Did you know that May is National Salad Month in the U.S.?

Got me to thinking—what is a salad? Yes, it is often that small plate of greens served before or along with a meal. But it can be so much more than that, so today I am going to explore simply salads!

Wikipedia says:

Salad is a non-runny, ready-to-eat dish made of heterogeneous ingredients in a wet or once wet base served chilled or at a moderate temperature. Many people use the word “salad” to describe light, savory leafy vegetable dishes often served with a sauce or dressing but the category usually additionally includes dishes made of such ingredients as fruits, grains, meats, seafood, and sweets. It has been pointed out that is difficult to define what is meant by the term “salad” – many salads use raw vegetable, but some salads use cooked ingredients, and most salads use vegetables, but such things as fruit salads also exist.

Hmm… so this is a bit more challenging to write about than I thought, but here goes…

If you are among the hundreds (thousands? millions?) who consider a salad boring, try this when preparing your own salad:

1. Use a mixture of greens. I recommend avoiding iceberg lettuce and choosing instead romaine, spinach, kale, leaf lettuces, etc. You can purchase these by the head or already cut up in bags (my preference is organic and that’s another whole, long story).
2. Add some crunch: celery, jicama, carrots, bell peppers, radishes, broccoli, etc. Trader Joe’s sells my favorite: Healthy 8 Chopped Veggies, already cut up for convenience.  Note: I’d suggest paying attention to the “Dirty Dozen List” that says that bell peppers are among the 12 most contaminated vegetables in terms of pesticides, and choose organic when purchasing bell peppers. They are so yummy, I often eat a whole one as if it were an apple! 
3. Add protein. It can be chicken, eggs, cheese, meat, etc. Or go vegetarian and add beans. Nuts or seeds too.
4. Many people think salads are great for keeping their calories down, but if you load on the dressing, it’s no longer a low-calorie food. You can simply dress your salad with olive oil and vinegar (there are many varieties including balsamic, wine, and so many more) or maybe just splash on some lemon juice and olive oil.

Here is my favorite Festive Slaw recipe 

• 6 C. shredded green cabbage
• 1 T. Celtic Salt
• 4 T. unrefined sesame oil
• 4 T. fresh lemon juice
• Mix salt and cabbage and let sit while you squeeze a lemon or two!
• Add sesame oil and lemon juice
• Add 1 package Trader Joe’s organic broccoli slaw and/or Healthy 8 vegetables (it depends on the amount of liquid)

Mix well together.

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As a counselor and former binge eater, I know from experience (mine and my clients) that many of you might like to choose healthy eating, but the potato chips, ice cream, or cookies keep screaming your name. If that describes you, then Stop Eating Your Heart Out: The 21-Day Program to Free Yourself from Emotional Eating could be just the solution you’ve been seeking.

Disclaimer: I am neither a nutritionist nor a dietician, but I do tout healthy, conscious eating. My book focuses on curbing emotional eating and has very little mention of food and is a great adjunct for whatever food plan or program you are doing.

It was fun to deviate from my usual articles about personal growth and If you’d like to see more healthy eating suggestions, please let me know by commenting below.

Blessings,

P.S. If  emotional eating is your nemesis, you can get help by purchasing my Freedom from Emotional Eating Home Study Course, which is on sale only through Monday, May 20th.  Go to www.tinyurl.com/merylsdeal  for complete information.

If you are reading this AFTER May 20th, you can check out the contents of the Home Study Course by going to www.haltemotionaleating.com. Want to hear about future specials? You will be notified if you sign up for the free e-book or newsletter at the top right of this page, or let me know in the comment section below.

The post Simply Salads appeared first on Stop Eating Your Heart Out.

For the past several months we have been exploring the 5-ingredient recipe, ASPIC,  to transform emotional eating or any other unwanted habit. And now we are at the “I” – Inner Work.

Before embarking on personal inner work, it is very helpful to have energy psychology tools, such as EFT or RITT (www.LearnRITT.com) to ease the intensity of feelings that may arise. Personal-growth work can be both exciting and scary, and may include the process of discovering disowned parts of the self, mak­ing peace with yourself, and becoming the best you that you can be. It is a journey to wholeness.

When you get a splinter, it needs to be removed com­pletely. If you ignore it or don’t pull it out entirely, the skin could grow over the foreign body and hide it from view so it would look okay. But looks can be deceiving, and the wound might be festering beneath the skin, causing pain when the area is touched. Even though you don’t see the irritant deeply embedded under many layers of skin, for the sake of your health, it must be extracted. Likewise, traumas can be smoldering under the surface and need to be healed.

As kids, we face many lowercase-t traumas such as being humiliated, hearing our parents fighting, or hav­ing a friend move away. Some children have also endured capital-T Traumas—divorce, family deaths, abuse, acci­dents, or major illnesses. As adults, we carry internal scars connected to unresolved issues from childhood traumas, often at the unconscious or subconscious level. Just because they are below the surface doesn’t mean we are not impacted by them. Many of us use food for emotional reasons—possibly an indication of unresolved trauma from the past.

Look at the quote (above) from Debbie Ford and ask yourself,  “Is there anything unhealed from the past that I am now ready to look at and heal?”  If the answer is yes, perhaps your next step is journaling to get in touch with the event and your feelings around it. The more you allow yourself to write, without censoring, the greater the chance that you will allow feelings and information about past events to surface.

Check out my recent article about journaling at http://stopeatingyourheartout.com/2012/journaling-let-it-all-hang-out/

If you have experienced any capital-T Traumas, please consider seeking out the support of a trained trauma therapist to help remove all leftover fragments from the trauma for a complete healing.

Adapted from Stop Eating Your Heart Out pp. 111-112.

Have you done the necessary healing work for yourself on past traumas? Anything you’d like to share with us about it in the comment section below?

Blessings,

The post Inner Work appeared first on Stop Eating Your Heart Out.

Emotional eating does not start at birth! Babies eat because they are hungry: they eat as much as they want and stop when they’ve had enough. Food is used for physical hunger… and for making a mess!

For emotional eaters like me, however, I soon learned to use food for other reasons.

What about you? Do you use food:

• To ease emotional or physical pain?
• To fill up an inner emptiness?
• To procrastinate instead of being on task?
• To ease boredom?
• To calm anxiety or stress?
• To stay awake when feeling tired or drained?
• To reward yourself?
• To punish yourself?

 Any of these? All of these? Or perhaps something else? If so, keep reading…

For years I’ve told my clients, “I don’t know anyone who gets up each day and says, ‘I wonder how I can screw up my day today.’  We each do the best we can with the tools we have.”

My main message to clients and to readers of my book, Stop Eating Your Heart Out: The 21-Day Program to Free Yourself from Emotional Eating is: Embrace yourself and all your human foibles. Stop the criticism. Focus on your beauty, your uniqueness, rather than your flaws!

The question to ask yourself right now: “Am I ready to give up my emotional eating?”

It has served you in some way or you wouldn’t be doing it. Maybe now is the perfect time for you to follow my 5-ingredient recipe to understand why you emotionally eat and take these steps to become free:

1. Become Aware. Become conscious of what you are eating and when. What are your triggers? When did the emotional eating begin?
2. Build a strong support system. Self-help groups. Therapy. Spiritual support. Caring friends and relatives. Self-care.
3. Energy work. Use energy techniques to keep yourself from feeling drained and needing to grab something to eat for fortification! Learn RITT, my favorite tool, to stop your cravings!
4. Personal Growth Work. The past is not just the past…it intrudes on the present in many ways. Clearing past hurts and resentments frees up a lot of energy and lessens the need/desire for excess food. 
5. Conscious choices. Your attitude is a choice. You can choose to do forgiveness work, make peace with yourself and others, and live in gratitude.

 You are invited to a freebie…

For the past two weeks I have been thrilled to be part of the Loving Food Loving Life Emotional Eating virtual event. I was one of 12 experts interviewed and I taught RITT, my favorite tool, to ease food cravings and decrease stress.

The response was amazing, and the host, Aimee Serafini, has asked me to speak again. I’ll be one of just 3 speakers in the finale week with a live interview on Thursday, May 2, at 5pm PT / 8 pm ET. I’ll discuss my own journey, provide more information about the 5-ingredient recipe, demonstrate how to use RITT, and answer your questions.  I’m going to offer something extra special to all the listeners, so I hope you tune in or listen to the replay. You can register here.

Isn’t it time to end the vicious cycle?

If emotional eating is something you’ve transformed for yourself, please let us know what worked for you in the comment section below.

Blessings,

P.S. Please help me spread the word about the freebie by sharing this information with others. Here again is the link to register: http://pwc2.com/bl

The post Stop Emotional Eating appeared first on Stop Eating Your Heart Out.

Another tragedy has hit us in the U.S. – The Boston Marathon bombings on April 15th. There is so much pain, hurt, frustration, and anger. We, the larger community, are being called upon to send love, light and peace to all those affected. It is a time for healing.

One of the habitual responses when tragedy strikes is to contract our energy as we stay in feelings of anger and hostility, and this actually intensifies the pain.  I invite you to move into another response, since energy follows intent, and send a blanket of love and a sea of prayers to all those who are suffering.

My colleagues and dear friends Sandi Radomski and Tom & Pam Altaffer at askandrecieve.org, sent out an email on Tuesday to guide us in an “Ask and Receive” healing, which I am sharing below with their permission. As you read or listen to this technique, you are being encouraged to connect to the larger community of humanity.  Now is a time for healing.

Dear Friends,

 Our hearts go out to those injured or killed in the Boston Marathon bombing and their family and friends. Even those that just watched on the TV may be feeling traumatized, helpless and vulnerable. 

Let us use our collective intention to send healing light to all involved.

The more we open our own hearts to love and send love to others, the more peace and calm can reach all corners of the world. 

Click below to hear the recording and join in the Ask & Receive process with others from around the world.

 Click here: 

Boston Marathon Healing TeleClearing


(please note there are a few minutes of music before the TeleClearing begins….please take deep calming breaths during this time.) 




The words: There is a part of our larger being, that encompasses all of us, that knows how to send love and light to all those injured or killed in the Boston bombing and their family and friends. May they have peace.
 That part of our larger being is willing to inform the rest of us now.
 It is doing so now with grace and ease.
 Our minds, bodies, and spirits are receiving this information.
 Information transfer is now complete.



There is a part of our larger being that already knows how to heal and release the emotional trauma felt by the people of the city, state and country that has been assaulted.
 That part of our larger being is willing to inform the rest of us now.
 It is doing so now with grace and ease.
 Our minds, bodies, and spirits are receiving this information.
Information transfer is now complete.

 There is a part of our larger being that already knows how to send healing to those whose heart’s hate.  May they know love.
 That part of our larger being is willing to inform the rest of us now.
It is doing so now with grace and ease.
 Our minds, bodies, and spirits are receiving this information.
Information transfer is now complete.



There is a part of our larger being that already knows that we do have the power to send light and love into the world and that CAN change everything.
 That part of our larger being is willing to inform the rest of us now.
 It is doing so now with grace and ease.
 Our minds, bodies, and spirits are receiving this information.
 Information transfer is now complete.

Thank you for adding your light to the world. Peace.

Breathe.

Thanks for taking part in this healing practice. Also send love and light to those affected by the Texas explosion and any others who are suffering. Please write your comments and feedback below.

Sending light, love, healing energy, and blessings,

P.S. I encourage you to use RITT (Rapidly Integrated Transformation Technique) to help calm your own strong emotions around the Boston Marathon bombings (or anything else). If you are not familiar with RITT, please tune into my interview April 20-21 (there is no  charge) on the Loving Food Loving Life Virtual Summit by signing up at http://pwc2.com/bl

During the interview I explain and demonstrate RITT by taking Aimee (the host) through several rounds. As you tap along with me, you can use the word “stress” or substitute the word “situation” when we say “stress” or “craving.”  RITT will help take down the intensity of the feelings, release stress, and bring in love, joy, and/or peace.

Let me know if you have any questions about this or what else you are doing for yourself and others during this time for healing.

The post Time for Healing appeared first on Stop Eating Your Heart Out.

Having spent the past 30+ years accumulating tools for personal growth and change, I am so grateful to have lots of tools in my toolbox! My favorite tool, and the one I use the  most, is Rapidly Integrated Transformation Technique, RITT™.

My Background 

I began doing my own personal growth work in 1977, as a member of the 12-Step Recovery Community. My project was healing myself so that food was no longer my savior or my comfort. After sponsoring tons of women, I felt a strong calling to become a psychotherapist, and, in 1990, I became a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in Ohio, specializing in eating disorders and 12-Step Recovery.

In the mid-late 90s I started awakening to the notion of energy and energy fields and became trained in energy psychology techniques. These techniques work with our personal energy and are based on the meridian system, often using acupressure points. In fact, the tapping techniques are sometimes referred to as “Needle-less Acupuncture.”

In 1998, I began using Tapping with my clients. They loved this new cutting-edge way of therapy and they were able to lesson emotional upsets very quickly. But these 12-Step folks wanted to include a spiritual component. Based on this request, my colleague, Robin Trainor Masci, and I created Rapidly Integrated Transformation Technique (RITT™), which releases stress, diminishes emotional discomfort, heals trauma, rewires the brain, and can also be used to curb cravings.

Here I am demonstrating the crown (top of head) point.

RITT uses a script and can be done on one’s own, without being in a therapist’s office! This Transformation Technique instructs which points to tap and hold and what words to say at each acupressure point. I have been using RITT for the past 14 years and, recently, have been teaching this, my favorite tool, to groups.

Comments from folks who participated in a recent RITT demonstration to reduce cravings…

“Wow, really received some great results, Meryl! As we were doing the tapping, I could feel the energy & emotions flowing and shifting. So here’s my result so far: tapped on my addiction to peanut M&Ms. Lost my craving for them. Even though I had just bought a bag, I had no desire for any.”

“I have lost my desire for chocolate covered almonds. It hasn’t returned.”

“Since I didn’t have any cravings to work on, I chose an emotional issue. I began at an 8 (10 is high), and after one round of RITT, I was down to a 3. I am impressed!”

Comments the day after the demo…

“Appetite/craving is less today, not just for trigger objects, but for food in general.”

“My trigger food is no longer a big deal. I can take it or leave it.”

You, too, can experience my favorite tool – RITT! My colleague, Aimee Serafini, asked me to participate as an expert on a panel dedicated to the topic of emotional eating, and I immediately said yes. The virtual summit, Loving Food Loving Life,  is April 15-26 and I am the featured speaker on April 20-21. Registration at no charge, just click here.

Listen to the interview in the comfort of your own home on April 20-21, and tap along with me to release challenging emotions or lessen a craving. RITT can be used for current emotional challenges as well as past hurts and grievances. When using the script, choose for yourself the word that fits best: situation, issue, resentment, challenge, or craving.

Blessings,

P.S. Please let others know that help is available for emotional eating. The 12 experts at this virtual event (you can listen by phone or online and you can attend for NO cost) are going to speak about emotional eating from many different angles including:

• Which emotions are the biggest culprits
• Why diets make it even worse
• How overwhelm and overload contribute (that’s me!)
• How brain chemistry and hormones play a part
• Why forgiving can help
• How our body image is a catch 22 with eating
• A simple tool to release cravings right in the moment
• How intimacy or lack of can affect our eating habits

Register at http://pwc2.com/bl

The post My Favorite Tool appeared first on Stop Eating Your Heart Out.

Last week’s article discussed the importance of being your own Energy Detective so that you could identify your personal energizers  as well as your energy drains.

Before I understood energy, whenever I had a session with a depressed or low-energy client, I felt drained and had trouble staying awake. Not wanting to nod off during the session, I would surreptitiously dig my fingernails into my other palm in an effort to stay present. At that time, I didn’t know that these low-energy clients, at an unconscious level, were drawing on my energy to feel better themselves.  ~Stop Eating Your Heart Out, pp. 103-104.

As an energetic system, many of our drains are mental, physical, or emotional.

Some Possible Energy Drains

• Being with low-energy people (sick, depressed, negative)
• Being with people caught up in their dramas
• Illness
• Difficult emotions (lots of feelings are energy drains; it is important to feel the feeling and then discharge it—by expressing it or tapping or journaling)
• Being overtired
• Feeling too responsible for too many things
• Feeling a time crunch
• Feeling overwhelmed
• Having unmet expectations
• Overworking
• Not getting enough sleep
• Feeling victimized
• A harsh inner critic voice
• Being dehydrated (drink water before you are feeling thirsty!)
• Poor nutrition
• Eating too much
• Eating too little
• Ingesting something that your body perceives as toxic
• Lack of movement or exercise
• Your particular energy drain

It’s important to identify your energy drains as well as your personal energizers. When you need a shot of energy, open your energizer list and pick an item that you can do right then to revitalize yourself. Here are a few to add to your list:

Energy Pick-Me-Ups

Stand up. Allow your arms to make large figure eights. Now switch and go in the other direction. As you move your arms through the air, youare increasing your energy field, and you will probably be feeling more energized.

Hum a song. Pretend you are an orchestra conductor and conduct an imaginary orchestra as you continue humming or singing the song.

Laughter is very energizing. Repeat the syllables: “Ho ho he he ha ha.” Say it again and again until you are laughing out loud.

For more Energy Pick-Me-Ups, go to Stop Eating Your Heart Out, pp 106-107.

I’d like to hear from you in the comment section: Have you been monitoring your energy? What are your main energy drains? How do you intervene?

Blessings,

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Sometimes we feel bright, invigorated, and energized. Other times, we feel drained, depleted, and low. It is time to become your own Energy Detective to discover what gives you energy and what drains you.

Several moons ago, I began discussing my 5 step process to halt emotional eating or change another unwanted habit: ASPIC (Awareness, Support, Personal Energy, Inner Work, Conscious Choices). Today I am exploring more in the “P” category—Personal Energy.  If you missed the previous articles, the posts began on March 3, 2013 and you can read them here by scrolling through the posts.

Let’s look at your energy level and what affects it from two points of view:

• Do you have the energy you’ll need for your immediate needs?
• Do you have the energy you’ll need for your long term needs, like anti-aging?

Begin by taking the following three steps to become more familiar with your own personal energy level and what affects it.

Step One: Get in the habit of monitoring your energy.  Stop for a moment, scan your body. Is your energy level high or low? Assign it a number using the scale of 1-10, with 1 = very low and 10 = extremely high. Remember to check your energy level several times a day so that you can intervene before it drops too low.  You might enjoy reading or re-reading “How Energized are You?” that discusses this further.

Step Two: Become Aware of Energy Drains. It’s time for you to become your own energy detective! Put on your detective hat, take out your magnifying glass, and look for clues.

What causes your energy to drop or become depleted? Some possible energy drains include:

• Food. Is it something you ate? Energy sometimes drops because your body is busy digesting your food.  Also, many folks feel tired after eating refined carbohydrates or sugar. Or maybe it’s a lack of food or water that your body needs!
• People. Were you with someone who is low energy or negative? Were you with a challenging person?
• Stress.  Are you feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or stressed? Overworked, not enough down time?
• Thoughts. Did you allow yourself to move into negativity and judgment? Is your Inner Critic picking on you?

Step Three: When your energy level begins to drop, intervene! What can you do right in the moment when you discover your energy is low? Continue building your Personal Energizer List for times like this. Make sure you try the Instant Energy Generator, and any other tools you use to boost your energy.

Pay attention to what kinds of people, things, and activities give you energy and what drains you. It’s not always easy to figure out the drains…that’s why you’ll have to put on your detective hat and become your own energy detective! Once you’ve figured out what is draining you, you can begin to make changes. And that is the subject of next week’s article!

What are some of your energy drains? Write them in the comment section below and I will try to address them in next week’s post. 

Blessings,

P.S. Many years ago I put on my own detective hat and became serious about uncovering the root cause of my overeating. Learn what I discovered and the resulting interventions in my book, Stop Eating Your Heart Out: The 21-Day Program to Free Yourself from Emotional Eating. 

P.P.S. To have future posts delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for the newsletter (scroll up and fill in the box on the right).

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Today’s article is steering away from discussing energy techniques for this week and taking a different course. A Facebook friend recently quoted Dr. Christiane Northrup, and her thought-provoking words have stimulated a lot of discussion. She said, “Obesity is a solution to chronic stress,” and many folks have argued that obesity is an indication of stress, not a solution. I decided to investigate the statement!

With my background as a counselor, I am well aware that the extra layers of fat are often used as insulation, sexual protection, physical protection and even social protection so others might expect less from you.

I also believe that the basic problem is not the overeating. What is causing it? It’s that saying, “It’s not what you’re eating, it’s what’s eating you.” Many folks overeat/binge in an attempt to manage their pain and stress. In fact, I’ve often said that, “Food was the glue that kept me together.”

The resulting obesity is also not the problem, but rather an indication that something challenging has happened or is happening to the individual.

Since my curiosity was piqued,  I looked into the origin of the Dr. Northrup quote and discovered an interesting discussion in Hungry for Change.  I found it so intriguing that I am sharing some of it with you here:

         In 1992, Vincent Felitti, M.D., head of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Kaiser Permanente n San Diego, noticed a number of his patients dropping out of the Kaiser’s obesity program. The patients, Felitti noticed, didn’t quit because they couldn’t lose weight. What was going on? Why were his patients dropping out? To answer these questions, Felitti conducted a research project. Through his study—popularly known as the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study—Felitti discovered that a high proportion of the dropouts had histories of childhood abuse or neglect. These childhood experiences, he concluded, continued to affect his patients’ health and well-being, even if the experiences had occurred more than 50 years earlier.

         “What he concluded,” says Christiane Northrup, M.D., “is that obesity is not the problem. It’s a solution. It’s a solution to chronic stress. It’s a solution in many people to sexual abuse, to dysfunctional family situations, and other personal traumas.”

The chapter continues on, discussing emotional eating, and offers:

         Once we understand that sudden weight gain is often the result of the body’s protection mechanism, we can start to deactivate this mechanism by addressing specific stresses in our lives….

         When you’re under stress, your body produces stress hormones called cortisol and epinephrine. I used to joke that I’d gain weight just looking at a sweet dessert, and it wasn’t so far-fetched after all. Dr. Northrup explained, “When your stress cortisol hormone levels are high enough, they’ve documented that looking at a doughnut actually changes your metabolism.”

         “Stress also increases fluid retention,” Dr. Northrup continues. “I call these liquid pounds. If you’re under stress and you sleep for only three to four hours a night, you will gain two pounds just from that. You want to take care of those liquid pounds before they turn into real pounds, which they inevitably will.”

Dr. Northrup believes that the best ways to decrease stress hormones are 1) Getting a good night’s sleep – this will break down excess cortisol and epinephrine better than anything else. 2)Exercise — a walk three or four times a week is all it takes. 3)Laughter — decreases these hormones.

She concluded by saying that anything that is sustainably pleasurable will decrease stress hormones.

[Colquhoun, J., ten Bosch, L., & Hyman, M., Hungry for Change (New York: HarperCollins, 2012), 67-70.]

Some immediate implications:

For those of us of normal weight: Now that we understand that obesity is often a solution to chronic stress, isn’t it time to be more compassionate with obese folks?

For those of us carrying excess weight: Isn’t it time to be more compassionate with ourselves? And isn’t it time to heal the traumas from the past?

If you want to stop emotional eating, please check out my book, Stop Eating Your Heart Out: The 21-Day Program to Free Yourself from Emotional Eating. I wrote it because I suffered from binge eating disorder and, over 30 years ago, began to explore tools and techniques to help me recover. I share my recovery methods so that other emotional eaters can also end the misery and self-recrimination around their eating.

Stop Eating Your Heart Out will help individuals who currently have or have had major stress in their lives and turned to food.

Purchase the book through Amazon or receive your personally signed copy by ordering it here.

What are your thoughts on the quote that triggered this article, “Obesity is a solution to chronic stress?”

Blessings,

P.S. To have future posts delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for the newsletter (scroll up and fill in the box on the right).

P.P.S. Hungry for Change is currently offering free worldwide online screening of their video, through March 31, 2013. You can access it at http://www.hungryforchange.tv/free-worldwide-online-screening

P.P.P.S. If you enjoyed this post, please share it with others on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, etc….just click on those cute little buttons below!

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Monitoring your energy is very important, as discussed in last week’s article. If you missed it you can read it here. Having a high energy level translates to feeling more vibrant and also results in an increased ability to manifest your desires.

When you’re aware that your energy level is not high, what remedies or interventions do you do for yourself to raise your energy level?  

I hope you have your own personal list of energizers. Below is an instant energy generator that I get a kick out of using from my Energy Psychology colleague, Silvia Harmannn  (www.SilviaHartman.com):         

This is really good fun and an exercise that brings the whole body, mind, energy system and everything into play if you will let it do so.

 First, let’s ask a question.

On a scale of ten to zero, zero being dead and ten being totally energised to the degree that you’re buzzing around on the ceiling, how energised to you feel right now?

 Accept the first number that comes to mind.

 Now in a moment, stand up.

 Ask in turn various parts of your body to make a contribution to your overall energy levels, like this:

 “Feet, what can you do to increase my energy?”

Your feet will start to make movements, your toes might even start to wriggle, and you can get a sense of energy starting to move in your legs.

 Go through whatever parts of your body you would like to engage – “Neck, what can you do to increase my energy levels?” – “Hips, what can you do?” – “Hands and fingers, what can you do?”

 Keep it up for a full 60 seconds – and prepare to be surprised!

<<<>>>

Did you do it? What were your results? Do you have another instant energy generator to recommend? If so, please share in the comment section below.

Blessings,

P.S. To have future posts delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for the newsletter (scroll up and fill in the box on the right). 

P.P.S. If you enjoyed this post, please share it with others on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, etc….just click on those cute little buttons below!

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We each have a human energy field, which is part of a larger universal energy field. Last week we began exploring personal energy and sealing holes in our energy field. Otherwise, although we could work on improving our personal energy, with tears in our energy field, the energy wouldn’t hold. If you missed the Energy Field Visualization, you can read it here.

We are each like a battery. Sometimes it is fully charged, sometimes it is depleted, and, too often I suspect, it is neglected or ignored. Today we are going to be paying attention to the state of our own personal battery.

A few weeks ago my car didn’t start. I had left the door slightly ajar overnight and the battery was drained. The battery was so low, in fact, that it wouldn’t hold a charge and had to be replaced. The same is true with our own personal battery – our personal energy. When we ignore it, it can often become depleted. And, conversely, when we focus upon it, we can build and store energy which improves our health and wellness and brings about feelings of aliveness and well-being.

The first step, as always, is AWARENESS. In case you missed the ASPIC discussion on awareness as the first step to release emotional eating or change another unwanted habit you can read it at  http://stopeatingyourheartout.com/2013/awareness-the-aspic-way/

In order to become aware of our energy, it is useful to monitor it using a 1-10 scale, with 1 being extremely low, and 10, extremely high.

An exercise for you.

1. What is your energy right now, using that 1-10 scale. Write the number down.
2. Now bring to mind an unpleasant memory or a resentment you hold. Check in with yourself again – what is your energy level now? Write it down.
3. Next, bring to mind something that brings you excitement or joy.  Take a moment and tune in to a person, place or thing that brings you joy. Heighten your senses and breathe in that feeling of joy. Again, write down your energy level.

Thoughts have an impact on your energy level.

When you thought about something upsetting, did your energy go down? And did it go up when you thought of something pleasant? Most people respond affirmatively to both questions and a graph of it would look like a check mark.

Remember, keep a check on your energy. When it dips, find ways to bring it back up. Your personal energizers might include such things as being in nature, exercise, walking, spending time with a friend, doing a hobby. If you missed the post on personal energizers or natural highs, you can access it here.

Your Comments are Invited and Appreciated

Blessings,

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The post Is Your Battery Charged? appeared first on Stop Eating Your Heart Out.