The basis of “Body Esteem” is emotional eating and discovering the reasons you are eating when you are not really hungry and why you continue to stuff yourself when you are already full.  It’s also about learning to recognize and confront your feelings and emotions instead of trying to stuff them down with food.

Burying your feelings and emotions is harmful to you physically as well as emotionally.  Learning to feel and release them rather than suppressing them will do wonders for your health as well as your mental outlook on life.  By taking just 5 minutes a day for yourself you are also giving yourself attention and acknowledging that you are worth it. 

The following exercise will help to acknowledge and release your emotions before they show up on your scale.

Find a space and time when you can be undisturbed for 5 minutes (even if it has to be a bathroom break at work or sitting in your car in your garage).  Set a timer for 5 minutes.  Then close your eyes, and as you take three slow deep breaths mentally ask yourself “what emotion or feeling am I suppressing that I need to acknowledge and release?”  Trust the first thought that comes into your mind and then allow yourself to feel whatever you sense that you are avoiding or suppressing.   If you are sad, allow yourself to cry.  If you are angry, allow yourself to feel the anger in your body.  Perhaps you’re feeling unloved or not appreciated.  Whatever it is, acknowledge the feeling or emotion.  Then take three more slow deep breaths.  As you slowly breathe in and out, mentally repeat to yourself “I am calm, I am relaxed, I am happy, and I am at peace.”  As you open your eyes, put a smile on your face . . . and say to yourself . . . “LOOK OUT WORLD, HERE I COME.”