On the ladder of life, are you always scrambling to get to the next rung, always trying to get somewhere, to achieve something?
"When I lose weight, then I'll start dating."
"When I'm a size zero, I'll be perfect."
"When I finish grad school, my life will be great."
"When I get a new job, then I'll be happy."
"When I get a promotion, I'll feel good about myself."
Goals are great – but if you're always looking to the future, you're never really in the present. If what you want exists only in the future, you never have what you want. Deprivation leads to a sense of emptiness, and feeling empty may cause you to turn towards (or away from) food as a way of comforting, soothing, or distracting yourself.
If you can balance appreciating your progress from the past, looking towards the future and what you hope to achieve, with being where you are - in the moment - you'll probably feel better. You don't need to turn to disordered eating (or other things) to cope, if you feel good.
“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift. That's why it's called the present.”
1 comment:
Thank you for the encouraging reminder to enjoy the present! It is so easy to get caught up in past regrets and future anxieties and miss the beauty of each day. Each day truly is a gift! -Ashli Roussel, author of BOUNDLESS: Discovering God In Your Eating Disorder
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