Sofia Bothwell

 There once was a young man who went to the spiritual Master asking the Master for help with his anger.  ''Where is your anger?'' Asked the Master. ''Show it to me.'' ''I can't show you my anger now. I don't feel angry now,'' replied the young man. This highlights the transient nature of emotion, as does the Buddhist saying ''Feelings are like clouds in the sky - they pass.'' I thought my own interest in Eastern Spirituality was separate from my work (both on myself and with others) around eating disorder recovery and emotional healing, but lately I've been considering that anyone who starts to heal emotionally, tap into their intuition and heal their addictions also invariably end up on the ''spiritual path'' for the want of a better phrase. Over the years as my interest in Eastern philosophy / spirituality increased, I realised there are some Western, genuine ''gurus'' doing mu...

 I have to say the old timers in positive thinking are the masters. My first introduction into positive thinking (I was raised by a very negative thinking father) was through the books of Norman Vincent Peale and Catherine Ponder among others.  Yes, they talked of God, and yes, I often replaced the word ''God'' with the word ''Love'' for that was my God. But, what they did, was teach me of the power of my thinking mind. To reverse it from negative to positive and thus reap the positive benefits in my life.  I was a young woman woman living in a rented room in London. My family (who were wealthy) were of no financial help whatsoever; nor were they of any emotional help, but that is another story (see my biography My Life My Way) My Life My Way So why now in these interesting times am I yet again drawn to talk about these great teachers?  Well, they lived in times, dare I say it, even more difficult than these. They spoke to people who had suffered and we...

 If we think of being overweight as being simply a food issue we are just ineffectively scratching the surface of the problem. Once we realise that ''eating when full'' is the cause of our excess weight, and then, in turn, realise that ''eating when full'' is what we do to suppress our emotional issues, we are really getting somewhere. We are getting to the truth of the matter!  The truth of the matter being, that unresolved emotional issues are really the leftovers of instances of abuse in our lives. That unresolved issue of fear, anger or boredom. That unresolved issue around your teacher, dad, priest or mother. This is why so many people are overweight and stay overweight all their lives. They simply do not want to ''go there.'' And because the facilities for ''going there'' are often expensive therapies, even ridiculed, little known therapies that are not mainstream yet, venturing into the unknown seems just too much t...

 The still small voice that is within each and everyone of us is also known as our intuition, our sixth sense, our gut instinct. That sense,  that something is intrinsically right or terribly wrong can be a delightful and powerful guiding light in our lives if we let it. People know when they follow their gut and things work out well. People have also experienced not following that whisper and things not going so good. So each and every one of us has had experiences of this, little spoken about, phenomenon. When I teach people the principles of healing their problems around food and excess weight, one of the first things I give them is the  ''Am I Hungry?'' download / handout sheet. A simple process whereby you ask yourself every time you think about food or eating - Am I Hungry?  Thus you are enabling yourself to become more familiar with your hunger and fullness sensations, and knowing when you are going for food when full. Once aware that you are in fact physicall...