Stop Punching Sharks

An analogy in 3 parts…

Let’s say that the ocean represents your mind. 🌊⁣⁣⁣
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There are all kinds of animals in the ocean – dolphins, fish, eels, sharks. These are your thoughts 🐬🐠🦀🦈⁣⁣⁣
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When the ecosystem is balanced, the animals live in balance. They all have their place.⁣⁣⁣
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Then something happens – (addiction, attachment injury, a trauma, etc) – that opens up a gas line under the ocean. Pollution spills in (this is overeating, in our case). Many of the dolphins perish. The sharks thrive. ⁣⁣⁣
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Our mind becomes filled with sharks. ⁣⁣⁣
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We get distracted by these anxious, fearful, scary thoughts. Of course! They’re BIG. They’re SCARY. They’re THREATENING! ⁣⁣⁣
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We think “My shark problem needs fixing!”. Which is true.⁣⁣⁣
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So we start punching sharks. They get scarier. We punch harder. We’re exhausted. It isn’t working. 🥊🥊🥊⁣⁣⁣
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We are engaging with and battling negative thoughts as if they are the problem. But there are causes and conditions under which these thoughts multiply and overcome us; and getting to those is the real key to overcoming overeating.⁣⁣⁣
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We have to stop punching sharks so that we can clean up the pollution and get to the source of the leak. In Part 2, we’ll talk about strategies that help us stop fighting our minds and start healing them.