Pain
At times in our lives we all must experience pain, sometimes physical, oftentimes emotional The pain can be turned inward, called guilt, or outward, that we call blame, shame, etc Remember that emotion is a thought with a physical sensation in the mindbody
But the essence of pain is how can we deal with it in a healthy way?
And we might ask, "What does this have to do with nutrition?"
Well, everything Because emotional unresolved pain leads to emotional eating behaviors, such as bullemia, anorexia, binge eating, overeating, etc
So first of all is to recognize that emotional pain, even though it seems so real, is actually a creation of the mind An experience brings on the pain; a yet unresolved, poorly understood childhood experience, death of a loved one, a seeming violation of trust by someone near us, an unfair attack by a long term relationship, loss of trust by those who once trusted us, and many more, all experiences that the mind believes is pain
Because it seems so real, we tend to believe it's pain, but in reality, it's not It's just an experience that our wounded ego now labels emotionally as pain
Our ego needs approval, control and power If we lose approval, control or power in our relationships, if emotionally deep enough, it will be called pain by the mindbody and it will palpably visceral
Our natural response to such emotional pain is fear This leads to anger(fight), run away(flight), and inertia(deer in the headlights), get even, tell the world, and many variations of these themes
I would suggest a fourth response – simply observe our mindbodies without reaction This is obviously for most impossible, but I believe the only real way to eliminate the toxicity and damage to our mindbody physiology
So to that end my friends, here's some ways to help shed our emotional pain and avoid the nutritional consequences
1 Journal about the pain like I'm doing here
2 After you're clear about the emotional pain, talk to someone about it Get it off your chest so to speak without judgement, criticism, condemning
3 Shed as quickly as possible, anger, running away, and inertia
4 Get in touch where you are feeling the visceral pain and observe it
5 Be aware of when this pain might induce nutritional behaviors eg overeating, binge eating, not eating
6 The degree of pain although seeming very real is how much we make it and how much power we give it
Have you ever experienced a difficult emotional pain? Do you think you have successfully cleared it? Do you think it may have led to a period of aberrant eating patterns subconsciously?
Until tomorrow To health as a Skill Love DrBill
