As featured in “The Optimistic Addict,” with a few minor tweaks:

I am a Life Coach who focuses on helping people to change their “Inner Game,” that is, their beliefs and the thoughts they think, to make huge changes in their lives. I am a firm believer in the natural law known as the Law of Attraction, and I’ve had proof of exactly how it can be used to make any change you desire in your life.

For anyone who may be unfamiliar with the concept, the Law of Attraction is just like the Law of Gravity. It’s happening in your life whether you are aware of it or not. Like attracts like, period. Everything is energy, including our thoughts. The thoughts we put out there go on to attract things that match them energetically. So, the key to attracting the things you want in your life is to match those desires with your energy you are putting out into the world with your thoughts and expectations.

What does this mean exactly? How do we do this? We’ve got the amazing benefit of our emotions that tell us at every moment how we’re feeling, which is how we’re vibrating. The vibration of our thoughts and accompanying emotions needs to match the feeling of our desires if we want to bring them into our lives.  Generally, our desires have a high vibration; that’s why they are called desires! They equate to feelings of happiness, contentment, satisfaction, joy, productivity and other positive emotions.  When we are feeling emotions that are not on the positive end of the scale, that is, depression, sadness, anxiety, overwhelm, or frustration, we are emitting a negative vibration and are attracting things that match that negative vibration into our lives.  

So how does this work when it comes to food and our bodies?

1. Whatever is going on for you vibrationally (your emotional state) is what’s playing out in your life, and that includes food and body image issues.

2. You can’t get to where you want to be when it comes to food and your body unless you make peace with where you are right now. You need to know that wherever you are in terms of weight and fitness is okay and that you can get anywhere from here. It doesn’t matter how you got here. Where you are now is based on your old vibration, yesterday’s news. Does this make sense? If you’re feeling unhappy, embarrassed, stuck, angry with yourself, you can’t possibly emit the positive vibration that you need to match the vibe of where you want to go from here.

3. So the path to “recovery” from this food issue is going to be an emotional journey, which will eventually lead to some inspired actions. Remember, the emotional journey is the main deal here. It’s 99% of what will get you to where you want to be.

So, I’m asking you to take a bit of a leap of faith with me and prove to yourself that it works!

I know that some of this will run counter to the way most of us have been taught to think about food, diet, and our bodies, but this is the real deal when it comes to food, or anything else in your life.

The first steps on this journey to having a positive mindset around food and our bodies, will involve paying attention to how you feel, not just about food, but to how you’re feeling about anything going on in your day. You are not taking score of any results at this point, such as weight or fitness.  A successful day is a day when you can say you felt good about everything you ate that day. A good day is when you can look in the mirror and find some reason to like what you see, to feel good about yourself. A great day would be a day when your feelings about your body were more of self-love rather than self-loathing.   On a successful day you would not beat yourself up at the grocery store and wouldn’t get mad at yourself for the choices you made at a restaurant.

So, what you’re shooting for here is unconditional love for yourself, not love that is conditional upon reaching a certain body weight or fitness level.  It’s what you deserve, after all, and it is a huge foundation for allowing anything you want into your life.  

Once you’ve made peace with where you are right now, you’re probably going to want to remove your attention from focusing upon your current weight and fitness level as much as you can and focus upon other things that make you happy. Distract yourself from “the food or diet issue.” At this early stage, because of the habits of thought you probably have about your body and food, thinking about “the issue,” no matter how hard you try to focus positively, is probably going to be sending a mixed message to the Universe. Imagine repeating an affirmation, for example, that “I am fit, healthy and love myself,” when actually you believe that you are out of shape and are disappointed in yourself for overeating. The Universe will pick up on your vibration, not your words, so, as you begin you will probably want to distract yourself from the food issue altogether to give yourself some relief and to boost your vibration.

This is a big part of the ticket: you can make yourself happy with other parts of your life, completely ignoring your current physical condition, and your current physical condition will improve. That’s the way the laws work. Isn’t that awesome?

You’ve already sent out a message to the Universe that you want to have a healthy relationship with food and your body and the Universe has already gone to work to create that for you. It already exists for you in a sort of vibrational escrow that is just waiting for you to match the vibration of it, the good feeling emotional equivalent of it. And, you can match that positive vibration with your good feelings about anything in your life, not merely food, to improve the way you relate to food.

I’m throwing out a bit of a teaser here, which I know is a stretch for lots of people, but I know it to be true. How you feel while you’re eating your food, preparing your food, thinking about food, is actually a huge part of how your body will respond to the food that you eat. How you think about your food and your body directly affects the way your body handles food, the energy the food gives you and the condition of your body.  And, as the way you think about food and your body image changes, you’ll also be moved to inspired actions when it comes to food and your body. That will be just one of the results of changing your “Inner Game” when it comes to food.

And, while I love the title of this blog I am contributing to, especially the “Optimistic” part, and realize that the label of “Food Addict” is helpful to many in recognizing where you are, where you need to go, and where to get the support you need, I’m going to suggest that you consider not calling yourself a Food Addict for now, as the beginning of your experiment with changing your “Inner Game” when it comes to food. A new description of yourself, which might have nothing to do with food at all, might be an effective way to immediately begin changing your mindset. I nearly always suggest to my clients from the start that they begin to change their story about themselves as a strategy for using the Law of Attraction to their advantage.  Does your story need to include the “fact” that you have a problem with food?

And now to really begin your journey to where you want to be when it comes to food and everything else, what could you focus upon right now that would make you happy? Do it. This is all on you now, in the very best way, and anything is possible. When you change your focus to something that feels good in your present moment, where all of your power lies, you have already begun to change the momentum of your life, including your relationship with food and how your body responds to food.

And, inspired action relating to your choices when it comes to food and everything else is on the heels of this change in focus and what you are attracting into your life.  

I really look forward to continuing this discussion. There is so much more here. And, it can just get better and better.

For any readers interested in learning more about the Law of Attraction, I’ve written an award-winning book on the Law of Attraction, called “How to Allow—Working with the Law of Attraction to Allow Your Natural Well-Being.” It was voted Best of Books on Law of Attraction for 2012 and is available at www.howtoallow.net,  Amazon.com and CreateSpace.com.

I also do Life Coaching, which is my passion, and is focused upon changing your Inner Game and changing your life in the process. You can learn more about my coaching at www.howtoallow.net/coaching.

I offer a free coaching session; feel free to e-mail me at susan@howtoallow.net. I would love to help you with changing your story about “food addiction” and any other goals you might want to achieve. You deserve the investment in yourself!