Short reflection: Easing off
Reading time: 2 mins
Originally shared as part of Inbox Reflections - my honest, heartfelt emails to support your binge eating recovery as a highly sensitive woman.
Have you ever practised the “Half Salamander”?
It’s a tool from the world of Polyvagal Theory, and one of my favourites to help me relax and come back to myself when I need a little something.
If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s a simple exercise where you tilt your head to one side, whilst looking with your eyes to the same side. I like
this tutorial, but there’s a shorter,
simpler one here too.
Through this practice, you might notice some kind of physical release as your nervous system shifts… perhaps a yawn, sigh, or watering around your eyes.
When I use this tool, I sometimes notice my tendency to push to my extreme edges - to get to the result as quickly and fully as possible.
And in doing that, I actually stop myself from getting that release.
It’s only when I ease off, when I soften into the exercise, that I experience it almost immediately.
I’m sharing this because I wonder if you notice a tendency to
push your body too?
To push past hunger or fullness, or into eating the “right” way.
To push your body to change.
Or even to push yourself further or faster in your recovery.
When perhaps what your sensitive body is asking for is for you to ease off - to soften enough to hear it.
To notice where your edges actually are, rather than where you think they should be.
And to allow that listening, rather than pushing, to guide you towards the relationship with food and your body you’re trying so hard to reach.
If you see yourself in this, perhaps ask:
“In what ways am I pushing my body right now?”
And
“What might change if I softened enough to listen instead?”
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