So they told you to feel your emotions to help your emotional eating. To have compassion for yourself. To stop suppressing your feelings. You sat with your feelings. You sat with yourself. You tried to feel what was coming up.
And then suddenly you hear,
“What are you complaining about? Your life is great. You’ve got the job, you’ve got the house, you’ve got the car. Other people have it so much more worse than you. It’s not a big deal what you’re going through. You’re being too sensitive. Maybe my parents were just doing their best. How can I complain?”
And then you wonder, can I actually feel my emotions? And maybe a few minutes later, 5 minutes later, you’re in the kitchen and you’re eating.
This is what you don’t understand. Those thoughts are part of the reason why you keep emotionally eating.
So when an emotion comes up, you might think you feel it because you recognize it as maybe sadness or anger. But there’s another conversation happening in your head.
You’re sad, but you shouldn’t feel sad.
You’re angry, but you have nothing to be angry about.
You’re hurt? Maybe it wasn’t that serious.
You’re overwhelmed? Then you think “Other people have it so much worse than me. I’m lucky.”
So instead of actually being present with the emotion that’s coming up, you explain it away. Your brain decides to tell you it’s not so bad and you have nothing to complain about.
And this keeps you judging yourself and minimizing how you’re feeling. You make yourself wrong for feeling what you’re feeling. And that creates an internal conflict.
There’s a part of you, a very real part of you, that’s feeling these emotions, that feels the hurt, that feels the sadness, that feels the pain. And there’s this other part of you saying you shouldn’t feel this way.
I hear a lot of these excuses, these logical statements, come up when I’m working with clients and it’s holding them back from resolving their emotional eating.
Let’s dive in
- 1:41 One of the main beliefs that holds you back in resolving emotional eating.
- 2:50 How having a “good reason” you shouldn’t feel the way you feel keeps you trapped in emotional eating.
- 3:54 Where emotional eating comes into play to soothe you.
- 5:11 Feeling your emotions is a nuanced process.
- 7:28 Your body holds emotions – doing the deeper work to resolve them.
- 8:10 How allowing shifts your body so you don’t go to food to soothe.
- 9:38 Why I don’t tell clients to “just” feel their emotions.
- 11:12 A new way to move through triggers and resolve emotional eating.
- 11:50 The Emotional Eating Evolution Program and next steps
Next Steps
1. If you are ready to start your journey to resolving your Emotional Eating you can download my free guide “What Are You Truly Hungry For?” to start discerning true from emotional hunger and catching your triggers HERE.
2. If you are ready to transform your emotional eating so that you can get to ease, peace and confidence around food and in your body with a step by step process and guidance then find out more about The Emotional Eating Evolution Program HERE.
To feeling ease and peace,
Michelle
Certified Holistic Nutritionist Specializing in Emotional Eating
