“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us”. – Walt Emerson
With any change you want to make in your life – tiny or large – you need to start with your mind and your thoughts. I confess, my inner world and thoughts sometimes lead me astray and are not always following the map that I carefully planned out. Whatever you are wanting to change, first you make the decision and then on a daily basis you course correct the thoughts that are taking you off road and highjacking your progress. It’s not easy and it’s not fast – but it’s the only way. Often we tend to think that the hardest part of a change is the actual doing, but what comes before the doing – is your thinking. If your thinking changes, everything else will follow.
I’ve been working on changing my habit of mindless snacking. I actually gave up unplanned snacking for Lent. For me – this is entirely a challenge of my mind. I’m learning to be more aware when I find myself walking into the kitchen thinking I’m hungry … when actually I’m searching for something to satisfy a need that food will never solve. I ask myself, am I really hungry or is there something else I need in this moment. Take the time to sit with it … let it come to the surface and then address the real need.
Practicing new thoughts in the moment are helpful. Here are some of mine:
- Snacking is not the solution to this issue you’re trying to solve.
- Is your body hungry for food or for something else?
- It’s okay to not want to tackle the next thing on your to do list, you don’t need food to sooth that feeling.
- Don’t use a snack to numb whatever feeling you don’t want to have in the moment.
This way of thinking about change is helping me, I hope it can help you too.
