There’s a part of me…
Have you ever heard yourself say, “There’s a part of me that wants that, but part of me doesn’t”? Or, “Part of me wants that cupcake, but part of me thinks it’s bad for me”?
My guess is now that you’re thinking about it, you’re realizing you’ve done this before. Probably numerous times. I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t. We all talk in the language of parts without thinking about it. And because of that, without even realizing it, we’re supporting the fundamental tenet of IFS: that we don’t have just one personality. We’re all made up of subpersonalities or parts.
This explains why we have so many complicated thoughts and feelings about the same person, situation, event, etc.
We All Have Parts…
We literally have different parts to us that carry varying thoughts and feelings. If you think about an important person in your life–even someone you truly love and care about–you have more than one feeling toward that person. That’s because you have different parts that each have their own feelings toward them.
We have different parts that use food in different ways as well. We have parts that use food for certain reasons (i.e. to comfort and soothe other parts) and parts that restrict food for other reasons (i.e. to lose weight and therefore be “good enough,” to feel “in control”). And we all have parts with feelings about our body. Getting to know these parts is the absolute best way to understand why you use food the way you do and to therefore make long-term, sustainable changes in your eating patterns. It is, in my experience, the only way to truly heal your relationship with food and with your body.