life, you cannot live without food.”
She also said labeling and diagnoses can be judgmental. Wow! Powerful statement, that. “The area to work on is cleaning up your own judgments.” Yes! I believed that I was a non-judgmental person for a long time yet found myself criticizing others simply because I could, as a past time almost. Yuck! Me? Yeah, it can happen to anyone. I learned to step back and look deep within myself before passing judgment on others. This is especially important though when judging yourself! Last night when she said something along the lines of, Push the pause button and see what the real culprit is, the real culprit is your inner critic, not your body. Wow! Yes, this is an amazing moment. I hadn’t realized (long ago) that I had an inner critic. The book “A New Earth” by Eckardt Tolle calls it your ego, but I hadn’t thought of it this way before. But it’s there and you can squash that bugger! ha!
She talked about our senses. When was the last time you allowed yourself pleasure? To feel your own skin and delight in it? “You can feel visceral stories in your body. Get back in your body, it’s your best friend.” Yes! Let’s all get back into our bodies and embrace every little thing that makes us, US! Find a movement or activity that gives you pleasure because “When we do something “to get fit” it squashes the joy of being in your body.”
She talked about Persephone and the pomegranate, she is an excellent storyteller and had be enthralled! I don’t know much Greek mythology, but I have read a fabulous book that I highly recommend called “The History of Misogyny” and it goes deeply into mythology and all misogyny throughout human history. So when she said, “Food is a symbol for mothering, nurturing. We turn to food for this when nurturing isn’t present.” I was struck by the raw honesty of that. And I don’t think nurturing is a gender biased thing, though it’s often seen and used as such in society. I appreciated her encouragement for parents, to: “Help your kids cultivate emotional literacy, so they can identify the real culprit”
I would like to end with this quote, “The area to work on is cleaning up your own judgments.” because this is something I still struggle with. I know many many do as well. It is so hard to rid yourself of this behavior, but until you do you won’t be free of it and will continue to hold it inside, against yourself and others. Give yourself the chance to love you! It’s so worth it!
Do register and attend the next class/es if you can. It’s a fun and shared experience we so rarely get. Next week Golda will have Substantia Jones of Adipositivity fame and her models. Should be a hoot! I’ll be there, will you?
Reading Eating in the Light of the Moon was a transformative experience for me. While I have some very minor quibbles with the book, overall, I felt not alone for the first time in a long time.
Somehow when I read about the summit, I thought it was something to attend, so didn’t really pay that close attention to it. Silly me.
Oh wow! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed her book. I hope you get a chance to listen to the recording from that night’s telesummit. Do register and try to attend the others if you can. I cannot wait for them! Thanks for your comment. =0)
But what is food addiction? How can we be said to be addicted to something which we need for survival? Do we even have a concept of the opposite, which would be diet addiction? (NOT anorexia.)
“When we do something “to get fit†it squashes the joy of being in your body.†For some of us, this is the only way to get ourselves moving. Not because it’s fun, but because the consequences of not doing so are worse than the temporary discomfort of doing it.
I confess to being cynical, but I’m asking whether psychology can really be separated from social paradigms. Would the concept of food addiction, for example, have meaning in a society where food is scarce? And perhaps an inner critic is necessary, and it is the intensity of criticism with which we ought to be concerned and not so much its presence.
I am way out of my range here, but I think the food addiction thing is basically when you use food for emotional reasons, specifically at a point of great distress or other severe emotional states. This can develop into a pattern and you can become addicted to the pattern of how you would eat in this severe state. Again, I am not sure I am explaining it correctly.
I do get what you’re saying though. It’s a difficult concept to understand, I think. I personally believe that psychology can be separated from social paradigms, but it’s an extremely individual experience, too. I grew up with a scarcity of food. I was poor and things like fresh fruits and vegetables were something so very special and nearly iconographic. While many kids dreamt of a bowl of candy, I dreamt of a cornucopia of fresh things! I guess I didn’t have an inner critic at that point, but I was very aware of how different I was and/or felt because of this lack. Does that make sense? Sorry. Again, I am speaking from far outside what I am versed in.