My very best Lent was back in the early 90s when I gave up guilt. I decided to be conscious about how many times a day/week/month I felt bad because I was letting down my kids/husband/friends/neighbours/community/the world in general and it was a lot. So I quit for Lent and have never been that guilt-ridden again.
This Lent is going to take me right up to my next appointment with the specialist. Tests will have been done, MRI results in. This is a big ask, but I’m going to stop worrying about it for 40 days and spend that normal worry time working on my spiritual life. If any of my symptoms change I’ll just go to my gp.
Simple? No. But that’s why it’s a good thing to do for Lent. It will require a little faith, a little hope and a lot of discipline. I will have to interrupt my own thoughts regularly. I will practice deep breathing and pray as best I can.
What does this have to do with food/body sanity? Everything insofar as stress leads to out of control eating and fear of illness leads to a “who cares” attitude about caring for my body.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
By the way, if the best Lent was when I gave up guilt, the toughest was the one when I gave up coffee. I don’t think it made me a better human being or drew me any closer to God.
Giving up guilt would be too much for me! It’s ingrained.
I did have one successful bout of NOT quitting that worked, though. When I quit smoking about 25 years ago, I did it cold turkey and it was easy — this was after many failures to quit. Somehow I’d convinced myself that I was not a smoker. It was that simple. Since I had not given up anything, I did not miss anything. I did want a cigarette once or twice the first two weeks, and coped by scheduling behaviors that I did not associate with smoking (moviegoing, shopping, as opposed to going out to dinner with friends).
I have never figured out how to transfer that to eating. I’ve tried convincing myself that I’m a normal eater, but that usually sends me right ot the snack machine, or the bread and butter. Something else to work on. Have a good Lent.