Does this happen to you? What can you do?
The other day I wrote about opposite action, elaborating upon changing our thought to another more higher-level one when we are in "addictive thinking"; thinking that repeats itself, pulls us in and doesn't take us to a healthy place. You can do this as well when the circuitry of clear hunger signs goes awry. When we are feeling a missing piece inside, it is super easy to rationalize bagging our commitments to our healthiest, most balanced and vibrant selves. If we have a history of using (abusing) food to numb or fill our feelings, then food thoughts will still come up once in awhile. This does not mean you don't have a loving relationship with food. It's simply that an old message got stuck in the body system (cellular DNA) and needs clearing out.
The first and most pivotal piece is not to punish yourself or make yourself wrong for these thoughts. That self-hatred will facilitate an internal battle, when what you need at the moment is a strong belief in yourself and an honoring of this "shadow" side that has temporarily emerged (I recommend reading Debbie Ford's, "The Shadow Effect," to get more of a sense of how to embrace our shadow side). No matter what you are feeling, take yourself out of the experience by remembering something powerful you are committed to in your life; something you wanted accomplish today along the lines of goals.
Take an Opposite Action. Literally switch the circuitry of your brain and body by physically putting yourself in a task you have set for yourself. Here are some examples:
Make or return phone calls that relate to other parts of your life
Do 15 minutes of stimulating exercise
Do 15 minutes of deep yoga
Write a new post for your blog!
Answer an email
Think of 5 goals that you are committed to and take 1 step toward one of these goals
Clean out a drawer
Put yourself "in the activity" of the commitments for your day. It's literally by being in the healthy activity and taking ourselves out of the repetitive addictive feeling state that we switch the cellular response from one of self-flagellation, or punishment, to one of pride and success. Once the new cellular response kicks in, the feelings of emotional hunger are quelled. This action has nothing to do with willpower and is all about cellular circuitry.
By the time I was midway through writing my blog post and responding to a couple of emails, the intense food fantasies were gone; come dinnertime, the physical hunger had actually left my body.
The cleaner we keep our relationship with food, using this technique to rewire any old messages our body is still holding onto, the easier it will become to cultivate an unconditionally loving relationship with our most intimate partner; food, and with ourselves. From this place, we can manifest the life we desire.
By the time I was midway through writing my blog post and responding to a couple of emails, the intense food fantasies were gone; come dinnertime, the physical hunger had actually left my body.
The cleaner we keep our relationship with food, using this technique to rewire any old messages our body is still holding onto, the easier it will become to cultivate an unconditionally loving relationship with our most intimate partner; food, and with ourselves. From this place, we can manifest the life we desire.
