I just got home after presenting a workshop on how hypnosis can be utilised in helping people recover from eating disorders.
It was so much fun.
I love introducing people to two topics that couldn’t be more awash with stigma and misunderstanding!
Eating disorders
And
Hypnosis.
I am having one of those moments of appreciation knowing I genuinely and wholeheartedly love what I get to do for work.
I have regular moments where it hits me how absolutely enamoured, I am with the work that I do and right now as I share these words with you is one such moment.
It’s fun.
It’s challenging.
It’s rewarding.
And no two days are the same.
The lessons, the learnings and the options for improvement are endless.
I wasn’t one of those fortunate people who knew early on exactly what they wanted to do with their life in terms of career path.
It took me until I was 28yrs old to figure out or rather accidently discover what I felt was a valuable use of my time on this planet because I’d always known I wanted the work I did to have purpose and meaning.
I guess looking back I always knew I wanted to be of help and to make the world a better place.
Just my understandings and capabilities of how to contribute to making the world a better place have improved, exponentially.
It took me a hell of a ride leading up to the moment I knew.
I went in all sorts of directions and took paths left, right, centre and everything in between.
Who knows I might find something else down the track because I sure never imagined even8 years ago that I’d become a hypnotherapist but for now I am speechless over how much I love what I get to do.
You Have Options
I love sharing about hypnosis and eating disorders.
I love helping people make meaningful changes in their lives.
I love helping people make meaningful changes in their lives that they have often given up on making.
I love the moment where I can see in their eyes that they know that they feel different.
I love the moment where I can see in their eyes that they know that things are going to be different now.
I love the moment where I can see in their eyes the amazement at the possibility ahead of them.
I love it.
I love it.
I love it.
As I sit here thinking about how much I love my work and write these words to let you know how much I love my work I am going to add a tangent that if finding a job that has meaning and purpose to you is something you desire and something you are struggling to do you may just have to stop trying to find it and create it.
Like me, you may not fit into any of the existing boxes.
And that’s ok.
You can stop trying to make yourself.
There are other options no one may have presented you with and which you may not yet be aware of.
The other thing I realise as I’m typing and sharing my insight with you is that I am eating.
I’m eating pistachios, dried apricots and peanutbutter.
It’s 5:04pm.
It’s not a meal.
I am not particularly hungry.
And yet, I’m munching away between touches of the keyboard.
Not because I have to, not because I even really, really want to but mostly just because they are there.
Because I can.
It hasn’t always been that way…
Rewind
Rewind to the years I lived with anorexia nervosa and these kind of “snack moments” weren’t a part of my reality.
They weren’t a part of what I ever believed possible for me.
Every meal, every snack was pre-planned perfectly and organised into my day.
There were times I could eat and times I couldn’t eat.
There were amounts I could eat and amounts I couldn’t eat.
There were types of foods I could eat and types of foods I couldn’t eat.
There were types of foods I could eat at some times and in some situations and not in others.
The rules around eating were extravagant.
I am not sure I ever truly believed eating would be “just eating” ever again.
The concepts of “spontaneous”, “flexible” or “intuitive” eating all sounded mythical.
I certainly couldn’t have imagined this very moment munching my random snacks typing these words on a blog page where for almost 5 years I have candidly shared with you (and the world) the parts of my life I was once gut wrenchingly ashamed of.
Now
The past month has been really busy.
My partner and I have been packing up, combining and moving two homes, amidst a lot of work and fun life events.
We haven’t had as much time as usual to buy and plan and make and eat food.
There’s been multiple times we’ve eaten out or had UberEats delivered.
Things that just weren’t possible when I lived with anorexia nervosa.
And I feel grateful that this is an option available to me now.
It’s made life so much easier.
So much simpler.
So much more enjoyable.
It’s not something I learned through reading a book, being told or even taught how to “eat flexibly and spontaneously” because by definition flexible and spontaneous eating cannot be preplanned.
It’s something that happened naturally along the path of recovery.
Until at some point I realised it was just a part of my life in a similar way that brushing my hair is a part of my life.
Ideally this is how we should all eat, and it is how we are all born eating.
Flexibly.
Spontaneously.
Intuitively.
Until or unless some outside circumstances impact our food choices in a way that steers us away from that.
Most of the people I work with don’t believe it’s possible to be an intuitive, flexible or spontaneous eater again.
They often have been told or come to believe the eating disorder is something they’ll have to manage for the rest of their lives and the best they can do is struggle and fight with themselves to eat just barely adequately.
It’s not true.
You can live with an eating disorder and go on to fully recover and fully recover includes intuitive, flexible and spontaneous eating.
Full recovery includes trusting your body, mind and soul.
Summary
And you might not think it’s much to be able to do these things.
Eat spontaneously.
Eat intuitively.
Eat flexibly.
Even if you’re living with an eating disorder you might not think it’s much in comparison to the bigger and more meaningful changes you want to make and you are right but not entirely.
And you’re right.
It’s not but in comparison to not being able to do it I can’t even explain how monumentally different that allows for your experience of life to become.
Don’t let the ED tell you it’s too small and not worth it.
Never underestimate the power of the “small things”.
The small things are the things that our lives are made up of.
The small things are your life.
With my whole heart I hope you found this information useful and inspiring.
Become Great. Live Great.
Bonnie.
