We made a quick getaway to Austin TX last weekend and I fell in love with the city!
Now, you should know that I am a bit of a nervous flier (ok a verrrrry nervous flier).
Anytime there is turbulence, fear rushes over me, my hands start sweating, and tears begin bubbling up in my eyes. I’ve tried all the mantras and breathing techniques but nothing has made this panic disappear.
Until our flight home from TX.
As we were cruising smoothly through the sky, our pilot came on the loud speakers and said,
“Hey there! We are flying into a big cloud ahead and we are expecting some turbulence. It will be bumpy while we fly through. Nothing out of the ordinary for a flight through the sky! I’ll have you home safely at our scheduled arrival time.”
Sure enough: we hit those bumps.
But something wild happened: I was not shaking, sweating, and crying. I was totally ok.
Something about the pilot sharing proactively made the discomfort feel ok.
I started thinking about how we need more of these overhead announcements with intuitive eating.
What if when you boarded this “intuitive eating” flight with destination food freedom, your pilot shared:
“Hey there! As expected, we are going to encounter some turbulence ahead.
There will be fears you’ll have to work through. The diet culture and fatphobia conditioning can be challenging to unlearn!
There will be mindset shifts you’ll have to make. A paradigm shift takes time to experience!
There will be challenging moments of relearning your body’s signals. Plus, learning to trust those cues can be tricky, too.
There will be times when that person you’re following on IG talks about her diet and you wonder, ‘should I do that, too?’ These moments of questioning are natural.
Yes, there will turbulence. Every single person on this flight will experience some bumps! It’s a normal part of flying these skies.
We will fly through it before a safe landing at your final destination.”
Because sometimes when this intuitive eating turbulence hits, our fear can tell us that the bumps means that something is wrong.
For all of us, the turbulence is part of the journey. Turbulence is to be expected and it doesn’t mean anything is wrong or bad. We are going to get there safely!
You’re so worth it and your future self will be thanking you every single day.
You are going to get there safely.
