Emotional Overeating……….
everyone talks about it, but what actually is it. Emotional Overeating means we eat when we feel bad. Bad, can mean a multitude of things and includes feeling angry, sad, lonely, depressed, fed up, unloved, undervalued or overworked.
When humans feel these negative emotions it’s natural to seek comfort. When you were a child and you felt ‘bad’ you turned to your parents for comfort and if you didn’t get comfort from them sometimes you got sick just so you could get looked after.
Now, if you are an emotional overeater you’ve learned to turn to food to give you the comfort you crave. So now you try as hard as you can to fight the need for comfort but it’s an uphill battle you probably can’t win. The trouble is that you are trying to fight the battle on the outside instead of going inside and making the changes.
This is why most diets fail. We keep on feeling bad and try to prevent ourselves from reaching for comfort. It won’t work. To win the battle we have to stop the fight. The only way to stop the fight is to change the thoughts that make us feel bad and here’s a way to do it.
Remember I said that your subconscious mind is in charge of everything that happens? Well that is literally true, and yet, it has no way of making ‘IT’S’ own choices. YOU, using your conscious mind makes the choices and your deeper mind carries out your instructions. If you get out of bed in the morning and think it’s going to be a crap day, then it is and if you expect your boss to pick on you, then he/she will. But if you tell yourself a different story you’ll get a different outcome.
Try this simple exercise from the book ‘Ask and it is Given’ by Gerry and Esther Hicks.
Segment Intending
Use this exercise when:
• You want to change or influence a particular upcoming part of your day.
• You recognise or believe that something coming up may be difficult or not go as you want, to make sure it goes the way you want.
• When time or money is important to you, and you want to make the most of it.
It is easier to create a future experience than it is to change an already existing one. What exists right now is a result of your past thoughts and continuing to focus on what is wrong right now will result in projecting more of that into the future.
So if you are looking at a mountain of work and wondering how in God’s name you will ever get through it, the thoughts you are having about the impossible situation will keep the same experience with you day after day. Whatever you focus on is what you get remember.
Your subconscious mind is habitual. It remembers things and goes into default mode. If there is always a mountain of work on your desk and you are always feeling frustrated by the never ending load you will spend every day at work in the same habitual way.
‘It’ ( your subconscious mind) is also amenable to suggestion and has to find a way to obey your commands or requests. However if you don’t tell ‘It’ to do anything different ‘It’ will keep on repeated the old pattern. Segment Intending allows you to make those changes in a simple way.
Imagine for a moment that your day is in segments! Each segment can be as long or as short as you like but for the purpose of this explanation we’ll make them short. When you get out of bed in the morning your first segment can be from awaking to leaving for work, the next segment can be the journey to work and segment three can be from starting time to first break, then from first break until lunchtime etc.
If you have a meeting to attend then make that a separate segment too. Similarly, if you have one or more phone calls to make you can make a segment for them too, either as a whole, if they are connected, or each separate one. It is a good idea to enter a separate segment any time your intentions change. When you get into your car, get home and cook the evening meal or a friend pops around, you enter a new segment.
At the beginning of each segment you set your intention:
• Everything is going according to plan this morning I’m ready for work with time to spare
• I’m driving safely to work, it’s a great journey, the traffic is light and I arrive at work on time
• The perfect parking place is waiting for me when I arrive
• I’m flying, (skipping, racing, dancing) through this work really quickly
• This meeting is going really well, everyone is in agreement and it’s over really quickly
• I’m feeling energised and I’m getting loads done
• In the next two hours I am achieving ………………………….
Contrast this to what you normally intend:
• Oh dear, look at the time, I’m going to be late again
• I bet the traffic is bad this morning and I’ll be late for work
• I bet I can’t find anywhere to park
• Look at all this work I’ve got to wade (plough) through, it’s never ending
• I’m not looking forward to this meeting it’s going to be really tricky
• I’m knackered and I can’t concentrate
• I’m never going to get this done
You can pre-pave future intentions that are immediate or experiences that are in your more distant future using this tool. For instance, “I’m having a great holiday,” as soon as it’s booked, or “My wedding day is fantastic, it’s the best day of my life,” even when it’s months away.
Before, I hear you say, “But this all sounds like hard work,” remember you are already pre-paving your future experiences constantly without even realising you are doing so. You are continually projecting your expectations into your future experiences. (See above)
If you go out with friends every Friday night for example and it’s always pretty boring that’s what you expect and that’s what you get. If, instead, while getting ready, you say, “I’m having a great time tonight, a really funny, (brilliant or exciting) time. I’m meeting lot’s of lovely people and having a ball,” or words to that effect something will happen to make that occur.
Once you have experienced segment intending in action you’ll want to do it more and more and more. Now you are making the changes from the inside instead of trying to win a battle on the outside.
Have a good day, INTEND IT.
Love and best wishes until next time
Christine Wesson
Tel: 01243 699646 / 07747 865982