Loving Yourself Thin with Vivation

How You Can End Emotional Eating and "Lighten Up" using Vivation 
by Patricia Bacall

Dorothy first came to my healing practice as an incest survivor, sixty pounds overweight, and desperate for a solution to her weight problem.

She had tried almost every diet and weight loss method available, was contemplating bypass surgery to control her eating and bring her borderline diabetes under control. She was also suffering from back, hip and knee pain.

Dorothy knew she was a compulsive overeater, and "used" food to keep painful memories and uncomfortable feelings suppressed. I taught Dorothy how to do the skill of Vivation using the Three Points to Remember. This lesson number one allows even a beginner to Vivation to have a complete and satisfying experience of emotional resolution. When I asked Dorothy to breathe into her belly during our session, she started to experience more intense feelings. She became aware of fears and anxiety and noticed her tendency to want to eat when those feelings surfaced. As Dorothy put it, "Food and eating were my way of coping with those memories which I didn't know how to deal with. Eating was a way of keeping my feelings stuffed down."

Many people become overeaters as a way of managing feelings that seem overwhelming. It was apparent to both of us that Dorothy didn't need bypass surgery or another diet, she needed emotional rescue.

As we continued our sessions, Dorothy made great advances in healing the underlying cause of her overeating, lost 28 lbs., and is continuing her healing journey. In my professional work as a weight loss coach and healer, I see people transform using the power of their breath to integrate emotional negativity, living fuller and happier lives as a result of casting off years of internal turmoil and suffering.

Because full and free breathing causes one to feel one's feelings more intensely, many people unconsciously control their breath and become habitual shallow breathers.

The importance of breath is well known in many healing traditions, which consider its disruption to be the first sign of "dis-ease" or disordered energy in the body.

Breath is the essence of life. If we are shallow breathers, we limit our life force and our experience of vibrant good health and enthusiasm.
Breathing becomes limited when we are traumatized or fearful. Shallow breathing requires holding and tightening the muscles involved in breathing. When this holding becomes chronic, the flow of energy is limited and emotional negativity gets "stuck" within the body.

This holding will also, over time, build layers of protective armor that decreases feeling and sensation. Although this armor protects us from the external "slings and arrows" getting in and harming us, it also limits our enjoyment of life, self-expression and ability to respond to those around us in sensitive and compassionate ways.

Healing internal trauma and negativity using the breath allows us to let go of unhealthy ways of dealing with our pain, including overeating, and not taking care of our bodies. By learning to relax in the presence of uncomfortable emotions, we can heal the internal turmoil, and cease using food as an all-purpose solution to decrease emotional pain.

You can use Vivation to "lighten up" about your feelings and emotions the next time you feel that you are overeating for emotional reasons.

To try this, lie down comfortably on your back, with feet hip distance apart, knees bent or legs straight, whatever is most comfortable for you. Allow yourself to sink down into the surface, relaxing your chest and belly, throat, spine, and jaw.

Use your inner awareness to begin to soften and relax every area of tension and holding, leaving you to notice only the areas which will not readily relax.

Breathing in and out through the mouth, allow the breath to follow this path through the body – belly – back – breastbone.  Then let go on the exhale, allowing the breath to flow out of your body in a completely relaxed way…not controlled at all.  Continue to repeat and perform the breathing as you say to yourself "belly - back - breastbone…and let go." Relax the exhale and all of your muscles as you say "…and let go."

Allow your entire torso to expand with the breath. Think of the graceful movement of seaweed being moved by waves as you feel the pleasurable sensations of energy flow through the body. While doing this, continue to relax your mind and all the muscles in your body.

Just let your awareness dwell on the feelings, sensations and patterns of energy flowing in the body, and be open to everything. If the feelings and emotions get too intense, make the breathing shallower. To feel the feelings more intensely, breathe faster or fuller or both.

Keep letting all of the feelings flow, and keep breathing and relaxing for at least 20 minutes. This exercise will calm and energize you and train you to relax in the presence of your most intense and activating emotions. It is the attempt to avoid these highly charged emotions that causes you to overeat or eat when you are not hungry.

Learning to relax in the presence of intense feelings is a very valuable and useful skill that will come in handy in many areas of your life. Practice for a few minutes in bed to sleep more deeply or sitting up before walking into a presentation and see how calm and focused you will be.

Patricia Bacall, Vivation Professional, has a consulting practice in Los Angeles, and is an internationally acknowledged expert in the area of emotional resolution related to weight loss. For more information, visit www.vivationusa.com or write to her here.

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