RISING WOMEN EXPERTS...

Why does my will power keep failing me with the food?
    By Nancy Anderson Dolan of WiseHeart Wellness Services

Trying to use will power on the wrong things for the wrong purposes is one of the biggest problems in dealing with weight and eating issues! People are chronically trying to use their will power to alter the final outcome of a long, long series of other poor choices.

To make any use of the will, we have to know what it is, how to strengthen it and where and when to use it. Will power is the faculty of conscious and especially deliberate thought which creates intentional action. Will power needs to be directed at our process of thinking to effectively influence our actions.

Now this doesn’t mean that people can think themselves thin. This is because if you are struggling with a chronic eating issue, there are probably a number of other significant challenges in the way of changing your thinking. Compulsive eaters most often have very sensitive bodies, which then are chronically uncomfortable to be in. That discomfort causes problems in processing emotional experience. The combination of an uncomfortable body and unresolved emotion then combine to cause the mind to disconnect from both. People then become very unconscious of their bodies and emotions, and overactive in their conscious thought. They become unconscious to avoid the discomfort of the body and distress of unresolved emotion. They become overactive to try and figure out why all the discomfort and emotional reactivity is causing life to be such a struggle and of course, how to fix that. Extra food and even thoughts about eating helps soothe and seems to solve things, at least temporarily. Until it causes more discomfort and distress of its’ own.

So using will power to take care of our sensitive bodies, getting the awareness and assistance we need to release all that reactive emotion and training our minds to more routine, realistic and restive patterns is a great way to deal with unhealthy eating patterns. Start simply with developing the habit of compassionate awareness of your immediate physical sensations, emotional experience and predominant thoughts while eating. The build up of tension is what causes the collapse of the will, so addressing it with your gentle attention helps your state of wellbeing and develops your will. Plan your eating but then just observe what happens and explore those places where things are going off track. Your body is trying to tell you to address or change something other than the food.

Nancy would love to answers your questions or meet you at her WiseHeart Wellness Services FREE seminars. Visit www.WiseHeartWeightMastery.com  to find out how.