What are you trying to avoid with food?
I love my chiropractor (Dr. Lennox in Encinitas, if you are wondering); he is so very wise. One day I told him that for some reason I was doing a lot of emotional eating of sweets and even I, who help other people with this issue all day long, couldn’t figure out why. He looked at me and said, “So, is there anything you are trying to avoid right now?” Oh, hell yes, there was!
At the time I was actively avoiding dealing with some hard decisions about my first book and I was unconsciously doing as much as I could to try not to have to make those decisions. Including using my favorite drug to try and avoid having to deal with the pile of stuff on my desk, some of which I didn’t really know how to deal with. By the way, the book in question—my first book—is called Feed Your Real Hunger. Too too funny, I know.
The thing is, we do these kinds of things all the time, whether it’s food or being “busy,” being “tired,” or getting sick or any number of things we can do to avoid having to deal with something difficult.
I had a client once whose husband was cheating on her. Since she didn’t want to face making a decision about how to handle that issue—decisions like deciding if she needed to get the big D or if counseling would be her best bet or what if anything she should say to their kids about why Daddy was now sleeping in a separate room—she chose to focus her attention on her weight. Instead, she, who by the way was not overweight, would overly focus on her weight, frequently checking it several times a day then getting really upset about it.
As ridiculous as that sounds it was still much easier than thinking about what life might be like if she had to get divorced after twenty years of marriage and how she would deal with possibly having to take her kids out of private school. We all have done some version of that in our lives ourselves and it’s an easy habit to get into. But a habit it is and the sooner you can break it and face what you most fear, the sooner you can move forward with life.
The next time you feel the need to hide from your problems with food, drink, shopping—oh, I love that one—or some other avoidance strategy, pause and ask yourself what you really need to face and how you might best do that. Or go to VG donuts instead, and if you happen to see me in line there you have my permission to smack me upside the head and tell me to get back to work.
Namaste.
Jill K Thomas CHT
Soul Connect Hypnotherapy
760-803-2841
Jill@soulconnecthypnotherapy.com
www.Soulconnecthypnotherapy.com
Author of the books “Tales from the Trance” & “Feed your Real Hunger”
Appointments available Globally by Video Chat