I just attended a concert at Miller Auditorium where a famous (I was told) composer came out to conduct the orchestra at it played one of his pieces. Before he took the podium, he explained that the piece we were about to hear was written at a very personally tumultuous time in his life -- things were not going well for him and that is what the music we were about to hear was reflecting.
His speech wasn't long but it did seem to me very personal. I sat there amazed that he could walk into the auditorium and tell his very personal tale to a bunch of strangers....who might have been sitting there judging him! But he did it.
And that made me wonder why. Why would he need to explain where the music came from? It was a beautiful, angry, chaotic piece. It still would have been all those things if I didn't know the backstory. So why did he share it with the audience?
Then I realized maybe I was asking the wrong question. We all, to one degree or another, do exactly what that composer did. We come out on the stage of the world and tell our story. Maybe it's so others can understand us better. Maybe so they can appreciate us more.
Since I started working with Eating Coach clients, I've struggled with not chastising them too much when they start feeling negative about the coping mechanisms (binge eating, stress eating, comfort eating, mindless eating) that helped them get to the weight they are.
These are also the skills that helped you get through the challenges of your lives -- help you get to be the people you are today. That's not a bad thing! Most of my clients like lots of aspects of themselves (just usually not their weight). But you wouldn't be the person you (mostly) like, if you didn't have the eating issues you do. So.....even if you want to change them, they are a part of your life you can use to catapult yourself to your next great heights.
Much like the composer. He turned an awful, painful, sad, grief-stricken time in his life into a beautiful, angry, wonderful, chaotic piece of music that I thoroughly enjoyed listening to. Maybe you are doing the same for yourself. What do you think?
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