The instructions for how to approach this exercise are in the video (see previous lecture), so watch that first, and then print out a copy (or just draw your own in your notebook) and begin. Write freehand, with a pencil, for fast writing so your hand can keep up with your flow of thoughts.

Remember, as you do so, that we aren't trying to understand the reasons things began because that solves it. It doesn't. It's not like finding a splinter from the past, and then you can pull it out.

The reason we're doing this - and it's actually really rare that I ever ask you to look to the past to change the present - is to allow you to have some compassion for why you first chose to overeat. It was probably your most comforting, or best survival mechanism, that you had at that time. So stop judging yourself for it. It gave you some relief. It was the best you could do.

Your brain would have remembered that relief. Later, when you felt bad, it offered that up as a solution again "Hey, you remember that eating thing we did? Worked a treat last time! Just do that again!". And so what you have now is a pattern, a habit, that can be unpicked in real time.

You don't need to change the past. Heal it. Own it, even. Just map it now. See it. Get the data. Go on, friend!