Do you consider yourself a spiritual person? A lot of us do. I am not necessarily talking about religion. I am talking about feeling and believing that there is something greater than ourselves. What if I told you that spirituality could help you with your emotional eating?
If you’re an emotional eater, you often feel totally disconnected from your body. You eat when you're not hungry or even struggle to differentiate between physical and emotional hunger. You often eat past the point of fullness or even struggle to recognize fullness. If you’re an emotional eater, you often feel alone. For some of us, no one knows this “dirty little secret” and we spend a lot of energy hiding it. For others, while it may not be a secret, it’s a source of shame and guilt. We feel alone because we are stranded on this island that is our own negative thoughts, negative feelings, and negative self-talk. We’re the only ones who can’t manage our life around food, and it feels isolating. In fact, these thoughts and feelings keep us isolated from really connecting with others. It’s a dark place, and we struggle to find our way outside of it.
So here we are, lacking connection with:
Our bodies
Our true selves
Others
How can spirituality help us with emotional eating? We need light! We need love! We need reconnection! Enter prayer.
Praying can be a time that we ask for the light to come in, for love to be shown, a time to reconnect with our true selves in all its messiness. When I use the word prayer, it can mean many things.
Traditional prayer. This can be to God, Yahweh, Mother Earth, The Universe, or whatever you call that Greater something. Ask for help out loud. Write a prayer for help that you can use every day to open yourself up to love and light.
Meditation. This is a time of quiet reflection, a time of reconnecting with yourself and that Greater something. Breathe deeply, tap into your core self. Channel that light into your mind and body.
Gratitude. Journal about what you are thankful for. Express to a person close to you or even talk to yourself in the mirror every day about what you are thankful for. This acknowledgement is a daily exercise in letting in love and light.
If we can spend a few minutes EVERY day allowing love and light into our minds through some kind of prayer, it can be a powerful vehicle to change. Focusing on positive forces can help us slowly change those negative thoughts and feelings we have about ourselves. When we can connect to ourselves from a place of love instead of self-criticism, the way we think about ourselves changes, what we believe about ourselves changes. And this is a big step in beginning to heal emotional hunger from the inside.
If you struggle with emotional eating and find that you consistently sabotage your health and wellness, I want to give you tools to help you get out of your own way. Sign up HERE for a free 15 minute chat.
