The dreaded negotiations you have with yourself that this time will be different. I won’t overindulge, overspend, or overconsume – I have total control.
Then it happens.
You’re invited to a dinner. You plan to limit your food consumption only to realize by the end of the meal, you’ve consumed more calories than you had for the entire week.
Or perhaps you go to buy a new blouse for an event, and you end up buying an entire outfit with all the accessories from head to toe, tripling the amount of money you had wanted to spend.
Or one that I am most familiar with from the past is going to a party saying I’m only going to have a couple of drinks, to find out later you blacked out and missed half the party.
Ugh! Can you relate?
I refer to this as the dreaded “over-the-top behaviors” that occur when you mask feelings of scarcity, sadness, guilt, shame, and fear.
The conscious mind wants to go unconscious and numb out to your reality.
How can you keep from allowing these situations to occur?
Start by establishing a plan of action so you won’t be derailed.
Begin by allowing yourself a moment to pause and create a mental image around what you want to receive from the experience –meaning what you will take away afterward: the joy, happiness, the laughter, the fun, and how you will remember this moment in time.
Then release any troubles or worries from your mind by writing them down on a piece of paper, knowing you’ll come back to them, but for now, you’ll set them aside for the time being.
The intention is to be able to create a plan of action so you can fully engage in the moment without repeating the same “over-the-top behavior.”
Starting with this practice will release the next day remorse, regret, or self-loathing. You’ll be glad you took the time to take action prior so you can feel in control of a usual out-of-control situation.
And from this place of accomplishments and satisfaction, you can go back to the paper that you wrote your troubles and worries on and begin to find solutions to those situations and circumstances.
You’ve got this!
