Let’s put first things first. Did it ever occur to you that the food you eat influences your thoughts and feelings? It has been said that you are what you eat, but who really things about that when they are eating. What you think affects what and how you eat. Most people are aware they are driven by their senses, the smells and perhaps the “memory of how good it tastes” and how they think the food will make them feel good. Advertisers know this and use it in their messages. Next time you watch a commercial for fast or processed food, pay attention to the underlying message.
It has become so obvious to me that many of my clients are eating poorly because of their feelings and how they think. Food and eating becomes a way to stuff down and not feel or deal with their feelings.
Overeating and eating junk or crap food (processed food with sugar or fat) becomes a coping mechanism or a release from the feelings. Usually it is what I call a “low vibration” emotion such as anger, fear, guilt and all the negative nuanced feelings that flow from those emotions.
Did you know what that the energetic vibration of thoughts and feelings can be measured? If you do not believe me pick up Dr. David Hawkins’s book Power vs. Force. Using kinesiology, he measured the different emotions. As you would expect, shame and anger were the lowest on the scale. This is why how you deal with your feelings and what you feel is so tied into why it may be hard for you to follow a healthy lifestyle and diet. You have to change your energy first.
That is why I have come to the conclusion that before anyone even attempts to change their eating, or embark on a new habit that is going to involve delaying immediate gratification, it may be better to start doing something to change your energetic vibration first and learn how to be more present to your feelings.
Overcoming unhealthy eating patterns should start with the practice of:
1. Mindfulness
2. Meditation
It is not surprising that mindfulness and meditation go together. Creating the habit of mindfulness and meditation makes it easier to practice a healthy lifestyle. I learned this from Jon Kabat Zinn’s Mindfulness Meditation Workshop years ago. Zinn calls it awareness.
I have found the best way to do this is to first become aware that you may have an unhealthy relationship with food because you have food patterns in your life that are unhealthy. Recently one of my clients came to the awareness that she eats processed foods because she does not process her feelings. She grew up in an environment where it was not ok to say what you feel or to “rock the boat.” So even though she is a successful highly functioning adult on some level she operates as if she is frozen in time and still that little girl. It has been an awakening to her to begin to feel her feelings and instead of stuffing down food, she can begin to express what she is thinking and learn how to let the feelings pass.
So instead of beating yourself up which is all about shame and guilt, why not start being aware of what you are feeling? Identify what triggers eating episodes, and how you may be trying to shut down and not feel. The problem with that strategy is that you may get temporary relief, but eating, especially junk food, lowers your energetic vibration even more. No wonder you feel like you have no energy. Gaining energy is one of the first things my clients report to me they see changing. Then you can move to the next practice which is exercise. Take one step at a time.
Before you try to make changes to your eating and are able to eat healthier naturally, you may have to understand why it has been so challenging. What purpose is the food serving? What is your relationship with food that is mirroring how you are unhappy with your relationships with other people? If you down load my E-book available on the website you will find an assessment that will get you so much clearer about what is really going on.
Stay tuned in because in the next post I will be talking more about how meditation is the foundation for change and how it can help you want to eat healthier naturally.
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