Debi Johnson Coaching

You’re alone on a Tuesday night at 10:00 pm with your hand in the chip bag.  I  know that you’re trying not to notice that you are eating them, but truthfully you are.  

It’s okay to eat chips.  It’s okay to take care of yourself.  It’s just in this moment be there for yourself no matter what you are doing.  You deserve the best that life can offer. When we mindlessly eat chips or anything, it pauses our mind.  It’s kind of like we leave ourselves for a brief period. 

We all have days that seem harder than others.  We come home in the evening and we want to comfort ourselves and food can seem like a warm blanket for a short time.   That’ s when the kitchen seems to call our names.   

How about if you make a decision to put the chips down?  Go ahead and walk to the kitchen & put the chips back in the cupboard?  Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Now as you sit in your chair, what is it that you really want right this minute? 
What would make you feel better? 
Are you really tired, but fighting going to bed? 
Do you need to pull out your notebook and write down what’s going on in your head right now? 
Do you need to just cry?  It’s okay to feel what you are feeling.  It’s okay to just let go and breathe. 

You see, you can take care of yourself in many ways without food and be present for yourself.  YOU need YOU and when you leave yourself with food, you miss you.   You might get to know yourself even better.  You might discover how much you rock!

Tomorrow night when the chips are taunting you again, remember that you really don’t need them after all.  You know that you have other choices.  You have the power to say no!  If you do choose to eat them, it’s okay.  Just notice what you are doing.  Don’t leave yourself, because it’s in these moments you’ll find your greatest teachers. 

Make the choice to stay in the many moments of your life.

What other suggestions might you have to avoid mindless eating?

I am very excited for 2011. 

With my theme words of LOVE, COURAGE and ACTION, I am ready to move onto this new chapter in my life. 

I just began a new Mind-Body Coach training course with Abigail Steidley, The Healthy Life Coach .  I have discovered mind-body healing in my own life and it has been instrumental in my own pain and emotional eating issues.  I am excited to take the tools that I am learning in this training course and help my own clients find more joy and freedom.

Also, in 2010 I took an intensive Martha Beck Certified Life Coach training course.  I have been coaching and working toward the hours for my certification.  I will soon be able to take the final exam and become a “Martha Beck Certified Life Coach”. 

This quote found me this week, “Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are,” ~ Marianne Williamson.  It reminds me that the more that I savor the life that I have now and notice the joy, the more that I welcome the next adventures God has planned for me.   

As my my friend and mentor Jennifer Voss says “This or something so much better“.  It’s loving, appreciating and relaxing into where I am at right now, but being ready for what I have been working and praying for.    

Thank you for your ongoing encouragement and glad you stopped by.

I watched Portia de Rossi on Oprah Winfrey earlier this week talking about her book Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain.  I thought Portia was very courageous in discussing and writing about her eating disorder with such truth and detail. 

She made a statement that brought tears to my eyes,  “No matter how much I ate, it wouldn’t fill the hole”. 

The Hole.
 
I knew exactly what she was talking about.  I’ve been there.  In my past and even now if I’m not true to myself, I’ll reach for food to fill the hole, the void, that’s deep inside of me.  I’d go on binge after binge so that I couldn’t feel the sinking emptyness.  It was a hole in my heart and I wanted it to go away.  It scared me!  It seemed to be apart of me.  What was in it?  Why was it even there! 

But I later learned the hole was there for a reason.  It turned out to be my most important teacher.

In order to stop stuffing the hole, I needed to feel the lifetime of emotions I’d been pushing away.  Fear and sadness were the scary emotions that took refuge in my body.  I had to find out that they wouldn’t knock me down; that my feelings wouldn’t kill me.  I needed to feel them and not stuff them down with food.  I grew up thinking that I had to silence my feelings, that they didn’t matter, that I didn’t matter.  I now realize that me and my feelings matter very much.  I now feel all of my feelings.  I actually live.      

For the hole to leave, I needed to fill it with LOVE & ACCEPTANCE of myself.  I kept looking outside of myself to others for approval, but I needed my own approval.  The day came when I was able to look in the mirror at my eyes and feel a deep love for the reflection looking back.  I learn more and more every day that, “hey, I totally 100% accept me, Debi Johnson exactly as I am body, mind and soul”. 

Can you relate to what Portia was talking about? Do you have a hole deep inside of you that you try to fill?  I would love to hear what you have to say about this. 

That hole that lives in our hearts….needs love.

I’ve noticed that when I am lost in my ego, engrossed in my own agenda and woes, my life feels like it’s at a dead end.
It only changes when I take my mind off myself and open my heart to others.
When I see the world from their eyes and from their point of view, my own life opens up.  

I went to Starbucks yesterday, sat with my latte and just noticed.  I made a point to look into the eyes of others.  I opened my ears to what they were saying to one another.  I only heard fragments of conversations, but I made a point to connect with my fellow coffee drinkers in that moment.  It may sound funny, but it really felt like magic.  My mind wasn’t focused on myself, but on them.  I found joy.  

I realize that “It’s in the letting go of myself, that I find myself”, what an amazing realization! Wayne Dyer says,  “ego stands for Edging God Out”, I don’t want that in my life.  I want to make a daily conscience choice to “Let God In”. 

I guess that’s what I am trying to say in this blog.  I’ve come to know that being there for others with a kind word, a smile, a prayer, or just listening to them, opens up a world of possibilities for everyone. 

Try it.  Walk into a public place and notice the other people.  Be there in that very moment.  See them.  Hear them.  Instead of being into your own agenda, open up your heart to a piece of theirs.  What if they are grumpy?  Even better!  Say hello.  Send a smile.  Just send them good energy from your heart.  You have no way of knowing what’s going on in their world.  See if you can soften their hardness.  Just imagine how good that would feel for both of you. 

I think if we all just made that connection even just a little more, the world would be a happier place.