I’ve been thinking about this Halloween post for a few days, but it all came together in my yoga class this morning. At the very end of class during savasana, our instructor delivered a little admonition about chocolate. It wasn’t what you might think.
Instead of cautioning us that eating too much candy would expand our waistline or disrupt our energy, she asked us instead to remember what a pleasure trick-or-treating was as a child. She reminded us of how exhilarating it was to be holding all that chocolate in our plastic pumpkin. It was like winning the lottery. She asked us to rekindle that feeling tonight. To let chocolate be chocolate in all it’s, well, chocolateyness I guess.
For many of us, Halloween isn’t fun anymore. It’s a month-long-guilt-ridden torment because we have unprecedented access to treats and little willpower to resist. We indulge, we feel guilty, we repent, we repeat.
What if just for tonight, instead of loading up that candy wrapper with the added heavy burden of negative self-talk and shame, we just let chocolate be chocolate and enjoyed it? Don’t count the calories or the carbs or the miles you’ll run as penance…just have a little chocolate and move on to November with grace.
It’ll be okay. I promise.