Are you struggling with achieving a healthy weight for your body? You may find yourself eating even when you’re not hungry without understanding why. Overeating is about filling empty spaces within yourself, and many times the need is emotional or spiritual rather than physical.
The next time you get the urge to snack, stop and ask yourself if you’re truly hungry. Try to assess your frame of mind at that moment. Are you bored? Depressed? Anxious? Keeping a log of your mental and emotional state is a great way to uncover the psychological triggers that send you heading for the refrigerator.
Keeping yourself spiritually nourished will fill those spaces inside in a positive way, reducing the need to turn to food. Add these activities and philosophies to your lifestyle to maintain an emotional balance and develop a feeling of “fullness”.
- Be proactive about satisfying your own needs. When you sacrifice too much of yourself in favor of what others want, eating becomes a way of figuratively holding in your frustration and resentment. Find healthy ways to pamper yourself and you’ll find the need for food decreasing.
- Regular yoga practice combined with meditation is a powerful way to nurture your soul. Yoga teaches you how to reach your full potential utilizing the connection between mind and body. It will become much easier for you to separate the need to physically fuel your body from the need to enrich your spiritual self.
- Do you seek the comfort of food as a substitute for human interaction? Feeling lonely and isolated is a common motivation. Spend quality time developing and nurturing relationships with friends and loved ones. Don’t make a vague promise to yourself to do it when you “have time”. Set a goal to schedule meetings with others at least once a week. It could be as simple as meeting a friend for coffee, but the reward is invaluable.
- Perhaps your days have become a never-ending string of work and home responsibilities, leading you to turn to food to quiet that nagging sense of unfulfillment. If you had unlimited free time, what activities would you pursue? There are ways to incorporate your passions into your daily life. Join a book club, take an art class, learn to play the guitar. If you’re waiting for the perfect time to start, it’s now.
There’s a well-known question that asks, “Do you live to eat or eat to live?” Food is merely the fuel that provides you with the energy to enjoy all the richness and beauty that life has to offer. Spend time being good to yourself and food will lose its power over your emotions.