As a weight loss coach and emotional eating expert, many of the clients I see are in a state of soul starvation. They have lived in this state of deprivation for so long, they view it as normal. They’re overweight, but emotionally and spiritually malnourished. Their lives have gone flat and stagnant, and they’ve been in a holding pattern for months, years, if not decades. Food is the way they fill the empty voids in their lives.
Yet, nourishing the soul takes about the same time as preparing a good meal. Sometimes it’s even quicker. So why do we avoid it like the plague?
If you’re like most with a food and weight issue, you’re obsessed with losing weight and all your psychic energy is caught up engaging in or trying to solve “the problem.” You’re negatively focused: you feel bad about yourself and your body; you’re obsessed with food and/or dieting; you engage in a lot of negative self-talk; and all of this leaves no room for better things, like the pursuit of joy and other sources of soul food you’re truly hungry for. You tell yourself you’ll feel better once you solve “the problem,” but don’t realize your negative focus and starving soul is “The Problem.”
If you’re suffering from soul starvation, you don’t need another diet; you need big, heaping portions of soul food – a transfusion of joy to help shift your focus from the negative to more positive and life affirming behaviors. So how can you begin to feed your soul?
3 Ways to Begin to Feel Full from the Inside Out
- Make time for yourself. If you don’t make yourself a priority, nothing will ever change. Take time to explore what makes you feel good. It may be something you did as a child, or it may be something completely new. Give yourself the time and permission to explore. Allow yourself to make mistakes. Drop the perfectionism and make having fun and experimentation the goal.
- Notice what makes you feel most alive. For some, it may be connecting with others, for others, it’s engaging in a creative pursuit and for some, it’s being outside connecting with nature.
- When you find what makes you feel really alive, do it as often as possible. If you love to travel, don’t wait for that yearly vacation. Take short day trips or visit interesting things in your local area that you’ve never explored.
Soul nourishment is all around, you just have to open your eyes to it and sometimes think outside the box. Routines are necessary, but mind and soul deadening, so shake things up a bit by taking a different route to work, visiting a park, garden, or bookstore. Anything new and different will bring fresh life into an otherwise stale existence.
20 Ways to Nourish Your Soul
- Get a massage; take a sauna; or get a spa treatment.
- Read a great book.
- Garden or visit beautiful gardens.
- Buy fresh flowers.
- Take long baths.
- Do an arts and crafts project.
- Practice gratitude.
- Dance or sing.
- Take nature walks in beautiful places.
- Doodle.
- Write in a journal.
- Have a good conversation with a friend.
- Listen to beautiful music.
- Engage in daily prayer and/or meditation.
- Laugh and be silly.
- Take in a sunset or sunrise.
- Forgive yourself for neglecting yourself and your life for so long. Forgiveness frees up vast amounts of psychic energy that you can use towards better things.
Most importantly, be willing to nurture yourself. Too many people complain about being miserable, yet they are unwilling to do anything about it. Take one thing from this list and do it. Only you can create a better life for yourself. Nourish your soul and your life will begin to blossom.
Affirmations
I am worth taking good care of.
I deserve my own love, care, and affection.
As I take care of my deeper needs, food begins to lose its power over me.
