A 30 day, compassion based support program to soften sugar's grip

Friends, early registration is now open for the next cohort of Emerge: Create a New Habit. The early registration price is $200 USD plus sales tax if you live in Texas. Class begins on Monday, April 15th.

The pain of feeling caught in sugar

It's painful to be caught in a compulsive sugar habit - especially when you feel like you 'should' know better. You may be someone who really cares about health and wellness. You may be versed in mindfulness and self care and know all the tools. You may even be a health coach or a therapist or have done 12 step programs or numerous sugar detoxes.

But when you feel stressed or overwhelmed, despite your knowledge, good heart, and sincere intentions, you regularly turn to sugar for stress relief, self soothing, and for warm care. Sugar may feel like your secret shame, a place of stuckness that creeps up over and over again. It's so frustrating, especially when you long to do differently!

Your struggles with sugar can you leave feeling anxious and worried about sugar, food, and your weight. You may feel scared or overwhelmed, especially when your cravings feel out of control. You may dread get togethers, birthdays, and celebrations. Holidays may feel like mine fields.

You long to feel peaceful with sugar and to feel more present, and more connected, filled with those things that feed you. But when stress takes over, and you find yourself in sugar again, you start to feel hopeless, like you'll never change.

When drastic solutions are appealing - but don't work

I hear from so many people who talk about the toll sugar has taken on them. They feel self conscious about their weight and bodies. They feel ashamed that they overeat. And they feel caught between the part of them that wants to heal and the part that aches for the comfort of sugar.

When we're feeling this way, we may feel like the only thing that will help is a drastic detox. You may ping pong between bingeing on sugar and trying to eat as 'good' or clean as possible.

But punishment and perfectionism don't work. Fixating on food or eating 'clean' creates its own stress, and we often end up feeling more anxious and more hopeless - a loop that leads us back into self blame, and back into sugar.

The wise impulse underneath the sugar

We can be so hard on ourselves about our habits with sugar. But when we turn to sugar when we're under stress, we're following a wise impulse to nurture ourselves - to find a soft, warm place to help regulate our nervous systems, bodies, hearts and minds.

When we were little, many of us learned to 'tough it out' on our own, to soothe our stress with sugar or other substances, or tried really hard to be 'good' in order to feel safe and cared for, to keep love close.

Soothing ourselves with sugar is how we adapted to our emotional, physical and spiritual environments - whether that's our families, communities, or culture. 

Looking to sugar for comfort is not a personal flaw, but a sign that you learned to rely on sugar when it was the best possible alternative for the love, care or connection you needed.

You don't have to eat perfectly to get relief

The good news is that this pattern can shift. As our inner and outer environments become more nurturing and connected, sugar can fall away as a primary source of safety, connection and care. The other good news is that we don't have to do this on your own, and we don't have to 'eat perfectly'  to heal.

Most of us have an idealized image in our heads of what we think our sugar journey should look like. When our lives don't match this ideal, we panic, thinking there's something wrong with us. We compare ourselves against this ideal and fall short.

This feeling that 'something's wrong with me' or that 'I'm falling short' fills us with stress, anxiety and inner tension that worsens the very sugar habits we're trying to change.

This can show up in a number of ways:

• trying to do everything perfectly or be in control
• panicking or beating yourself up when you make a mistake
• getting easily thrown off course when you hit an obstacle
• feelings of hopelessness about changing
• and lots of worry about 'doing it right'

There's something really tender underneath the sugar

Change is possible. And it's not true that you're falling short. You merely need a different approach.

It starts with the ground floor - what's behind eating too much sugar. There's something tender underneath this habit that's driving you nuts.

We all have times when we feel stressed, overwhelmed or like we don't have what we need. We can feel lost, uncertain, and insecure. And many of us carry pain from past experiences in our bodies. This pain gets pricked in our daily life and stirs us up, physically and emotionally.

When we feel overwhelmed, when our pain gets pricked, or when we feel exhausted and stressed, we may reach for warmth and nurturing – like sugar – to help us feel better. Then, when this morphs into a habit, and we get more and more stuck in it, we don't like ourselves. We feel bad for our 'bad habit.'

What will help you eat less sugar

This is where compassion steps in. Compassion helps you eat less sugar by fostering gentleness and bringing in crucial emotional support. This helps you replace the refuge of sugar with true refuge, the refuge you nurture whenever you practice self compassion.

These particular forms of self compassion are especially helpful when you want to eat less sugar:

1. Gentleness, ease and patience for the healing journey – unwinding a habit is a process, and one that takes time, kindness, and presence. When you understand and make room for this process, you feel less stressed and less driven to get it right away. 
2. Gentleness, ease and patience for yourself – in addition to unwinding the habit itself, you're also building new habits, new ways of caring for your feelings and needs. This also takes time, patience, and kindness. 
3. Emotional support. When you're moving through the growth process, you'll have times when you feel bored, scared, resistance, and when it feel like nothing's changing. You need emotional support to care for these emotions without getting stuck in them.

In teaching thousands of students and listening to their sugar stories, these three things are what lay the foundation for change. Emotional support is crucial and we all need more of it. That's why I created this course for you.

How this course can help

In Emerge you'll receive support, tools, practices, and understanding to give you greater confidence and competence in helping yourself through the process of changing your habits with sugar.

This course is designed to help you compassionately reframe your experience with sugar so that you can honor your body's natural limits.

This isn't a diet, a detox, or a course on what to eat. Rather, it's a course to nourish, support and grow the internal resilience, strength and levity that helps you make external changes with sugar or other painful habits.

You'll receive daily emotional support to help you when you feel panicked, overwhelmed, like "f** it!" or frustrated. You'll learn how to apply self compassion to the process of habit change, so you can create more nourishing self talk and build resilience.

And you'll receive help to reframe how you see the growth process, so that you can relax and settle in to your healing rather than feeling like you have to make it happen on your own. This course is especially designed for highly sensitive people and those who want a gentle approach. Step by step, with gentle persistence, change is possible.

The class curriculum

Each day for 30 days you'll receive an audio message to help you care for stress, soften difficult emotions, and deepen self compassion as you change your habits with sugar. 

You can listen to this audio as you start your day, in your commute, or while running errands or cooking dinner. You'll learn how to use self compassion in the daily, nitty gritty of your relationship with sugar so you can eat less sugar without being overwhelmed by perfectionism, stress, and trying too hard.

You'll learn:

• How to soften perfectionism and taking on too much
• How to embrace rather than resist limits
• And how to care for mistakes so they don't derail you

There's also a special bonus section with help for cravings and sticky feelings like boredom, resistance, and hopelessness. You'll receive practices and tools to help you move through cravings, feel centered in moments of overwhelm, and move through resistance.

How the class works

Class begins Monday, April 15th and ends Tuesday, May 14th. Each day you'll listen to the day's audio, on your own. Then you can hop on the online forum and share your aha's, takeaways, and insights.

We'll gather each Tuesday for group webinars where you can ask questions, share your experience, and connect with others. Webinars will have time for Q&A but also time to practice what you're learning.

Webinars are on zoom from 2 to 3:15 pm Central Time. You can join us live or listen to the recordings later. We also have an orientation webinar on Tuesday, April 16th from 2 to 3 pm central time. During this webinar, I'll orient you to the online space, introduce you to listening partners, and set the tone for our time together.

These are the dates for the webinars:

• April 16th (60 minutes long)
• April 23rd
• April 30th
• May 7th
• and May 14th

Listening partners

You'll also have the option to pair up with a listening partner for the duration of the class. With a listening partner, you each take turns listening to each other as you share what's arising for you.

Being listened to with warmth, care and presence - with no pressure to change or fix - is a healing balm that helps the places within us be supported, allowing us to shift and change the ways we nourish ourselves.

I'll offer guidelines about listening partners during the orientation webinar so you have support, both in receiving and offering listening, especially if you've never done something like this before.

Unlimited online access

The class is hosted on our Mighty Network, a private, quiet, calm, ad free space where you can access the course materials without the noise, distraction, and privacy concerns of Facebook.

You'll have unlimited online access to the course materials including after the class ends. And you can download the Mighty Networks app so you can access the course easily on your phone or other device. 

Connect with your Inner Elder

One of the key things you'll learn in Emerge is how to connect with your strongest self. You can think of your strongest self as your inner parent, Highest Self, or Inner Elder.

Like a mother caring for her children, your strongest self is the ring leader, the Self that cares for your other selves, needs, parts, worries, needs and concerns.

As you learn how to put your Inner Elder in 'charge,' you quiet, soothe, and care for the other parts of you that may be feeling overwhelmed, panicked, angry, or wanting to eat sugar for relief.

Be rooted in your strength

Over time, as you practice connecting with the wisest, steadiest part of you, you rest more and more in this part. It becomes your center. Painful emotions like fear, anxiety or worry may still be there. 

But the 'you' that you're bringing to the situation feels different, more connected to the values that you care about and your inner strength.

So you can care for your anxiety rather than feeling like you're swallowed by it. And you feel more capable of caring for the difficulties and challenges that you're facing. As you journey through the letting go process with sugar, you're supported by both softness and strength. 

Do you feel moved to join us?

If you feel led to join us, and if this course feels like a good fit for your needs, we'd love to have you. And if you have any questions, please reach out. We want you to get the help you need.

You can also read feedback from our students. Below you'll find examples of what past students have shared with us. While your experience will be unique to you, their stories can give you an idea about what to expect. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What if I get behind? Can I access the course materials after the class ends? 

Sometimes we get behind or can't attend all the live calls. After the class ends, you'll continue to have unlimited online access to the course materials in our online campus, the Growing Humankindness Mighty Network. Mighty Networks also has a handy free app that you can download on your phone or other device.

What if I'm unhappy with the course? What's your refund policy?

We're really proud of our offerings and stand behind them, and we also want you to find the right fit for your needs. If you have any questions if this is the right course for you, please reach out! We're happy to help. 

If the class isn't for you, we offer a full refund prior to Monday, April 15th, the start of the class. After this date, we offer a refund through Friday, April 19th minus a $25 administrative fee.  After this time period, we don't offer refunds or exchanges. To ask for a refund, please contact us by email or phone. And if you have particular extenuating circumstances that are outside the scope of our refund policy, please reach out.  

What if I can't attend the live webinars? I'm at work or it's the middle of the night for me.

We understand! All webinars are recorded so you can listen in later. You'll also have a way to ask questions even if you can't attend live.

Is this course just for sugar?

While this course can be used to eat less sugar, it can be used for any habit - anywhere you feel caught in painful false refuges and would like a compassionate approach. People have used this course to soften overworking, overspending, and to create restful sleep rhythms, to name a few.

I've taken other courses with Karly. How is this course different?

In all our courses, you'll find common threads like fostering compassion, relating to rather than cutting out various parts of ourselves, and approaching ourselves with reverence. What makes this course different than other courses is it's specifically focused on creating new habits with sugar.

How do I know if this course is the right fit for me?

If you're willing to reflect upon your experience, feel into your true needs, and make time for the exercises and webinars, you'll do well. It's helpful if you're open to meditation practices and if you're comfortable in an online environment. Lastly, this course is especially designed for highly sensitive people and offers gentle ways of supporting growth and change.

You can learn more about our approach here.

How do I know if this course is NOT for me? Can this course heal trauma?

Healing trauma is beautiful and holy work. It can also be complex and often requires time, patience, and the skill of a trauma therapist. While this course offers support and nourishment to deepen your relationship with yourself, and while many people receive healing from it, I want to be clear that we're not trained therapists. Therapy is wonderful, but this course isn't a replacement for therapy or designed to heal trauma. For help with trauma, we recommend searching for a therapist with trauma training like EMDR, Internal Family Systems, or Somatic Experiencing in your local community. This kind of support can make all the difference - and we want this for you!