{via etsy by BLintonPhotography}

April is National Stress Awareness Month, so today, I’m highlighting ways we can soothe and stave off stress in our lives. While stress is inevitable — it’s life, after all — it’s important we have tools at our disposal to cope with it effectively.

Stress can negatively affect how we feel about our bodies and ourselves. It can trigger emotional overeating and anxiety and sink our mood. In short, it can be really overwhelming. It also doesn’t help if the strategies we turn to are detrimental to our health and well-being.

{via etsy by Kay Hulbert}

Today, I’m honored to share a guest post by Darla Breckenridge, MS, a psychologist specializing in binge eating at Green Mountain at Fox Run, a women’s healthy weight retreat. In 2011, Darla co-authored Journey into Self: A Hundred Days of Guided Mindful Reflection.

Below, Darla explores what we can do when we don’t love our bodies and any positive body talk feels oh-so faraway. She offers a powerful and valuable technique that leads us away from body hatred and onto a more positive — and feasible and authentic — path.

{via etsy by Debbie}

One of the biggest reasons we turn to food for comfort is disconnection. We’re disconnected from ourselves. 

As author Julie M. Simon writes in her book The Emotional Eater’s Repair Manual, “You’re cut off from your most basic signals, your emotions.” In her book Julie shares a helpful strategy for reconnecting to ourselves.

{via etsy by VickieWadeFineArt}

Stress can spark disordered eating. While the relationship between the two is complex and varies by person, many people turn to food — or away from food — in times of stress. Controlling food intake becomes a way to cope.

In other words, “many people react to stress by under- or over-eating,” according to Jamie Manwaring, PhD, a primary therapist at Eating Recovery Center’s Child and Adolescent Behavioral Hospital.

When stress strikes, kids may also seek comfort in bingeing or restricting how much they eat.

* I’m incredibly honored to be part of Mara and Tamarisk’s blog hop, which features bloggers revealing what our self-care really looks like. Read the amazing and thought-provoking posts here. And be sure to check out Julie’s post tomorrow since she’s up next. 

I’ve had an interesting relationship with self-care. And by interesting I largely mean non-existent. Until I started writing Weightless, I’m not sure that I even knew of the words, let alone deeply understood them.

And, to be honest, I’m much better at recommending you take great care of yourself, then I am at practicing what I preach.

{via etsy by Sylvia}

Even if our body image is in a good place, for some of us, the insecurities still linger. They simply morph.

So it’s no longer fears over a bigger belly but concerns over the perfect prose. It’s no longer wanting smaller thighs but worrying if you’ve said the wrong thing.

Either way, you end up in the same place: growing self-doubt, diminished self-confidence.

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Our relationship with food is often complex, so it takes time to develop a healthy relationship with eating. But I’d like to share a strategy that’s been really helpful to me throughout the years.

In college I used to turn to food when I was upset, bored, anxious or lonely. Which meant that I turned to food very, very often. (It also didn’t help that I thought dieting was the answer to my woes, and I spent some days pretty hungry.)

{via etsy by Georgianna}

Losing weight is a top resolution here in America, and no doubt, in many other countries, too. Maybe some of you are also considering it.

Resolutions are, of course, a personal choice.

But I encourage you to consider what healthy and truly nourishing habits you can cultivate instead. Consider intentions that focus on the journey, not the destination; that bring you joy, and aren’t punishing; that expand your life, instead of restricting it.

{via etsy by Ileana Hunter}

Stress can lead us to skip self-care, bash our bodies and overeat. It can leave us feeling overwhelmed — and out of control.

And that can seem like the worst feeling. Ever. You feel like you’re barreling through life on a train with no track, about to collide with anything and everything in your path.

Fortunately, even in stressful situations where we think we have zero control, there’s always something we can do. We can reach out for help. We can shift our perspective. And we can find a healthy way to cope.

{via etsy by Joy}

One of the most powerful realizations I’ve had about our relationship with food is that many of us use food to fulfill a variety of needs.

I definitely used to. I ate when I was bored. When I was lonely. When I was excited. When I craved comfort. When I felt achingly disappointed.

When food clearly couldn’t give me what I truly needed or yearned for.

In part two of my interview with Christie Inge, the creator of The Peaceful Eating Kit – The Tools You Need to End the War with Food, she talks eloquently about fulfilling our needs and truly, truly nourishing ourselves.

Also, don’t forget that Christie is generously offering Weightless readers 25 percent off the The Peaceful Eating Kit. Just enter the word “weightless” for the discount code when you’re checking out.