Take a breath, slowly. Then another. Stay in the moment. And don’t try to change too much too soon. This is the advice I give readers and clients. It’s sound wisdom anytime, and during this time of heightened uncertainty and strangeness, it is CRUCIAL.

Spending more time at home without the comforting rhythms of usual routines, minus the personal contact we now realize is crucial to wellbeing, and with the repetition of news loops running on the TV, computer, or just in our own minds can mean increased frequency of stress-eating and perhaps nutritionally poor food choices. I think most of us have been heeding the comfort-call of simple carbs this past month. These choices will inevitably be followed by panic, remorse, and the use various strategies to throw the engine in reverse.

In modern times, the most oft-sought strategy has been the diet. No secret that I gave it up years ago, but its evergreen allure still looms large in our collective psyche. Even though it’s now-common knowledge they not only don’t work, but dig us further in the trap…they still beckon us to give it another shot, like Lucy holding the football for an eternally naïve Charlie Brown.

The clever diet industry, however, has adapted to consumer cynicism, concealing the useless strategy of going on a diet under the guise of sensible trends or ‘Hear-Ye, Hear-Ye’ health mandates. I won’t name any names because you may be taking refuge in some of them, or are perhaps, even found them to be helpful. I only wish to remind you that the conventional wisdom of the diet industry, best-selling authors, talk show hosts, etc. should NEVER usurp your own wisdom. Who knows your body better than you? No one! Ditto for the mind and heart.

Springtime is the perfect time to shed our skins, outdated habits, ways of thinking, and belief systems that no longer serve us. Not that we can’t learn from one another; of course we can. Just don’t flip your own innate ability to discern what feels good to you to the off switch. Take new information in if you’d like…and see if it’s a fit. What better time to try on a new way of being?

What’s something you are ready to shed?

I’ll go first: worrying about the future and obsessing on carb intake…