A guide to making intuitive eating habits and letting go of perfectionism

I remember sitting in my room all day long, binge-eating and binge-watching, to distract myself from reality. I was showing a few symptoms of depression. I wasn’t ready to admit that my life was sinking, and I needed to do something about it. Rather I’d distract myself with Netflix and burgers.

That’s where my relationship with food started becoming toxic. I became overweight, and you could tell that from how many inches I had gained around my belly. I also looked older than my age. From a slim high school teenager, I was entering my 20s with an overgrown belly.

And only when I underwent therapy sessions, my life started getting back on track. But it took me 3 years after that to realize my complicated relationship with food. For a long time, I thought my main target was weight loss. …

Experimented with over 200+ coaching clients

I remember my days of binge-eating snacks and binge-watching Netflix.

I showed symptoms of depression, and I would lock myself up in my room so that nobody would bother me. I won’t care about my attendance in college.

I would do all this to avoid facing reality. Whenever I had a moment of stillness, I would overthink. And at that moment, I thought the best thing to do is sit and watch movies and eat something.

That didn’t last long.

I had to face my emotions. I had to get back to reality — only to realize I was the reason for my suffering, not my emotions. …

5 Ways to strengthen your mind

According to a Poll conducted in mid-July,

53% of adults in the United States reported that their mental health has been negatively impacted due to worry and stress over the coronavirus.

This is significantly higher than the 32% reported in March, the first time this question was included in KFF polling.

All of us must have witnessed the irritated, frustrated, and negative change in behaviors of our loved ones and ourselves.

A lot of us knew how to regulate these emotional changes and stabilize our mental health. …

Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.

I was in pain. Literally.

It felt like my heart would explode. My heart was beating so fast, and I had issues breathing normally. I wanted to cry, but somehow I couldn’t.

That’s how I reacted when she dumped me.

I had been practicing stoicism for a long time, and I wasn’t the kind of person who gets upset by someone else’s actions. And this ‘getting dumped’ incident was shocking and unnatural to me. As a result, even I reacted unnaturally.

I felt attached to her in a short time when we dated. …

#1: Differentiate between requests and requirements.

For a long time, I have lived an unhappy and unsatisfied life.

Because my idea of happiness was — somebody will come, complete me, and make me happy. Growing up, I didn’t have ideal role models. This corrupt belief system makes sense then.

Guess what? Nobody like that ever came. Or even when a relationship was going well with my partner, I’d screw it up with over expectations.

This holds for my non-romantic relationships too.

Because I was expecting to find my happiness in someone else, expecting them to ‘give’ me my happiness — I was miserable.

Yes, happiness is inside of you. Like sadness, happiness is also temporary. It doesn't make sense to chase happiness too. I know it now. At that time, I was unhappy. …

Your life-purpose starts with you.

Now that I am a life coach and I am directly serving others, helping them live a purpose-driven and peaceful life, I often get asked how a receptionist or a pizza-delivery guy can live a meaningful life.

With a society like ours, where we have miscommunicated the true definition of purpose, it sounds about right to have these kinds of questions. Due to media, we might think that if we are not impacting 1 Million lives on the planet, we are not living our true potential.

I don’t think that’s true.

You don’t have to change everyone’s world; you have to change someone’s world — starting from yours. …

Being a life coach at 24

I am 24, and I am a life coach.

And I have an inner voice that keeps asking me scary questions — “Who are you to teach people how to live? You’re 24, what do you even know about life?”

Well, that’s partly true.

I can’t teach someone how to raise their kids in a better way. I don’t have kids. I can’t teach someone how to work out their marriage. I have zero experience.

But I can teach you how to manage your emotions well. I can help you with making a daily self-care checklist. …

#5: Be patient with your progress.

I consider myself 5 years old.

Because only 5 years ago, I started becoming conscious of my actions and their consequences. I don’t believe I lived as an individual before then.

I was doing whatever my family, my teachers, my society expected me to do. And that didn’t end well.

I ended up being borderline depressed, having anxiety issues.

Only in my therapy sessions, I came to know that I need to evolve personally and emotionally. I was legally an adult, but emotionally I wasn’t mature at all. I didn’t know how to express my emotions. …