What comfort food is your guilty pleasure?

Do you have certain foods that you can’t help yourself around?

When you feel sad, stressed or anxious, do you crave certain unhealthy foods to distract you from the discomfort?

Many of us - in first-world countries - stuff ourselves with food to hide from uncomfortable and negative emotions.

And entrepreneurs in particular tend to eat emotionally to crowd out the feelings of stress and overwhelm they endure keeping up with increasing and erratic amounts of work.

Watch this week's love letter on Food Self-Sabotage, which is part 2 of our 5-week deep dive series on self-care versus self-sabotage.

"When I'm anxious, I know eat food that's not good for me."

This week is week two of five. Our five week deep dive into that interplay between self care and self sabotage. That we dance. We dance across that line as empaths every single day.

Source has really pushed me to raise awareness around this because you have got to shine your light better.

Brighter, bigger, we need you, baby. So whatever it takes, we're gonna raise awareness, where you may be standing between you and your light shining at it's brightest and we just wanna honor that.

Not to make you feel wrong or beat yourself over the head for doing things that way, but instead just honoring that, that's coming up.

This week in particular, for week two out of five, the guides have requested us to talk about food. Oh man. Food, food and emotional stuffing. Alright, let's go there.

What kinds of foods do you eat? When you experience the feelings that are like the following. The following feelings of anxiety, worry, emptiness, boredom, anger, grief.

As I even just say those words, what kind of foods does your body want to ... You start getting cravings for. Is it for another diet soda? Is it for potato chips? Is it for cookies and chocolates and ... Or could it be for cheeseburgers just fill me to the brim, right? Or pizza? All of these stuffing foods versus fuel and clarity foods.

Now, a lot of my private clients, there's certain point in our sessions where we come to this one philosophy that I've said I don't know how many times, but there's two kinds of people in the world.

There's two kinds of people. You could tell by what's driving them.

People who desire clarity, and people who desire comfort. See where I'm going with this? Food.

People who desire clarity, they're going to confront the issue because they just want to clear the air, they're gonna take personal responsibility because that's empowering and it fosters more clarity. It spreads light.

They're going to take a stand and voice their opinion because we're looking for clarity. They're searching for truth.

But people who are desiring comfort are going to blame. It's easier to place blame on others or other events or things that happen in the past or imagines situations.

We're gonna place blame if we want comfort. We're going to feel more tired, we're gonna wanna rest more, we're gonna complain.

Whatever we can do to shirk responsibility and hot potato that off of us.

We're not going to express our opinion or rock the boat because if you rock the boat you'll get spanked. That's what happened in my childhood. So maybe that happened to you, or maybe you'll get denied love.

What did you learn in your childhood when you were really vocal? Were you acknowledged and held or were you punished?

Click to share the Tweet of the Week:

Know this: Most people's behaviors are motivated by a desire for Clarity or Comfort. You can tell by what’s on their plate.

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This affects our emotional relationship with food because food essentially represents nourishment for our bodies. How you nourish yourself.

Do you nourish yourself for comfort, or do you nourish yourself for clarity? What types of foods are you craving? Maybe even right now.

Be kind to yourself. This is not a beat yourself up question, this is simply an awareness question.

What types of foods do you eat or especially reach for when you're under extra stress? Or you're feeling anxiety? Or you're feeling worried? Or you're lover or the person that you love is not acknowledging you, or acknowledging your feelings?

Or the government is not acknowledging your emotions and your feelings? What do you consume? What do you nourish yourself with? Is it food that increases your clarity or increases your comfort?

Now, be kind to yourself because if it's increasing just your comfort and not your clarity, if you're falling asleep after eating something, that's a sign that you're clarity is not increasing.

You're actually taxing yourself. That's called emotional stuffing.

We're stuffing down the feelings of emptiness in particular, such as loneliness, worry, fear, anxiety, anger. That hole, we're trying to stuff the hole full.

So many empaths do this. So you're not alone, I've done this. Remember my previous video, I lived on Twix.

Talk about stuffing, that stuff probably made out of sugar and cardboard. Who knows? Maybe some corn syrup thrown in for good measure, maybe for a little bit of nutrition. Terrible.

No wonder my body at the time was horridly inflamed, and constipated, and tight, and in pain. That's years in the past now. Thank God. But be kind to yourself if you're stuffing. You're emotionally stuffing.

The alternative would be instead to eat foods that cleanse you or increase your clarity. Last month, we talked about going on a cleanse and honoring that as a form of grounding, to clear your energetic system.

Do you drink water filled foods such as foods that require the sun in order for them to be created? Fill in the blank. I don't need to know what comes up for you around foods that require the sun in order to be created and foods that are filled with water. Use your thinking cap.

What comes up for you around that? But the alternative would be to have food that comes into your body with more photons, more nutrients, dense with light energy so you can shine brighter rather than stuff down.

Now, the oracle cards that are coming forward, this week in particular, are the romance angels. I don't know if this is backwards on camera. But this is ... Now I think we have 20 decks, 20 or 21. I just got another donation of a deck. Thank you. Thank you Paula. Yay. So good.

If you want to donate to the dojo, we are always open to receiving more decks because the tribe, the whole tribe uses all the different oracle cards that we have here.

Romance angels, emotional food stuffing. Most notorious of all. We need to know about our relationship with food and love. New love. Oh my, new love.

A new person has stirred your romantic feelings. What are you gonna do with that? There's so many things that can stimulate desire and many of the ways that we shame ourselves, self sabotage, being receptive to desire and new affection. A new stimulation is we stuff it down.

"Nope, I am not lovable, let me eat that cake. Let me eat that Smarties. Let me stuff that down." Be kind to yourself if that's what's coming up for you.

If you're afraid of rejection or even afraid of being seen, to all my entrepreneurs out there. How much do we eat to stuff down our visibility, our fear of being seen? Be kind to yourself if that's coming up for you.

So how can we begin eating foods that increase our clarity as oppose to just our comfort? Comment below, send me an email back. Let me know what's coming up for you, what foods are you craving?

By the way, let me see if I can pull this book out here. Doreen Virtue has a book that changed my life, The Care and Feeding of Indigo Children.

In here, she actually has a chart of what food means what emotionally. For example, craving chocolate is a desire for romance and love. Craving beer is the desire to shut out anxiety, wanting more love, fun, and appreciation.

You can deepen your healing journey by getting and reading this book, specifically in your relationship between self sabotage and "self care," the dark side of self care in our relationship with food.

Curious to hear if you're gonna get the book. Let me know what you think of it if you have read it. Did this book change your life too? It sure did mine. Alright. I will see you next week for week three of five and get ready for it. Bye.

VictoriaWhitfield.com
Facebook.com/SenseiVictoriaWhitfield

Just for Today...

Become aware of why you are eating the type of food you are eating during the day.

Ask yourself: "Am I eating this because I want to nourish myself, or am I eating this because I want to numb myself?"

Notice how you feel at that moment - you're already healing!

-

Hello there. I am Sensei Victoria Whitfield, your business reiki master. And it's my joy to get to support empathic entrepreneurs and business owners like you in getting and staying grounded and clear in mind, body and business.

Welcome back to another installment of your weekly love letter from the dojo at naturalintuition.com and victoriawhitfield.com, my blog. These are your sources for channeled holistic stress management techniques and guidance for developing your natural intuition. Whether you're looking to improve the quality of your personal and professional life, let this love letter be your reminder that you are not alone and that together we can make that happen.

Let's schedule a chat, and see how I can help you...

The post Love Letters | Food Self Sabotage – Part 2 of 5 appeared first on Sensei Victoria Whitfield.

Feeling depressed because of a recent breakup or loss of your job?

Do negative news reports, commercials or traffic jams always have a way of ruining your day?

Wish you could just be plain happy already, without all the setbacks knocking you off your unicorn?

I feel you! It seems like every time you relax or start to make it a beautiful day, something has to come along and “test” you, right?

But what if you’re tired of being tested by Spirit?

Watch the above 10-minute video to begin exploring how you can create and protect your joy, rather than feeling like everyone’s stealing it all the time!

"Things were going so well! Why does this always happen to me?"

Hi! Sensei Victoria with you here from victoriawhitfield.com for your weekly love letter. It's my last day in Negril, Jamaica at Jackie's on the Reef and I wanted to share with you one last vision of the ocean for your Weekly Love Letter.

This week Source is really adamant about you understanding that your number one focus should be protecting your joy.

Just like a bird singing, your joy is your song on this planet. It is your vibration that is unique to you.

Joy is the most powerful vibration other than gratitude that we're capable of emanating as living beings, so you really want to protect the integrity of your joy. That's what Spirit wants you to know right now.

What does it look like when we're not protecting our joy? Basically, it looks and feels like we are driven by whatever happens to us.

If someone has some snide remark to say, immediately you latch onto that and identify with what that person said. Or if there's traffic, all of a sudden the traffic has ruined your day, as if something outside of you can determine the quality and energy of the day that you're having.

Other ways that our joy can be affected or not protected is that we're also dependent on others for our own sense of happiness or self-awareness.

For example, let's say you're in a relationship and your partner decides that it's time for them to leave or time for you to leave, and as you’re parting ways, your identity becomes shaken because you've given them so much power over your life.

Similarly, this can happen in the event of loss of a job. If your position at a certain company dissolves or you're let go, fired, et cetera, or you decide to leave, suddenly your identity shifts and then the depression comes, the anxiety comes, stress comes.

Depression, anxiety, and stress are all forms of dis-ease, by the way, not just disease but dis-ease, or the disturbing of one's sense of ease, peace and calm in any and all areas of life and self.

Know this: Disease becomes present when we are not protecting our joy. #stress #health

Now, in the energy I just heard from someone, "I don't even know what makes me joyful, though, Victoria!" That issue, this week in particular, you want to investigate.

Some examples of things that make me joyful is being outside in nature, and bubbles bring me joy. As most of you know, I have bubbles tattooed on the side of my body because they represent innocent joy. Although it may be fleeting, it's beautiful, full of color, and immediate, so that's what bubbles are to me as my symbol of joy.

Having a symbol anchors an idea or energy in you emotionally, physically and spiritually. It's powerful energywork you can do on yourself and on your life.

Also, speaking to people and learning more about other people's viewpoint bring me joy because I love diversity. I'm a very curious person, so finding out more and learning new things increases my joy. These are all examples for me personally of what brings me joy. Hanging out with family and friends, laughter, being silly, again, are more things that bring me joy.

Here’s the thing though: I actually sat down and took the time to recognize and write out a list of all the things that brings me joy as just Victoria.

It all started when I discovered I like white roses, for example, and how their energy increases my joy.

What brings you joy?

Is there a certain kind of music that you just can't help dancing to?

Is there a certain place that you love to visit that brings you joy?

Or someone that whenever you talk to them or whenever you see them, you just can't help yourself, you're just so happy?

Maybe your children or your animal children bring you so much joy?

Make a list. Source is very clear in the energy right now. Make a list of all the things that bring you joy.

And by the way, joy is also defined by a sense of play.

Oh! I just felt a kickback in the energy from someone in the energy saying, "My life is not playful. This is very serious! I have a very serious life right now. I have a lot to do. I don't know what you're talking about play. I haven't played since I was a kid. Adults don't play."

That's a load of crap. With all due love and respect...CRAP! 🙂

You're playfulness gives you energy, and playfulness protects, cultivates and increases your joy. And joy is the energy of vitality; it is the natural expression of a fulfilled life.

Now, I just heard in the energy, “So why do we care about protecting our joy other than the fact that it is the highest vibration you can possibly emanate as a living being?”

It also has biochemical effects on your body. When you are feeling positive, when you are feeling creative, glowing, playful, in a feeling of humor or positive expectation, all of that that just comes naturally as by-products of being in joy.

Your body regenerates itself, not only in terms of physical healing, but it also creates emotional energy, too, where a day was boring and long and slow-moving, it can speed up and sparkle!

How can you find a way to create joy for yourself? Well, the first resource I'm hearing in the energy is studying the teachings of Abraham Hicks.

Have you've ever checked them out on YouTube? Our energy vibrates strong with Abraham, and their advice is that your first focus is “getting into the vortex,” which is another way of saying being and feeling joyful.

If there's any time that in the middle of your day you're feeling slow or low vibration or exhausted, and you do something that creates joy in you... whoa, nelly!

That shift is better than coffee, even better than wheat grass, to all my hard-core health nuts out there. LOL! It's an injection of vitality, a main-line of energy that comes from nowhere but your own spirit.

Other than the energetic and the biochemical reactions that we have to joy, there are the powerful health effects.

When we are sick in the hospital, the most import thing is to generate joy by any means necessary because that'll get you out of the hospital and out of the sick bed way faster.

The vibration of joy accelerates your recovery process.

Also, one of the spirits is pointing to the emotional effect. It brings you back to center. Joy is a feeling space of being in alignment with your most creative energy within you.

When you are in alignment with your most creative energy, the opportunities, the solutions, are endless. What does endlessness look like?

Think of the ocean – in fact, you can look at her in this week’s video. There is no end, as the ocean goes all the way out to meet the sky and then it continues farther than your eye can see.

When you're in a joy-feeling state, the problems that seem impossible to have solutions naturally just click in. 

Joy accesses and activates more of your brain, and that's why this happens.

Synchronicities and understandings or connections that couldn't have been made otherwise click in because you're activated.

That's the magic of being in joy...

Tune in next week, for the second half of our discussion of protecting your joy, where we go through a few specific techniques for protecting your energy!

In Love and Light,

Victoria.

VictoriaWhitfield.com
Facebook.com/SenseiVictoriaWhitfield

Just for Today...

Write a list of activities, people, places, things, memories, symbols and stories that make you feel joyful.

Try to have at least 10 things on this list, and really feel into the emotional energy of each one as you write.

Notice how you feel at that moment - you're already healing!

SHARE THIS! You’d be surprised how many people you know right now are in desperate need of healing and could use this information to change their life. If you can read this, you know someone who needs this Love Letter!

Want to release stress and anxiety now but don't know where to start? Tell me!

Give me a call at +1 (732) 903-8573 or click on the blue BOOK NOW button to start your healing journey, today!

The post Love Letters | Protect Your Joy – Part 1 of 2 appeared first on Sensei Victoria Whitfield.

Have you always tried to "fit in" - changing your looks, your demeanor and yourself to survive, but lost yourself along the way?

Constantly worried that you're not enough yet in life - not educated enough, not attractive enough, not making enough money, etc.?

Find yourself saying "I just wish somebody would love me for me" more and more?

There's a fine line between personal development for self acceptance and personal development for self rejection.

How can you receive authentic abundance if you do not authentically believe you are whole and worthy of it right now?

Watch the above video to explore the question "WHY am I a spiritual seeker?" - are you seeking to authentically love yourself as you are or to hide from or reject the real you?

More Love and More Money - Video Series on Increasing Authentic Abundance

Self-love and acceptance is a life-long journey.

There's no "self-acceptance" nirvana, because we are constantly changing.

You are always evolving and discovering more. Now this can be both inspirational and overwhelming to know, because yes there's always room for improvement but no the journey never ends.

So how do you learn to love and accept a moving target like yourself? Or is it just impossible?

It's not impossible. Learn to move with the target.

Sometimes we feel very low, and at other times we thing we're on top of the world. Like the Earth, we naturally have seasons of feelings and emotions.

Yet the key is to accept and re-accept yourself where you are at, as you go. As you do so, you create a momentum of love and healing in your own life through the actions you take.

When you love and accept yourself, your behaviors like eating, moving, speaking, etc. show that you do - and others' can feel it!

Energetically (empathically) people will pick up on the love you show yourself, and because of your brave model, it gives them permission to do the same.

The ripple effect of embracing yourself is huge.

So why then, is it just so hard?

Maybe somebody told you you're not enough. Not pretty, not tall, not strong, not fast, not smart, not powerful, not old, not young, not educated, not wealthy, not skilled, not skinny, not ...enough.

Or maybe... you tell yourself that you're not enough. All day.

Perhaps that thought's running in the back of your head all day, fueling your actions and your drive to serve, and keeping you on task - perhaps you're thinking that right now?

Know this: You are enough right now. You just are. #MLMM #BK2YS

Most people wait until the last few years of their lives to finally let go of caring about searching for others' approval and acceptance, because they believe they've "paid their dues" and are more afraid of their inevitable transition to death than their fear of living their lives fully now.

As if retirement and old age are the excuse to FINALLY be who you are and do only what you want.

Here's the thing: you don't have to wait that long to give yourself permission!

If only just for now, decide to love yourself as you are, as if you were retired already.

You did pay your dues already - you were born. That's all the permission you need to be yourself in this lifetime, is to make it into this lifetime.

Watch this week's video for the Oracle Card of the Week, which shows exactly WHY you can love and accept yourself and HOW to do it, right now!

In Love and Light,

Victoria.

VictoriaWhitfield.com
Facebook.com/SenseiVictoriaWhitfield

Just for Today...

If you were already loved, retired, wealthy and healthy, how would you feel?

Would you lose your sense of meaning to life without the struggle for "more" or for others' approval? Be honest.

Notice how you feel at that moment - you're already healing!

SHARE THIS! You’d be surprised how many people you know right now are in desperate need of healing and could use this information to change their life. If you can read this, you know someone who needs this Love Letter!

Want to learn to love and accept yourself so you can attract more abundance?

Give me a call at 732-903-8573 or click on the blue BOOK NOW button to start your healing journey, today!

The post Love Letters | Self-Love and Acceptance #MLMM appeared first on Sensei Victoria Whitfield.

Whether it's a birthday, anniversary, Thanksgiving, Christmas, the 4th of July, an office party, or Mother's or Father's Day - most of our celebrations these days are food-focused.

In a previous article I explained how we associate food with love and that is why we tend to stuff ourselves, especially at Thanksgiving.

However Spirit spoke to me this morning and said that it's not just love, but we also associate food with appreciation and celebration. Any holiday or celebration therefore is a severe trigger for those of us who struggle with Emotional Eating and Emotional Stuffing Behaviors. So what on earth do we do about this?

I had a few downloads today about how to heal our relationship with food during Celebrations and Holiday Gatherings. Some of them may surprise you, others may seem pedestrian.

Either way, I encourage you to TRY THEM OUT (at least 3) this Thursday for Thanksgiving, and let me know how it goes for you.

It's all about making sure you're not the stuffed turkey at Thanksgiving this year!

I myself will be attempting to engage in all 7, and I'll let you know what happened for me. Usually I stuff myself sick during the holidays to show I am present and participating, but this time, I personally want to be present to myself and my health WHILE participating with experiencing Love with family and friends.

So here they are:

1. Reframe The Meaning of Cravings. We stuff ourselves during holidays and celebrations because we conflate eating food or drinking with Love. Guess what? There's more ways to give, receive and experience love than stuffing yourself. When you next feel the urge to eat more, reframe that urge as a need to experience more Love in that moment - which means, challenge yourself to hug someone, express appreciation, donate something, be affectionate, give a gift, do a random act of kindness or service, tell someone how much they mean to you, pat the cat or the dog, go outside and just appreciate nature for 10 minutes with someone or call someone up to say you were thinking of them.
2. Tupperware. We overeat during holiday celebrations because our eyes are bigger than our stomach, and portions go crazy. Bring a no more than 3 cup / 24 oz / 710 ml tupperware to the party and make it your goal to eat only what will fit in that tupperware and it can close. That way you know exactly how much will be going inside you.
3. Hijack Your Smell & Salivation Response. We often overeat during the holidays because things smell so good. Bring non-food and non-appetizing things to smell to combat cravings and overeating, such the following oil or candles to sniff: lavender, tea tree, eucalyptus, roses, lilies, jasmine, gardenia, or even vick's vapor rub!
4. Managing Seconds, Thirds, and so on. We overeat because it's socially acceptable to keep going back for more food. So to make sure you can have more of something that tasted good but just at a later time, bring extra tupperware containers to put your seconds and thirds to take home later and put them in the FREEZER during your stay, AND into your own freezer when you get home.
5. Conscious Display. We overeat because we see the buffet open and easy to access. So, cover up foods with opaque (not see through) covers when not in use. Out of sight, out of mind!
6. Taste & Pleasure Binge. We overeat because everything just tasted so good and we just want to repeat the sensual pleasure of it. To counteract this, do an ACV Bomb! Drop a shot of Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar into a tall glass of water and drink it down. It's great for digestion and can shut down cravings! Or, if it's really bad, just take an ACV shot straight. You may scream, but hey, desperate times call for desperate measures! 🙂
7. Plan Out the Event Activities. We often overeat because the only thing to do is eat at a party. How BORING! So instead, have a set time where you and your family / guests move away from the dinner table to engage in non-food, non-drink, and non-eating activities that raise your love vibration higher and higher. And when you raise your vibration, you attract more positive things into your life!

Lacking ideas on what to do other than eat? The following post will be a list of over 27 Non-Food Love and Bliss Raising Activities for Holiday Gatherings. Click here to read it and plan your next holiday party consciously!

SHARE THIS! You'd be surprised how many people you know right now are in desperate need of healing and could use this information to change their life. If you can read this, you know someone who needs this Love Letter!

The post Love Letter: 7 Strategies to Not Get Stuffed at Holiday Gatherings appeared first on Sensei Victoria Whitfield.