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Originally shared as part of Inbox Reflections - my honest, heartfelt emails to support your binge eating recovery as a highly sensitive woman. 

“If you can’t change something, you can instead change your thoughts about that thing” has been one of those essential life lessons for me.

And I’ve often found that when I do change my thoughts to be more positive and supportive, that thing that seemed unchangeable also shifts.

To give you an example, I used to believe that I would only be worthy of love, and of anything really, if I was slim.

I spent years in that painful cycle of restriction, bingeing, and punishment - trying to force my body into the version of “worthy” that I was believing in. 

Eventually, I began to get the message that my approach wasn’t working.

Yes there may have been times when I was slimmer, where I got those “You’ve lost weight” and “You look well” comments, and when I did for brief, elusive moments feel better about myself, but:

1. Even in these moments, I didn’t yet feel “enough”

2. My worth was so tied to my weight that I was terrified of gaining any

3. I was worried about how damaging the binge eating was to my health

Fortunately I’d also found yoga and meditation, and on these paths, teachings which started to put me in touch with a sense of worth which was unlike anything I’d tried to create for myself.

A sense of worth that is always there.
That is innate within us all.
And that doesn’t waver, no matter what our bodies look like.

Slowly, I began to detach my worth from my weight because I could see that it wasn’t the truth - even if my programming at that time was still trying to insist that it was! 

It’s been a long journey, but through practice and experience, my thoughts on worth have gradually changed.

And with that, my relationship with my body has changed too. 

Binge eating recovery was possible for me because of this shift, and I’m utterly grateful for that.

So perhaps today, you might notice:

Are there parts of your relationship with food or your body that you’ve been trying hard to change?

And what might shift if instead of trying harder, you changed your thoughts around them?

Hungry for more? Here are some extra resources for you

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