Anger, stress and IOWL

[Guest guest]

Hey all!

I thought I'd post a quick note about a major success for me.

Last week, I incurred a very upsetting, stressful situation at work which

jeopardized my work over the last months and by that virtue my future career. I

was extremely stressed and angry about it and had to deal with this situation

somehow. Since it also brought back memories of past experiences, I know how I

would normally handle that situation: Eat, binge, numb my feelings with food...

I was angry about colleagues at work but at the same time I had a kind of angry

unwillingness to fall into my old behavioral pattern. I just refused to add

insult to injury and make my own situation worse my eating uncontrollably. I

guess the fact that I visualized where this feeling of anger and helplessness

was localized in my body helped, too: In my belly! If you have this knot in your

belly, the last thing I wanted to do is eat! So, instead I called two friends,

my sister and my Dad, just to vent. That helped a little, especially coming up

with a game plan. I always feel better, when I have these things laid out so I

can get past this feeling of helplessness and passivity, inaction.

Come bedtime, my heart was pounding in my chest, I was still so upset. That's

when I meditated. I used the " Peace " meditation from the Meditation Podcast on

iTunes. That calmed me down enough to sleep for a few hours. I woke up in the

middle of the night and meditated again. That calmed me down enough to just doze

a little longer in my bed. Next day, I took some action and while that didn't

resolve the situation (it is still not quite resolved), I felt a lot better that

night.

Now it's a few days later and while it is not quite resolved, there is not as

much acute anger and stress and pain any more. And the best thing: I have not

self-medicated with food over this issue. Using the first, second, and third

tiers of Self-Correcting really helped me!

Now, there still is a lot of work to do for me, but this has been comparatively

easy for me! Amazing!

Continued success on our weight loss journey!

Jantje