Do You Trust Yourself?
When it comes to your relationship with food and health one of the areas worth exploring is the issue of Self-Trust.
Please take a moment and ask yourself the following:
Do I trust myself?
Do I trust myself to know what to eat, when to eat, how much I should eat?
Do I trust myself to know whether to sleep, exercise, take a break from working?
Do I trust my body enough that I make the time to listen and understand the messages that it’s sending me?
Do I trust in my body’s ability to heal?
After 10 years as a holistic health coach, I’ve come to know that Trusting our Bodies and ultimately, ourselves, is the core of well being.
We are all born with Self Trust. As newborn babies and toddlers we came into this world filled with awe and wonder about our miraculous bodies. We didn’t worry if the other babies at the playground had thinner thighs or if our diapers made our butts look big!
Then somewhere along the line we got the message from well-meaning people in our lives, the medical system, toxic diet culture or trauma that our bodies were wrong, unacceptable and not worthy of our trust.
So, we began to take our attention away from our bodies and took up residence in our heads and gave away power to our busy minds.
We began to believe that we needed a drill sergeant in our head to keep our bodies in control. And when it came to food and weight and body shape, shame and guilt became normal ways to motivate ourselves to be “all that you can be”.
And I’m calling out not just the hyped diet gimmicks but also so many of the “clean eating” and “boot camp” tactics as well that perpetuate this debilitating belief that YOU and YOUR BODY cannot be trusted when it comes to your health.
It truly breaks my heart to see so many people give away their power to external sources like the diet industry, medical system and big pharma because down deep they believe that when it comes to their bodies, someone else always knows best.
Clients come to me saying: “I wish someone would just tell what to eat already” or “No matter what I do I feel like my body is against me” or “I feel like I’m trapped in the wrong body”.
When I see how they are at war with their bodies, my job is to guide them back to learning how to trust their bodies again.
When you mistrust your body, it creates anxiety, stress and derails the body’s healing process.
But the opposite is equally as true. When you start to feed and move your body in nourishing ways, it responds with ease and balance.
Bottomline, Self-Trust is not only literally your birthright, I believe it’s exactly what allows the body to heal.
Your body has a vast intelligence to share with you, if you slow down enough to really listen and connect to daily life with ALL your senses.
When you learn to trust your body by having more compassion, more curiosity, more appreciation, you cultivate a deeper connection with your whole being.
When you re-direct your energy and focus on the inside of you with patience and kindness, you can feel what’s really going on. Hint: It’s not actually the carbs!
You get in touch with the “real” issues in your life that need healing. Toxic relationship, unfulfilling job, lack of purpose, not enough healthy food, not enough sleep, lack of meal planning, not enough downtime, too much exercise, not enough fun, unprocessed grief, pent up anger, etc.….
It may seem scary, I know, I’ve been there. Learning to trust yourself is a journey, but take heart, the beautiful thing is that you can start right in this moment and the healing happens every step of the way.
