- Emotions and Perceptions
- 2 mins
We each hold our own Truth inside ourselves for why we over eat. Whatever that personal truth is….boredom, procrastination, fear, anxiety, lack of control, sadness, etc, we are strong enough to face it without food if we try.
“You will stop turning to food when you start understanding in your body, not just your mind, that there is something better…Truth, not force, does the work of ending compulsive eating.” -Geneen Roth
We overeat for a multitude of reasons but for just a second I want you to ask yourself how it feels. How does it feel physically when you overeat? Is it comfortable? How does your stomach feel when it’s overstuffed? Is it real pleasure that we are deriving from eating in excess? How does it make you feel emotionally when you overeat? Do you feel good about yourself after the initial “food high” is over? What feelings do you association with lack of control? After the initial sensation of the food is over, did the overeating cure the sadness, boredom, procrastination, stress, anxiety or whatever other feelings we were trying to eat to cover up in the first place? Of course not. We know this intellectually but this isn’t an intellectual issue with which we struggle. It’s an emotional one and we each have all sorts of different emotions tied in with food. Many of us even express our happiness with overeating! Eating for a celebration isn’t a problem, but I am talking about OVER-eating. Taking control of our eating isn’t something most of us can do long-term using will power. We each have to get to the root of why we over-eat and what benefit we are getting from it. Although there may not seem to be any “good thing” coming out of overeating and eating when we are not hungry, but there MUST be something or we wouldn’t do it. When we can look within and find the honest truth of our own, we can start to deal with it. The feelings are very REAL…stress, anxiety, fear, sadness, boredom and they need to be managed but we are starting to see clearly that food isn’t the answer. It’s not working for us anymore and our job on this leg of our journey is to find a new, healthy outlet with which to manage our feelings. It’s not about failure…it’s about feedback. Listening to our bodies physical cues and learning from them. Truth always feels better than a lie. When we can be honest with ourselves and about using over indulging as a coping mechanism, we are no longer fooling ourselves and we can start to find a better way to live.
Many Blessings Today!
Terra
