Overeating and Doing Things that Bring Joy

When you were a child, what did you love doing more than eating?

What activities did you get absolutely lost in when you were a kid?

What things did you love to do so much that everything else faded away when you were doing it?

What topics or areas of interest were you absolutely in love with?

Did you love to find and learn about and collect bugs?

Did you love to paint, with no care for whether it was "good"?

Did you love making model airplanes and everything flight related?

Did you love to write fantasy stories with dramatic storylines and memorable characters?

Chances are, you had many interests as a young child, with a couple really strong passions.

Also, chances are that when you were absorbed in these activities or learning, you weren't thinking about anything else.

You also probably weren't thinking about eating or food.

Little kids, when they're joyfully and passionately absorbed in the things they love doing, completely forget about eating.

They literally have no thought of it until they're physically hungry and their bodies start distracting them with the signals to refuel.

And why would they be thinking about eating? They're engaged in their heart's desires unapologetically and fully.

But something tragic happens as we get older. We often abandon some or all of the things we loved as kids, for many reasons. Our fear takes over, we judge our interests as childish or self-indulgent.

We believe it's impossible to make a living at it. Or we are so bogged down by other repressed emotions that we can't find any passion in us.

And then, is it really much of a wonder that we become preoccupied with food? With what we're going to eat next? Thinking about food even when we're not hungry?

A part of healing overeating is getting back to that childlike engagement of our heart's true passions and interests.

We need to get back to having so much fun with what we're doing, enjoying it so much that we totally forget about food altogether unless we're hungry.

What were those activities for you as a child? Are there some you'd never even tried as a child but have always suspected might really ignite your soul?

It's time to embark on this journey of discovery and re-discovery. Kids know what's up.

Photo by Dylan Taylor via Unsplash