Tag: self-compassion
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The Comparison Trap
“She is so amazing, articulate, beautiful, thin, accomplished, confident” with every recognition of beauty in that person, that object of our envy, we sink further and further in to self doubt and inner criticism. I call these experiences our toxic comparisons. In my body loathing days I was filled with them – daily. All around…
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A Guest House for Grief
Just under four weeks ago the man who loved me first and loved me longest left. At the age of 80, my father, (who had walked 5 miles 10 days prior) died in hospital due to complications from what was supposed to be a rather simple surgery. For years in my early career I counseled people through…
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The Candy Haunting of a Compulsive Eater
I remember the rush of excitement as the cascade of shiny color spilled out of my pillowcase sack on to my bedroom floor. I would methodically separate the loot into its categorical piles: chocolate, suckers, hard candies, chewy cadies, chips, gum and then the miscellaneous pile of disappointment that usually included a toothbrush (we had a…
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A New ‘KIND’ of New Year’s Resolution
Somehow we instinctively get it with our children, our staff, our students and anyone else were trying to motivate. And yet when it comes to ourselves; the concept of how to truly motivate ourselves to live as we truly want to seems to allude us. For years I somehow believed that by being extremely harsh…
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Sinking in Sadness, Swimming in Self-Compassion
You’ve most likely heard of a P.D.A. (public display of affection) but have you heard of a P.D.S.? I found myself experiencing one last week unexpectedly at a YMCA during an aquafit class. P-D-S: Public Display of Sadness. There I was in the middle of a pool with happy, chatting, splashing Seniors when a huge…
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The More You Crave, The More You Crave
There is a common expression in therapy circles “what you resist persists” and never have I found that more true than in the realm of food. This is why, for me, dieting is so dangerous and so ineffective. The constant restriction keeps us locked in a constant battle with the object of our obsession…food. We move between periods…
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Swallowing Boredom
It’s an itchy sensation…boredom. We don’t like it, we resist it, we want more, we feel we deserve MORE…sometimes this leads, quite frankly, to more in the way of calories…calories our body isn’t asking for in the moment…but there can be something very powerful about learning to allow ourselves to sit with the experience of boredom…
Peggy Farah, LMHC, RCC Deeper Cravings 