Weight Loss Tip: Feel LIFE

I have fought my emotions for a large part of my life.

I thought I was unique, but I have learned that lots of people are uncomfortable with emotions.

We have emotions...that is part of being human. And we are taught early on not to express them...or not to express certain emotions...at least in public.

Little boys are taught not to cry. Little girls are taught not to be angry. Stereotypes of course...but you get the picture. We are pretty much taught to try to keep it calm all our lives. Like that is possible!

We are hushed if we get too excited, perked up if we are too quiet. We are soothed if we are upset.

We are made to feel like our emotions are wrong...or bad...or by extension we are wrong or bad.

Our emotions aren't good or bad...they just are. We were given emotions for some reason...so I'm sure they serve a purpose. I don't have to enjoy the roller coaster that I sometimes feel, but it does seem that I have to take the ride from time to time.

I used to try to squelch my emotions. I thought I could control my feelings...love, hate, fear. All I did was keep them at bay temporarily. When they got really big I ate to feel better. Trouble was I had to eat more and more just to get by...not to feel good...just to not feel bad.

That did not work out well for me. I wound up fat. Really fat. Then I still felt bad...and I was fat.

That is when I decided I had to make a change. I started to allow myself to actually feel life. I started to feel joy...to actually seek it out. I stopped to watch a sunrise and feel the peace that rose in my heart--joining the sky on it's journey across the sky.

I found little things that brought me pleasure...the details in a flower, the tenacity of a bug, the shifting shapes in the clouds through my window, the sun on my cheek.

I also began to allow myself to feel some sadness, some disappointment...without eating...without drowning it.

What surprised me is the sadness was short-lived. It might have been more intense without a pint of Ben & Jerry's numbing effect, but it lived and died quickly...no longer held captive by the sugar it did not have to linger. And I didn't add to the disappointment...by adding my regrets about what I ate to the mix.

Life happens. We cannot truly appreciate the joys if we never experience any lows. Do I wish people to be unhappy? For as brief a moment as possible. In order to do that, you have to feel it and let it go.

Stop self-medicating your life away. You will have more joy...and you will lose weight, too!