Have An Urge To Binge? Ask Yourself These Questions.

My first year of graduate school was intense. It brought up so many wounds for me to look at and heal on deeper levels. I reflect on this time a lot as it reminds me of just how much stress can affect our food choices.

There was a part of me that was not ready to look at the parts of myself I was hiding from and what I was learning in school was poking at. Luckily, food has this amazing way of supporting us in feeling grounded and embodied in moments that perhaps feel too emotionally intense to navigate.

During this time, food came in as a way to emotionally self soothe. I knew what I was doing. I knew I was leaning on food for emotional support. Often, no matter what anyone tells us during these times of utilizing food for emotional satiation, we need to play this pattern out until we have learned everything we were meant to learn from that habit. I took time every day to also get curious and ask myself questions. Slowly, over time, the urge to reach for food for emotional hunger vanished.

I offer this story in that I understand how intense the urge to reach for food can be. The questions I offer next might not end a pattern of binging as this habit is showing up for a reason. What these questions may offer is further understanding in what your urge to reach for food when not physically hungry is here to teach you.

So you're sitting at home, maybe it is the evening and you have completed dinner and now have space and time for yourself. Or maybe it is after lunch and you feel physically satisfied yet a sense of emptiness still remains. A deep urge arises to keep eating. In that moment, one of the most powerful acts we can engage in is to pause and ask some of the questions below.

• What am I hoping to receive emotionally from eating?

• What do I believe eating will give me?

• What am I feeling right now?

• Is there something I'm trying to numb out or run away from?

• Are there any other actions I could engage in right now that would feel just as supportive as eating?

Reflecting, journaling, and asking these questions can facilitate cultivating awareness of what is emotionally trying to get your attention. Even after answering these questions, you might still eat the thing you were thinking of eating and that is alright too. There is no "right" or "wrong" action here. Just by cultivating awareness, we are planting seeds that might grow into taking different actions at some point in time. You get to be so very gentle with yourself in this process and trust that you're exactly where you're meant to be every step of the way of fostering a new relationship with your body and food.

If you’re ever looking for more support email me at support@stephaniemara.com. I’m here for you every single step of the way on this journey.