When you want to eat less sugar, what happens when you feel an impulse or craving for it?
These pesky impulses can seemingly come out of nowhere. You may be going through your day, feeling fine, when all of a sudden, you think, “I really want a brownie!”
Do you give in to the craving? Do you suppress the urge? Do you try to talk yourself out of eating it?
The problem with these strategies is that they cause suffering. Instead, I invite you to practice integrative functioning, to mix contradictory feelings and thoughts instead of going to either/or. Here’s an example – “I want to eat sugar” AND “I don’t want to eat sugar.”
This is helpful because most of us have mixed feelings about everything. When you integrate, you sit with this tension and the impulse until you find the deeper pull of how you want to respond – do I really want to eat that?
I know this takes courage – it’s a bit like mental yoga. But as uncomfortable as it may be, I invite you to sit with this tension and open your mind. Opening your mind is a direct way you can feel more open, alive and free and not so caught in sugar cravings.
– from The 30 Day Lift