Have you ever turned off a sad song because you didn’t want to cry?
Picked a different movie because the one your partner wanted to watch had a dark ending?
Avoided a conversation because it could cause conflict?
I used to do all of the above.
I was so scared to feel all my emotions.
I thought that having negative emotions meant I was “negative,” or just flawed.
Suppressing my emotions was a big root cause of my overeating, undereating, and binging – usually in that order.
Today, I’m completely recovered – I haven’t engaged in those behaviors since 2013.
Today, my emotional intelligence is much higher.
I know it’s safe to feel my full range of emotions.
A lot of people feel like if they start crying, they’ll never stop…
If they allow themselves to feel sad, they’ll never feel happy again…
If they allow themselves to get angry, they’ll get stuck in that state…
It’s the opposite.
When you allow your emotions to fully come up, be felt to completion, and released, you can move to a higher emotional state faster – and stay there more easily.
When you allow your emotions to be named and processed, there’s no longer the impulse to overeat or undereat – or it’s a rare thing.
The longer you allow yourself to feel, the less overeating or undereating will happen.
When emotions are felt and released, you’re more connected to your intuition, and you know which foods to choose at each moment.
You don’t feel a need to try to use food to manage your emotions.
Feeling your emotions fully strips away static and heaviness, allowing you to feel calm and clear in your food choices, completely connected to your body.
Everyone feels anxious, sad, or stuck at some point in their lives, to some degree, for some amount of time.
It’s safe to feel those emotions, and every other emotion on the spectrum.
We are not one-key pianos.
It’s safe to be with your emotions.
It’s safe to get holistic help.
It’s safe to get clinical help.
This is all part of the human experience.
When we feel all our emotions and get the support we need, we no longer look to food to soothe ourselves – a job it fundamentally can’t do.
No amount of comfort food takes away negative emotions – it just temporarily suppresses them, then leaves you feeling worse than before.
Not because it’s necessarily bad to overeat once in a while, or because you might gain weight…
… but because your sweet body is overloaded with more food than your organs can comfortably break down, and you feel the mental and physical exhaustion of that.
Plus, your emotions WANT to be processed, and food doesn’t do the trick, so you may be feeling the grief of suppression.
Do you allow yourself to feel your full range of emotions, especially the “negative” ones?
Have you noticed a link between emotions and food?
I’d love to hear from you below.
Much love,
Lula