The other morning I was on a call with a client, and as usual, one of my cats climbed into my lap.

If you're already one of my clients, you've surely seen this already.

And as usual, I alternated between pushing her away and letting her sit for a while until she got too annoying.

But eventually I had to give in to the cat's persistence and just let her sit there on my lap, even though it was a little inconvenient.

And eventually, of course, she got up and left and went to sleep on the couch beside me.

I was talking with my client about the problem for people who are emotional eaters is that they use food to avoid feeling their feelings; they push their uncomfortable feelings away.

I help them learn to sit through and really FEEL their feelings so that the feelings can run their course and go away, without needing food to comfort them.

All of a sudden, I realized that pushing the cat off my lap was the physical representation of the exact same thing.

BOOM

If you've got a cat that is insisting on climbing into your lap, sit there with her for a few minutes.

Don't push her away.

Meet her need and she will be satisfied.

And if you've got a feeling that keeps climbing into your head, sit there with it for a few minutes. 

Don't push it away.

Just feel it.

See what that does for you.

Unmet needs and unfelt emotions are even more persistent than cats who want to sit on your lap when you are trying to work (hard to believe, I know)!

But both go away when you meet them and let them do what they need to do.

This is true whatever your avoidance technique is - food, alcohol, smoking, drugs, video games, compulsive shopping.

Allow yourself to feel those feelings rather than pushing them away, and you will lose the need to force yourself into doing or stopping a behavior.

If you want to know more about how that works, talk to me!

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