Thank-you so much Dannette for your insight and sharing.

"When Food Is Love"

In the years I've been doing this work, what I've learned is that many, many people have an issue with food.

You see, food is associated with love.  When we were born, the way we knew we were loved was to be held, to be cherished and to be fed.  And for for many of us, food continues to be associated with love.

We turn to food when we’re lonely, when we’re sad, when we’re bored, when we’re angry, when we’re grief stricken.  We turn to it FOR love, for comfort.

And what you need to do is separate food from love, while still allowing food to be a source of delight, wonder, thrill, excitement, and pleasure.

We want, and need, to learn -- is how to have food become just food.

And how love can become just love.

And how we can start loving, cherishing and honoring ourselves in a more kind and honest way.

The wonderful thing about food -- is that we get to eat it every day.  Unlike alcohol, drugs, or cigarettes, which you don’t need to have to live.  Yet, you need food to live.  Which means that it still gets to be a source of pleasure for you.  You can learn how to taste, eat, and be satisfied on a daily basis.

There's a saying that states “How you do anything is how you do everything”

I often say  -- “How you eat is how you live”

Which means that every belief that you have about being alive on this earth translates into your relationship with food.  Every belief you have about abundance, satisfaction, joy, deprivation, not having enough, having enough, pleasure, suffering -- it ALL comes out through your relationship with food.

Because you’re the one having the relationship -- you’re the one having those beliefs -- you act out on those beliefs in every arena of your life -- including the arena with food.

Yet for so many people, about their relationship with food -- in fact about their lives -- are so ready to “get there”, “be there”, so focused on the goal.  So believing that life is what happens after you get there.

And  I want you to know, is that your relationship with food -- it’s a process, it’s a journey, it’s an adventure.  It continues.  And it continues to be refined.

For myself, though my weight has been stable for a few years now -- my relationship with food keeps getting MORE refined.  Keeps opening up.  Keeps unfolding.  I keep learning more about myself.

And I keep treating myself, and my body, with kindness.

You see, too often, we think that we'll be kind to ourselves and kind to our bodies when we get thin.

Yet you can start practicing -- right now. 

You don’t have to wait until you’re at your natural or ideal weight to start being kind to yourself.  Kindness is possible in this very instant, and in fact, that kindness is why you want to get to your natural weight.

Treating yourself with love is why you think you need to be thin.  You secretly think:

“If I’m thin, then I’ll be loveable”

"If I’m thin, then I’ll deserve to be treated kindly”

Well how about this?:    You deserve it RIGHT NOW, right here.

You don't have to wait until you're thin or at your ideal weight to be kind.

Be kind NOW.  Love is already there, inside of you.  You just need to be open to seeing it.

So take a look -- and be kind. Starting today.  Starting right now.

© Dinneen Diette.  All Rights Reserved.