I know you’re doing your hot-doggedy darndest to do everything right.
You’re a mom, a wife, a caretaker, a teacher — your “high” is filling up other people’s love tanks no matter the sacrifice — be it an evening standing in the cold cheering them on, buying crappy snacks because you think they deserve a treat even though you know better, or skipping out on book club even when you read the damn book!
Your pride runs deep for all you do for others.
And when you have the time, you’ve convinced yourself that’s when you’ll commit to your workout. You’ll plan out all your meals and prep. You’ll tell yourself this time it’s going to stick.
And then... it doesn’t. And we all know why. We AlL KnOw WhY.
Have you ever sat on a defective whoopee cushion? (Stay with me.) Instead of one big satisfying farty burst, the air slowly wheezes out, and your kids can’t believe their luck - the sounds of a slow, struggling fart unexpectedly fill their lives with pure joy, the pinnacle of hilarity, and even though you want to jump off the thing, you can’t. You can’t. So you sit there, and as you slowly descend into your seat, they’re rolling from side to side on the floor, clutching their bellies, and you know now this is what hyenas sound like out in the wild.
And you know you can’t ruin this moment.
So you stay. And let it all play out.
This spectacle is eerily similar to the one that plays out when we tell ourselves it will be “different this time”.
This time we’ll work out and stick with it. We’ll commit to eating less of one thing while we ramp up our protein - how hard can it be?
We’ll make time to sit and write for an hour. Learn Italian. Place down our spears and listen rationally when our kids explain the many reasons why they couldn’t submit their homework on time.
We will lead with compassion and sincerity and be the example.
But as soon as we start out on this grand adventure to become these sparkly new versions of ourselves, as if on cue, our motivation begins to wheeze out of us; we can almost hear it suffering under the weight of our self-doubt.
Can I really do this? It’s already feeling really uncomfortable. How much longer do I have to do this??
And just like that, snap. We’re back with spears raised, tossing crappy snacks at our wild beasts in the name of love.
It’s confusing for everyone.
But, of course, things don’t have to be like that. There are other ways and in this week’s episode, I sit down with Megan Edge, an intuitive guide and healer and we discuss in this part 2 episode what’s at play underneath it all that’s keeping us “stuck” and how understanding our emotional reasons behind our actions are what can set us free—or at least help us understand why we do the things we do.
It’s an eye-opening conversation and one I think will help you look at your efforts differently because the reason surface-level changes don’t stick is that there’s something deeper going on that needs to be addressed before we can make legit progress.
(I ended up booking a personal session with Megan because I believe that what goes on in our inner world is what’s reflected in our outer world, and there is so much we can learn from our behaviors.)
Sometimes our suffering has a hidden benefit for us. And until we identify what that benefit is, we’ll keep recreating the same loop.
For Megan, it was realizing she learned as a child that being sick got her father’s attention. So her body kept manifesting illness into adulthood.
What if your pattern around food or fitness is serving you in some way you haven’t identified yet?
Maybe it’s:
Keeping you safe in what’s familiar
Protecting you from something scarier
Getting you a certain kind of attention
Giving you an identity
What if your habits aren’t betraying you? What if it has nothing to do with habits? What if your mind is trying to get your attention? What if your body needs something else entirely?
Listen to the full conversation on Apple, Spotify, or Substack 👆. Megan breaks down how to heal your relationship with your body so the changes you want can actually stick. (And how refreshing does that sound?)
Hope you enjoy part two with Megan! (And ICYMI, here’s part one.)
❤️
am
Your turn: Drop a ❤️ in the comments or hit reply with which pattern you’re finally ready to look at differently. And if you found this valuable, a 5-star podcast rating helps me reach more women who need to hear this. Rate here!
Join me each week as I keep the revelations popping. It’s a mimosa-clinking 🥂 good time where we chat about life, goals, and how to FINALLY stop snacking in front of the fridge while trying to figure out what to make for dinner!
