10 bodymind tips to overcome emotional triggers

Do you love your body?

As a therapist for over 20 years, I have lost count of the number of times I have heard people say:

“I hate my body.”

“I don’t understand why It is not working”.

“Why Is my body is not co-operating?”

“I can’t control my habits/impulses”

Let me tell you something , your body is not the problem. I have to tell that to myself too after so many years as I must confess I am an emotional eater :).

Why you might ask? Simple conditioning by environment and habitual response .

It does not help when you are from a culture where you always hear such things as; “Eat, Eat, Eat”. “Why you not eating, is something wrong?” Food is everything”. Where guilt is associated with food. (I am sure many can relate).

Think about all the things your body does for you. It is working every day to keep you alive, healthy, and well. It protects you, manages what you need to manage and gives you the resources to overcome whatever it is you need to overcome. Your body does so much for you, Yet we often don’t realize how amazing our body is until it is out of action. Often, it’s only when we get sick that we appreciate our health.

The quickest way to have a body you love is to love the body you have. (Read that again)

Focus on what you love about your body. Fall in love with your body. Do one kind thing every day for your body. If you are kind to your body, your body will be kind to you.

Avoid these common mistakes:

First of all, look at what you are eating, make sure that the food is wholesome and real. If you are not fulfilling your nutritional needs, you will always feel hungry.

Also, many people eat for emotional reasons, such as if they are feeling stressed, anxious, or even bored. They try to fill the empty feeling they have inside with food.

You cannot fill a feeling with food.

The best advice I can give you about emotional eating is that you must:

Feel your feelings until they no longer require to be felt.

When you acknowledge and articulate the feeling, it is recognized and validated, and then it can go away. However, trying to suppress it doesn’t work. You cannot eat away your feelings.

When emotionally triggered – 3 tips for change:

• Awareness of what you’re feeling.
• Acknowledge and articulate it
• Accept the message it is giving you.

Learn how to identify your emotional eating triggers, create a better strategies to reverse those patterns. Let me know what works for you?

I came up with 10 suggestions:

1. Don’t Sedate yourself with carbs – Carbs release bi0 – chemicals that sedate our brain and body
2. Apple a day makes the doctor go away – Apples are crunchy and that noise believe it or not is soothing for our brain and our tense jaw
3. Hot tea – when anxiety is affecting you and causing you to trigger and to overeat – make yourself a hot beverage, like Mint tea, Rooibos, Chamomile, Ginger or other herbal tea.
4. Eat wholesome diet – lack of nutrients can trigger overeating.
5. Get your protein – take your hand and that will give you an indication of how much protein you need to have every meal.
6. Meditate/mindfulness – take time each day to be with yourself and your body awareness. You don’t need a special techniques, I suggest start with bodyscane while laying in bed/floor and paying attention to what you notice.
7. Journal – keeping track of your thoughts and feelings is a great practice to unearth what I call “Gold Nuggets” . Realizations that can pop up from your subconscious to reveal something clearly to you.
8. Measurements – use metrics like a smart watch/phone, or old pen paper to set goals and to work towards them in small increments . Taking inventory of your body measurements, heart rate, lung capacity, or even doing a thorough blood work to see the internal landscape. What you see and can measure you can change with time and consistency.
9. Accountability – have a support system around you, or even a coach, therapist, mentor to hold you accountable as you bound to resist and self sabotage.
10. Celebrate – bringing joy into the process is vital as feeling good is joyful and breaking through barriers are empowering as you are rewiring your Neuropath resetting your bodymind.

Be kind to yourself and try to Reset when you “fail” as there is no such thing.