Celebrate Healthy Behaviors and Don't Feel No Guilt

Another picture from my Color Me Calm coloring book:
  I love baths.  So, this picture is about self-soothing yourself in a way that does not involve calories.  I'm not too wild about that sentiment, because it makes it seem as if calories are something we should avoid when calories are really energy that we need, which is why I crossed out the word, "no-calorie."  I think it is totally fine to sometimes treat yourself to a foodie treat in order to soothe or calm yourself.  I usually have a coffee and cookie from Starbucks after my weekly therapy appointment, myself.  People like to reference eating certain foods or not eating at all as being a "guilt-free" activity, but I think all activities that we purposely do to soothe ourselves should be considered guilt-free.  Learning how to safely soothe ourselves is a worthwhile endeavor and can be very hard to do at first.  Moving from self-destructive behaviors to healthy ones may take a while, especially if one is really depressed or anxious.  I have a friend that when she was severely depressed, the only thing that soothed her was eating.  While eating to soothe yourself optimally shouldn't be done all the time, it certainly is better than other things that she could have done, such as cutting or drinking alcohol. I would like for us as a society to stop thinking of things in terms of whether it will help us lose weight and whether we are "guilty" or not, as this only inspires disordered eating and thinking.  We should instead congratulate ourselves each time that we substitute a healthy behavior for a self-destructive one. Today, I choose to celebrate the pleasurable, healthy things that I did today-I went on a walk with my parents, made myself a cup of tea, enjoyed a brownie, and created some artwork.  What have you done today?  Celebrate it!

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