4 Key Steps to Breaking Free from Emotional Eating

According to a recent poll in Self Magazine emotional eating affects the majority of women. Traditionally we women are the nourishers of the family, we feed them and soothe them, but we sometimes get out of touch with our own emotional needs and that’s when we start looking to our food to be our friend as well as our fuel.

This article explores four ways to become more aware of your eating and emotional habits so that you can discover simple ways to nourish yourself without reaching for the biscuit tin.

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Are You Overworked and Under-protected?

According to a report published in the Washington Post in January of this year: "54 percent of Americans are concerned about the level of stress in their everyday lives".

Juliet Schor Pd.D, author of Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure explains that for the last 30 years the trend in working harder and working more has escalated to the point that the average American works 200 hours a year more than they did in the 1960s. That's the equivalent of 5 extra weeks of work per year.

But there are still only 52 weeks in a year so where does that time come from? Dr Schor says it comes from what was previously sleep time, leisure time, and what she refers to as the "time for self" category.

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Have you De-cluttered Your Head Lately?

Some of my fellow bloggers have been writing lately on the subject of de-cluttering. De-cluttering cupboards, de-cluttering rooms, workplaces etc. And that got me thinking about another key area that really benefits from being free from clutter. The clutter in our heads. What are we tucking away in corners and lugging around with us that we don’t need anymore?

We change our cars, we refresh our wardrobes, we upgrade our PCs, but we drag our beliefs around with us as if they are set in stone. They’re not. We can change them, we can update or recycle them, or we can realise that they are of no use to us anymore and throw them out.

Our beliefs influence everything we do. They colour our sense of self, our confidence, our expectations, our relationships with others.

Beliefs set our limits “oh I could never...”, I’m just not good at...”, “I don’t do...”, “I’ve always...”

Some beliefs make a small dent in our personal universe, and others leave a crater, a gaping hole that we might try and fill and yet we never feel full. Read on for some tips on de-cluttering your outdated thoughts...

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On Goals & Resolutions: Progress with Kindness

The closing of a year is always a good opportunity to reflect on how you're doing in your life. What have you achieved this year? What lessons have you learned? What aspirations, resolutions or goals do you have for the year to come?

One of the most frustrating aspects of personal development is that we set our sights too high and then feel disappointed with ourselves for not being 100% patient, compassionate, dedicated to losing weight etc etc

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The Reflective Life: Journaling

“My father used to tell us when we kept our journal to rule a line down the centre of the page and note on the left side what we thought might happen that day, and then, at the end of the day, note in the column on the right what actually happened. It was an interesting exercise.”  Miss Matty - Cranford

There’s something about a journal that I really love. Though I spend most of my writing life tapping away on my laptop, a nice pen and journal always conjure a feeling of quiet reflection in me.

Here’s a brief look at the benefits of journaling as we approach the end of this year and begin to think about our plans for the next.

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