Eating to self-soothe or change how you feel might not be your go-to when it comes to emotional regulation, but everyone uses food for reasons other than hunger from time to time.

Things like grabbing a cup of coffee, a piece of chocolate or something sugary to give yourself a pick-me-up mid-day is one example of this. Reaching for comfort foods after a hard day is another.

We are constantly striving to regulate our emotional selves and our nervous systems, and food is an easy, readily accessible, and effective way to do this.

There more than a few reasons why we might eat to self-soothe. There are numerous things happening inside our bodies and lives that can lead us to turn to food to feel better.

Chronic stress

Diet culture

Dehydration

Lack of sleep

Boredom

Cravings

Nutritional deficiencies

Macronutrient imbalance

Stuffing emotions

Adrenal burnout

Seeking comfort

Blood sugar dysregulation

Emotional eating happens to all of us. It isn’t something to feel ashamed about, and it doesn’t make you, or anyone else, a bad person.

But it can become a behavior that feels out of control. In some instances, it can even become a form of self-harm. If you’re in this category, and it feels like you’re constantly at war with food and eating, you’re not alone.

But learning to “manage” emotional eating isn’t about completely avoiding it. It’s about slowing things down enough so you can feel and better meet your own needs. It’s also about forgiving yourself if you do overeat or emotionally eat.

It’s about getting honest with yourself and finally feeling what you haven’t wanted to feel.

You might be reading this and think, “Yeah, but slowing down and feeling is the thing I’m trying to sidestep with emotional eating in the first place!” I hear you ❤️

And still, managing emotional eating is about gaining a deeper understanding of what you really need in the moment – what you’re really “hungry” for. It’s about finding ways to give that to yourself instead of reaching for a poor substitute, like food, to take its place.

This is not easy work. It means willingly stepping out of your comfort zone to interrupt a behavioral pattern that is probably happening on autopilot for you. It means shining the light of awareness on things that have likely been in the shadows for you for a long time.

Remember, we are biologically wired to seek comfort and regulation when we feel upset or discombobulated or tired. You are GOOD and RIGHT to want to self-soothe!

And…

It might be time to take a deeper look at what is driving your behavior, and what is happening just beneath the surface that is asking for your attention and care.

We live in a culture that not only fails to honor women but teaches women not to honor themselves. Our culture has convinced us to be afraid of and hide away our true selves. To fear our own bodies, curiosity, hunger, experience, sexuality, and drive.

Things like emotional eating are a natural and understandable outcome of living in a culture that encourages you to neglect and override your own happiness and contentment, and to believe doing so is good and right and normal.

But this is the opposite of what truly living is. It is the antithesis of honoring yourself.

If emotional eating is taking up more room in your life than you want it to, it might be a call to an altar of truth. It might be a call to…

• Get to know yourself better

• Learn what you yearn for and need

• Start making your relationship with yourself, your body, and your desire the most important relationship in your life.

This world will tell you that you should feel grateful for the life you are living – EVEN WHEN THE LIFE YOU ARE LIVING ISN’T BEAUTIFUL OR ENOUGH FOR YOU.

Emotional eating can be a sign that it’s time to start asking the big, uncomfortable questions, and to conjure up the audacity and guts to walk away from whatever isn’t fulfilling enough for you.

It’s amazing to me how much women settle for in their lives. I was once wholeheartedly guilty of this myself.

What would it be like to start creating a life that finally feels like the safe haven and home you’ve always wanted?

Emotional eating is rarely about food. It’s more often about needing to soothe a deep pain you feel because of the life you’re not yet living.

It is worth sitting with this. You are worthy of resolving the misalignments in your life when you are ready.