Understanding Overeating and Addiction With Archetypes

Looking at your issues around overeating and your body takes guts, tremendous courage, and compassion (for yourself). One of the (many) reasons diet books and articles and shows (Does Dr. Oz even talk about anything other than weight loss these days?!) are STILL so incredibly popular is not just because people are struggling with overeating or excess weight.

I believe the real reason is that the alternative path, for most, is much more frightening.

What it takes to heal hunger, and the compulsion that drives emotional eating or any kind of eating that haunts so many women and girls, is a much different kind of journey.

It can be helpful to have an appreciation of some of the forces at work.. the hidden more unseen realms. I’ve been fascinated by the archetypal themes- illustrated beautifully in Jung’s work, in the beautiful books by Clarissa Pinkola Estes “Women Who Run With The Wolves” and Marion Woodman’s “Addiction to Perfection”. And of course my studies with Caroline Myss (article is bolded) and her book “Sacred Contracts”.

Our hungers and compulsions are  understood beautifully in the archetypal and symbolic realms. We have created entire lives around how we see ourselves as related to hunger… it colors most everything in our world, our identity, relationships..it’s not about what’s being eaten but what we’re feeling about it.. telling ourselves about it.

Confronting the Saboteur who knows just how to trip you up as you move forward…negotiating with the Victim who soothes you with reasoning around why you “deserve” this or that…things we all are familiar with. The Thief…the part of us that eats as if we are stealing and about to be caught.

Most of us unfortunately haven’t got a sense of our inner Wise Woman or good Mother to soothe us through the moments that we need to manage the journey.We’re lost.. at the mercy of a culture that can’t teach us what it doesn’t know.

And we usually lack a solid anchor in the spiritual realms that will fill our hearts and souls with true nourishment that no addiction to food or drink or shopping or fame and fortune can replace. Without places to connect with what is truly sacred, we start to attach sacred status to material objects, or to a number on a scale. 

Then there is the perfectionism. The striving to make order and organization and get everyone and everything (including of course your self) to be ENOUGH.. once and for all so you can finally breathe and relax…Well, that’s a big one.

It’s an inside job.. finding the threads and pieces that are intuitively yours and understanding them in ways that soothe the harsh standards, the drive to keep everything  predictable and controlled in ways you can manage. Learning ways to soothe yourself without the old compulsions and to fill up with true nourishment.. to create new archetypal voices and imagery that speaks to the part of you that wants to move into genuine wholeness.

I also love what Marianne Williamson says and what many other metaphysics teachers promote.. “Focus on the light brings us into the light” (from “Return To Love”). Learning to separate from what we believe we are.. that we are not our fears, our flaws, our anger or selfishness. Finding our way out of the pain in these ways becomes sacred and beautiful.

This can be a courageous and fascinating journey. And there is no playbook. And certainly no diet or fitness book that can begin to touch the places that will help you with this. I have long referred to this as your sacred Firewalk.. I believe most people have something that will call on them to evolve beyond where they are.. something that is painful enough that they will have to examine themselves and their life in a new way.

For women in pain around body hatred or addictive patterns of eating, that can be an invitation to go deeper and look at everything in a brand new way.. the food piece is just the invitation to your firewalk.

And of course I believe this is best done with loving expert guidance. If you would like to talk about how I might be able to help you, and see if you are a good fit for this work, please email me at Lisa at IntuitiveBody dot com..

I want that for you..

Love and blessings..