No Eating After Dinner Challenge: Day 10 & 11

The cure to stress and boredom is eating, Yes? Not a chance. Sure, intellectually, we should pause a moment to see if our bodies are truly hungry, eating to fill a void or are we avoiding a conflict we don’t want to handle?

Whenever boredom sets in, I always look for something to fill the space instead of enjoying the quiet. If I’m not doing anything, my go to reaction is turning to food.

This weekend was full of family fun and there wasn’t much downtime to be still…outside of my “mandatory” meditation time. My mind was constantly going the whole time which led to not being able to settle it down to journal yesterday. Being present with the kids made for no time to be bored.

In those spaces where I can be still are the times that are high producing and let my mind be open to talking aloud new ideas for my book. It all goes back to mindfulness and what you are experiencing in that moment.

As I simplify the things in my life and in my home, I have more time for doing nothing. And as much as I love the idea of that, my ego still comes around telling me to go to something, even if its checking my phone.

The response to my inner dialogue is that “Guess what? When my mind is constantly staying busy then I have a hard time concentrating on the things that are most important to me.”

When I was younger I didn’t know how to handle stress or notice that I was taking on too much. My body, on the other hand, would inform me with debilitating migraines during major changes in my life.

My first migraine happened at the beginning of the school during my first year of junior high. Everyone made such a big deal about how we were growing up and how we were supposed to act that the pressure was too much. I didn’t think going to a new school was going to be a problem but the whole getting older business was the underlying issue.

Another big migraine happened when I was in between apartments for a couple days in my junior year of college. I had to keep my belongings in the storage room at work until I was able to move in. I remember the stress of this transition being so rough that the migraine took me down at work. Luckily, I had my pillow there to lay my head on the desk until someone could cover my shift.

With both these situations, there was no outlet to release my emotions surrounding what I was feeling during these times. I kept it all to myself and reassured everyone I was fine. I wanted people to think I was a strong and independent woman and that I was handling everything with grace.

I wasn’t.

Thank goodness I have found journaling and love to share my experiences with others through my writing so I don’t have to go on these major life changes alone. These are universal situations that we all get in and having each other’s back during these moments make your world feel so much bigger.

In the last couple years, I have opened up the flood gates to my feelings and I haven’t had a migraine since.

 

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