Even though that is what the song says, it is not always that way. You might be feeling blue for many reasons: you might feel upset since a recent breakup occurred or a death in the family, or your holiday does not look like the Hallmark movies.
I have focused on the difficulties around food and the holidays in many of my recent podcasts and blog, but I have not talked much about the emotional difficulties that show up this time of year. If you are feeling blue this holiday, my most recent podcast is for you. Even if you are not feeling blue, the holidays can bring up unexpected difficult feelings.
Over the next few weeks I am going to be hoping onto the Feed Your Soul Community page to have some Facebook Live broadcasts about the holidays, food and give you some quick and helpful survival tips. If you are not a member, this would be a good time to join. The group is free, supportive and full of good cheer. Be sure to join now! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1172488142887200/
This week the Feed Your Soul with Kim Podcast focuses on inviting peace in your life. Be sure to listen. I would appreciate it if you could like the podcast, subscribe to it and leave a review. This helps the podcast become more findable by others.
In this episode, we look at holiday blues, which is different than holiday stress. Just because we are “supposed” to feel happy over the holidays, doesn’t mean that we always feel that way. There are things you can do to move through the holiday season even when you are feeling blue.
In this podcast we discuss:
What are 5 signs of Holiday Blues?
Learn the 7 typical causes of Holiday Blues.
Get into action with 10 different activities that can help with Holiday Blues.
These podcasts are quick (usually no more than 30 minutes) and each gives you a doable at the end to feel like you really accomplished something.
Kim McLaughlin M.A. is a counselor and a motivational coach working with people who engage in emotional eating or binge eating. She is a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor. If you are in need of services contact Kim McLaughlin here.
Kim is the author of the best-selling book Feed Your Soul; Nourish Your Life! A Six Step System to Peace with Food. Learn more about her book here.
Kim McLaughlin has been identified as writing one of the Top 50 Blogs about Emotional Eating by the Institute on Emotional Eating. Sign up for her free Special Report: Top Strategies to End Binge Eatinghere or visit her website at www.FeedYourSoulTherapy.com.
We are now into December and our final month of the Holiday Trifecta; that three month period of October, November and December where there is HUGE focus on food. This is the month where there is even MORE food, MORE events, and MORE expectations. I love to contemplate what this season means to me and it made me wonder how I (and you) can find more peace. As I have been thinking about the idea of bringing more peace into my life, it made me look at how I can slow down this month and not be in a hurry. I am looking to make an effort to check my schedule for downtime and make sure I set aside time to be quieter. This includes quiet walks, meditation, music and journaling.
What helps you feel more peaceful? Do more of that!
This week the Feed Your Soul with Kim Podcast focuses on inviting peace in your life. Be sure to listen. I would appreciate it if you could like
the podcast, subscribe to it and leave a review. This helps the podcast become more findable by others.
I invite you to have a listen on the and invite in more peace.
These podcasts are quick (usually no more than 30 minutes) and each gives you a doable at the end to feel like you really accomplished something.
Kim McLaughlin M.A. is a counselor and a motivational coach working with people who engage in emotional eating or binge eating. She is a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor. If you are in need of services contact Kim McLaughlin here.
Kim is the author of the best-selling book Feed Your Soul; Nourish Your Life! A Six Step System to Peace with Food. Learn more about her book here.
Kim McLaughlin has been identified as writing one of the Top 50 Blogs about Emotional Eating by the Institute on Emotional Eating. Sign up for her free Special Report: Top Strategies to End Binge Eatinghere or visit her website at www.FeedYourSoulTherapy.com.
I have been thinking a lot this week about gratitude and how I just feel better when I embrace the attitude of gratitude. Don’t you notice it? Life just goes smoother when we notice the good going on around us.
I think this goes beyond the question at the Thanksgiving table, “What are you thankful for?” It is the daily focus of what do I have to be grateful NOW.Consider this as we enter into another part of our Holiday Trifecta journey this year. If you have not heard me talk about the Holiday Trifecta and how it can have a negative impact on us (and our eating), I suggest you look at my blog.
This week I talked on my Feed Your Soul with Kim Podcast about Gratitude Practice. I want to be in the flow of gratitude more often than not. Want to join me?Check out this week’s podcast and get some inspiration for your own Gratitude Practice. I invite you to have a listen on the Feed Your Soul with Kim Podcast.
These podcasts are quick (usually no more than 30 minutes) and each gives you a doable at the end to feel like you really accomplished something.
Kim McLaughlin M.A. is a counselor and a motivational coach working with people who engage in emotional eating or binge eating. She is a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor. If you are in need of services contact Kim McLaughlin here.
Kim is the author of the best-selling book Feed Your Soul; Nourish Your Life! A Six Step System to Peace with Food. Learn more about her book here.
Kim McLaughlin has been identified as writing one of the Top 50 Blogs about Emotional Eating by the Institute on Emotional Eating. Sign up for her free Special Report: Top Strategies to End Binge Eatinghere or visit her website at www.FeedYourSoulTherapy.com.
I have been feeling overloaded lately and I have been turning to my wellness tools to deal with the feelings. Stress eating can be the way to handle feeling overloaded, especially over the holidays. It seems to show up a lot this time of year, so I dedicated the 2 most recent podcasts on stress eating.
I invite you to have a listen on the Feed Your Soul with Kim Podcast and get a handle on the stress, so it does not turn into overeating.
These podcasts are quick (usually no more than 30 minutes) and each gives you a doable at the end to feel like you really accomplished something.
Kim McLaughlin M.A. is a counselor and a motivational coach working with people who engage in emotional eating or binge eating. She is a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor. If you are in need of services contact Kim McLaughlin here.
Kim is the author of the best-selling book Feed Your Soul; Nourish Your Life! A Six Step System to Peace with Food. Learn more about her book here.
Kim McLaughlin has been identified as writing one of the Top 50 Blogs about Emotional Eating by the Institute on Emotional Eating. Sign up for her free Special Report: Top Strategies to End Binge Eatinghere or visit her website at www.FeedYourSoulTherapy.com.
Are you afraid to have it in the house because you will overeat it?
Do you wish you did not have to worry about candy?
I have been hearing for weeks that people have bought their BAGS of Halloween candy and have eaten it all!
Has this happened to you?
Possibly you have not bought the candy yet, because you are afraid you will eat it all. I know… you wait until Halloween to buy it, but end up eating way more than you want or you eat (sneak) your kid’s candy.
I have had a love/hate relationship with Halloween and all the candy that goes along with it.
I understand this dilemma, because I used to spend Halloween evening at the gym to avoid buying the candy and worrying that I would eat it all. I was scared of Halloween candy, not the scary costumes!
I decided that I had to make peace with food and especially with candy since my husband and daughter love Halloween: they Trick or Treat while I pass out the candy. I have written about my struggle with Halloween candy on my blogs and will talk about it more on my Feed Your Soul with Kim Podcast.
An idea yesterday that I would make available to all of you (and anyone else who signs up) for my FREE Overeating Halloween Candy: Have Peace with Food video series going over how to have peace with Halloween candy.
Here is what you get:
A 6 video series that is short and gives you what you need to deal with Halloween candy.
Powerful take aways from the videos as well as doables to get you into action.
Here is a blog post from my friend Fawn Gilmore Kraut. She helps single women discover love in their lives and release from what is not working. She has kindly allowed me to use one of her blogs to support all of you. If you are interested in a healthy relationship read on…
It was an honest but rather scary admission.
“He is like heroin to me,” she said again and again. I shuddered inside but was glad at what she was finally seeing. For some time, the symptoms had shown up like flashing neon signs in her language and behavior.
“He’s been under so much stress.”
Some of her ongoing excuses for his self-indulgent behavior.
“I still miss him. His good side.”
Good side? He routinely abused her physically and mentally for years.
“I am pretty sure that I am co-dependent!”
You think?!
“Help!”
It’s on the way!
This college educated, mother of three was addicted. Not to drugs, porn, or hoarding. Oh no. This unusually sympathetic mother had gotten herself addicted to the very difficult man she married – and she was far from alone on that score.
Relationship addiction is real. It can happen more easily that we realize. Known for his work with chemical dependency, Canadian physician Gabor Maté reveals that the source of an addiction is unresolved pain. The addiction is our coping mechanism to cover up the pain that lies awake in the shadows.
Unfortunately, the more we run from our pain, the more painful life becomes. Like an infected wound, our emotional pain operates in our body much the same as a physical injury, often becoming quite crippling.
Do you think you might be addicted to someone? Past relationship? Sibling? Even one of your children?
Well, here is some evidence that would indicate that you are a relationship addict:
You call or reach out to the person practically every day. However, they rarely reach back.
The person dominates your thinking. You can’t get them out of your mind.
You can’t function until you have some kind of contact with them.
You make excuses for their behavior. You are blind to reality.
You don’t care what it costs you to be in the relationship. You even overlook the negative consequences of your actions on yourself and others.
The relationship affects everything else in your life. It prevents you from moving forward and growing as a healthy human being.
If you are addicted, what is the answer?
According to Dr. Mate, the antidote to addiction is connection. And though you may feel like you’re “connected” to this person, it’s not a true connection if the relationship requires you to abandon yourself. True connection is only possible when we stop avoiding the uncomfortable emotions, and begin to embrace our full selves, and let others do the same. Being with our emotions, without judgment and without shame, can be scary. It means owning our story. Our mistakes, those times when we fall down. But when we do, when we are truly authentic with a person who holds space for us to be fully ourselves, we can begin the process of healing.
I know. Sometimes the pain has been buried so deep and for so long that you have no idea what it is or how to bring it into the light. In these situations, here is what I recommend to my clients.
First, remove the “drug.” Stop the behavior that you are using to cover up the pain. Practically, this can mean cutting off all contact with the person. I am talking, “cold turkey.” Without rudeness or blame shifting. You simply stop calling, texting or commenting on Facebook. Whatever the behavior has been, you stop doing it.
Second, you allow your emotions to surface with someone else, preferably a good friend or compassionate professional who has their feet on the ground.
The key here is that your emotions will lead you to the source of your pain, if you are willing to let them surface. Many times our pain is rooted in fear such as fear of abandonment, rejection, or being alone.
Finally, when you’re ready, you release, let go, heal and move forward. You acknowledge the pain and its memories for what they are and you begin to rebuild your life with a stronger, healthier, and more hopeful outlook. You are much stronger than you ever realized.
Addicted to someone?
The great news is that, if you are willing, you can be free from behavior that keeps you locked up in the prison of the past.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Have you ever been addicted to someone? How did you get through it?
Happy clients around the world call Fawn “Their relationship guru.” For single professional women, serious about creating an amazing life-long passionate love-affair, Fawn is their go-to expert to discover and claim their feminine power and attract great men who are ready to love, respect, and cherish them. Clients learn to radiate their unique confidence, love, and beauty in a powerful way that makes them irresistible to the men who are the perfect match for them. With confidence and joy — and with her inspired guidance and support — they learn to repel the men who only want to use them, and magnetize and inspire real, quality men into their lives to create real and lasting love for a lifetime.
Fawn spent most of her twenties and thirties with a series of dead-end relationships and broken hearts. When she was almost forty, after one last devastating heart-break, she decided she needed to start taking responsibility for her relationships with men and the pain she was creating. (Either that or become …a nun!) She began working with a coach who ever so gently asked her the questions that opened her eyes and her heart. Within a year, at the age of 40, she married the love of her life and they’re still going strong.
After years of informal coaching and transformational work, Fawn graduated from the prestigious Coaches Training Institute as a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach.
She is passionate about women finding real passionate love while being true to their authentic unique selves.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year right?
Kim McLaughlin M.A. is a counselor and a motivational coach working with people who engage in emotional eating or binge eating. She is a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor. If you are in need of services contact Kim McLaughlin here.
