Are You Eating Your Fear Away? Emotional Intelligence and Over Eating.
You are sitting on the couch after a long day at the office, binge watching 'Shark Tank' on Hulu Plus and you decide that ice cream sounds like a good idea. After all, it is Wednesday and you have had a hard week! You sit down and aimlessly begin shoveling in the creamy goodness. Staring at the TV while flipping through your Facebook newsfeed on your phone, thinking a whole host of thoughts; "oh god another gym check in, wow they look happy, awww cute puppy". Meanwhile you glance down to realize that you have "accidentally" eaten the whole pint and don't even remember taking the first bite. The sharks didn't pick your favorite pitch, the ice cream is gone and you realize it's 11pm and you promised yourself you would be up for 6am spin class.
Familiar?
I don't know about you, but I have never done ANY of that before :) ! ya right, of course I have!
At one point or another my belief (or maybe it's just me) is we all fall out of consciousness and eat the whole pint of ice cream (or favorite snack) while feeling a cornucopia of feelings but don't actually feel a single one of those feelings because we are not actually aware of our body sensations.
Back to the subject at hand; how does Emotional Intelligence affect the way we eat? what is the link?
Two weeks ago I wrote about the different zones in the body that registers different feelings. If you missed it, Click Here to check out my thoughts.
Knowing what we know about our bodies and our feelings, when we feel fear we experience a sensation in our belly sending signals to our brains we are experiencing fear.
If that is the case, there is often confusion between the feeling of fear in the belly and the feeling of hunger. Often times without even realizing it, you are snacking without really noticing why. When you remove the snack, it's possible that unaddressed fear is the true culprit and you're not actually hungry.
If the knowledge of how to recognize and discern between fear and hunger was a widespread understanding, how different could our world be?
Imagine the potential! If fear was felt and processed instead of masked with food, how many different issues would be quickly sorted out.
Next time you believe you are hungry between meals and feel like snacking, before you grab the chips, check in with yourself and see if you are experiencing any feelings?
I can think of nothing more enjoyable than getting to know myself more intimately and I want nothing but the same for you!
Lindsey Rainwater is an experienced consultant and coach to the fitness and wellness industry. She specializes in business development and leadership. Currently she is working with the Fitmarc Team helping club owners all over the south central region of the united states propel their business forward via group exercise solutions. For more information about lindsey, follow her @lindseyrainh2o