“The need to eat my feelings no longer exists. I have a new powerful way to be with my feelings.”

• Reba Denmark

My first discovery was that I was over-eating in order to not leave food on my plate because of an old “children in China don’t have food“ messaging from when I was a child. That was totally unconscious and when I realized it was gone. I used to ignore my body’s hunger and then eat whatever was fast and convenient. Now I listen when I hear it’s hungry. I ask myself what I want and I prepare it. My body is leading vs my mind in many areas. I’m really hearing what it wants. I ordered new dresses and earrings.

Saying 'no' has become much easier because I can feel when it’s not aligned with my body’s wisdom.

More flow in things. I want to bring this to my business to see what would open up there. Let it come to me. What my business wants to be rather than me deciding. Im in partnership with the universe!

• Denise S. Australia

Where are you now?

How are you relating to yourself, food, your work, your life and being a community that has a global message?

I am relating to myself as perfect right now. Food and eating are a space of freedom and enjoyment for me. I’m interested in how food makes me feel when I eat it, and how it empowers me in an amazing life. There is nothing to fix, there is nothing wrong with me. I’m free to choose to eat any food with no guilt and no shame.

My relationship with my body is one of restored trust and partnership.

As a result, I have begun creating joy for myself and my life, on a regular basis. I’m enjoying eating, and enjoying my body, exactly as it is right now. I’m taking much better care of myself overall, in many ways, and as a result, I have more energy, I have more focus, I am calmer, and I have greater productivity.

• Where were you when the opportunity came to take the program?

When I started the program, my beliefs about food and my body were based in a world-view that said I should be different than I am. I should be trying to fix what’s wrong with me. If I have stopped playing the game of trying to fix myself, then I should feel guilty for not trying.

I was stuck in a place where it didn’t matter what I was doing, I was broken.

If I was eating like I ‘should’, then I was trying to fix myself. If I was ‘eating properly’ then I was bad for cheating. My body was an enemy. The way my body looks and feels was wrong, and eating was a way to numb emotions, and to escape notice, even my own notice. I was numb to myself and my life.

• What were you expecting?

I’m not sure what I was expecting. Gathering with a group of women, talking about diets and food, I think my expectation was something like a guide on how to eat.

• What was your experience?

My experience was amazing. The trust that was creating in the group, through sharing some of our history with food and eating, and being vulnerable, and willing to look a little silly in front of the group, allowed greater levels of trust than I believed possible with a group of people I’ve never met in ‘real life.’ Our group was made up of, and led by, strong, beautiful amazing women, and the things that we took on in ourselves was inspirational. What I’m now aware of in myself, and my entire shift in thinking about my body and food and eating is huge for me.

After more than 40 years, I have freedom, and excitement and pleasure in eating, and it’s glorious!

• Merilee Lawson

Love and Magic

When I think about this program and the results that came from it, one word that keeps coming up for me is “magic.” But there were no tricks and no sleight of hand. On the contrary: every step was an exercise in clarity and authenticity, with a healthy dose of courage and a sprinkle of humor. (Well, a lot of humor actually.) And, yet, the results seem magical. Where to begin... As a yoga instructor, I have been training for years in the art of being present and listening to my body – and helping others to do the same. In the world of health and wellness, I thought I was doing pretty well. However, I always knew that I didn’t have a healthy relationship with food.

I struggled with gaining and losing around 15 lbs in an ongoing cycle of carb-loading and abstinence.

I just couldn’t get a balance,and I couldn’t get out of the trap of feeling bad about myself for not being in control of what I ate. It was exhausting. Then, I met Tania. When she described her program as an access to freedom around eating and learning how to listen to your body, I was sold. This is exactly what I wanted. It was the missing piece for me. So, I was in and I was motivated and I was primed to succeed. This was the program for me. The first breakthrough for me was to realize that I had equated eating with getting love. I had always known when I ate for “comfort,” but love?? By uncovering this truth,

I was able to understand why there was such an emotional charge for me around eating

And I was able to be compassionate with myself. As a yoga teacher who daily espouses self-compassion, this was one of the first times I could really embody it myself. Wow. And I learnt how to listen to my body. Not only in relation to what I eat, but in all aspects of my life. Through this new relationship with my body and food, I was able to see how I had been abandoning myself in other areas of my life. And now that I have integrated this practice of “body listening” into my daily life, I wonder why it took me so long to “get it.” But that’s the beauty of Tania’s training – it is profound in its simplicity. There are so many layers and facets and aspects to this training. And everyone who participates gets to go on the journey they need to take.

It is such a personal journey and Tania creates and holds the space beautifully and expertly.

If you are motivated and clear that you want to have freedom around food, indeed in all areas of your life, then you will just have to take the course and discover the magic of it for yourself.

• Rachel O’Connor

**

I'm noticing the noise has quieted down and I can hear what my body actually wants.

** Before I had the breakthrough, I was compulsively eating in secret and feeling deprived while there was a deeper emotion I was avoiding feeling. At the time I didn't know this was happening. But once I made the connection and let myself feel it, the compulsion went away. I'm no longer feeling deprived at all. I'm stopping when I'm full and eating when I'm hungry.

Feels like a miracle.

• Heejin Baik