Do You Know About Emotional Obesity?

 
"People think  emotional eating stems from a lack of control over one's emotions. In reality it starts because of a  lack of awareness, not lack of control."
                                              - Dr Alessandra Wall, Life In Focus


This piece is called, "I can't help the way I feel." This installation was down at The Welcome Collection in Euston, London.

The concept was that of our emotions being manifest in the landscape of our body.

How we can become incapacitated by our emotional landscape over which we have little control.

It can become malignant, literally disfiguring us.  While this piece served as a metaphor, it is  so close to the truth.  It reminded me of the quote by Shapiro,

                                      "Your body hears everything your mind says." 

 Yes, I'm paraphrasing here.  But there are many physical and spiritual practices show us that we can influence the landscape of our emotions through self mastery,  which in turn impacts our physical body. Is it possible that we can harness our emotions for positive health?  And how do our emotions impact the landscape of our nutrition.

I spoke to Dr Alessandra Wall of Life In Focus,  She gave some powerful insights

"Those who eat their emotions up do so, initially because they don't understand what they they feel or why. All they know is it doesn't feel good. Eating, and especially eating sugars, is such a quick and simple way of soothing oneself. The neurochemistry of it all is so powerful.

Over time, food becomes more than nutrition. It becomes, identity, culture, habit, comfort,  a tool. Eating and food become somewhat  complicated, so intimately woven into the fabric of who we are. It is this relationship, combined with lack of emotional awareness that eventually leads to disordered eating and emotional eating."

So could it be our lack of awareness of why we crave certain foods,  and the potential biological addiction that has got us locked in a cycle of dispair?  Dr Wall goes on to say, 

"When you understand what you feel, and you can trace it back to it's origins, then you have a chance to choose a different way to soothe or better, address, your feelings. Without that insight, the feelings of food connection becomes a simple reflex, with a very powerful reinforcement. 

We are how we eat. When we eat in shame, we feel shame. When we eat without control, we feel out of control. 

The saving grace here is that gaining the above mentioned insight,  provides an opportunity to regain control and restore balance, because at the end of the day, what we think becomes our reality, and we can change our thoughts."


Whether or not this is 100% true, there is some real food for thought here, but one thing is for certain, there is a strong connection between our emotions and our relationship to food, and when it comes to identifying what's really going on for each of us, we may only just be scratching the surface, but awareness is key.


~Cj~

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