The power of one degree

My grandparents used to live on a farm Northern Ontario. I used to love to drive on the backroads.

I’d drive and drive on a dirt road on a sunny day. With light like that I should have been able to see far, far away. But with the grit in the mist, I could barely see at all.

Much of the grit was spray by my own making, when I’d rev too hard, spin my wheels, and etch a groove in the gravel.

My bingeing wasn’t much different. Much of my pain came from trying to go too fast, taking drastic and unsustainable action, then digging myself in deeper. And each time I went through this cycle, it got harder and harder to see.

Many programs to end bingeing are as harsh as the ones that caused it. Yet much can be learned from the power of the one-degree shift.

An ocean vessel whose direction is changed by one degree will be in an entirely different location in just 24 hours.

But a 180-degree shift sounds much sexier, doesn’t it?

And so we try to do all that we can to stop bingeing all at once and hold out at long as possible, until the swing back to bingeing seems almost out of our control. And then the pattern often flips back and forth, back and forth, between bingeing and not.

Whether you’re flipping or spinning or altogether stuck, there is another way that holds so much more power. One degree after another, you can find your way out of bingeing faster than you think.

What might your one-degree shift be?

Describe any urgency you feel to heal your pattern of binge eating. Please free to email me your reflections.

Would you like someone by your side on your path to recovering from binge eating? Book me for a free mini-session, and let’s explore what lies ahead.