Are You Overeating to Avoid Your Greater Purpose?

“Whatever you are meant to do, move toward it and it will come to you.”

-Gloria Dunn

Following your dreams can be scary. It’s terrifying to put yourself out on the line; to share your heart and deepest dreams with the world, and then await the response. Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti describes that vulnerability as walking naked on the rooftops. You’re exposed for all the world to see. What if they laugh? Or, worse, what if you’re ignored?

Doreen Virtue says that one of the reasons women binge eat is to avoid their life purpose. Does that resonate with you? Could that be one reason why you sabotage yourself whenever you get clear about food?

As long as we’re focused on healing our overeating, we can avoid healing the other stuff. In my life, that means that I can avoid writing, speaking, and sharing my story with the world – my deep purpose. I can avoid feeling beautiful, which can also be scary.

Food is an effective insulation. It comforts without forcing us to be real, or vulnerable. It’s a crutch; the justification we use so that we don’t have to begin (I’ll do XYZ after I’ve fixed this.) So as long as we’re overeating, we can delay our dreams into infinity.

Food is one crutch. Fear is another. What is a crutch? A crutch is whatever keeps you from doing the work that really matters: tackling your deepest longings. A crutch can even be something good for you, like exercise or reading. (I spent years devouring novels as an escape from my depression.) Even pain can be a crutch – debt, obesity, relationship problems – because it also keeps you distracted and focused on survival, instead of digging for gold.

What keeps you from your dreams? What obstacles do you place in your path? Do you think of your goals in this way:  I’ll start ______ once I ______?

How do your fears show up in your life with food? When I’m feeling fearful about my writing, I have an arsenal of delay tactics that I use. I procrastinate, surf the web, tackle housework, or overcommit myself so that I don’t have time to write.

When you are feeling fearful about healing your overeating, what tactics to you use? Spend a few moments writing down in your journal your tactics. Do you create opportunities where you can mess up? Do you let go of the supportive behaviors that keep you on track? Do you let other things become more important? Do you look for reasons why you can get an easy out, such as there’s too much going on in my life right now to change?

It can feel overwhelming – where do we begin? How do we let go of the fear? How do we follow our desire for greater health, for the freedom beyond food?

Productivity guru David Allen says that all you have to do is take the first step; and then the next one will appear. Can you trust this process?

Every moment is ripe with possibility, because it holds the opportunity to act. You don’t have to wait until the New Year, Monday, or when you have it all together to begin.  You can take the first step towards your purpose, today.

Consider four kinds of support from First Ourselves to help with overeating and conquering your fears about breaking free:

1. Join our Support Forum to ask questions of Karly and expert moderators
2. Check out the Sugar Addiction support program.
3. The in-depth Heal Overeating: Untangled support program can transform your relationship with food.
4. Listen to free audio blogs on how to unplug from food:  Trusting your needs, navigating transitions without food, help for “I can’t handle this!” moments, removing the barriers to love, and trusting in the growth you may not see.