Sofia Bothwell

When the winds of change blow, do you follow them? What are the winds of change? How do they manifest in your life? Beyond being a well known saying The Winds of Change are a real concept in life. Whether we like it or not we are here, living a life of... what? Quiet desperation as the poet says? Or of fulfilling one's own heart-felt desires?  We all know that we each want to be fulfilling our own heart-felt desires but were they not squashed in childhood or adolescence?  Over many years of working with compulsive eaters and observing people I was surprised to find out how many did not know what they wanted in life. Or if they did have an inkling it was something they felt they could not achieve. Others were so buried in the day to day living, of marriage and kids, addicted to the acquiring of more and more mainstream wealth that they were on a treadmill. A treadmill running away from themselves without even being aware that that was exactly what they were doing.  Think...

 Can losing a few pounds be called a spiritual journey? The seemingly shallow desire to be slim, can it really have deep meaning? The answer to these two questions is - Yes. Susie Orbach's book Fat Is A Feminist Issue was maybe the first book to hint at the deeper issues involved in losing a few pounds of body weight. Whether it was twenty pounds or five pounds a woman wanted to lose, there was an emotional reason that excess weight was there, and there was emotional pain that the fat was hiding.  Discovering and healing the emotional wounds linked to dysfunctional eating patterns became the work at hand if one wanted to be slim. And it is still true today, with the epidemic of worldwide obesity the answers given to overweight people need to looked at closely. To only focus on what goes into your mouth is not going to heal an eating disorder. For an eating disorder is a problem in itself and also the symptom of a deeper problem. Discovering and healing that deeper problem is k...

 There are many ways to live your life. What are the New Age folk talking about when they refer to living your best life, your highest potential? Without sounding too much like the annoying school teacher that demands that you achieve more and more. Like the parent or spouse that demands in subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways that ''you could do better'' what are we to do with these messages of what is less than  accepting of who we already are - flawed human beings?  Well the first thing is to remember that the only person we can change is ourselves and actually to accept ourselves as we are, flawed as we are, is the prerequisite to any changes we might wish to make within ourselves and our life.  Often letting go of the over critical folk in our life is part of that change as we learn that not all people relate in that way. Anyone who uses manipulating tactics such as the silent treatment, criticism, subtle or overt put-downs, guilt trips, etc leaving you feeli...

  How is addiction 'encouraged' within society? Well, have you ever seen a TV series or watched a film where one or other of the characters says - 'I need a drink!' Maybe they have had a hard day at work and head for the bar, and with a sigh it is their well deserved reward or pick-me-up. The party just is not a party without alcohol. You see the depressed business man pour himself a stiff whisky. It is in all our films and TV series as the go-to method of life to feel better, drown your sorrows or celebrate. It is tied in with relationships and love, loneliness and problem solving. The truth is, it rots our kidneys and liver, and does little to solve our problems. Again and again I promote the idea of emotional resolving as your only way through this life with any healing and peace. Without food when full, without alcohol, without addiction period, your life is more authentic and an adventure. So look at where you are not looking. That means look at where you are avo...

Emotions are a precious gift of life. You are human, you have to have emotion. It comes with the body. You cannot have a day without weather, and likewise you cannot be a human without emotion. You can try to suppress your emotions, ignore your emotions and generally deny your emotions but that just creates a mess. A big mess. The thing is, people do not like being aware of their emotions. People do not like to be in a body if what is experienced in that body is emotional pain. That is the driving force within every drug taker, every over eater, anorexic, alcoholic, workaholic, gambler etc etc - that force that says consciously or unconsciously ''I do not want to be here.'' Sad but true.  We experience pain a lot in this world because of widespread ignorance of the kindness that is so important in living. When all of society becomes kinder, more aware, less materialistic and more spiritual if you like, we will have less drive towards addiction. Care and attention to one...

There is something 'in it' that makes you addicted (processed foods). It is such a ''high'' you get addicted (drugs like heroin or cocaine). Statements such as these are you giving away your power to give up or take up the addiction. Always remember - You have a choice. No matter how high the high or what is 'put in processed food' you are the one who decides (consciously or subconsciously) to partake of addiction. You can get addicted to anything. People get addicted to things because they have unresolved emotional issues and traumas that they do not know how to heal. Because this can be unconscious further complicates things. To hear someone say 'Well I am addicted'' is like they are throwing their arms up in the air in resignation to the fact that they are powerless to change. and nothing is further than the truth. You can change if you want to, and so you have to ask yourself - Do I really want to change? If the answer is - Yes - then you...

 To be able to stay away from the foods we know are bad for us, to be able to stay away from the activities that we know are bad for us, is the essence of what I teach. Avoidance tactics that distance us from our feelings, avoidance tactics that numb our emotions are what we are avoiding. So what are you avoiding? Are you avoiding your emotional issues or are you avoiding life. By avoiding life, I mean, Are you avoiding facing up to and healing your own very personal emotional wounding? This healing of emotional wounds may not have been taught to you by your parents or teachers. Even grown up you discover little or nothing to help you heal your emotional wounding. Whenever that topic arises it is easily squelched, not talked about or discussed, so you conclude that there is no other way to deal with your emotional stuff other than to suppress it through eating when full, eating food that gives you an adverse reaction in your body, and / or drinking, smoking etc etc ad infinitum....