Learning to live with my feelings
I am learning to live with my feelings. I am learning to stop and acknowledge that I am having a feeling rather than quickly trying to distract myself. My usual pattern is to distract myself with social media, texting, or having a drink. This is not easy. I often catch myself defaulting to my usual behavior.
Going through this process of attempting to lose weight is helping me to be more aware of my own emotions. When I go to reach for an alcoholic drink or mindlessly pick up my phone, I now stop and say to myself, “Wait! What are you trying to distract yourself from? What feeling are you trying to avoid?”
Often the answer comes right away and I think hmmm so this is what loneliness feels like, this is what grief is, this is anger, sadness, guilt, disappointment or frustration. Then I observe those feelings with curiosity and compassion. More often than not, taking that moment and feeling those feelings redirects me to make a healthier choice for myself. I’ll get through he alcohol craving and pour myself a glass of sparkly water or create some random but beautiful spa-like glass of water made with lemons and basil or maybe strawberries and take a moment to appreciate the beauty of that glass of water.
I am not saying this is easy. It is not. It takes a LOT of effort to be conscious and present with myself. It is so much easier to pour a drink or grab my phone and start scrolling, or do both at the same time.
One day at a time. One pound released at a time. As of this morning, I am down three pounds since I started WW exactly three weeks ago. This healing process takes patience. For me, it helps to act like a curious detective and observe how my brain defaults into predictable patterns.
I’m with you. Found myself turning to that glass of wine the past 3 evenings in despondency over Roe. Now returning to experiencing the pain to work through to the other side and how that presents itself to move forward holding strong, instead of the anguish I’m feeling. Stay the course. 💚💜
Thank you Mary. You inspire me.
I love this spa like water idea. It is a way to reward yourself. So many of us connect the glass of wine with the reward. Thanks for sharing . It is simple concept but so so so not easy!!!
Thanks for taking the time to read and commment and for being an overall awesome human.
Yay Sally👏🏼🙌🏻🎊💗
Love you, Emily! Thanks for reading. I’ve been thinking about you. Let’s connect soon.
Enjoying all your posts. They’re right on point and inspiring. Thank you.
Thank you Diane! I so appreciate you taking the time to read and comment. Happy to hear the writing is resonating with you.