The Gift of Cravings

I love working with my clients and my students who struggle with emotional over-eating and over-drinking for so many reasons. The first is that they feel their emotions so FIERCELY. With every situation there are emotions that run high and low, and my clients and my students experience the full range. For some, these emotions are too intense, and it can be tempting to turn to food or alcohol to dull the intensity especially the negative ones.

You can look at your emotional eating and/or drinking as a gift. I teach my clients and my students that the reaction of over-eating and over-drinking can be viewed as a signal, a notification that there is something happening for them that they need to deal with. Urges have a deeper meaning. They mean that you have emotions to process – a flashing light that something emotionally is going on inside of you that needs to be digested. Eating and drinking prolongs this work and creates more struggle in the long-term.

The next time you have an urge to rummage through your pantry when you are not physically hungry, or pour yourself a third glass of wine, hit the pause button. Start by pausing for 10 minutes without eating or drinking what you are craving. Work you way up to pausing for 15 - 30 minutes. Don’t ignore this opportunity to tune-in. Check in with yourself to see what is really going on with you emotionally. Take pen and paper out and find out what feelings you are trying to escape from. Allow yourself to experience the urge without resistance and start exploring. Are you trying to escape from boredom, loneliness, fear, stress, anger, jealously? Find the feeling that you want to run away from, and move towards it instead of away from it.

Once you identify the emotion, then you can move towards feeling it fully without needing a dull it or run away from it. Remember, emotions are meant to be felt. They are caused by your thinking and they need your attention. Your urges are actually calling you notice them. Instead of eating or drinking, trying pausing and then exploring. Practicing this consistently will set you free. If you can find what is behind the desire to over-eat or over-drink and you learn how to actually feel it, you won’t need to turn to food or alcohol to cope any longer.

Next time I will take you into a deep dive into how to feel those feelings all the way through and my personal journey with over-drinking. In the meantime, consider your urges to emotionally eat and drink as a gift instead of some sort of curse. Think of them as flashing red lights telling you to feel and pay attention.

If you are interested in working with me on this or any other issues, please schedule a free one-hour consultation.

I also offer individual and group meditation and laughter therapy sessions. Current clients receive a 20% discount.

I am thankful you are here and open to learning these life-changing concepts