This morning, a wonderful revelation bopped me on the head.  It seems so obvious now, but yesterday I was blind to it.  Let me explain.


When I suggest “homework” to a client, I also try it myself, especially if I have not explored the exercise previously.  So when I felt pangs of hunger this morning after yoga class, I had a perfect opportunity to experience firsthand this recent homework assignment:

Allow yourself to become physiologically hungry, and then write about your sensations and emotions before diffusing the hunger with food.  Pen in hand, I closed my eyes and explored my body’s sensations.


I asked myself “when I am at the computer and decide to eat in the absence of physical hunger, what am I really hungry for?”  The pen and paper revealed the answer before my conscious thoughts took over – I am hungry for REST.  No matter how much I love my work, sometimes my brain just needs a break. 


So what keeps me from taking the time-outs I need during the work day?


If I were to rest, I would not be working.  Resting is for lazy people; working is for strong people.  Thus, I want everyone to know how hard I work and acknowledge my unrelenting labors of love.  

 
Contained within these confessions is the suggestion that my need for acknowledgement is going unmet.  I believe people in my life do not acknowledge how hard I work.  This belief keeps me from taking care of myself.  This belief keeps me from allowing myself the reprieve my body and mind so desperately need.  
 

As for my mindless eating, these limiting beliefs steer me to utilize food in a way that is not nourishing.  Awareness is knowledge.  Knowledge is power.  Power is choice.  

 
Today I commit to checking in with my body every hour, walking away from the desk, stretching, asking my body what it is hungry for, and acting accordingly.  Today I choose to love and nourish myself.

 
Have you ever used food to release yourself from your work? 


What beliefs do you hold around taking breaks while you work?


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