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Eating in the Light of the Moon:
How Women Can Transform Their Relationships with Food Through
Myths, Metaphors & Storytelling
Did you know that emotional eating - and its compulsive eating
and binge eating forms -- are actually skills many women have
learned to help themselves in difficult situations? If you
have a hard time thinking of emotional eating, compulsive
eating or binge eating as skills, you're not alone. Yet in
her book Eating in the Light of the Moon, clinical
psychologist Anita Johnston encourages readers to view emotional
eating and its forms as a protective mechanism, and emphasizes
that compassionately understanding its purpose is a valuable,
even essential, step in recovery.
That's just one of the subjects she tackles in this beautifully-written
book that helps women understand and transform their relationship
with food. Using myths, metaphors and storytelling, Johnston
explores themes of self-discovery and empowerment, addressing
issues such as:
- Honoring our intuition. Women who struggle
with emotional eating, compulsive eating or binge eating
often have overly dominant inner masculine sides that are
critical of their feminine selves. The result: "Their
lives are filled with activities, chores, and endless list
of things they must get done. Moments of reverie, relaxation
or quiet time are either condemned as a 'waste of time'
or avoided because feelings or desires may surface that
might question or in some way interfere with their ambitions
or goals. Nighttime becomes particularly treacherous because,
without the busyness of rushing here and there, doing this
and that, dreaded urges to eat fill up the space that is
not allowed to remain empty and still." A balance between
our male and female sides allows us to become better at
listening to our feelings and intuitions, thereby helping
us better manage our hungers and desires.
- Food as the red herring. Coping with
the 'real problems' in our lives sometimes seems too overwhelming;
distracting ourselves with worries about food and our weight
can seem the easier path. But food is not the issue. Making
it so only adds to our stress, and the real problems are
never resolved.
- Disordered eating as a process addiction.
Attempts to resolve emotional eating, compulsive eating
or binge eating problems through abstinence and food plans
often fail because too much attention is placed on the food
instead of behaviors. "A woman with disordered eating
is addicted to her eating behavior, and not to food itself.
…When we are engaged in addictive eating, that is
the time to look for what the real hunger is because that
is the moment in which it gets presented to us in its symbolic
form." Johnston says that when we eliminate certain
foods, we eliminate opportunities to learn the symbolic
meaning they hold for us.
- Food as a metaphor for what we really want.
"We all use food to one degree or another for reasons
other than physical nutrition. It only becomes a problem
when it becomes the only thing we ever do to cope…doing
the same one thing over and over again to get love, to cope
with emotional stress, to communicate our anger, to bear
our sadness. A woman caught up in this cycle may experience
herself as hungry, but she misinterprets this in all cases
as a hunger for food."
- Feelings are neither 'good' nor 'bad.'
Nor are they 'right' or 'wrong;' they just are. If we try
to block them, they can create trouble, distorting our perceptions
and expressions. But if we allow ourselves to fully experience
our feelings, we usually understand them better and see
that they pass. They may return but we become adept at riding
them out, discovering that our feelings can be guides to
living our lives fully.
Johnston also addresses a wealth of other issues that speak
to a woman's experience not only with eating and body but
also with self discovery. Indeed, substitute other compensatory
or defensive behaviors for disordered eating, and this book
becomes a guide for any woman in exploring her feelings and
living her life. We use the book in our work at Green Mountain
at Fox Run; it often gives women the words to express what
they are thinking and feeling.
This Halloween, give yourself a true treat; curl up in a
cozy chair and begin reading the very readable Eating
in the Light of the Moon.
For more information about emotional
eating, compulsive eating and binge eating, go to Stopping
Emotional Eating and Binge
Eating Disorders - Information and Treatment to Stop Binge
Eating.
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