Thanksgiving Triggers and Tries
Ways disembodiment may get triggered and things to try when you are
Thanksgiving 🦃 can be a minefield for folks who struggle with disembodied eating. There are so many situations and experiences that can trigger disembodied eating. Getting oriented with some of them can reduce your overwhelm if disembodiment happens.
Also, getting familiar with a few tools ⚒️ to try if you notice you’re “becoming the want” can reduce feelings of helplessness and support feelings of empowerment.
Tiggers:
Abundance of food
Being with family
Being without family
Tries
Take breaks
Seek out sensory experiences
Move your body
Consider joining Find The Shift!
I recorded a Michelle’s Musings about all of that! Its just a 10 minute listen and it can help you … Return to you during Thanksgiving.
I am wishing you an embodied, peaceful, restful holiday and that you Return often. ♥️
Audio Transcription:
Hi, welcome to Michelle's Musings. It's the week leading up to Thanksgiving. So I'm gonna talk about Thanksgiving triggers and tries. Thanksgiving can be a minefield for people who struggle with disembodied eating, so why not pack our little toolbox with things we can try in the hope of finding our way back to embodiment. Okay, so here are some of the triggers you want to be mindful of or aware of that can cause disembodiment.
And the first is the sheer abundance of food. So for many families, food is going to be, obviously center stage for Thanksgiving. And the, just the variety, the smells, the sights of the food, the, the visual, like seeing all of the food can trigger people into disembodiment. So if you think about it, it, it doesn't, you don't even have to have had anything stressful happen. Like you didn't have to be like stuck in traffic to walk into a Thanksgiving gathering and then see all the food and then become disembodied. It can literally be just all of the food. And what happens with that is we can start to experience something I call becoming the want, which means you can't sense anything else but the want. And it becomes overwhelming and you, it's hard to make decisions. You have this feeling of wanting it all. Um, it can be really uncomfortable and very create a lot of distraction. You can experience something called eyeball want and mouth want is what I've decided to call it. And that means that your eyes are kind of fixated on certain aspects of a food. Maybe your eyes are just constantly drawn to like the crispy part of a food or the topping of something. So that's eyeball want and mouth want is when you get like fixated on wanting to experience a certain texture or taste. And all of this really heightened fe, these heightened feelings can be very distracting. And at the worst of it, I mean, it, it can be hard to even hold a conversation. Okay? So that can cause the, this, again, all of these choices and all of these sensory experiences around the food can cause your nervous system to like check out.
Next, being with family, being with family can be a powerful trigger of disembodiment and therefore disembodied eating. There are countless ways I can describe this from just body memories and kind of your nervous system being transported back to a time when you were younger. And those old coping strategies and neurological physiological coping strategies can come back all the way to literally not feeling safe with people. Um, it's a lot. So just understand that being with family can trigger disembodiment.
Okay? The third thing to keep in mind is being without family, so many people during the holidays are struggling with being alone. Either they're alone or they're going through a grief process. And it can be emotional. I mean really, really, really challenging. And I just want to name that when we are in these really uncomfortable situations, like I said, whether it's a grief process or there's a, a need for a significant boundary with family, or you're traveling and you're away, these navigating these emotions can cause disembodiment.
Okay? So some of the things that you can keep in mind if your goal is to not experience or not be completely overtaken by disembodied eating is are these, these few things.
So if you notice you're becoming disembodied, you can take breaks, okay? That means take a walk, go to a different room. You can pretend to take a call or you can call somebody that you feel connected to and take a break, walk away from the food, the interactions, but don't just take the break, experience the break. Let your body feel how the light is different. The temperature is different, the sound is different, that can help you return to a more embodied state.
Number two, seek out sensory experience. So you can do that in so many different ways. You can wear a scarf that has like a silky or a velvety texture. You can keep really cold water with you. And the idea is when you start to sense it's a level of disembodiment, or you start to feel physiologically activated or your eyes are distracted, or you're feeling anything that indicates that you Might be, might be going into a disembodied eating experience. Pour your attention onto a sensory experience. If you're drinking a glass of cold water, notice the sound of the ice cubes in the glass. Feel the cold temperature in your mouth. Feel the wetness on the glass when you're holding it. It's not about experiencing something like that. And then thinking the disembodiment just magically goes away. It doesn't, you're actually folding in another experience. So you're adding something to the disembodiment, okay? It's important to keep that in mind.
Third, move your body. So if you are taking a walk, obviously that also counts as a break, but feel your footsteps, your body moving forward, or find privacy and do some really intentional stretching. You can also push against a, a sturdy wall. So put your hands on the wall and maybe, you know, bend your knees a little bit and push, push, push, push, push, push, feeling the strength in your back, your arms, your legs. And notice. So like I said before, it's not about going and doing these things, you know, take a walk, listen to music, drink cold water. It's about experiencing as much of those experiences and noticing them. That is the path back toward embodiment. Okay?
And fourth, well, here's my little sales pitch. You can join, find the shift. So there are, um, at this point nearing hundreds of returns. I have 15 minute returns, seven minute returns, 90 second returns, audio navigate returns, all different types of on demand returns. And I call them returns because they are, well, that's what happens. The goal is to return to yourself. So they're meditative, embodiment, co-regulatory practices that help you find your way to embodiment. And that can also help you.
So whatever you choose to do, whatever it is, and however you are celebrating your Thanksgiving holiday, I am wishing you embodiment, happiness, peace, gratitude, and health and connection, and all of the wonderful things that you deserve.
Okay?
Oh, one more thing. I always forget to say this 'cause it's, but it's really important when I do, when I'm saying all of this, I'm not looking to support restriction like food restriction or deprivation. I'm encouraging embodiment and a feeling of deep relationship to your body that allows for decision making and physiological cues that feel relevant to you. I'm not wanting people to use these, this advice to support deprivation. Okay? So just my little disclaimer there.
Again, wishing you an incredible and wonderful holiday. Thank you for listening. If you have any questions, you can reach out to me. I'm at find the shift.com. As you probably already know, if you're listening to this, that's all.
Remember you exist. Thank you.