And so it is 2020..

Welcome to the first Collective blog for 2020. (As a side note, can you believe it is 2020?! Where did the last 20 years go?! Back when we were worrying about Y2K, and as per our recent post, dreaming of flying Jetson’s cars!)

What do we aim for with Intuitive Eating?

Many people come to me hoping to lose weight - but is that actually what they really want?

I often ask my clients - "Do you want to lose weight and keep worrying about what you eat and what you weigh OR do you want to improve your relationship with food, stop worrying about food, weight and body and eventually be at peace?"

It’s that time of year to bring out our creative spirit and create cute Christmas craft for our children to enjoy.

Craft is a weekly activity within my household, although within the festive season I love to expose my children to a variety of creative art activities to get them excited for Christmas.

Writing the Collective’s social media posts this week has certainly got me thinking about what makes Christmas special. Sure, the presents are great, but the things I most remember tend to be about the people, and the experiences. Sharing those memories and continuing our family Christmas traditions really helps to bring everyone together and make the occasion feel special. And the excitement and enthusiasm of kids at Christmas is infectious.

As Christmas approaches and all the Christmas Parties and Festivities start, I thought I'd write about how Intuitive Eating fits with Christmas. It's actually an Ideal fit - because if you eat Intuitively, then nothing changes.

What do I mean by this?

by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

We couldn’t do a resources week here at the Collective without including this book. It is quite possibly our most shared resource, and for good reason. The subtitle of the book reads – ‘12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind, Survive Everyday Parenting Struggles, and Help Your Family Thrive’. It’s a parenting book, but one which understands the reality of parenting and provides strategies that are actually helpful, able to be implemented, and which provides the science (in an understandable way) to support the approach.

What do psychologists do? According to the Australian Psychological Society (APS) the work psychologists do is incredibly varied and the list is endless. You might find psychologists helping to formulate a campaign to influence Australians to give up smoking, designing a new test to detect mental health issues early, or developing an app to help people beat anxiety. In fact, wherever there are people, a psychologist can usually bring their expertise to that outcomes are improved.

“Be gentle first with yourself if you wish to be gentle with others.” ~Lama Yeshe

A few week ago, as a team we sat in a small group being led by one of our wonderful psychologist Ailsa Graham a pioneer in the field of self-compassion and mindfulness knowledge and research.

As a Dietitian specialising in Eating Disorders, weight concerns and Body Image, I listen to many people struggling with their relationship with their body. I hear so many hateful words that people use to describe their bodies and it always stuns me that we would never use these words to describe another person. In our diet and thin obsessed world which purports to promote health, it also strikes me that many of the messages that come across in ads, magazines, the media, images, social media, gyms, and perhaps from those around us (friends, family, colleagues) also only make us feel terrible about ourselves. The irony of this is:

The Collective family acknowledged World Mental Health Day last Thursday 10th October as one of particular importance as its focus this year was on suicide prevention. Looking after our mental health can be especially challenging for those experiencing difficulties and hardship as a result of the extended drought conditions. We have some understanding of what our clients are going through and have the privilege of listening to their stories and offering support as best we can.

Definition of Self-Compassion:

Having compassion for oneself is really no different than having compassion for others. Think about what the experience of compassion feels like. First, to have compassion for others you must notice that they are suffering. If you ignore that homeless person on the street, you can’t feel compassion for how difficult his or her experience is.

Social September 2019 encourages us to press pause and disconnect from our digital lives and reconnect with each other and ourselves. The aim is to create opportunities for face-to-face connecting promoting positive mental health and well-being.